Power Station Recs?

P

pyleg

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Apr 27, 2011
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I'd like to buy a power station (i.e., a large battery with a 120v plug) for two purposes.  Powering corded tools outdoors--primarily a TS55 and a midsize router outside the box store--and as standby for minor power outages. 

Yes, I realize generators are generally more useful for such things.  Unfortunately, my current apartment isn't conducive to either storage or use of a generator, so a power station it is. 

Thanks in advance! 
 
Dewalt makes one, works with 60v or 20v batteries. If you're already on their battery platform I would reccomend it for sure. If you're not currently using Dewalt, then you're looking at about $1100.00 for the power station and 4 60v 9ah batteries.
That set up has run my refrigerator during quite a few power outages and paid for itself over and over again at work too.
 
I've been pretty happy with the performance and runtime of all my Ego tools - blowers, trimmer, mower.

They have their Nexus Power Station offered in kits of 2 or 4 battery and 5 or 7.5 AH. For a 840wh package you're looking at $1000. A 1120wh at $1200. It is a 56 volt platform and 3/5 year warranty. Replacing one battery outside of warranty hits pretty hard, but better that=n replacing a whole station. Seems like a saw and router would draw some amps, not sure how far it would get you. But their infographic states you can run a 60w led, 40" TV, and modem router for 6 hours for $1200...

Note sure if you're in the market for a new vehicle, but the on-board generation in the new Ford F150s looks pretty impressive.
 
I've been investigating these recently myself. After the Texas snowpocalypse and then various minor outages since then, I bought a gas generator, but that has its own set of constraints. My use case for power station is to use gas generator to charge power station during the day so I can keep the noise and runtime down.

This is a pretty active market at the moment. Some good products out there but there's some transition from nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) to LiFePO4 (LFP) chemistries. The LFP batteries have 2x the life, 800 -> 1500-2000 cycles.

From my research, the main differentiators are the cell chemistry, charge capabilities + wattage (AC charging, solar charging), charge pass-through (charge while power outlets), expansion ports. Since the batteries are the main cost driver, the Wh capacity is pretty much linearly related to cost.

A few brands other than the GoalZero mentioned are Bluetti, EcoFlow, (I will also mention Hysolis since they have a massive pack with a serious inverter too). There's a guy on YT Will Prowse who has some good information + teardowns. I've seriously considered the Ego Nexus, but for the cost, it's missing a lot of features. Sloooooow charging unless you already have a bunch of Ego batteries + the new fast charger.
 
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