FYI - Looks like some of their models are on sale right now on Amazon. This one is smaller, but a good deal: https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Power-Station-Generator/dp/B07D29QNMJ
Sale on Jackerys
- Thread starter John6239
- Start date
BikeNFish
Super Active Member
That is VERY good deal.
Coincidently, I just posted my Jackery 1000 field test results HERE. The 1000 is one of them on sale.
Edit: @PopUpSteve did a review on the Jackery 500 HERE.
davekro
Super Active Member
I am not at all familiar with this type of device, so let me ask a question about a possible application.
Would this 240w Jackery be a good alternative to using an Inverter in my situation? My truck has one (starting) battery. A 1.9 yr old Lead acid battery that has ≈ 46 amp hours (calculated from 110 RC). I wish I had invested in an AGM when I replaced in July 2019.
I think maybe a good fit for two reasons I can think of: 1) I'd rather not have to monitor my truck battery voltage to be sure not to deplete. Not sure how long I'd need to run the engine to bring state of charge back significantly. 2) I believe with inverters wasting ≈ 10% added to my ≈ 1.5ah/ ≈ 9 amp usage in 6 hrs., this Jackery would be a much better way to go. And give me piece of mind.
In my 14' work box van, I am parked at a work site all day (12-14 hours). I have been considering getting an Inverter to re-charge my (aging) laptop battery. I already converted interior lights to LED, but plan to add three more LED fixtures for better light [ (3 x .5 amp) + ( 1 x .9 amp existing LED 8" round light) ... so ≈ 2.4 amp hour draw max ]. I probably actually use just .9a + .5a mostly when inside the truck, which may be 4-6 hours of the 'day'. [1.4 ah x 6 hrs = ≈ 9 amps. plus whatever the laptop recharge use through the Inverter.
How would I connect the Jackery to my truck's 12v system to run the LED lights? I wonder how much the Jackery would drain down when connected to the truck 12v system, assuming the truck battery was at max charge that the alternator could charge to after a one hour commute?
What is the non-sale price of the Jackery 240?
BikeNFish
Super Active Member
I don't believe that is possible other than using the Jackery in tandem with the Jackery charging cables to give your truck battery a boost.
You could use the Jackery AC port to directly run your laptop. Many people use them that way.
The Jackery 240 is now on sale for $169.14 (Reg. $199.99). Jackery claims that the fully charged Jackery 240 can charge a laptop 3-4 times.
TSQ
Active Member
Lights: 0.9A + 0.5A = 1.4A x 6hrs = 8.4Ah x 14.4V = 121Wh
How much power do you need to put into your laptop?
Laptop: 10W (depending what you are doing with it) x 10hrs (do you use it the whole time?) = 100Wh
100Wh + 121Wh = 221 Wh total
221Wh / 80% = 276Wh
I'd say the 240Wh unit is a little on the small side, depending on how much energy you want to put into your laptop.
Can you add your new lights on a new circuit that terminates in a 12V male plug, and then just plug this into the 12V female receptacle on the Jackery? You could also install a 12V female receptacle in the van if you did want to plug the lights into the van itself at times.
<---[fuse]----------[switch]---------[light]---------[light]---------[light]---------[light]
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davekro
Super Active Member
I normally recharge my laptop when using it in the buildings that I service, so the Jackery would be more for when I forgot to charge it when in a building and I leave the site for the day with a low laptop battery. I actually sleep overnight in my box truck for a day or two because the site is a few hour drive from home. It is actually a very comfy set up! So the Jackery would mainly be for when I plan to add a Maxxair thermostatically controlled vent/ fan for when it gets really hot in the box of the truck for sleeping at night. So If I REMEMBER, I can charge the Jackery before leaving to 'camp' for the night too. 
)
How would I connect the Jackery to my truck's electrical system to run it's lights and a ceiling fan/vent. I could imagine I could run decent gauge wire 15' from the battery back to the box, terminated with something the Jackery could supply power to the truck's system with. What kind of connector would I want to install in the box near where the Jackery could sit?
) How would I connect the Jackery to my truck's electrical system to run it's lights and a ceiling fan/vent. I could imagine I could run decent gauge wire 15' from the battery back to the box, terminated with something the Jackery could supply power to the truck's system with. What kind of connector would I want to install in the box near where the Jackery could sit?
TSQ
Active Member
Just keep in mind the Jackery 240 is only 240Wh / 13.2V (typical for lithium) = 18Ah x 80% = roughly 14.5Ah usable when comparing it to a lead acid battery.
In his review BikeNFish used a set of Jackery jumper cables to charge his trailer battery. I had a quick look and couldn't find any technical info online regarding the 12V outlet, but I assume it is a regulated current limiting output. The manual does say it is 10A, so if you did choose to connect it to your vehicle battery 14AWG wire would be fine (with a 15A fuse at the vehicle battery).
I would still consider placing your lights and fan on an independent circuit and plugging only those loads into the Jackery via the 12V receptacle (carport/cigarette lighter plug). If you do regularly connect the Jackery to your vehicle battery while running lights and fans without any kind of monitoring and/or load disconnect you still risk discharging your vehicle starter battery (if the Jackery battery is depleted or disconnected), leaving you unable to start your vehicle (and possibly damaging the starter battery). Plus it is not as efficient.
Either way, you could install a 12V receptacle (carport/cigarette lighter plug) near where you wish to place the Jackery (14AWG wire, 15A fuse).
If you want to charge the vehicle battery with the Jackery use a male-male connector between the Jackery 12V receptacle and the vehicle 12V receptacle.
If you wire the lights and fan on a separate circuit with a 12V plug you can plug them into either the Jackery 12V receptacle or the vehicle 12V receptacle, depending on your situation.
In addition, when driving, you could also use the vehicle 12V receptacle to charge the Jackery using the included DC charger.
In his review BikeNFish used a set of Jackery jumper cables to charge his trailer battery. I had a quick look and couldn't find any technical info online regarding the 12V outlet, but I assume it is a regulated current limiting output. The manual does say it is 10A, so if you did choose to connect it to your vehicle battery 14AWG wire would be fine (with a 15A fuse at the vehicle battery).
I would still consider placing your lights and fan on an independent circuit and plugging only those loads into the Jackery via the 12V receptacle (carport/cigarette lighter plug). If you do regularly connect the Jackery to your vehicle battery while running lights and fans without any kind of monitoring and/or load disconnect you still risk discharging your vehicle starter battery (if the Jackery battery is depleted or disconnected), leaving you unable to start your vehicle (and possibly damaging the starter battery). Plus it is not as efficient.
Either way, you could install a 12V receptacle (carport/cigarette lighter plug) near where you wish to place the Jackery (14AWG wire, 15A fuse).
If you want to charge the vehicle battery with the Jackery use a male-male connector between the Jackery 12V receptacle and the vehicle 12V receptacle.
If you wire the lights and fan on a separate circuit with a 12V plug you can plug them into either the Jackery 12V receptacle or the vehicle 12V receptacle, depending on your situation.
In addition, when driving, you could also use the vehicle 12V receptacle to charge the Jackery using the included DC charger.
davekro
Super Active Member
This morning 5/20/21 the sale on the 240 was gone. The price was back at $199 for the Jackery 240. I set price watches in Amazon's camelcamelcamel.com so I will get an email if the 240 drops below $170, or the 500 drops below $455.
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BikeNFish
Super Active Member
Yes, Jackery has protected their products well with regulators. Carport output is 12V, 10A. The Jackery will shut down if the watt draw is too great.
I would second the idea of placing the lights on an independent circuit and plugging into the Jackery.
Groomporter
Active Member
Just got the Bluetti 500wh model power station (the AC50s) since the old pop-up doesn't have an electrical system.
Tried an experiment with one of the cheap 12 volt electric blankets I also recently acquired. Blanket never seemed to get warm, but the tip of the cigarette plug got uncomfortably hot. Blanket is supposed to be under 4.5 amps and the power port is supposed to be a max of 10 amps. The Bluetti said it was pulling about 48/9 watts, but the power in the Bluetti seemed to be dropping faster than it should. I'll dig out the second blanket and see if that one works, but my assumption is I just need a better blanket.
I went with Bluetti since reviews said it charges faster than Jackery and it supports "pass-through" charging better so you can run something on it while recharging it.
Tried an experiment with one of the cheap 12 volt electric blankets I also recently acquired. Blanket never seemed to get warm, but the tip of the cigarette plug got uncomfortably hot. Blanket is supposed to be under 4.5 amps and the power port is supposed to be a max of 10 amps. The Bluetti said it was pulling about 48/9 watts, but the power in the Bluetti seemed to be dropping faster than it should. I'll dig out the second blanket and see if that one works, but my assumption is I just need a better blanket.
I went with Bluetti since reviews said it charges faster than Jackery and it supports "pass-through" charging better so you can run something on it while recharging it.
firepit
Super Active Member
- Feb 26, 2020
- 2,820
FWIW...The Ibuture I have is 300W and it's $199 on Amazon (Back in stock May 26TH).
I seen it at $169 during the holidays.
My shuts off automatically if I plug a ceramic heater into it...etc etc.
As far as the specs vs the Jackery 240 IDK all the technical stuff on either.
Mine has two 110 outlets and a big LED light on one side (Handy at night when fishing) and the fan is super quiet
and only runs as needed...I have read somewhere that a lot of the fans are noisy and run all the time?
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Station-BUTURE-Generator-72000mAh/dp/B086P75DG6
I seen it at $169 during the holidays.
My shuts off automatically if I plug a ceramic heater into it...etc etc.
As far as the specs vs the Jackery 240 IDK all the technical stuff on either.
Mine has two 110 outlets and a big LED light on one side (Handy at night when fishing) and the fan is super quiet
and only runs as needed...I have read somewhere that a lot of the fans are noisy and run all the time?
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Station-BUTURE-Generator-72000mAh/dp/B086P75DG6
BikeNFish
Super Active Member
Bluetti also has a great reputation. I was looking at those before I bought the Jackery.
Groomporter
Active Member
Yeah I was debating between Jackery and Bluetti. Have a Renogy solar panel on the way, so looking forward to setting them up for the first time.
davekro
Super Active Member
TSQ,
Good info, thanks.
Good idea to make all lights & fan on a separate circuit. That would make the Jackery like a 'house' battery separate from the starting battery. For this separate circuit, do you agree I could have a switch (not sure what kind??) to flip when I want to change to run off the starting battery (I would disconnect the Jackery when switched to 'starting' batt.). With this switching ability, I could use the source with the AH's I need available.
I believe even when the alternator charges the starting battery, it is really only at ≈ 80% SOC (state of charge). I assume that means if I DID connect the Jackery to a circuit the starting battery was also on, the Jackery would send current to it until it reached closer to 100% SOC(?).
If starting batt. rated at 45ah, 20% of that = 9ah of Jackery 240's ≈ 14.5ah...
Oh, Oh, But am I dreaming to think the below scenario is valid?:::
1) Arrive at site for the 12-14 hour day. Connect full Jackery 240 to truck's starting batt. circuit for as long as it takes to raise start batt. from ≈ 80% to as close as 100%SOC as Jackery will do. (does Jackery keep sending current or stop when it & start battery are 'equalized'?)
2) Take Jackery into building to recharge via 120v outlet
3) Now have both Jackery and starting battery near 100% SOC for my overnight camping adventure allowing me to run a fan 10 hours (speed #1 (.2a) to speed #10 (4.4a) with zero worries. [4.4ah x 10 hrs = 4.4 amps.]
Oh, I like this simple plan! I did not know cig plugs could handle 'charging current', but I guess 15amp (16 ga wire) or 20amps (14 ga wire) is OK for the actual connector. I see Amazon has 14ga Cig. connectors and adapters, so that is very cool!
Now all I need to do is decide if I want to wait and see if camelcamelcamel.com send me a notice Amazon has dropped the 240 back to a sale price of $169, or pull the trigger on it at $199.
Protect the 12 volt port with a low voltage disconnect, such as this or this set to it's highest setting. Leave the Jackery plugged in to charge from the port, It will disconnect when the source battery reaches the set point and should leave enough juice to restart the van. Leave the lights/fan circuit plugged into the Jackery.
Or use a switched relay so that the outlet is disconnected when the alternator is not charging. Cheaper but the con here is the the lights fan are unavailable except when running from the Jackery.
Or mount a small 60+ watt solar panel on the roof with a cable run to the inside to charge the Jackery, which is the way I'd go because you can leave the fan running during the day to help reduce heat buildup in the box.
TSQ
Active Member
Yes, keeps them separate.
You could have a switch, but I'd just keep it simpler and just plug it into the Jackery (or equivalent), or the vehicle. It depends on how much you want to spend. If you wanted to go the switch route you would need a SPDT (or DPDT) rated at 15A.
The alternator will charge it to 100% SOC, assuming you've been driving for a little while.
Not really, the Jackery would continue to supply power until the starting battery is brought up to the output voltage of the Jackery. Note that you are not just connecting one battery to another - the 12V output on the Jackery will be driven by a DC-DC converter. The starting battery, being lead acid, will need to be driven up to 14.4V to fully charge and I doubt the 12V output on the Jackery is that high. Maybe BikeNFish could measure the 12V output voltage on his with no load on it.
If you want more power I would recommend a larger Jackery, as opposed to trying to take some from your starter battery. Or use a solar panel as Steve suggested - that is a great idea.
Technically you want 14AWG for 15A and 12AWG for 20A.
If you are trying to keep the costs down I'd wire something like this female 12V outlet to your vehicle battery. This will be your vehicle outlet.
Wire your lights and fans to something like this male 12V plug
To run the lights and fan off your Jackery, plug it into the Jackery. To run them off the vehicle, just plug it into the vehicle outlet.
If you did want the ability to charge the vehicle battery from the Jackery pick up something like this 12V male-male cable and plug one end into the Jackery and the other into the vehicle outlet.
While driving, use the DC charger that is included with the Jackery to charge the Jackery from the vehicle outlet. Don't forget to unplug it when you stop, or use a low voltage disconnect as Steve suggested.
Note that I just picked those Amazon items as examples, there are many different ones available.
davekro
Super Active Member
TSQ
Active Member
The Jackery (and similar lithium units) have separate ~12V DC inputs and outputs so the connections would be different. The inputs tend to be 8mm barrel jacks while the outputs tend to be the standard 12V carport / cigarette lighter type plugs. Generally speaking, they will not output anything from the inputs, nor will they input anything on the outputs (except on special bi-directional connections like USB-C).
You would use the DC charger that is included with the Jackery that looks like this:
The barrel end goes into the Jackery input, and the carport / cigarette lighter type end goes into the 12V vehicle outlet.
You would use a male-male cable like I linked to earlier.
The solar panel would plug into the Jackery input using a barrel connector. This would charge the Jackery.
If you wanted to charge your vehicle starter battery with solar then yes, you can plug the solar panel into the Jackery input jack, and use the male-male cable to plug the 12V Jackery output into the 12V vehicle outlet.
But the Jackery is much more than a battery, and the actual Lithium battery inside it is "hidden" behind DC-DC converters (and the DC-AC Inverter) so you never see the actual battery voltage (which is often in the 20V range), only what the regulated output is. The batteries will never equalize.
I see the Jackery manual states that the "12V" output voltage is actually 13.3V.
The Jackery will charge the vehicle starter battery at 10A until the starter battery voltage rises to 13.3 (assuming the 10A is a continuous output). So if your solar panel is only adding 2A you could, in theory, eventually drain your Jackery down to 0%. At that point the Jackery should disconnect the output (stop charging the start battery) until the solar panel charges it up again a bit (this is typical - I'm not sure of the exact Jackery behaviour).
But I would save the Jackery -> vehicle start battery charging for emergencies only.
Groomporter
Active Member
I see on the Jackery "where to buy" page of their website they are now listing Harbor Freight, but the link doesn't go anywhere yet. Someone also saw a sign in a Harbor Freight store with a Jackery logo, so maybe they will be carrying them soon.
https://www.jackery.com/pages/where-to-buy
https://www.jackery.com/pages/where-to-buy
BikeNFish
Super Active Member
WHAAAA?? Harbor Freight????
Harbor Freight, the "just good enough" store??
Harbor Freight, the "I got it at HF because I was too cheap to pay for quality tools" store?
Harbor Freight, the "I got it at HF because then I won't care if it breaks" store?
That instantly lowered my opinion of Jackery. I have read many times that Jackery was the "Cadillac" of solar generators. Now I guess it's the Chrysler K-Car.
Disclaimer: I own many (and I mean, MANY) Harbor Freight tools and a Jackery, so back off. I can have that opinion.
