Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station Review

The Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station is not for everyone, BUT for some folk this thing will be really, really useful to have.

• Price: £1,599.00
• From: uk.jackery.com

What is it? It’s like one of those portable power packs you get for your mobile phone, but on steroids. Loads of steroids. It’s essentially a massive battery with loads of different outputs on it and a display screen that tells you useful stats as to what’s going on. It’s clearly not relevant to a simple single day trip. But for overnighting somewhere, especially somewhere ‘off grid’, and/or for multiple days in a row, the Jackery Explorer 1000 is incredibly useful and… liberating. The Explorer 1000 contains a managed system of 1002Wh lithium-ion cells. There was nothing I attached to it that it failed to power or recharge. It even charged e-bikes up just like they were at home in the garage. It was like having a mains plug socket with you while you were dirtbag wild camping somewhere random. There are a couple of three-pin plug sockets on it, a 12V cigarette lighter socket, a pair of USB-C ports, and a pair of USB-A ports (one of which is fast-charge capable). You don’t have to have the solar panels for the Explorer 1000 to work (you can get a cheaper standalone Power Station), but it was the solar panels that really removed the anxiety from trips away. Even in cloudy ol’ Britain we frequently observed numbers over 100W of charge coming in via the panels.

At £1,599 Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station is not something you could really claim to be an economical purchase in terms of saving you from paying for an electrical hook-up surcharge at a campsite. The Explorer 1000 is not about that really. It’s about being able to have an electrical hook-up with you whenever and wherever you choose to be. In many ways, the Explorer 1000 could be seen as something of a depressing realisation as to how addicted and tied to electrically powered things we are, but, hey, that’s not Jackery’s fault. I’d much rather see it from the ‘free’ and freeing aspect of having solar power on tap which afforded us the ability to go to more places without worry.

This product features in our Daytrippin’ Kit Essentials buyer’s guide.

Review Info

Ben Haworth

Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

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