Jackery Solar Generator Explorer 500

Okay, I will start out by saying I am a U.S Service-member with over twenty years of Honorable service. With that being said I’ve done multiple tours to almost every desert in the Middle East, tours in tropical environments, tours in some pretty secluded off grid undisclosed locations. I only put this out there because I’ve had the pleasure of being a Jackery customer for years and years and the Jackery 240 portable power station, , the Jackery Solar Saga 60w tri-fold panels, and the small Jackery portable chargers were compact and lightweight enough to fit into my pack with ease and leave me room for the other essentials. Imagine being in the middle of nowhere and have a weeks worth of power at your fingertips for recharges, lights, portable fans, small burner for coffee and cooking. Then being able to say it never failed you, always recharged quickly, and has been through the worlds harshest conditions and environments, yet functions like the day you pulled it out of the box. So this began my Jackery passion. Which led me to purchase the Jackery 500. Everything I’ve said above applies to the 500 ten fold folks. Being Military my pay isn’t great so I’ve had to accumulate these items over the course of years, however never have I had to justify spending the money to my wife, as long as I said the word Jackery. Because she’s used the items as well here at home guard. My son plays Football and daughter plays soccer in the Nevada desert just miles away from where the annual Burning Man event is held. Hot dry desert climate, no trees for shade, just direct unrelenting heat. This genius woman, the love of my life used our Jackery Portable power stations to run dual fans, and a small refrigerated trucker cooler during daytime practices in a pop up sunshade tent, all neatly placed in one of those little soccer mom wheeled totes, and a folding low loveseat chair. Talk about super mom, with lots of friends who also wanted to stay cool. Then when night fell and the kids weren’t finished with practice, my lovely wife handed over the Jackery 500 to the coaches who then plugged LED lights into it and lit up the field for the kids giving us an extra hour or two to practice without the heat. This convinced her to give me permission to buy the SolarSaga 100w panels. Money was tight but she gave me the go ahead and we’ve never looked back and haven’t got an ounce of regret or buyers remorse for a single product. But this review is neither for the the Jackery 240, the Jackery 1000, the SolarSaga 100w or 60w panels. It’s not even for the Jackery portable chargers. This review is to let you know, the day the Jackery 500w Portable Power Station became available we did not hesitate for a second to buy it. With the stories we heard from friends about California and Washington power outages, the Covid-19 Pandemic, and any one of the many RV trips we take into Gods country to get away from it all for a few weeks, we both agreed this was the best thing for our family. Why use heavy loud generators, carry fuel, deal with all that monotonous nonsense, when you could literally live off the Jackery Families products. I say Family because over the years I’ve had multiple email contacts and numerous phone calls with them, and every interaction was amazing. Courteous, professional, and the products are literally second to none. The Jackery 1000 is my newest addition and there’s nothing I can say about it that the 240 or 500 don’t already represent. Twice the power, twice the life, multiple solar panel options, can recharge through car, wall, or good ol sunshine. I could get technical and go down the path as some of these reviewers do, but you anyone can read the box. I can sum everything the box says by just telling you that these products, put out by this amazing company, can enhance anyone’s life, save somebodies life, and will probably last your the rest of yours. It’s a no brainer for us. I’ve purchased every product so far with a smile knowing its perfect and the people handing it to me care enough to treat you as if you were family.

It’s a jackery. What else is there to say? Easy to use and carry. Provides for my needs on camping trips. Also good for power outages here at the coast after a storm. Yes I know it’s cheaper to build your own system. My spouse did that. I wanted ease of use for short trips camping or to the beach for a few days. Tent/boat/Truck camper and fishing. I wanted plug and play and portability. I’m an old lady. I can carry this one easily.

I've been a car camper most of my life. And, those adventures have usually taken me and friends off road so there's no convenient electricity to power all our devices. My first solution was to install a Marine Battery in the diamond plate tool box mounted on a cargo carrier inserted in the trailer hitch. This battery was recharged through wiring to the alternator. Worked beautifully, supplied all the power I needed, but I couldn't take it with me on the trail. Needing to upgrade my vehicle recently, I decided to see what was available for 'portable' power, for those trips away from my vehicle rather than install the Marine Battery again. It didn't take me long to discover the plethora of choices available in portable batteries made for all of us who enjoy the outdoors or need extra power on the patio while we're BBQing. I studied for some time as there were many features of these new battery packs that one must consider for their particular needs. I wanted a unit with the greatest capacity I could find that also could be recharged through some kind of solar system, as our group is usually 2-6 people, all with iPhones, iPads and cameras. The other purpose I had for the battery was to power a small 12V fan inside my vehicle to keep my doggies cool during the warmer weather. (Yes, the windows are also open). After reading lots of reviews, I chose the Jackery Explorer 500 and will be adding the companion Portable Solar System for next summer's hikes. So far the Explorer 500 has more than surpassed our hopes of a well performing and adequate power source. I've been using it with the grand kids devices on short trips and for the doggie fan and it has been excellent. We've taken it to our primitive cabin, which has no electricity yet, but has our solar panels installed, and the Explorer 500 took care of our device needs all weekend. We are extremely delighted with Jackery's Explorer 500 and feel we have yet to know it's true capacity! If you need a lot of power then the Jackery Explorer 500 is the Model to choose. If not, Jackery has two smaller capacity units that are sure to please. I understand that an Explorer 300 is coming out in March as well! Rugged, durable, great capacity and performance, reasonably priced, super customer service! What more could you ask for??? Enjoy Jackery! JANUARY 2020 UPDATE: After purchasing this terrific Power Station from Jackery, I received a very personalized email from them asking how I was enjoying the unit and was there any questions they could answer. As you can see from my initial review, I've been extremely happy, even impressed with the easy of use and functionality of this unit. Knowing that I was a very satisfied customer, they asked if I'd be kind enough to write a detailed review. Within hours after my submission, I received a surprise email from the Jackery Team, thanking me for my honest review and was rewarded (which I had no idea was coming my way), with two unbelievable gifts: A Jackery Bar 6000mAh portable charger and A Jackery Giant+ 12000mAh portable charger!!! Pics are coming. Folks, Most sellers send us prewritten but sincere 'thank yous' for our purchases, nicely printed discount cards for our next purchase or, if we're lucky, perhaps a small physical token of appreciation. As a previous business owner myself, I can see that the Jackery Team have done their customer relations and marketing homework very well. To receive such high quality gifts as a bonus to my purchase is unprecedented! I honestly don't see how you can go wrong with Jackery's outstanding products and top notch customer service. Do yourself a BIG Favor and give them serious consideration if your in the market for these kinds of products!

Update: As of December 1, 2025, both of my Jackery Explorer 500's are still working very well and I also purchased a Explorer 1000 to power my Maytag Refrigerator/Freezer. The E1000 is also working just fine. Jackery produces reliable products that just work when you need them. Update: I purchased a second Jackery Explorer 500 on 11-29-2019 after I discovered what a great unit my 1st Explorer was. Both of the units came in really handy a few days later when a utility pole guy cable anchor failed and the pole fell across the road. The power went out just as I was getting dressed and before breakfast. Both units powered table lights so my wife and I could get dressed and eat breakfast. I also plan to purchase a Jackery Explorer 1000 to run my Maytag Refrigerator/Freezer. I purchased a Jackery Explorer 500 on 8-31-2019 and it arrived VIA FedEx a few days later. I have been testing and using it. I am well pleased with my purchase and also purchased a Solar Saga 100 watt Solar Panel a few days later. This combination works really great. My home is located near the edge of my electric service area and it gets several power outages each year. My wife has some health issues and does not have good vision. Light in our bathroom has become an issue for us even in the daytime because it does not have any outside windows. The Jackery E500 has become very useful as it will easily power fans, LED table lamps and it is easy to move it from room to room as needed during any power outage. The fan likes the sine wave output and my Ham Radios like the regulated 12 Volts (actually 13.2 volts) much better than other units that only have 9 to 12.6 Volts available depending on charge. It is very nice to be able to see the % charge displayed rather than a few lights or bars that leave you guessing at the remaining charge. The 518WH is a good size for power outages because after recharging your phone and other small items you still have power left for the TV, Computer, table lamps and electric blanket. The recharge time may be about the same (slow) as the smaller ones but you can recharge at two times the Watt Hour rate because of the larger battery. I have a solid state Oscilloscope that the Jackery Explorer 500 can power for several hours and that makes one of my best pieces of test equipment truly portable. I have a UPS to protect my desktop computer that gives me 20 minutes of runtime in a blackout but if I unplug the UPS from Utility power, in a blackout, and plug it into my Jackery Explorer 500 I can extend the operating time four more hours. I liked my Jackery Explorer 500 so much that I purchased a second one when It was on sale a few days ago. A Message sent to '[email protected]' with some questions brought a next day response. Team Jackery advises that the 6mm DC output jack actually requires a 6.5 X 1.4mm plug. I am still looking for a good source of these plugs to create some powerpole jumpers for radio and test use. I purchase a DC jumper cable to use with the Jackery E500. An 8mm to Anderson Powerpole to connect my solar panel and other charging equipment. "https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DK9N2S8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1" The Jackery Explorer 500 is a very good quality unit and I expect it to provide several years of reliable service. Update: Here is some information that I discovered today about the 6mm DC output connectors on a Jackery Explorer 500. I have purchased several "6mm" connectors from various Amazon vendors and they all arrived and looked very similar. All of the "6mm" connectors had a metal contact that measures 6mm OD and a yellow plastic tip that measures 6.3 or 6.4mm OD. I have NOT been successful in creating a good cable from any of them. All were poor connections (Think Blinking Lights). I was successful in obtaining a '6mm" cable that is used on the Jackery Explorer 160 and it works good. After measuring some connectors, here are my results: Uxcell : 6.0MM OD on barrel & 6.3MM OD on Yellow Plastic Tip, length of contact 10mm including Yellow Plastic Tip Jackery: 6.0MM OD on barrel & 6.3MM OD on expanded Metal Tip, length of contact 12mm including Expanded metal Tip Conclusion: The Jackery Explorer 500 requires the longer all metal barrel contact in order to give a good connection. 11-22-2020 Update: I have been testing & using the Jackery Explorer 500 for more than a year and I can report that it still works the same as it did the day that I purchased it and I am very pleased with my purchase. It has worked very well through several short power outages and I have purchased another E500 as well as a E1000, E300 and a E160. All of the newer Jackery purchases are working very well. With the new purchases, I can have one charging with the Solar panel and another to power my equipment at the same time. I have discovered that the DC power adaptor cable supplied with the Jackery Explorer 160 also works very well in my Explorer 500 and I have modified the cable by adding a Anderson Power Pole connector to this cable. I have also discovered that Goal Zero sells 6mm cables that you can modify for use in either the E500 or the E160. I am looking forward to purchasing A Jackery Explorer that will power my 1600 watt Microwave. Maybe early next year?

After one week of use, I'd like to share some details around this device since I often use the reviews to learn more about a product before buying. I hope this helps someone. I'll update this as necessary with new experiences with the unit. The Jackery 500 seems to be a well built solid unit. It arrived with nearly 40% of the battery charged, and I plugged it in for a few hours inside the house to bring it to 99% (does seem to ever actually read 100%). What I really love about this device is the display that shows power in and power out so that I'm always certain where I'm at. I also appreciate that is has pass-through charging, which allows you to charge the battery while you have things connected to it. Not all devices do this, so if it's important to you, make sure to check this before you buy a similar device. When plugged into the wall via the included AC adapter, it shows a power input of 85W. I connected it to the Jackery SolarSaga 100W panels (not included) in New England at about 3pm in April (lowering sun), and it charged at 55W for about an hour before it started dropping as I lost sun. I have not had an opportunity to test the panels in full sun yet, nor have I tried the included 12V DC vehicle adapter to charge it. One of the things I was most interested in before purchasing was what kind of power was consumed by things I'd commonly use this for, so here's what I've found so far that might help you: - My iPhone (USB), when not fully charged, draws 12W from the unit. When it's charged up, that number drops to 2-3W. - My Apple Watch (USB) draws 1W using the magnetic charger. - The included flashlight draws 1W, but sometimes won't register even that. I also have run my Resmed AirSense 10 (CPAP) off of this unit for two nights. When plugged into the 110V plug using the adapter that comes with the CPAP, it draws 45W when running (3-5W when in standby). Based on a number of other reviews, I purchased the 12V DC Adapter for my CPAP and used that instead, and it now draws just 20W when running. It uses just under 20% of the battery when running for about 7 hours. If your numbers are similar, you should safely be able to get four full nights of sleep on this unit safely, or five if you're stretching it a bit, without having to charge the device. The battery almost never makes a noise. I've had the fan kick on just once when I was messing around with checking out the load I could put on it, but even that was as quiet as a laptop fan. I've had no issues sleeping with the unit a few feet from my bed. I'll close the review with the math I learned as part of this purchase so you can work out how this meets your needs for power consumption: - The battery "holds" 518 Watt Hours (Wh) of charge ready to give to your devices. - For any device you want to connect, first figure out how many watts ("W") it uses (normally on a label or in the manual). If you only have the Amps and Volts, multiply those numbers to get the watts (e.g. 5V, 2.4A = 12W). - Now you know how much power you have, and how much you need, so divide 518 (your Wh) by the watts needed, and you know how long it'll power your device. Example, my CPAP draws 20W, so from a full charge I'll have 518/20=~26 hours of use. Some caveats to this math: - The device itself seems to use just a small amount of power to run, show the display, etc., so give yourself padding. - Not all devices use the full wattage 100% of the time, so you may have more than you think (e.g. my iPhone stops pulling 12W after it's fully charged). - Some devices like a mini-fridge needs more power to start or run a compressor for short periods of time and then less at idle. There are some calculators online to help work this out. - You cannot power devices that require more than 500W.

I'm into being outdoors, a geek and live in Florida. The Jackery is made for me. I had built a similar device a few years back into an ammo can. It worked (though it had only 2/3 of the Jackery's battery), was very heavy (SLA batteries) and also looked like a bomb if you opened the case. Not ideal. The Jackery is sleek, dead simple to use and understates it's battery life. It also boosts power to the ports (DC at least). It'll stay at voltage... Never drooping. I am an avid camper... This will be fun. Being a Floridian I'm a wimp to the cold. Looking forward to using a heater blanket for winter camping. During the warmer months, fans! We lost power at my house for 17 days during Irma. I absolutely hate running and maintaining gas generators. Though I won't be able to use an AC on this (you really shouldn't on ANY of these battery units below the KW range), it will make weathering the aftermath of a storm easier. I can charge my power tools, keep the electric cooler going, charge phones, charge laptops and run fans. I have a DC refrigerator/freezer (32QT). This has powered it overnight holding the temp at -5F and still had plenty of juice. Best guess is that it would run for about 17 Hours as a fridge (35-36F) on ECO mode with no power input to the Jackery. As far as power input goes: I've charged it from the wall completely a few times, charged it from the car (only a little to make sure it works) and hooked it up to an existing solar panel I had (bought an adapter for MC4). You have options and they work. I do have one complaint. What is up with the completely non-standard to anything 6.5 x 1.4mm DC ports? I'm guessing it was because Goal Zero was using that at the time. Ridiculously difficult to find and get an adapter to the standard 5.5 x 2.1mm plug. I ended up having to get them shipped (probably on an actual ship as it took weeks) from China. The same company sells them on Amazon with the same slow shipping. Now that I have the adapters though, I love those ports. I have a huge amount of 12v stuff (fans, lights, water pumps, etc) I've been adding 5.5 x 2.1mm connectors to over the years. I can run all that stuff in tandem with the DC cooler. Link to adapter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BL9SK5M?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details In conclusion: For me it's near perfect. Simple enough for my kiddo to use it and he can also lug it around. Plenty of power for my needs. Quality build. I also recommend checking out the Jackery bag if you're in FL or any warm climate. It's insulated and seems to work well - also holds all the cables and adapters I have.

Update 3/3/2020: This unit was not a free test product. I paid for this, and here is my honest opinion. Jackery sent me a replacement unit to replace a defective unit. I have built my own testing equipment to check on voltages, wattage and test capacities. This new unit performs just like I expected it to. The Jackery 500 has a regulated 12v DC output. That is very important, and the main reason for selecting the Jackery. When it arrived, I charged it fully, and then connected it to my DC powered fridge/freezer. My tester immediately showed that the 12v DC output is working on this unit. Under load, the Jackery is maintaining the 12v output even after 15 hours of powering the fridge/freezer. Which, by the way, the Jackery still had over 50% capacity, and my fridge/freezer did not error out once. I checked the AC output at over 280W load for 6 minutes with no problem. The USB ports worked fine as well. That is quality and reliability. I shut it down, and then took it to my garage to test the solar charging, It was connected to two 50W panels and the input varied, but I was able to see a 62W input at one point. I did not observer the input all day, however the unit fully charged by 5 PM when I checked on it. So, a little over 8 hours and it charged fully from around a 57% starting point. This is a great unit that performs like I expected it to. It is a great value for the price, and it beats out the competition in the same power class with its regulated 12v DC output. This now gets 5 stars form me. I will continue to test the unit for capacity and efficiency, and I don't expect to be disappointed. Update 2/20/20: I finally received an email from Jackery today. After two months of trying to get a defective unit replaced that has a DC output voltage problem. The DC regulated output did not work, and voltage constantly dropped during use causing failures and errors. This defect caused endless issues with DC devices that rely on a constant 12V. The Jackery has a regulated 12V DC output, and that is one of the reasons for purchasing it. The Jackery 500 is one of only a few power stations of this size and capacity, to my knowledge, having this feature. It is very important and shows quality in design and manufacture. Thank you to Jackery for finally reaching out to me, and now trying to resolve the issue. I am raising my rating to 4 stars. This is my last update, as this has gone on too long for me. Update 2/3/20: I did get a reply from Jackery. They did not address my issue at all, only to tell me that the 12V output was regulated. A two sentence reply. I had written them a detailed email with my issue, and they blew me off. So I now have to take other measures. Please keep in mind that you have been warned. If you have issues, you are out of luck and lots of money. Update 2/1/20 2 stars: Absolutely no contact from Jackery. Just a tip, these may be great products, but if you have an issue, your left out in the cold. Because this is a battery, there is no returning it. You get stuck with it as there is no customer service from Jackery either. I will just continue to try. If there are no further posts, consider this to be 1 star, you can imagine why. If by any luck Jackery contacts me, I will update. As of now, Jackery is dead for me. Update 1/24/20 3 stars: I finally got a call from Jackery. It wasn't support, as I guess they are all out of town. So I expressed my issue, and it is supposed to be handed off to someone who can help me. By the way, we did a reset, but my issue still persists. They will contact me at a later time. Let's hope! Meanwhile, I still have a paper weight. Original review 2 stars: I have been having issues with my Jackery 500 that is only 3 weeks old, and have attempted to contact them multiple times with no response at all. There is a telephone number that gets you absolutely nowhere, email that goes unanswered, and a website that is sparse in information. By the way, Jackery offers a 30 return policy on their products, but not if you order on Amazon. They only honor the free 30 day returns on their products bought directly from their website. So Amazon customers are treated differently. Jackery seems not to care about their Amazon customers, and obviously make it too difficult for customers to claim warranty issues. I warn all that want to purchase from Jackery, to reconsider. If you have any issues, and purchase Jackery products from Amazon, you have nowhere to turn for issues. Now I am stuck with a Jackery paper weight.

After seeing videos of the build quality and repairability of the Jackery power stations, plus the reported great technical support, I decided to give the Explorer 500 a try. I got mine for $425 shipped on sale, so really $400 before tax if you consider the weight of the package and what it costs to ship. That works out to about 80 cents a watt which is about as cheap as you can get. I charged it for a while using the wall charger and in my car as well while driving around. It charges fine on the car's unregulated 12v power. I tested the inverter overload protection on a small fridge and that worked as expected. No need to perform a reset of the unit following the overload protection trip. The inverter uses between 5 and 6 watts when operating, which is normal. This revised version only turns on the inverter cooling fan when needed based on the wattage you're drawing. That's nice and saves a little power as well. Charging phones and other devices via USB works as expected. I'm not able to test the 12vDC barrel plug output but I'm confident that is working fine as well. Where I started having issues was using a 60w Top Solar Jackery clone solar panel. 60w panels do not provide enough wattage for the charge controller to calibrate the source and start charging. I tried in full sun with an 18.5vDC input voltage directly from the panels and I also tried re-connecting the panels to the charge port and a Jackery reset. Nothing worked. That being said, the Top Solar 60w panel did in fact charge a Jackery Explorer 240 I tested with, and would draw as little as 7 watts when in indirect shade once it got started. So the minor caveat is the larger Jackery units require more power up front to start charging. Which is understandable as bigger battery packs require more amperage to keep the voltage up high enough to allow the cells themselves to begin charging. I also tested charging from a bench power supply at 18.5vDC and got the Explorer 500 to charge at 2A before the voltage started dipping down to 13vDC once I upped the current limit to beyond 2A due to the cables I was using. So then I tried the Top Solar 100w panel and had no problems at all. The Explorer 500 was able to charge from that and pull 40w in the low evening sun. I also reached out to Jackery support on the details of charging the Explorer 500 on a 60w panel and they gave me some amperage numbers and were pretty helpful. The only thing I would advise is get a 100w panel to charge the Explorer 500, smaller ones will not work. Not a fault of the solar panel or the Jackery. Just the nature of the batteries and the minimum charge current they need per cell, as the bigger units simply have more lithium cells. Otherwise a fantastic, solid product with great, responsive technical support at a good value.