Jackery 2000V2
I bought the Jackery 2000 V2 because it seemed to have the best price per watt hour. I already had purchased a 1000 v2 on Amazon Prime Day, and realized I needed simply more storage. I had considered a 3000 model, but I think it would've been to difficult to physically carry in my situation.
I use the Jackery 2000 on a cabin cruiser power boat. I lash portable solar panels to the deck, and have about 700 watts (theoretical) available. On a very sunny day, at peak, I'm probably getting almost 500 watts. I am able to configure them on the fly, either in parallel, series, or up to three different sources.
In most cases, I have three hundred watts of panel dedicated to charging the house (lead acid) batteries to keep a 12v freezer going (I use a Victron MPPT).
The remaining 400 watts of panels is for charging the power stations. On days with excess solar, I use the power stations to drive a tabletop ice maker and create as many ice cubes as possible, and store them in fridge - or put them in the freezer to ripen colder.
While under way, I use a Victron 12/24 DC charger to DC charge the Jackery Power Station. I'm not quite happy with this setup, as Victron is less efficient than I'd like and requires a cooling fan etc. My boat has twin engines, both with only 55 amp alternators, so I can only really run a 20 amp DC charger. Although both engines feed an isolator, there are other loads to contend with (depth sounder, engine room blowers, radar, vhf) so in my case charging at more than the 400 watt limit of the Jackerys would be impossible.
What I like about the Jackery 2000v2;
-Top handle is easy to deploy and carry the unit. Only one hand needed, and you can pick the balance point.
-12v outlet
-Easy to read screen, with most of the needed information
-Built in light, useful at night for moving it in the dark
-Has bluetooth App support to monitor it.
My criticisms about the Jackery 2000v2
-Funny things happen at the 100% charge mark. It seems to over calculate running time by 20%. Other times at 100% it won't do pass through DC or AC, and the App won't show the loads at all. It's only until the unit drops to about 97% that the software returns to normal. I feel this is a software issue.
-I can't find any published figure on idle wattage for the inverter in the documentation. Although the software accounts for it in the time remaining, it would be nice to know that actual wattage draw of the system from the battery - not just the load.
-To re-iterate the above point, it would be nice to see the idle wattage displayed when AC/DC or both are switched on. It seems a little dishonest, that the display shows "zero" load - when in actuality the battery is being discharged. Victron's software would consider this a "load". I know the Jackery software shows the number of hours to zero percentage - I just think it should be more obvious what the inverter efficiency actually is. Ditto for AC and DC input as well. How much of that wattage is going to conversion versus storage.
-Nothing in the manual explains the 8020 ports well. Are they in parallel? Are they discrete? The specifications suggest possibly discrete. They appear to be parallel, and I'm assuming there are two of them to make adding two panels simple for consumers.
-The 400 watt solar input is passable for my needs, but having double that would be more useful in certain situations. I know this is addressed in 2000 plus model, but I'm financially challenged - so that is why I have the 2000 V2.
-The plastic case seems to scuff easily. This was remedied by buying an aftermarket carrying bag on Amazon that did not have "JACKERY" written all over it. If you can carry it, people will steal it. A discrete case also allows me to charge this in public places without raising too much attention. The case I have, just looks like a lunch cooler.
-Not being able to adjust the AC charge rate to a lower setting (like other brands) is something I'm not happy about. Sometimes (at public places) you only have access to 300 watts or less.
-Perhaps I didn't read the literature well enough, but I've assumed the Jackery 2000v2 is not bonded. It seems to work ok with a bonding plug, and when plugged into one of my 30 amp boat inputs it worked fine. This isn't really my intended use case. I just wanted to see if the 2000v2 could drive a heat pump reverse air unit - which it couldn't. Asking the Jackery to power a boat with 60 amps input, and associated loads would be silly. My suspicion is the 3000 v2 might though...
-Finally, the MPPT controller just doesn't seem as efficient as the Victron unit I'm using. I haven't done any documented testing, but it just seems to be less efficient at getting the same amount of watt hours out of the solar array.
-The Jackery 2000v2 is not ABYC approved for use in a confined space or engine room. I get that this would be a ridiculous ask, as the price would be 10x as much.
Conclusion;
I chose the Jackery power s...
