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Camping is fun if you enjoy the outdoors, but just because you’re outdoors doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to give up all of your modern day luxuries or creature comforts. If you’d rather use a heater rather than build a fire, why not? If you want to be able to watch movies or play games on your phone, that’s possible too.
Of course, it then begs the question of how are you doing to do those things since mother nature doesn’t exactly provide power outlets out in the wild? That’s where gadgets like Jackery’s Explorer 1500 come in handy.
Big battery and tons of ports
The Jackery Explorer 1500 is a portable power station designed to help keep your gadgets powered while you’re on the go. It comes with a 1,534Wh battery that supports 1,800-watt power output, which means that it can power devices like a mini cooler for as long as 21 hours, assuming that’s what you want to use it for.
It also comes equipped with a variety of ports to support all manner of gadgets and appliances, and Jackery certainly delivers on that front. According to Jackery, here’s what you can expect from the various ports the Explorer 1500 comes with:
- AC Output – 3 x 110V~ 60Hz, 16.4A, 1800W (3600W Peak)
- USB-A Output – 5V-2.4A
- Quick Charge 3.0 Output – 18W, 5-6.5V-3A, 6.5-9V-2A, 9-12V-1.5A
- USB-C Output PD – 60W, 5V-3A, 9V-3A, 12V-3A, 15V-3A, 20V-3A
- Car Output – 12V-10A
- DC Input – 2 x 48V-6.25A (Double to 500w Max)
Clean energy
Now obviously to keep the Jackery Explorer 1500 juiced, you’ll need to be able to draw power from somewhere. You could plug it into a wall outlet when you’re home, but alternatively, if you prefer something a bit more sustainable and don’t need to juice it up immediately or anytime so soon, Jackery’s Solar Generator 1500 will help you charge up the Explorer 1500 using solar energy.
According to Jackery, using the Solar Generator 1500 will be able to juice up the Explorer 1500 to about 80% in four hours, so you can just leave it there and let it do its thing.
Safe and easy to use
The Jackery Explorer 1500 is essentially a massive battery that you’re lugging around with you on the go. We’ve already seen how disastrous small lithium-ion battery explosions can get, so imagine one the size of the Explorer 1500, but Jackery reassures customers that it is safe to use.
This is thanks to Jackery’s Battery Manage System, which the company has described as:
“With multiple solutions for over current protection, short current protection, over-discharge protection, overcharge protection, over-voltage protection, and thermal protection. This system will monitor each individual cell and battery pack health, which shields the battery safety level and the system, improving the battery life. It is even aligned with the highest battery industrial standard – matching the quality of all the electric cars.”
The Explorer 1500 also comes with a display of its own where it makes it easier for users to see the input and output power flowing in and out of the battery, while also being able to see how much battery is left, all at a quick glance. It can also show which charging method is being used, and there are warning indicators should the battery reach too low or too high temperatures.
Real-world testing
As we do with all the power banks that come through our office, we put the Jackery Explorer through a series of tests to see how well it stacks up against its spec sheet claims in the real world, day-to-day use
The included 300W charger was able to deliver a full charge to the 1534Wh battery in 5 hours and 17 minutes. While that’s the maximum speed you can get with the included charger, Jackery has given the Explorer 1500 two DC charging ports which means you can double up on the 300W chargers or mix and match with solar charging at the same time.
The 1800W (3600W Surge) inverter works as advertised. We were able to test it with two window air conditioning units as once with plenty of head doom to power a desktop computer, 28-inch monitor, studio light and charge a few phones at the same time as well.
The only area that left us a little disappointed was the efficiency of the 1534Wh battery. IN our testing, we were only able to draw 1140Wh in AC power from a full charge, leaving us with an efficiency rating of 74.3%. Compared to other solar generators, the Explorer 1500 is one of the least efficient devices we have tested, coming in at 2.5 percentage points lower than average.
Final thoughts
The Jackery Explorer 1500 is priced at $1,600. This is by no means a cheap investment, but if you do go on camping or fishing trips quite often, the Explorer 1500 may be a good investment. The large battery pack and inverter also make it ideal for those who are looking for a backup power system in the event of a blackout, where you’ll be able to keep most of your necessities powered on until the power comes back, especially since Jackery’s solar panels will be able to charge the battery back up during the day.
The only real downside of the Jackery Explorer 1500 is its use of Lithium-ion battery cells which are limited to 500 charge cycles. If you plan to only use the Jackery a few dozen times per year, you could easily go a decade before you notice any battery degredation, but we’d recommend altenratived from Bluetti or other manufacturers that used LiFePO4 battery cells which should last more than 2500 cycles if you’re planning on using a solar generator on a daily basis.
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