Portable Power Source

I posted about this a couple of days ago but had some technical issues with the post, the staff at IDO responded VERY quickly (thank you!), but by the time the post got “unstuck” it was a day old and posted way down the list and now it appears to be gone – so just starting over!

Does anyone have any experience with Portable Power Sources? Looking at dropping about $500 bucks on a small unit + a fold-up, portable solar panel to recharge on the go. Reason I’m looking now is that I have a sleeper trip coming up on LOTW with my two boys and devices will need to be recharged. however I think this would be great for throwing the Strikemaster 24V battery between drilling while ice fishing. Also good for camping and just emergency back-up for bare essentials if we ever had a lengthy power outage, etc.

Specifically looking at the Jackery 240 and accompanying Saga 100W Solar Panel. But NetZero and other companies make similar products, really looking for anyone with experience/advice on these before I decide what to purchase.

At that cost you would be better off buying a Honda 1000 (or a knock off).
A generator will produce power 24/7 unlike solar. Can you depend on it not being cloudy?

I think that unit would do what you need it to do for a weekend trip. I would not expect the solar panel to work well in the winter. Low sun angle, short days, lots of clouds.

-J.

This would not necessarily replace a gas generator. They have their place, but I don’t Think I need that muscle and maintenance for something that would primarily be used to power small electronics. These units are small and very portable, can run inside and don’t make noise. You could also argue the sun is more available than gas depending on where you are or what your situation is.

i wonder how the cold would affect these? like when you had it outside in the elements to charge and how much time it would add to the charge time?

mark-bruzek wrote:

At that cost you would be better off buying a Honda 1000 (or a knock off).
A generator will produce power 24/7 unlike solar. Can you depend on it not being cloudy?

X100

mark-bruzek wrote:

At that cost you would be better off buying a Honda 1000 (or a knock off).
A generator will produce power 24/7 unlike solar. Can you depend on it not being cloudy?

Agreed on this one.

another option is just rent a generator if your going through a resort. alot of the bigger resorts rent them to sleepers

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with Portable Power Sources? Looking at dropping about $500 bucks on a small unit + a fold-up, portable solar panel to recharge on the go. Reason I’m looking now is that I have a sleeper trip coming up on LOTW with my two boys and devices will need to be recharged. however I think this would be great for throwing the Strikemaster 24V battery between drilling while ice fishing. Also good for camping and just emergency back-up for bare essentials if we ever had a lengthy power outage, etc.

.

I’m in the process of putting together a solar system for my off the grid hunting property, so I’ve studied this a lot.

The problem with solar is the amount of available daylight you have in the winter. The wattage output ratings of these devices are listed under ideal conditions, which you will never have. To keep even a single deep cycle battery charged in January, you would have to a huge solar panel because your efficiency is cut way back by sun angle, duration of sunlight, and the number of cloudy days.

For your needs, a better investment would be just a quality pure sine wave (PSW) power inverter and run it off your vehicle battery or bring one of the deep cycle batteries from your boat.

– Phones and devices – Takes almost nothing to charge these. First off, most car charging cords are junk. Buy high-quality USB chargers that are rated at 5 ahr charging. This will charge tablets and phones is half the time or less that it takes with the el cheapo cords.

– Cordless auger/tool batteries. For over 10 years, I’ve been charging Milwaukee batteries with a small power inverter in my vehicle. Many newer chargers won’t work with the cheap modified sine wave inverters, so buy a good pure sine wave unit right out of the gate.

An inverter also is handy because then you run all your device chargers from home rather than having to let devices sit in the vehicle to charge off of DC. It’s also tremendously handy for other stuff, I’ve run trouble lights off of mine, I’ve run my chainsaw sharpener, Mrs. Grouse uses it on long trips to chage her laptop, etc, etc.

As always, if using your vehicle battery, have a backup battery and run your vehicle every day to make sure your starting battery stays topped up. Inverters use power even when not under load, so don’t leave the inverter on when it’s not needed.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Reason I’m looking now is that I have a sleeper trip coming up on LOTW with my two boys and devices will need to be recharged.

In a sleeper that you drive yourself to? If you have your truck just get a cheapo 12v inverter with a couple power plugs and a couple USB ports. They cost $35-50 and you can just go run your vehicle (to be safe) for an hour and top everything off.

Edit: grouse might have a good point about the modified vs pure sine wave. Personally I haven’t ran into anything that won’t charge on my cheapo one. I know my Milwaukee 18v will. Only thing I haven’t tried yet is my 24v strikemaster which I’m going to go try right now to find out.

I have a 14w suntactics that I use to charge a battery pack and then keep a phone, bluetooth speaker, inreach, and headlamp going indefinitely in the summer. I think it would struggle with tablets running multiple hours a day and you would need a much larger system (like you are looking at). There are also problems charging certain “smart” devices straight from solar, which is why it is usually better to charge a “dumb” battery pack.

If you are not truly off grid and have access to vehicles or generators I would never hassle with solar, especially in the winter. Cheapo inverter in a cigarette plug can fast charge your devices in no time.

All good points for consideration, gentleman. Thank you.

We’re going out of Arnesen’s and they transport you so no vehicle. As for the solar thing, I would mostly use the panel to keep it topped or at least to extend the the life of the charge. Otherwise I think I’d plug it in at home for full charging. for a 3 night stay I don’t think we’d need to recharge the phones more than 3-4 times each plus maybe 1 or 2 tablet charges and perhaps a flasher battery. If specs tell the truth, it wouldn’t even need a recharge for that.

Lot of gas fans here, and that would be the more than adequate. I’m not opposed to it but intrigued by the compact nature and portability of these. Was hoping maybe someone here owned one for some first-hand knowledge/experience.

24v strikemaster charger appers to not work on cheapo car inverter if anybody was wondering. Guess I need to upgrade that depending on how many holes I can actually cut on a charge.

False alarm maybe, the 12v plug had a bent side blade and I just broke it off trying to bend it back

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Lot of gas fans here, and that would be the more than adequate. I’m not opposed to it but intrigued by the compact nature and portability of these.

I just recommended truck/inverter because it’s cheap and works… If you have your vehicle I haven’t used the bigger power stations like you posted but I have a few smaller Anker power banks that are about 36WH (10,000mah) and they work as advertised. I use them for phones, dog ecollars, gps, etc. I think it would work well for you. Maybe check out Anker too just because that’s a pretty well known quality brand, maybe Jackery is too but I don’t know of them.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

All good points for consideration, gentleman. Thank you.

We’re going out of Arnesen’s and they transport you so no vehicle. As for the solar thing, I would mostly use the panel to keep it topped or at least to extend the the life of the charge. Otherwise I think I’d plug it in at home for full charging. for a 3 night stay I don’t think we’d need to recharge the phones more than 3-4 times each plus maybe 1 or 2 tablet charges and perhaps a flasher battery. If specs tell the truth, it wouldn’t even need a recharge for that.

Lot of gas fans here, and that would be the more than adequate. I’m not opposed to it but intrigued by the compact nature and portability of these. Was hoping maybe someone here owned one for some first-hand knowledge/experience.

Charging a 24v auger battery is going to use a lot of the capacity of that jackery 240. The 24v charger is listed at 1A draw which is probably only while rapid charging the 1st 80% or so but that is still using a lot of the little juice you have. Charging devices direct off the USB or running a flasher directly from the jackery auto style plug would be pretty handy on a weekend trip.

Reef W wrote:

24v strikemaster charger appers to not work on cheapo car inverter if anybody was wondering. Guess I need to upgrade that depending on how many holes I can actually cut on a charge.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ThunderLund78 wrote:</div>
Lot of gas fans here, and that would be the more than adequate. I’m not opposed to it but intrigued by the compact nature and portability of these.

I just recommended truck/inverter because it’s cheap and works… If you have your vehicle I haven’t used the bigger power stations like you posted but I have a few smaller Anker power banks that are about 36WH (10,000mah) and they work as advertised. I use them for phones, dog ecollars, gps, etc. I think it would work well for you. Maybe check out Anker too just because that’s a pretty well known quality brand, maybe Jackery is too but I don’t know of them.

anker makes nice stuff and most of it is pretty reasonably priced. i use my portable battery for phones and stuff like you do and they are very handy

I bought the Jackery 290 and so far I’ve been very happy with it. What I’ve used it for so far is running my flat screen tv in my fish house. The most time I’ve run the tv has been 3 hours. It’s drawn the charge down 18%. My buddy fished with me the other day and he liked how quiet the house was without my generator powering the tv.

Just bring a good marine battery and a power inverter, all you need. DK.

There’s a guy on YouTube at cheapRVliving who reviewed Bluetti solar power systems.

Have you ever seen “Jackery Solar”?

Anyone make a wind option? Lord knows the wind is always blowing when I am trying to do anything outdoors.