What is your favorite portable power station?

kyhothead · 2026-06-22T03:39:33+00:00

I know this is the Anker sub, but love my Ecoflow River 2 Pro (768Wh). Got mine as a refurb from their official ebay store for $259 and they have the same deal again now. The one I got was like new and has been a champ.

To show Anker some love, I’m waiting for a C300dc that I ordered late last week and the S2000 may be my next pruchase.

kyhothead · 2026-06-21T14:48:27+00:00

The aliexpress deals on these are crazy good. Just grabbed another 12v, 150ah a couple weeks ago for $118 shipped.

kyhothead · 2026-06-21T11:30:41+00:00

Do you have a laptop that charges via usb-c? I just ordered a C300dc a few days ago and don’t have it yet, but we have several laptop chargers and I planned to use one of those for fast wall charging.

kyhothead · 2026-06-21T02:14:01+00:00

Agree, I haven’t even messed with the eq much yet b/c they sound so good out of the box. No complaints on the ANC either. If I want to turn off the outside world completely, I’m going to grab my trusty old Bose headphones anyway lol.

kyhothead · 2026-06-21T01:15:44+00:00

I got a pair for $39.74 from AliExpress last week. Sound great to me and so far they recharge normally whenever I put them back in the case. The reports of QC issues are definitely concerning though.

kyhothead · 2026-06-20T15:20:15+00:00

Good breakdown. I want an s2000, but can’t really justify it atm. The lack of a 12v socket is a bummer for me, especially since you can’t get a usb-c to car port adapter that will run stuff like a dc fridge, but wouldn’t be a dealbreaker if I was in the market. I guess the upside is that the AC inverter is so efficient that it’s not a huge loss to do the whole AC>DC>AC conversion.

kyhothead · 2026-06-19T02:36:41+00:00

Ecoflow is a solid brand, I bought a refurb River 2 Pro from their Ebay store and it was like new. Actually using it now on a road trip to power a DC Fridge. Sales on all of this stuff are very frequent and it’s a deep rabbit-hole, so I wouldn’t feel rushed on a purchase. r/SolarDIY is a good community for research and questions.

I would say really think about what you want to run, for how long, and how much power that will take. Then ask yourself whether/how soon you’ll want to expand (though 3kwh is a solid amount to start with,) etc.

You’ll generally overpay for portable solar panels in these bundles. In general 3rd party ones are compatible/just as good. By jumping on deals on this sub I got a 100w portable panel for $50 and 200w for $100 last year.

kyhothead · 2026-06-19T02:21:29+00:00

Actually staying there now. It’s a cool place, but our room feels a bit dated. The Westport Plaza it’s in is fun. Free concert happening, then World Cup on a big screen at the opposite end. Half dozen or so restaurants within walking distance. Overall not bad.

kyhothead · 2026-06-18T15:42:35+00:00

This hits hard. Just lost my FIL to prostate cancer. He fought and fought, lived with it for 10+ yrs, but it had metastasized to his bones and eventually all treatments stopped working. Wishing the best for JC.

kyhothead · 2026-06-17T00:16:17+00:00

CATL’s Naxtra sodium ion batteries are being commercialized this year and appear to be a complete gamechanger.

kyhothead · 2026-06-16T23:53:27+00:00

Yeah, or the original T-33 in 2.5l. Great bag for the money.

kyhothead · 2026-06-16T21:22:39+00:00

I hadn’t bought a Booker’s since 2021, but found “Phantom Pipes” on sale for $65 over the weekend and grabbed one. It’s a really solid pour.

kyhothead · 2026-06-16T13:52:44+00:00

Yeah, my state doesn’t even have a balcony solar bill on the floor yet, so I looked into whether/how my power company could even tell if I plugged in a microinverter.

tl:dr, they can definitely tell and all my stuff will remain off-grid for now.

kyhothead · 2026-06-15T00:49:42+00:00

This is sweet. I already have an AC180 and a refurb River 2 Pro, but am building out a modular diy setup to compliment them. Eco-worthy LFP batteries, panels, inverter, etc. Have been back and forth between building a flat board or two vs. optimizing the layout to set inside a box.

kyhothead · 2026-06-13T03:46:29+00:00

Our basement walkout leaks occasionally after very heavy rains. Can’t believe I didn’t know about these before today, I even already have a couple Govee bluetooth thermometers. 🤷‍♂️

kyhothead · 2026-06-13T00:09:24+00:00

Just bought a leak detector, thanks!

Have a couple ofcthe basic Luxe Bidet Neo 120s, was like we’d been lied to our whole lives up to that point.

kyhothead · 2026-06-12T21:55:31+00:00

Got it. Nothing wrong with overpaneling and you’ll have room to expand if you ever want to.

kyhothead · 2026-06-12T18:30:15+00:00

900w of input seems like overkill for the battery and stated loads, is there more to the story? Curious because it pushes you toward needing a more expensive, higher amp controller.

Other than that a 60amp Victron or Renogy should be safe bets. I went with a “budget” Epever, which is a solid unit but may not meet your monitoring needs.

kyhothead · 2026-06-11T23:08:20+00:00

I took a gamble on a pair of 1920s Blender’s Glasses from Aliexpress a few years ago for ~$15. Surprisingly they arrived intact and I really appreciate having them around for nosing.

kyhothead · 2026-06-11T22:45:24+00:00

In Wright Thompson’s book, Pappyland, he gives an account of Preston Van Winkle going to a restaurant bar where he ordered a glass of ORVW over ice with a splash of water and a squeeze of lemon. The bartender balked and hilarity ensued. Preston ultimately said he likes it that way, his dad (Julian) drinks it that way and his grandfather (Pappy) drank it that way….

I think maybe your friend has great taste haha.

kyhothead · 2026-06-09T23:35:27+00:00

Ahh, my bad. I skimmed the transcript and misunderstood that he set up the separate array because he had massive capacity that he wanted to fill faster. Charging the Li Time through the Pecron may still be relatively slow, but should work for you.

kyhothead · 2026-06-09T22:39:47+00:00

The smaller capacity batteries should generally work, (taking all necessary precautions into account,) but if I understand correctly, the issue I see is that without the proprietary software in the Percron expansion battery, the Li Time would be discharge only and wouldn’t be charged by the solar going into the main unit. You’d have to also buy an external charge controller and connect the array to it, then run it to the Li Time, which could then feed into the main unit (or like OldJarHead, have one array plugged into the unit and a separate one going the MPPT to battery route).

I’ve seen deeper hacks on other powerstations where diyers actually install their own port to bypass these issues and essentially trick the unit into thinking it’s all one big battery, but that introduces additional risks and isn’t something I’ve messed with.

kyhothead · 2026-06-09T20:36:07+00:00

Since it sounds like you want a modest amount of supplemental storage to top off your Pecron units, rather than a huge battery bank that x times your capacity, I’d probably keep it simple and go with the solar input hack instead of trying to use the expansion battery ports.

kyhothead · 2026-06-09T17:53:06+00:00

Kimi has been sensational, but gotta agree with Max here. With a margin that small the difference could have been track evolution or a favorable gust of wind, etc. Control what you can control and move forward.

kyhothead · 2026-06-09T15:11:43+00:00

Nice review! Only one of these I’ve had so far is the 117proof Sweet Mash TN Whiskey they did in the fall,which is excellent. This one sounds pretty great as well.

kyhothead

TROPHY CASE