Jackery 1500 solar generator review
What is a solar generator and what can I do with it? I review the Jackery 1500 Solar Generator for the answers to this popular question.
Jackery 1500
Essentially the Jackery product is a large 1,534 watt-hour battery enclosed in Jackery’s case giving you access to use that power almost any way that makes sense.
On the front of that case are three 120 volt household power outlets, a single USB-C outlet, a traditional USB outlet capable of up to five volts or 2.4 amps, a USB outlet compatible with Qualcomm’s quick charge and a typical “cigarette lighter” adapter capable of delivering 10 amps of 12volt power.
In addition there is a display that shows power input and output and how much power remains in the battery as well as a calculated guesstimate as to how long the power will last based on current usage figures.
Using this you could plug just about any 120 volt household appliance into it and operate that appliance. For example, I plugged in a coffee maker, a coffee grinder, a pressure cooker, an Instant Pot and a toaster. Not all at the same time, mind you, but individually. The unit handled each of those without issue.
At the same time I could plug the very notebook confuser in that I use to write these reviews via the USB C port and charge it.
There are also two ports at the upper left of the front of this to charge the internal battery. You could use the included wall charger to accomplish this or I used the four 100 watt SolarSaga solar panels that were sent as part of the package to do so.
Can I run a CPAP on a solar generator?
One of the most common questions I read on the various forums that I troll about RVs is if you can run a CPAP machine with a solar generator. There are also a lot more folks on the road with their various computers and other electronic whiz bangs and, of course, those need to be refueled as well.
Of course you could always get a traditional generator but they’re noisy, smelly and require maintenance. Furthermore few places allow you to run them at the time of night when you’d want to use a CPAP machine so that solution is a no go for many circumstances.
When Jackery offered to send me their latest and largest model, the Jackery 1500, I thought it would be a great opportunity to see if this could really do the job many want from it. More specifically, the Jackery Solar Generator 1500 (Jackery 1500 + 4 x SolarSaga 100W) is specifically what I got.
Solar charging
My favorite way to replenish the power in this beast is to lay out the four Jackery SolarSaga 100 watt solar panels and let the sun provide my juice.
To accomplish this this there are two adapters that come with the device that let you plug in two of the solar panels to each adapter and then plug that adapter into the Jackery. In theory this provides up to 400 watts of solar input but I was able to get up to 380 watts at the most and around 200 watts in less than ideal conditions.
Each SolarSaga panel consists of two semi flexible solar panels in a flexible case. The case snaps together like a briefcase using magnets and there’s a nifty handle at the top. At the back of each of these assemblies is a pocket which has the connector and wire to attach to the Jackery as well as a hub with USB C or USB ports, allowing you to use the panel to charge those devices.
The flexible case that is the back of the panel also has a flip-out leg or stand on each side so you can position the panel to optimize capturing the sun’s rays.
Charge times
Charging the unit from a low point to full took anywhere from 6-8 hours depending on the sun, the state of charge and whether there was anything drawing current from the unit as well.
There’s another thing I really liked about this unit, you could charge it at the same time as you were using the power thanks to an MPPT controller in the unit.
I actually plugged my travel trailer into the unit while the solar panels were doing their thing and ran the refrigerator in the trailer.
The Jackery reported that, after a day of doing this, the unit was down to 89 percent of capacity so, basically, not bad. Power draw varied from about 120 watts to 180 watts depending on where the refrigerator was in the operating cycle. Incoming power varied as well due to it being a cloudy day. It’s quite possible, depending on your draw, to use this package to operate many of the things in your RV completely off solar.
Would it be possible to operate the AC unit? Sort of. If you use a Soft Start RV and this high-capacity Jackery unit you could get about two hours’ run time from the AC but you really wouldn’t want to have any other electrical loads at the same time. This is similar to running your AC with a smaller generator.
Why Jackery
Jackery has made a name for itself as a company that provides an integrated solution. Everything they make is designed to work together to provide a solution for the customer. If you buy their main unit and their solar panel there is no question what’s going to happen - you plug the connector in and charge the unit. Simple.
Their plugs plug in only one way and everything just works. The unit and the solar panels are designed to work together and they do.
There are other brands of these solar generators that are more component based. Yes, you can use anybody’s solar panels. You can mix and match things. But how well they work together can depend very much on your understanding of the systems.
You could also build a device that performed the same function for much less than the $2,699 list price of this device. But then you should know what you’re doing as lithium batteries can get explody if not managed properly. Buying an off-the shelf unit means you don’t worry about this.
The downside
As many pluses as there were with this unit there were also some things that really had me scratching my head.
For example, the main unit wanted to be in a relatively temperature-moderate environment. In other words, electronics don’t like to be in freezing temperatures nor do they like to be extremely hot.
The first few days I had this the outside temps were close to 110°F so charging it was a bit of an issue as the cables provided with the solar panels aren’t very long. Thus the whole thing had to sit outside and the main unit worked to protect itself and part of that was limiting incoming charge power.
I would really like to see Jackery offer extension cables for this package so that I could keep the main unit inside and the solar panels outside the RV.
While I respect the fact all the Jackery bits work very well together, by the same token, it’s next to impossible to use solar panels that I already have.
But the biggest thing about this that troubled me was that the internal battery is only good for about 500 cycles. Some of the newer Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) have charge duty cycles of up to 5,000 cycles, some even more. Once you’ve gone through all the cycles on this device it’s just e-waste. I wish Jackery offered some sort of a replacement/trade in program for the batteries themselves.
We have been affiliated with Lion Energy for years now and they offer a similar device in the Lion Safari ME but the solar panels are additional, however we also have a discount code.
Boondocking with the Jackery
On this most recent two month trip the only device I brought for power was the Jackery and its four 100-watt Solar Saga panels. In summary, it was fantastic.
I was able to use this and plug our 30 amp trailer into the Jackery and keep the house batteries in the travel trailer charged. When the trailer was plugged into the Jackery 1500 it was as it if were plugged into a normal 120 volt household outlet so I could run things like the microwave.
I still used propane to run the refrigerator and the water heater just so I minimized the draw on the Jackery and used it for things that would only run on electricity. This also meant I could use the trailer’s household outlets to charge my laptops and cameras and such. It was delightfully convenient and worked very well.
This was enough for us to make it through the nine day Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta as well as a five day boondocking adventure in the mountains above Prescott, Arizona. Having the portable panels allowed me to aim them at the sun for optimal charging and the Jackery actually never got below about a 55% state of charge.
Now we did not use the air conditioner on this trip simply because we chose to camp in weather where we didn’t have to. I was completely thrilled with the performance of the Jackery and the Solar Saga panels during this two month road trip.
Now if my trailer had lithium batteries and an inverter and a large bank of solar panels on the roof I could have done the same thing, but at a far higher cost. The Jackery and it’s matched solar panels did the same thing simply, easily and at a far lower cost.
In summary
I can see this device serving a lot of different use case scenarios.
The most obvious one is the CPAP user who wants something silent that can handle 1-2 CPAP machines over night. Depending on your CPAP unit, this could be your solution. It’s quiet, easy to recharge and will run two CPAP machines for eight hours.
This could also be a great solution for those who like to boondock and want to run appliances like coffee makers or hair dryers. It will handle those kinds of things.
I could also see, with the group that I go camping with, this machine being pressed into use to run our Traeger barbecue. Plug the Traeger into the Jackery and throw the four solar panels out and you’ve got smoked venison by the end of the day. In fact, if my calculations are correct you can run the Traeger and then still have enough juice to power two CPAP machines overnight. This does have a lot of stored energy.
Furthermore I will keep this unit in the house here in Northern California. Our local power company keeps settling lawsuits for burning down communities and their solution is to simply shut off our power when things get scary for their shareholders. While I presently have been using a small generator to keep my refrigerator running, this unit will easily handle that task when this happens. Again.
The good thing is, since it’s a battery-powered unit it’s not announcing itself to the neighbors by rattling outside in the yard. I can keep the unit inside the house overnight which means my refrigerator will be running overnight too. Not only do the generators come out when the power goes off up here, so, too, do the people who like five-finger discounts on generators sitting outside at night.
Being dead silent also means you can run things in places where there are restrictions on the generator hours. Frankly, this unit inside the RV won’t make any noise and you can charge your computers, phones and all of that.
Jackery makes a number of different units that offer this functionality but with different capacities. The 1500 that I tested is truly the beast of the bunch and will power a lot of different things. While the entire package, at $2,699 on Jackery’s website, is certainly not inexpensive the simplicity of making the pieces work together along with the capacity of this device may make sense for some people.
