I’ve used the Jackery 500 for a year. Here’s how it went.

so i've been using the jackery 500 for about a year now when i first got this thing i did make a video about it but at the time my state had just come under a travel lockdown and i was unable to get out and use it the way i normally would have now that i've actually used this for camping and over landing for a year i'm going to tell you about how this has worked out for me now i know those of you who watch my channel regularly have heard me talk about the jackery a lot but as my initial review of this unit a year ago was really just first impressions without any real field testing i really wanted to go back and talk about how this has truly fared for anyone who is researching power stations in full disclosure jeffrey is a sponsor of the channel they supplied this to me at no charge a year ago when i got it and they have continued to be a financial supporter of the channel enabling me to continue to get out and produce the content that you guys enjoy watching that said i'm under no obligation to make any specific statements about this product what i say is my own words and my own opinions now in this video i am going to tell you a bunch of good things about my jackery explorer 500 because i truly love this device it has been a total game changer for me and i honestly i can't imagine doing what i do now without having this thing with me but i am also going to tell you about some things that i found over the past year that i don't like so much or that i think could be improved well this is the centerpiece of my entire sort of power setup when i'm out on the trail filming adventures i have a lot of batteries a lot of devices that i have to keep charged up while some of those things i can charge off of the car while i'm driving what typically ends up happening is in the rush of navigating and filming and simply experiencing being outdoors is i never keep up with getting everything charged so i end up in camp in the evening with low batteries on my cameras on my drone on my ipad that i use for navigating and for flying the drone on my phone my chainsaw numerous items that i have that require power you need to be recharged it's impossible for me to keep up with charging them during the day having this along with me on overland trips has been like i said an absolute game changer i don't even have to worry anymore i can get into camp plug stuff in i can have a lot of my stuff charged up before i even get to bed at night on top of that this powers my fridge during the day when i'm driving i key actually keep the fridge plugged into the jackery and i keep the jackery plugged into the car that way if i stop someplace for five minutes or i've stopped someplace for an hour my fridge keeps running when i get to camp shut off the car start checking things out filming setting up camp my fridge keeps running i don't even have to think about it meanwhile when i'm driving the car keeps the jackery recharged this has worked out extremely extremely well i've been very very pleased with just how seamless that has been one of the questions i get asked a lot is how long will this power a fridge and i don't know because of the way i explore the back country i'm usually driving every single day the jackery gets a chance to recharge every single day so i've never just sat in camp for three four days with the fridge running constantly so i don't know exactly how long this will run my fridge but let's find out as it's still cold outside i've set up the fridge inside my house where it's warm to emulate more common camping temperatures all right so it's tuesday march 2nd 6 37 pm we're at 100 and the fridge is in the process of cooling down obviously there are a lot of variables that can impact how much power a 12-volt fridge will draw from the jackery including the fridge itself the ambient temperature how often it gets opened etc for this test i put a few groceries into the fridge and open it a few times a day to emulate my typical use i checked the power level on the jackery approximately every 12 hours and found it was able to keep the fridge going for about two and a half days straight without getting recharged in any way for those who tend to stay at one base camp for days at a time without driving some kind of solar panel would certainly be useful to extend the available power in addition to recharging off the car as i usually do or from a solar panel as i just mentioned the jackery can also be charged by plugging into a standard household ac outlet how long a full recharge takes using household current will depend on the size of the jackery unit in my actual use while over landing it never gets anywhere near zero overnight and charging while i drive each day i always arrive in camp each evening with the jackery fully charged and ready to provide all the power i need well i typically use the jackery for running my fridge and keeping my cameras and devices charged up it has proven useful in a number of other situations on the trail the jackery has been useful to power some ac devices like my shaver as well as the heat gun we used to thaw out my frozen parking brake lines during a frigid winter adventure and while a jackery can't jump start a car i can in fact charge up my capacitor based jump starter off the jackery if needed you can recharge my main camp light which only has an ac charger and it can directly power my other camp lighting option it can also prove useful around the house in the event of a power outage i love that it gives me an ac outlet wherever i want to plop it down that is one of the things that i have absolutely loved about the jackery because this has essentially given me something comparable to a dual battery system in that it powers my fridge it gets recharged when i drive i've always got all the power i need in camp but ultimately this is less expensive than a dual battery system and so much easier there's no concerns about connecting to your car's electrical system wiring all of the other i don't know voltage regulators all the stuff that goes along with the dual battery system plus you know the battery itself and where to store it this makes it extremely easy there's nothing to think about put it in your car plug something in you're done it has the additional benefit of being able to come out of your car when you need to use it someplace else maybe you want to power something in your tent maybe you have a power outage at home and need to run something off of the jackery if you have a couple of different vehicles that you use for traveling camping whatever same thing you can take this out of your adventure rig put it in your other car to power your fridge on a on a road trip with the family so the flexibility of a power station like this over a dual battery system it's a big part of what i liked about getting into a jackery first of all given that it's a 500 watt device and it holds a lot of power it can recharge a lot of devices i kind of wish i had more than three usb outputs because most of my items recharge off of usb cables and i cannot plug them all in to the jackery at once even though they're all very small draws you know it's like 10 watts here 10 watts there this thing can put out 500 watts so it would be nice to be able to take better advantage of all of that power concurrently rather than having to juggle devices around with only three usb outputs the handle is nice for carrying this device but the shape of this does make it a little trickier than some other units to pack into your vehicle especially if you're over landing you've got a lot of gear you have to pack a lot of stuff in your vehicle it would be easier if if this could have stuff stacked on it this is just an awkward shape and this thing is so heavy that you can't really put it on top you want it down low and not up high in your vehicle the other annoyance i've had with this is that even if you've got a device plugged in and you've got one of the outputs turned on for example my fridge i plug into this 12 volt output and i turn on this 12 volt output right here if the jackery doesn't detect power being drawn for i don't know if it's two or three hours a certain period of time it simply shuts off and it stops outputting what can happen on a cool night is that my fridge doesn't necessarily need to run for four or five hours it's keeping the food perfectly cold it's cold enough outside but it could be that after four or five hours or in the morning when the sun first comes up the fridge needs to start running however since it hadn't drawn any power off the jackery for a number of hours the jackery shut down and so the fridge has no power it may be that on some of the newer jackery units that is not the case but that's definitely something to think about if you're running a fridge off of an explorer 500. all that said there's not been a single point in my travels in my excursions in my over landing camping wherever where i thought oh gosh i wish i had a different power station this thing has done what i've needed it to do and it has been 100 reliable now the explorer 500 is just one option in jackery's lineup they have much smaller units up to larger units with higher capacity the 500 may not be the exact fit for you the 160 may be largely adequate for your uses or the 1000 may better fit your needs and coming up on march 17 2021 jackery actually has some interesting new products about to launch and i think some of these new products may be of interest to those of you who have bigger needs than what a 500 or even a thousand can accomplish i can't tell you specifics about the products but i can tell you what they're called i've got the 500 you've seen my friend jason who runs the jackery 1000. coming up in a couple of weeks you'll be seeing the jackery solar generator 1500 and the jackery solar generator 2000 on top of that there will also be the jackery 200 watt solar panel these will be coming out on march 17th and you can tune in live even to watch the announcement you can visit the jackery day page for more details on the upcoming new product announcements plus a giveaway my jackery explorer 500 has been a perfect addition to my camping and over landing experience and has become one of the most critical and valued pieces of gear in my setup after a year of putting this unit to the test in a variety of scenarios i cannot even begin to imagine being out there without it thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: softroadingthewest

Views: 69,032

Rating: 4.906601 out of 5

Keywords: overland, overlanding, power station, generator, power, battery, lithium, charger, jackery, 500, 1000, 300, 160, camp, camping, electricity, device, recharge, phone, camera, batteries, charging, station, review, softroadingthewest, softroading, west, soft roading, donald, subaru, forester, softroader, soft roader, campsite, dispersed camping, wildcamping, off grid, off-grid, computer, drone, tablet, AC, USB, 12 volt, 12V, fridge, refrigerator, car, 4x4, offroad, adventure, excursion, expedition

Id: L0kzLjzZmRw

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021