Anyone using portable battery station

Ben Lawrence

Ben Lawrence

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Mar 2, 2011
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Battery stuff seems to be to the point of being feasible for smaller stuff. I have a Yamaha eu2200 that I have gotten some pretty good use out of but have been considering one of the battery power stations. I would say the typical reason I pull it out is for wedding ceremony stuff so a silent option would be nice. I have a couple battery powered JBL speakers that have been really handy. I sometimes want to run a couple wireless and a mixer though so plug in power would be ideal.
I also have a storage area without power where is would be handy to have something just to plug in a few lights and do some pre-addressing etc. In addition I have an off grid cabin I have been working on that I think it would be cool to be able to charge a few tool batteries and maybe run some led lights. It would be a game changer to be able to do all of this without the fuel burning and sound from the little genny.
No big power draws. I think my #1 criteria is reliability. Lot of info out there was just wondering if any of you had any luck with certain models.
 
I have used a Jackery 500 to power 2 JBL PRX 710s, a Touchmix16 and some wireless mics with no problem. Plus 2 60" big screen TVs with wireless HDMI. At the end of a 1.5 to 2 hour gig the Jackery would still have 65% charge.
They make a 1000 and 2000 as well. Cost about $100/100watts when I bought mine.
 
I too use a Jackery, mine is their Explorer 240 (240 what/hour model). They all seem to be about $1 per watt/hour regardless of capacity. I used it last weekend to power two powered EV ZLX cabinets for a speaking engagement. I’ve used it in the past for school band competitions (where they play on the football field for 5-10 minutes). It powered a pair of powered speakers, a keyboard, and a guitar amp for about 85 minutes during practices. Power is clean and quiet. Highly recommend them for audio applications but my wife and I use it for camping as well.
 
Be careful not to confuse peak power output with battery capacity.
Example: The Jackery Explorer 290Wh model will support (in theory) a 290 watt load for a duration of 1 hour, or a 145 watt load for 2 hours, or a 580 watt load for 30 minutes… except that this model has a 400 watt peak output limit so you can’t actually draw 580 watts. Also, the sustained power output will likely be less than the peak power output (not sure by how much but it’s likely in the manual).
Different models will have different capacities as well as different peak output ratings. The larger capacity units will support greater peak loads.
Find the model that best meets your needs both in capacity and output power. Round up- no one ever wishes they had less power.
Harbor Freight does seem to have some competitive prices on these units. I wasn’t aware they carried them until I read this post. Thanks!
 
Check out Ecoflow and Bluetti too, they make basically the same Batteries, but maybe they fit your needs a little better than others.
I haven't tried one of them yet, but I will buy one of their big guys, as soon as I have decided if it will be a Bluetti or Ecoflow.
Bad point for Ecoflow is defenitely their cell chemistry, all exept the biggest Delta Pro (3600Wh) have NCM Cells with 800 cycles till 80% capacity. Bluetti uses in all their batteries LFP cells with 3500 cycles to 80% and 6500+ cycles to 50% capacity.

Still I think I will go for Ecoflow, I follow them for one or two years now, they habe a huge community, Bulletti seems to be pretty new and small...
 
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