Taking power with you when you go somewhere, or adding in a battery to an off-grid caravan or cabin is getting easier, with units like the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Portable Power Station.
The V2 has a few new features and an improved design over the first generation. The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 is now only 10.8kg, that’s 20% lighter than the first gen
At $799, this unit gives you over 1,000 Watt Hours (Wh) of power to take anywhere, letting you plug in your appliances to the standard AC outlets, or USB ports – effectively letting you charge, or power anything you want.
The unit uses the latest LiFePO4 batteries which are rated for 10 years of use, or around 4000 charge cycles, and even comes with a five year warranty.
It’s powerful, portable and comes at the right price, so is it worth it for your next adventure away? I’ve been using it for the last month and here’s how it went.
Design
It’s lightweight – even just saying the 10.8kg weight seems light, and with the built-in foldaway carry handle it’s even easy to get it where it needs to be.
On the front you find a large display that shows input/output wattage, as well as Bluetooth and WiFi connections, time to dissipate and more. It’s easy to read, even in bright light which makes it perfect for outdoors.
There’s dual AC outlets on the front, supplying 240V at up to 1500W (with a 3,000W surge), as well as two USB-C ports – one at 30\W, and the other at 100W, as well as a USB-A port at 18W output. There’s also a DC output that can give up to 10A at 12V.
The light on the front escaped me at first, but if you try it, it’s blinding. There’s two levels, low and high, as well as a strobe effect if you need to attract attention.
The base has rubber feet so you can sit it on a smoother surface and not worry about it sliding away.
There’s not a lot on the rear, but the safety sticker does have all the relevant info for charging, capacity and more.
What’s in the box?
The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Portable Power Station only comes with a single power cable. Jackery does get branding points for including an orange Jackery coloured cable.
Frustratingly, while Jackery includes an AC cable, they lose points for charging extra for the DC or Anderson plug adapters.
Jackery App
The power station has a lot of options and the best place to check them out is the Jackery app – available for Android and iOS.
The app gives you access to charging info as well as monitoring, analytics and more. Letting you keep a remote eye on, or adjust your Jackery Portable Power Station settings.
App setup is easy, just create an account – or login to your Jackery account and then hit the add button. The Jackery Explorer 1000 only connects to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi – which can be an issue for some users but it connected fairly easily for me.
Once setup is done, you can access all the device info – including Input and Output (split into USB and AC), as well as a switch for the built-in light on the unit and options for the screen.
Under settings you can find all the info you want. Ability to rename it, set the timeout, charging speed and even energy saving options.
Charging
It’s a battery, so you’ll need to charge it and there’s three ways to charge: AC, DC and Solar – with Solar and DC sharing the same input.
Some of my misgivings about charging large batteries have been offset with Jackery using 62 protective mechanisms, and 12 algorithms to monitor charging under their ‘Charge Shield 2.0’ tech.
Plugging the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 into your 240v power point will have you charged in a little over an hour and a half – but there’s an emergency option which can get you charged to full in under an hour using the app.
There’s also the option to charge in your car using the 12V DC outlet – though you’ll need to get your own cable for this one.
Available through Jackery for $49 RRP, the DC Charging cable plugs into the cigarette lighter port in your car and then into the DC8020 port on the side of the Explorer V2.
This is one of the longer charging times though with Jackery listing 12 hours to recharge the unit fully through your car
Lastly, the Jackery Explorer V2 is considered a Solar Generator – so you can of course plug in solar panels – anywhere up to 400W. Jackery uses proprietary 8mm DC (DC8020) barrel connectors for their solar panels which limits your range.
Pricing on the panels starts at $499 RRP for the 100W panel, or goes up to $799 for the 200W panel.
A 100W panel will charge the battery in 15 hours, while a 200W panel will charge in just under 4 hours.
For those in the know, you CAN get an Anderson to DC8020 cable through Jackery for $169 RRP – letting you connect cars, other types of solar panels and more to the Jackery batteries for charging.
UPS
While portable power is a great way to use your Jackery Explorer 1000 v2, it also operates as a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), able to kick in with less than 20ms response.
Having UPS capability lets the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 smooth out any power spikes, or kick in quickly in the event of a power outage to save devices including routers and hard drives, or your PC – or more mundane devices you just need on all the time like fish tank filters.
I’ve plugged the Jackery into my LAN where it’s supporting my router – and will eventually power the NAS as well – complete backup for all that work from home we need to do!Designed for use on the go, at home or the worksite, the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 can run or charge most of your appliances, tools and devices.
What can it power?
Rated at 230 volts at 1500W output, the battery can support 3000W Surge for peak output. That’s not to say everything though. My 2200W washing machine had too high draw for a sustained period, but everything else worked. Laptops charged, tools worked and even the light came in handy as the sun went down.
Jackery does have a list of things the battery can power – and for how long, as well as supplying a handy tool on their website you can plug in the Wattage of the device (usually found on the back on the device info sticker) and find out how many times the battery can charge your device, or how long it will run for.
| Appliance / Device | Power Rating | Estimated Runtime / Usage |
| Portable Refrigerator | 60W | 15 hours |
| Coffee Maker | 550W | 1.5 hours |
| Projector | 100W | 8 hours |
| Phone | 29W / 4325mAh | 34 charges |
| Air Conditioner | 1150W | 54 minutes |
| TV | 60W | 12 hours |
| Microwave | 960W | 48 minutes |
| Laptop | 80W | 13 recharges |
| Hand Drill | 400W | 2 hours |
| Weeder | 1100W | 1.4 hours |
| Angle Grinder | 400W | 2 hours |
| Electric Water Pump | 60W | 11 hours |
Final Thoughts
Yeah, this is great.
I got an absolute ton of work done up at my block. There’s no power there, so taking a days worth of portable power up there which can run some tools, and even charge a battery for tools, or even your laptop or phone and more is awesome. It can also charge your phone, laptop, Starlink Mini antenna and more.
The addition of UPS functionality is a very welcome addition, adding that little bit of utility when you don’t need to be out on the road with it.
The multiple charging options are excellent, as is the emergency fast-charge to get you to full in no time – all the while safe in the knowledge it has monitoring for over-charge. The only downside being the proprietary connector for their DC and solar charginge, where other connectors are more widely available. That said, it’s a solid connection and works really well.
At $799, this is a great buy and if you are heading off-grid, camping or hitting a worksite and need your own power, you should check it out. You can find the Jackery Explorer 1000 V2 over on their website.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
