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Good morning, all today, i'm going to be taking a look at the jackery explorer 1000 portable power station. So what is this thing? Well, it's a big box full of lithium-ion batteries thousand and two watt hours of lithium-ion batteries, and it's got a thousand watt inverter. It's got an mppt solar charge input, you can charge it from mains, using a power adapter or from another vehicle, and it has some dc outputs, both 12 volt and 5 volt usb and also on this model usbc. So let's get it out of the box right.

Let's take it out of the box and see what's inside well, there's the pouch full of cables and also the mains power adapter, there's also this which says gift on it and it's the solar saga, parallel adapter and here's the power bank, it's the explorer 1000.. Also in the box are the user manual, the jackery warranty card and also this, which is register for an extra 12 months warranty. Let's take a look at the front panel of the explorer 1000 we've got two uk style, shuttered mains outlets now they're, both connected in parallel to the output of the 230 volt 1000 watt, pure sine wave inverter. There's a little button there to turn the ac inverter on and off here, there's a dc section now here we have 12 volts uh 10 amps from this cigarette lighter accessory, socket and also we have two 5 volt, 2.4 amp usb type a's.

Now i can't tell at the moment whether they're, both qualcomm quick charge, 3.0 or just the bottom one is. We can test that, but there are two up here: usbc output, i'm not sure if these are inputs, but we can also test that at the top of the unit there's a display liquid crystal display with a backlight. The backlight turns off quite quickly. You can see here: we've got input, power, 0, watts, output, power, 0 watts and currently the stator charge is 68 percent.

I have been doing some solar power tests on this, and the input section here consists of a 7.9 millimeter socket for the solar saga, 100 plug and also actually the plug on the end of the ac adapter. But there's also this anderson power, pole, two pin connector and that's for use with the solar saga, parallel adapter, which is supplied with this unit in the pouch we have the car charging lead, so you can plug this into a vehicle uh socket. I believe this is 12 or 24 volts that has the 7.9 millimeter plug on it. Also in here is a mains plug to this.

I think that's called a cloverleaf connector and the ac power adapter. Is this one i'll try and get in on the details here? It is 24 volt, 7.5 amps, 180 watts on the side of the unit. There is a fan outlet. This is quite heavy i'll get the weight in a moment.

There is also a fan inlet and you have a little light, switch it on switch it off. If you hold the button, there is an sos feature: there's a feral weight to this unit. It's 10 kilos, 22 pounds fine, if you're just bringing it out from an rv or a caravan. I wouldn't want to work, walk half a mile with this thing, though it is a fair old weight and here is a size comparison between the explorer 1000 on the top and the explorer 500 and 240 on the bottom step right.
Let's do some tests on the explorer 1000., the first one i'm going to do is voltage ac voltage. Of course, let's turn on the ac, pure sine output and it's looking like 230 volts. So let's press and hold this button that puts it into graphing mode i'll. Just reset the scale there's the pure sine wave output.

Actually, let's get in a little closer on that so 230.8 volts 0.05 kilohertz, which is 50 hertz, of course, and the sine wave looks pretty good to me and watching the sine wave collapse. When you turn off, the ac output is quite interesting. I'll do that and it sort of flattens off at the top yeah. That's quite interesting, a charging test using the mains adapter on mains.

Now remember this was marked 180 watts. Well, it yields here 145 watts into this input. So let's do a dc power test from the 12 volt cigarette lighter accessory, socket that's on 2.3 amps i'll, raise that up six and a half amps 10.7 amps and that's cut out so it's somewhere around 10 amps. Let's just quickly repeat that it's uh producing 10.3 amps, no problem 125 watts on this display, let's gradually raise that up, 10.6 10.7 10.9 and the output has dropped away.

So, yes, this has a limit at 10 point something amps, maybe 10.5, that sort of figure. It is a protected output and i'm not sure if this is entirely visible, but the voltage at 10 amps is 12.6 12.5 volts. The voltage at no amps is 12.9 volts. Let's check the top usb type, a output, and if you can't read that i can tell you that that's 5.1 volts, 2.3 amps, so let's wind the amps up and i've wound that up to the maximum that this tester will take, which is three amps and there's No dipping voltage at all it's 5.1 volts at three amps.

Let's try that on the bottom, socket qualcomm, quick charge 3 and once again, 5.1 volts, no dip in voltage, 3.0 amps um, there's no current limiting on these, or certainly not up to 3 amps. Let's do some qualcomm quick charge tests, so the bottom socket seems to support quick charge. 2.. If i press the button, it goes to 9 volts.

If i press the button again, it goes to 12 volts press the button. Again, it doesn't seem to go to 20 volts, so it seems to be limited within the range 5 to 12 volts. Let's switch to quick charge 3. seems to support quick charge.

Three i'll have to press this button a few times to get it to move from the five volt range in to the nine volt range, which it has done so yes, it certainly seems to support quick charge. Three, let's plug it into the socket above, which may be just labeled 5 volts, 2.4 amps. It may not be quick charge, so that's come on uh we're getting a rapid flash there. I'll switch to quick charge 2, try to raise it to 9 volts and no that one doesn't seem to be qualcomm quick charge compatible.

So i think it's just the bottom socket that's quick charge. The socket above seems to be vanilla, usb type, a 2.4 amps, so checking one of the usb type c outputs, i'm using my ravpower usb b type c power bank. Now i know this goes up to 20 volts. So let's switch on and see what we get and on the routing display we're getting 12 volts and that i think, concurs with the manual because here it says two times: usbc pd, output, 5, volt, 3m, 9, volt, 2m, 12, volt, 1.5 amp.
So it doesn't go above 12, volts and pressing and holding the button on the rav power, which i know will change direction if you're connected to another usb type-c power bank, which can also work as an input doesn't happen, this is still receiving. So my belief is that these two sockets do not work as charge inputs and the current that my ravpower power bank is pulling at 12. Volts is 1.51 amps, so that would appear to be the limit. The maximum that can come out of these usb type series.

I'll just confirm that with the other socket, but i imagine it'll be the same and yes, it's 12.1 volts, 1.51 amps so 12 times 1.5, that's 18 watts so again testing these usb type-c outputs. I can coax out of it 5 volts, 9 volts and 12 volts, but nothing beyond that. 12 volts is the maximum press. It again, and it goes back to 5 volts.

Now i'm actually using this usb meter in reverse, but it doesn't matter for voltage. It just wouldn't show any current if i was drawing any so just for fun, let's put a load on the output of this pd trigger and that's 5 volts into the lamp. That's 9 volts and that's 12 volts. We can see that on the 24 volt bulb and uh in this mode.

The meter shows zero amps, but that's only because i'm running it backwards through the meter and it's not designed to show amps in the reverse direction. So now i'm just charging the explorer 1000 with the ac adapter when it gets to 100. I will do a full discharge test so for my high power tests on the pure sine wave inverter, i'm going to use this oil filled radiator and i believe the settings are 800 watts, 1200 watts and two kilowatts. So let's try that out on the explorer 1000.

So, let's turn the inverter on. My meter should come alive there and i can reset that actually, so this figure down here is what on my meter and here's, what on the jackery. Let's turn it on to 800 watts and uh 804. Here 858, there 1200 watts 1175 here 1250 on the jackery two kilowatts and it's cut out on two kilowatts.

So a few seconds on two kilowatts: okay, let's try the surge current test again, i'm gon na go straight to two kilowatts there. It is 19 and 22.. Just literally a few seconds: let's try again with the radiator on 1200 watts, which i do believe it will hold. So power is 1172 here, 12 30ish there.

Let's see how long it will hold 1200 watts for maybe it'll hold it indefinitely, but it certainly doesn't seem to be rushing to shut down at what is shown here as 1160 watts. Here is 120 bit of a discrepancy there, and i can hear the clicks and bangs from the oil field radiator as it's warming up, so i would say that this is quite happy holding 1200 watts uh indefinitely, i would say: well i suppose i should qualify that It appears to be able to hold 1200 watts, but of course, there may be some sort of gradual overheat situation which would make the jackery shut down at this power level fact is, i don't know, and during the charge cycle, i've noticed that even at 94 percent, It's still charging at 145 watts, so that's good. It doesn't start ramping down at 90 percent interesting. This is now at 99 state of charge, but it's still taking in 145 watts.
So when does it do its cv, constant voltage phase? When does it do its balancing? For the full discharge test, i normally use a heater, but today i'm going to use a cryptocurrency miner so as well as seeing the total amount of power in the explorer 1000 we'll find out how much currency we can earn using a kilowatt hour of electricity. Now i did a test mine this morning and earned 4 cents. So that's going to be the starting point: whatever we earn on top of 4 cents is what you can earn today, using a kilowatt hour of electricity. Okay, we are at 100 on the explorer 1000 display, so i'm going to turn on the ac that will start up my cryptocurrency miner, i'm going to reset my energy meter so that it counts from zero.

Okay mining has started uh on my meter. The miner is drawing 780 watts, it's more like around 800 and something on the jackery display. What we're looking for, and i'm going to use my meter here, my energy meter as a reference is really one kilowatt hour or actually it's uh in the manual as a thousand and two watt hours. So, let's see how we do it um.

Well so far, we've done 53 watt hours that correlates with 95 battery state of charge and we've actually earned a us cent in crypto currencies. Ah, i just noticed that i had the charger still plugged in so i've taken that out now, so we're going to get a slightly distorted reading, but i'll try and allow for that we're now at 80 percent we've done 220 kilohertz hours. Well, we've probably done about 200 watt hours. Sorry and uh.

We've also made four us cents a five year cents now in crypto currency, see you at 50, okay, we're down to 51 on the power station. I've got 500 watt hours and i'm going to knock off 20 watt hours for my earlier era of having the charger plugged in probably about on track and in terms of crypto uh 13 minus 4 is 9 cents i'll be back near the end. I thought i'd. Try and capture the moment where the display flashes on and off to indicate that there's only 20 percent left, which is now it'll, happen again at 10 and once again, i wanted to catch the moment at 10, where the display flashes on and off to warn you That you're getting low on power and the explorer 1000 is now down to two percent.
That's dropping quite quickly. I expect it to uh shut the ac off fairly soon and, of course, the drone of the cryptocurrency miner will disappear, which will be a bit of a relief, but we'll just wait for it to get down to zero percent and then we'll get the final tally Of course, my energy meter will switch off, but that's okay, because it's got a battery backup. So we can read the final figure from that. How are we doing in terms of cryptocurrency well, 22 cents minus the four cents that i started off with that's 18 cents? In cryptocurrency for one kilowatt hour of energy, that's a lot better and my laptop switchful, that's a lot better than the smart export guarantee where they're promising me about 4p for uh pens per kilowatt hour, so you're, better off mining than exporting to the grid.

Okay, just waiting for this to go to zero percent now and there it goes. Oh, it's very quiet in here now. So what did we get 0.909? So we didn't quite get the 1002 watt hours. However, if you factor in the the pure sine wave, inverter is probably only about 90 percent efficient, then you'd expect 900 watt hours from a 1 000 watt hour power station.

However, the other two power stations, the explorer 500 and the explorer 240 both gave their full uh rated capacities on the energy meter. This one's fallen a bit short, oh, and i also need to deduct 20 watt hours for my error at the beginning. Keeping the power connected, but that's the final result: solar tests on the jackery explorer 1000 and it's currently hooked up to a solar saga, 100 watt solar panel and we're getting over 100 watts. So that's pretty good and there's also a little bit of hunting there.

So it kind of gives confidence that there's mppt going on and it's actively searching out the maximum power point now with the explorer 1000. You do get this gift, which is the solar saga, parallel adapter, which converts two of the 7.9 millimeter round plugs to a anderson power pole. So, let's give that a try, so the anderson, purple, red and black go in here, let's plug them in and then i've got two sockets which will take these connectors. So let's take that out and plug it into one of these and see what we get and i'm now getting 93 94 95 watts.

But i've got a feeling. The panel's warmed up a bit because if i take that out of that connector and plug it into this, one just wait for that charging circuit to kick in. I think we'll get about the same warm solar panel, around 96 97 watts. So it looks like it's about the same through the anderson connector as it is through the circular connector.

Okay. Now, let's try two solar saga: 100s parallels into the parallel adapter and we're getting well 120 watts, which is a little bit surprising, and it looks to me like the anderson input - is actually current limited or power limited to 120 watts, so we're not getting 200 watts, Which we potentially could have through those two 100 watt panels. Now i just wanted to try taking one of these out of the parallel adapter and plugging it into the other input, and we don't seem to be getting the benefit of that at all. In fact, what seems to happen is this unit prioritizes the circular input over the anderson input? So i think what it's done now is it switched to the solar panel on that circular input, and we can show that to be the case by unplugging, the other one from the parallel adapter and nothing changes on the display.
So i don't think it can use these two. At the same time, i'm not sure what the power limit on the circular connector is because i can't parallel two circular connectors and put them into a circular connector, but certainly the anderson input is limited to 120 watts. Now i have a theory about this anderson input, possibly it and its charging circuit, and this paralleling adapter were designed for the solar saga 60 solar panel. So you put two of those in parallel and that's 120 watts.

The only other mitigation i can think of for this 120 limit is for overcast skies. So if you've got two panels, not in full sun say each of them is developing 50 watts. Then, of course, by paralleling two, you will get 100 watts, but as it stands, this input circuit limits the power to 120 watts using the ac adapter into the round. Input socket approximately 145 watts.

Now what if i put the ac adapter into the paralleling connector? What does the other circuit give me, and the answer is about the same 140? Something 142 watts. So are these two charge input circuits essentially the same, but they don't parallel. In other words, you can't use them both. At the same time i mean you can try to, but you don't get twice the power they do.

Look as if they're, essentially the same charge circuit. So, to sum up, the explorer 1000 is a very compact one kilowatt-hour portable power station and used in conjunction with the solar saga. 100 solar panel. You get the full 100 watts of charging, but if you use two solar saga, 100 solar panels and this solar saga parallel adapter, you only get an additional 20 watts of charging good connectivity on this unit.

You've got two ac outlets, also usb c on this device. You've got two of them, although they are limited to 18 watts each. So that's the checkery explorer 1000 cheerio.

By Julian

Youtuber, shed dweller, solar charge controller aficionado

14 thoughts on “Jackery Explorer 1000 (UK) Power Station Review”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mick M says:

    Hi Julian – great video! Quick question, you demonstrated 120W Anderson socket limit with 2 x 100W panels but then achieved 145W in via mains charger … so is the power input limited by that 'gift' panel coupler rather than the internal Anderson circuit? Thanks again

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars KISHORE ADDAGARLA says:

    Hai great and much informative review about jackery power station. Can I connect e bike Power charger to this power station while riding my RAD E- BIKE 🚲 . Can I tie and connect this to extend the range of Electric Bike.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mick M says:

    Can you confirm if the Jackery 1000 cigarette lighter "regulated" output is 13.2V with no load, ie just a voltmeter? Your video started at 12.9V at 2.37A draw. Thanks

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chris Jessop says:

    Realistically, what are the best options for somebody looking to camp in a tent with a family for a long weekend, when there is no electricl hook up on site? One of these + solar panel is very expensive for the average consumer who would exclusively use it for camping. (Compressor fridge, small 12v 30w TV, phone & tablet charging, LED tent lighting on an evening. Perhaps a 500w kettle. Lugging a great leisure battery around and a load of loose wires for kids to tug on is not an ideal solution. Genuine question though, i would appreciate feedback from somebody who may have done more research than i have?

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars vgamesx1 says:

    This might be the most you'd want to physically carry, but I'd never buy one personally, just find any battery recycling company nearby or that will ship, not including shipping you can get 2-3Kwh worth of batteries for something like $200 and a decent pure sinewave inverter for around $200, so basically for half the price you could have double the total power… Unless you're really into camping, these seem like a waste of money.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Binky says:

    When they make one that'll do 25A at 12v I'll buy one. Curious what sort of chemistry they use? Ideally It'd be LiFePO4 as a 4s pack would be ideal for existing 12v systems especially ham radio gear.Also an output on Anderson power poles would be nice since they're the main connector for radio stuff these days I'm using a 110AH marine leisure battery at the moment but it's only good for operating from a vehicle due to weight. Needs a proper EEV-blog style review. Don't turn it on, Take it apart!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Knuckles the Echidna says:

    It cost as much as a good quality family tent and camping accessories! Looking for a solution to charge a tablet and phone a few times but without the potential energy to kill the whole family, perhaps a 100 watt solar panel with USB outputs?

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rambozo Clown says:

    Looks like the input is current limited not power limited, since you get 140+ watts @ 24 volts, yet only 120 out of the solar. So what you need is a series adapter not a parallel adapter to get the most out of dual solar panels. Does it list a max input voltage?

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ian Ide says:

    Do what you got to do in order to put bread on your table, but I'll skip watching this. I'll toss in a few words here for engagement n shit but this product is nothing that I would ever be interested in.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ratchet effect says:

    Wow! Julian you shaved your legs for this review. Is that how you get these devices for free? flash a bit of leg! to Jack.
    For anyone listing, this as a' Podcast; Jackanory the Adult version. I'll tell a story says the storyteller Julian 😁

    Are you sitting comfortably? Then here's the Jackanory Story: It all started one sunny day when Julian was sitting in his garden
    his mobile phone rang' Julian jumped! 'oh my who is it he says' with such joy on his face when he seen the word 'Jack' on his screen.
    Jill was out busy on the corner, that day. Julian answered the phone with a subductive voice 'Hellooo Jack' what's the crack? today then.
    Just as Jack goes to reply to Julian, he hears something Exploded (No its not his pants) Julian sees flames coming from his Shed of tech. End! of story. 😂🤣

    Julian all jokes aside, Lack of sleep makes me, say-do daft things. So I apologise now! if now If I offended yourself or anyone with the silly story, I just went with it.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars donepearce says:

    I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that bit mining is responsible for a lot of global warming. Anyone who runs a bit miner off the mains is losing money hand over fist. And the payback time from solar power probably means that it will pay off in a maybe couple of generations.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars The Embedded Hobbyist says:

    WOW! a pound a wH, Not sure how many they will sell at that price. At 22lb i could not be taking it camping. A if i had an RV or a car near the tent i'd run my lights off that. More suited to an electrician who needs a bit of power while cutting the mains off.

    But if Jackery are watching, i could do a good review. 😉

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chuck Vanderbildt says:

    This thing holds a massive amount of potential energy. As far as i'm concerned, whether it works or not is secondary to whether it's safe. Would you be interested in doing a teardown?

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars bevis71 says:

    25 quid off 11 hundreds 😀 What a joke xD People watching this channel cannot afford it, people who can afford do not watch DIY stuff. Jackery advert department – u failed. Julian – good for you, free stuff is always welcome! Peace. Edit: Yes – I think you've done a fair non biased review. Snowflakes: this is not judgement of Julian so please, don't melt on me.

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