Jackery Solar Generator 500, 518WH Power Station with SolarSaga100W Solar Panel, Mobile Lithium Battery Pack for Holiday RV Camping, Outdoor Adventure, Emergency

Bought in autumn, so takes a while to charge via solar panel. (eg 3 days from original 50% to full). Hopefully summer will be quicker. Intended for emergency use and for power tools in the workshed originally, we use it to charge all portable/rechargable items, with mobiles & tablets using up approx 3% each, and the vacuum cleaner taking approx 20%. Plugs & charging cables fit snugly and the separate power buttons for each area are very handy. It holds it's charge well, and I am yet to discharge it fully. Doing small top ups as much as the winter sun will allow, instead. It is straightforward and easy to set up and use. Noise wise, it is silent as it is being charged via solar power (not tried mains charging), silent whilst charging smaller items, but intermittently makes noise while charging the vacuum battery. That said, the noise is no louder than a computer/laptop fan blowing. I may try it on my gaming laptop next - playing & charging it.

Great quality well packaged and powers so much. The solar panel can charge devices on its own. The design is great and very sturdy. Charges from the mains quickly or the solar panel over time. Lits of functions be aware the max output is 500W and wills hut off automatically if you are trying to use more power. Easy to transport great value for money. Better than other competitors products.

I loved this product, it even came with its own solar panels & was a dream to setup. Great delivery, packaging, setup & everything was going just fine as we started generating our own electric at home in our flat with Georgian windows & plenty of sun, we felt we were making a real difference charging up items using no mains electric just solar power & we were saving money which was our long term investment plan. It was strangely exciting & planet friendly, the sun was smiling down on us but then after about a week in the whole thing collapsed around our little green fingers. Without thinking about it I plugged an OralB toothbrush into it to charge up partially over night, the three pin socket I used which took the brushes two pin plug was too much for it, must have been the 13amp fuse in the three pin plug because it just killed the Jackery500 without warning, 90% battery suddenly became zero. There was very little it could do, then I really struggled to work out if there was a reset button, no where to be found until Jackery got back to me the following day, it was not even in the instructions which I found very strange indeed. Finally I used what was the reset button on this model for the allocated press the button time & the photo I have attached was what I saw displayed. An OralB toothbrush with a tiny spinning head had killed my £800+ Jackery instantly. We we’re so upset but have to follow the returns policy for a refund because we simply cannot afford this to happen again when our options could be more limited. This unfortunately was our first experience at a home power station buy. Jackery customer service seems good so far not bad but not fantastic either. If I we’re Jackery I would have moved mountains to keep us two onside with maybe a 1000 offer but as it is we cannot risk it. We hope your experience is better than ours, don’t forget to calculate those electrical numbers on anything going into that three pin plug. Thanks. Since this review I have made a decision to buy another Jackery500 as the return service has been very good & I may have just been unlucky, we are environmentalists & so cannot give up at the first hurdle. If we are as happy as those around me in this review section then I shall delete this & do a new review on the next 500. I would just like to point out that since posting this review there is a certain amount of Customer self education required regarding Jackery Power Station products, the most important of which is amps x volts = watts. Do this calculation to be certain you are not overloading your Jackery, unfortunately this is not in neon lights in the instructions & it needs to be, a huge flaw in the instructions. **We have since had a replacement 500 & it is faulty, only generating 4watt’s in a heatwave, this review stands, we are now unfortunately avoiding Jackery products.

As a caravanner I bought the Jackery 500Wh soalr power station, complete with its 100W solar panel, to power my devices when not plugged into a hook-up mains supply. It recharges my laptop a number of times, my caravan leg winding drill, disabillity scooter, and mobile phones. I normally get 55-65 watts input to the Jackery 500 from the solar panel in bright sunlight. The only disadvantage is that the solar panel is not weatherproof. I solved this problem using a £4 (sligthly crinkled) clear plastic vacuum-pack hanging clothing bag, whose zipped long edge fitted over the solar panel perfectly, reducing the solar power by about 20%. I removed the unwanted parts from the bag and adding 2 plastic eyelets in the clear front-zip-part to line up with eyelets at the foot of the panel so I could peg the bag and the panel to the ground. Adding a third plastic eyelet at the centre of the rear-zip-part, plus a string in each of the 2 top the solar panel eyelets, meant I could peg the bag and solar panel down securely, to stop it blowing away, with only 3 round steel pegs. This solved my problem completely. I now get 45-55 watts in bright sunlight. It just takes a bit longer to charge the Jackery 500, but I can leave the solar panel outside in all weathers.

After a lot of research I chose Jackery for my camping battery and solar panels and so far I am pleased. The battery case is very sturdy and properly engineered, no worries that it will break in normal use because no moving parts. The battery itself seems to hold the charge promised and works for an age during recharging phones, iPads, lights etc. I have used it on a camping fridge and it worked perfectly for hours so no complaints there. The solar panels work very well and are also robustly engineered, no flimsy lightweight panels here so be prepared to cart around proper camping items. All in I think this is a great package, I found Jackery after sales to be excellent with lots of communication when I returned a smaller battery in exchange for this. I do recommend this company and this set up, however, the only point I would stress is go for as large a battery as you can financially justify as you cannot have too much battery power.