Anker 521 Solar Generator, PowerHouse 256Wh with 100W Solar Panel, Power Station with LiFePO4, AC Outlets, 60W USB-C PD Output, LED Light for Outdoor Camping, RV, Power Outage (Anker SOLIX)

Update (October 2023) - After more than a year using this great little power station it is still working perfectly and providing the same level of performance. Compared to some models it is super portable, which means I am more inclined to take it with me on my travels. Recently I have been using it to power a 5G home router and my laptop, creating a truly portable office! Original Review: Having waited for this Power Station to be on offer, I grabbed it while 15% off. The idea behind this purchase is to use it as a backup to power my Indel B TB15 fridge in my campervan, as well as the ability to charge mobile devices when out and about. Test 1 - Powering an Indel B TB15 fridge at 3 degrees. After charging the battery to 100%, this little power station managed to power total of 26 hours before reaching 1%. While not a scientific test, this should comfortably provide power for up to 24 hours for a small compressor fridge. Power consumption is 30-31W, but of course the compressor only operates intermittently. Test 2 - Fastest Recharge to 100%. For this test, I used the supplied 60W power adapter and a 65W USB-C power supply. Result: The battery charged from 1% to 100% in under 2.5 hours. I will update this review with further tests, but so far I can highly recommend the Anker power station, especially with the 5 year warranty! I hope you found this review helpful :)

Very handy, small compact and works amazingly well. Great quality and value for money

My review is more of a 4.5 / 5. The unit functions very well, charges either through the provided charger, USB C Power delivery in the front, or any other DC power into the port in the back (never really shown in reviews). It also seems to be able to charge and power items at the same time, which some other battery banks cannot do. The light bar on the front is not the best, but it is an extremely warm white, which makes it comfortable to look at. Similar, I have a picture of the details of the charger, as i have never seen any information about this. The Anker 521 also fits perfectly inside a certain popular brand compressor 12L car fridge, which was also powered for at least 8 hours with the Anker. The drawbacks? If you have something plugged into the 12V car lighter port, the rubber cover gets in the way of the power button for turning that port on and off, and that 12V port has no "locking" tabs inside. The power buttons (though slightly concave) are just a single light touch from turning things on and off. the "screen on" button and the "DC power on/off" button are very close, and in the first few weeks of using it i would get them mixed up. And even more minor, the provided charger is a little bit bulky, and a little bit slow, charging the device in a few hours. Not a concern for me.

Firstly, let's clear things up for those people who think this is going to be a money saving device. It's not, it can't be. I see reviews for many different power stations saying they only use these to charge phones off solar power and don't use home electricity anymore. Bit of maths for you. The average cost of charging your phone for the year is less than £1, yup, they use hardly any power at all. So let's be super generous and call it £1, and say you got a deal on some panels and got this and the panels for £400 all in (which you probably won't, it'll be more like £450-£600). If working it at £400, you've got to use it as a phone charger for 400 years to break even. Even if you're a family of 4 and you use it for all phones, still 100 years needed. Add in laptops, iPads etc, you're still never ever going to get your money back, they use so little power. Secondly, this is just a powerbank, that is all it is. Yes it has a plug socket, but it can only be used on items less than 200w, which is pretty much nothing, almost anything that falls in to this category can use USB. My Dell XPS 13 for example. It can charge via USB C. I got a 45w 20000 mah charger for £23 off Amazon. A 13th of the price of this. 200w means no kettle, no hairdryer, no garden appliances like strimmers etc. Is it convenient? Not really, it's quite big, even for 80000 mah. Stack 4 20000 mah powerbanks and you're nowhere near this size or weight. Is it good for camping? Well as a powerbank yes, but as per the previous comment, so is any other powerbank, and they will be much more travel friendly. It's completely pointless. Most solar panels will charge a normal powerbank by USB C, or plug straight in to your phone etc. I have yet to see any advantages. And the BEST bit? You can't send it back, at all. Apparently because of the batteries it can't be posted. But how did it get here you ask? By post, yup, it's ok to go one way only apparently. Save you're money, get 2 decent powerbanks.

I've always liked Anker kit and have one of their their multiple USB chargers in every bedroom. I bought this for a closet to power lights where there is no mains power and no way of running a cable. In the end I found a simpler solution - a rechargeable LED strip - but I am keeping this unit on standby for power cuts. It's luggable, but really quite heavy, and it looks nice and has a plethora of ports - but WHY doesn't it take a standard kettle lead or even a cloverleaf cable? Instead it has its own charging brick and proprietary connector! Surely a unit like this could have some internal adapter that could take power from any standard worldwide - like laptop adapters do? (And even laptop adapters these days are become obsolete, with USB C charging.) This is a lovely unit but the pwer supply is from the last century...

I really like this product. It charges fast, holds the charge without self-discharging, and has great features for the money/size. I bought this as I work from home and was having some work done on my house so the power would be cut off randomly. I used this like a UPS (uninteruptable power supply) for my 34 inch 4k screen attached to my pc (using the mains power plug). The battery could keep the screen on (bright) for about 7-8 hours. It got me through the work period with my hardly noticing the mains power outages. Even the light was useful as the office is quite dark with the mains off. I used it on another occaision as backup power for my broadband router, and this only draw a negre current so the life would be huge but the router is under my TV and despite the mains being on, and the battery already fully charged, the fan would occaisionally come on. This was slightly annoying when watching tv but hideously annoying of the TV was off and I was taking a nap on the couch. The unit isn't hot when this happens. In fact, it seems quite cold. This is the only gripe though, as apart from the the unit does exactly as stated. It provides a good amount of power and versatility and if you use a GAN charger as well as the standard charger that comes with it, it charges in no time at all. Actually, I do have one more gripe. Not enough USB-C ports. It only has one! Given the sixe of the unit, 2 or 3 should be the minimum. It has two USB-A 3 ports, but I don't have any USB-A devices anymore.

Good and compact and very nice item

This sits in the back of my car for emergency power, turning it into a drivable office. Goes weeks without use, and still retains a decent amount of power. Lots of ports, but having a 3-pin for my laptop is how I normally use it. Invaluable when you don't want to sit in a cafe or McDonald's, but need to quickly work on something on your laptop, power a Starlink, or a heated blanket on a camping trip.