Portable Power Station (Solar Generator ) P300A

Overall good power station but has an annoying beeping when low battery

The media could not be loaded. As the battery capacity drops the power station emits an annoying beeping sound starting at 10% of battery capacity. The manual mentions that the power station emits a low power beeping at a rate of 1 beep every two seconds or 0.5Hz frequency at 10% of battery capacity and this changes to 1 beep every second at 5% capacity and finally just before reaching 0% capacity it will beep 9 times as it shuts off power. The beeping or buzzing can be silenced by short pressing the power button but must be pressed once at 10% and then again at 5% and again at 0%. There is no option to disable the beeping making some uses of the power station not well suited.The power station uses a DC8 input port for charging and allows a voltage input from 10V-28V @5amps of current. The rate of charging is dependent upon the input voltage and limited by the maximum input current of 5amps, so as the voltage is increased or decreased the charge rate is increased or decreased. At 13V the charging is around 62 watts and 20V close to 97 watts. If you wanted to connect this power station to a solar panel for charging look for a higher VoC and higher maximum power voltage panel as it will charge at a faster rate than a panel at a lower voltage. The maximum 28V input means you can't connect two 12V panels in series as most 12V panels have VoC between 18V and 24V and the 5 amp maximum current means connecting two panels in parallel won't charge must faster unless the angle of the sun is not optimal or it's a cloudy day. There are a few 18V solar panels out there but they're not as common as 12V or 24V panels which are pretty much standard.The carrying handle is made of metal and seems durable and all of the output ports have rubberized covers except the AC output. The LCD stays lit while powered on or while being charged and no way to disable or darken the display again if you're in a noise sensitive or light sensitive environment this power station has those drawbacks. Because the power station does not use a DC amplifier to increase the charging voltage it does charge quietly and almost no fan noise while charging. The 288Wh rating seems inline to what I got from the power station using my computer and two monitors with an average draw of 90 watts the station lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes.Another thing you need to check before using the power station is the frequency output for the AC port it's default was set to 50Hz and not the standard 60Hz in the U.S. this can be changed by shutting off the AC port and then pressing both the AC and DC power buttons for 2 seconds to switch the frequency from 50Hz to 60Hz and back to 50Hz.

Not impressed but it works

This unit is really cute & built solid but it didnt exceed my expectations at all due to it's obvious limitations and the fact that the buttons are finicky & cheap, yet, it works for as much as it is. This station and many others like it, are nothing more than glorified power banks, you know, just like the small power blocks you carry around in ur purse or car to charge ur cell phones but much larger & more bulky. I can say it did an ok job based on its given stats. So here is the truth of it...I did a few test and they panned out like this...Test 1 & 2The station was sent to me with 56% charge on it & it took roughly 1hr & 45mins to top it off & fully charge it to 100%.At 620pm I connected a 50in flat screen roku tv via a/c plug & a cell phone with 22% battery life on the top usb connection. Here is the time lapse on that test. 25mins in the power station was down to 83%. At 740pm exactly 1hr 20mins runtime it was down to 51%. The output was jumping from 64 to 68watts consistently on the 60hz setting not the 50hz setting its shipped w/ so be mindful & change that to the US setting of 60hz. At around 8pm which was 1hr 40mins of runtime the 1st cell phone reached 100%. The tv was still going and the bank was at 42%. At 8pm a 2nd cell phone was added to maintain the 2 device test run by 835pm the station displayed 20% battery remaining. Surprisingly it was displaying 102watts on occasions with 38mins remaining time left. The cell ph was at 87% by now. At 846pm the unit was down to 14% running at 79 to 81watts the time remaining feature then began to bounce all over from 31 to 43mins remaining altho the time remaining wasnt even close to that. Finally, 19mins later that dreaded beeping sound started @ 855pm with 9% remaining battery, the cell reached 95%. I silenced the beep & it re-engaged at 901pm at 3% and approximately 20 plus seconds later the TV & phone were disconnected due to no power left in the station. So to sum that up from 620pm to 901pm I was able to power a 50in roku tv & charge 2 phones. Total run time 2hrs 41mins☹️That was not impressive at all but its a 300w power bank what did I expect, right? It has 2 do better than this so lets change the dynamics & devices & do another test and B4 I 4get the power cord on this unit gets way too hot for my comfort level so B careful.Test 3From the above test the unit was at 0% I decided to wait a few minutes & recharge it. At 925pm I begin recharging the unit & it reached 100% at 135am(4hrs 10mins). Warning I had to pause the charge at 1150pm til 12mid to allow the cord to cool down due to how hot it got(yikes). Also the green light on the cord stays lit for 3mins or so after u unplug it(odd). So, after a quick nap I tried the discharge test again w/only 1 item connected, the 50in tv. I started the test @ 930am at 100% and by 12noon the tv and unit stopped, for a total of 2hrs & 28mins of use with only 1 item connected(smdh)Test 4 & 5On the next 2 unit recharges from 0 to 100% it took exactly 3hrs & 30mins both tries give or take a min or 2. My guess is the 2nd charge of (4hrs 10mins) when I charged the station almost immediately after using it, it was too quickly after a load dump from testing devices which made the chrg time much longer.The last test started at 12:10am w/4 devices connected. A fan w/3 speeds which ran on speed #3(high) continuously, a 45w light bulb running nonstop & 2 cell phones one at 0% on the top port reached 100%, the other 15% bottom port only reached 58% in 4hrs 2mins of which the unit ran. So a time lapse glimpse... at 203am it hit 50% left, 345am beeping started w/9% remaining, 357am at 4% beeping started again & at 411am the unit shut off.To sum it all up, it roughly takes anywhere from 3hrs 10mins to 3.5hrs to fully charge this unit from 0 to 100% yet it gives only 4.5hrs of use on a good charge depending on the items plugged in. Running a small heater with the unit is not advised unless u push the capable wattage & the unit. The handle is not metal as sum1 previously stated. I tested it w/ a magnet & it did not stick but clearly it looks like shiny, chromed out hard plastic not metal, so plz dont expect a metal handle. The unit is nice for road trips or simple uses but not good for anything else imo. Don't waste your time or $$ on this unit as it is simply not capable of powering anything other than simple devices and you can get a small travel size power block for that at a chesper cost and it would last a hell of a lot longer. I was going to return my power station but forgot all about it and the 30day window expired. Im not upset bcuz the unit is nice and the pure sine wave inverter is a plus. Also, in an emergency it will come in somewhat handy and you'll probably get more usable time if youre only powering a fan, light and 1 cellphone or maybe a router idk Im guessing anything with lower watts.Charge time vs runtime, yeah, may be a waste of money on this one but for the price, I guess now that im stuck with it, I'll make it useful but I wish amazon would allow for me to give this unit back

Great Value

used this on the road in our vanran tv and fan each eveningcharged while traveling and used again when we stopped for the evening

Charging station

The power station itself is okay. I'm having trouble shutting off some of the buttons once I charge things. It doesn't seem like they want to shut off. I don't think it should be this difficult.

Good for camping

Obviously this is cheaper than the big names, but it gets the job done with good functionality. More than enough for our needs as an emergency backup and camping utility.

Great product

Happy with our purchase

Good quality .

So far so good.