Makeuseof Review: EBL Voyager 1000 Portable Power Station

-For camping, remote work, or as an emergency power supply, it's a compact yet powerful choice.

The EBL Voyager 1000 is compact and durable and allows you to easily charge or operate several power-hungry devices simultaneously. With its portable size and several supported charging methods, this can be a great power station for emergencies, camping, as well as for other remote applications. 

Makeuseof Review: EBL Voyager 1000 Portable Power Station Review: Lightweight and Powerful

Unlike gas generators, the Voyager is significantly more portable and easier to operate, not to mention cleaner and quieter too. It features a 999Wh battery in a body that weighs only 23.1 pounds and measures ‎15.67 x 10.31 x 10.79 inches. While you can't take it on a plane, it's small and light enough to take on most trips without being a burden. With its optional 100W solar panels, you can take advantage of clean recharging and get closer to that off-the-grid experience. For the past few weeks, we've been testing this with a variety of devices including microwaves, mini-fridges, power tools, and smartphones.

The EBL Voyager 1000W portable power station is available now on Amazon or EBL Official. Use the on-page $400 on Amazon to bring the price down to $499, or use the code EBLCODE1 on EBL Official for the same. At $0.50/Wh of capacity, this is remarkably good value, so be sure to grab a bargain before the price goes back. The EBL Solar Apollo 100W panel is also available on Amazon for $169 with an on-page coupon, or use the code SolarApollo for the same price on EBL Official. At around $1.70 per Watt of rated solar power, this is also far cheaper than typical portable panels, though as ever, you'll find static panels for even less if portability isn't that important to you. The EBL Voyager comes with a 12-month warranty.

 

EBL have been making batteries, chargers, power stations, and solar panels for over 20 years. It's become well known for making reliable battery technology that holds its charge well.

What's in The Box?

The EBL Voyager 1000 Portable Power Station package includes:

• 1 x AC adapter,
• 1 x car charger cable,
• 1 x MC4 solar to DC adaptor

 For testing, we were sent two of the Apollo 100 solar panels. This is the maximum that can be connected to the Voyager 1000.

 

EBL Voyager 1000 Design and Build

The Voyager is made primarily of high-quality plastic for its body and rubber for its feet, with a mostly black body and orange highlights. I would have liked to see more color options, though its orange does fit its emergency theme well. Like all power stations, it doesn't offer water or dust resistance, but the unit should be able to stand up against minor drops and bumps. There is one fold-down handle that fits into its top when not in use. For reference, you can find a compatibility spec list on the bottom side of the unit which identifies the limits of all of its inputs and outputs.

 On its front is a small LCD screen that identifies battery percentage, charging state, and power consumption from each source. Except for its Qi charging pad, each output has a dedicated button that needs to be pressed in order for it to power your device. The wireless charger is activated via the USB button, which isn't obvious.

 The Voyager also features a built-in LED light which adds to its usefulness when outdoors, camping, or in emergency situations. I would have liked to see additional brightness settings beyond just on or off, however, it's a useful addition to have nonetheless, meaning you won't need to carry a separate lantern.

 

Output

The EBL Voyager 1000W uses a 3.7V/270000mAh lithium-ion battery. You can estimate your device's potential max run time when connected to the Voyager by dividing 850 (85% of the rated 999Wh capacity, due to conversion losses), by the power draw of your device in Watts. For example, a 35W CPAP machine should run for at least 24 hours continuously.

 

Depending on your application, the EBL Voyager 1000W can power larger devices like mini-fridges all day long or recharge your laptop or drone over 20 times before depleting. If you only use the Power Station for a few hours at a time, you can easily go days, if not weeks, between needing to recharge. With its included inputs and outputs, you have a lot of flexibility here. Pass-through charging is also supported which means you can simultaneously charge the Voyager while also charging your connected devices.

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As for output ports, the Voyager 1000 has:

• 2 x 12V DC outlets,
• 2 x 110V AC outlets,
• 1 x USB-C PD 60W port,
• 3 x USB Quick Charge 3.0 ports (18W),
• 1 x Qi wireless charging pad on the top

If a device exceeds its max rating, the Voyager will enter its protection mode to prevent damage to the power station or the device. Likewise, when the Voyager detects less than 5W output for eight hours, it will shut down automatically to conserve battery.

 

Each AC outlet supports a max of 1000 Watts. Provided you do not have any other devices plugged in at the same time, you easily run power-hungry appliances like a 1050W microwave without issue.

With these intense applications, you can watch the battery percentage drain, but it's nonetheless impressive that you can get a microwave or similar appliance working out in the middle of nowhere if you needed.

 I even plugged in a drill and was able to run it at its max speed.

It's actually an interesting application because you can see exactly how much power is being used as you pull on the drill's trigger.

 

I can see this being a really helpful setup for remote job sites or where outlets aren't easily accessible.

 

The USB Type-A ports deliver QC 3.0 power up to 18W, while the USB-C ports support 60W. I was able to charge several phones at once and for smaller supported gadgets like tablets and laptops. The USB-C ports allow you to reserve the more powerful AC outlets for your appliances or tools, as well as use the power more efficiently (a laptop AC plug wastes power converting 110V AC back to USB-C).

 The 12V DC ports may not be as popular, but for certain car-specific devices like air pumps or portable vacuums, they can be helpful to have. An area for improvement here would be to include built-in covers to prevent potential debris or elements from entering when not in use. If you plan on taking this outdoors a lot, this is something you should keep an eye out for.

 

Lastly, the 10W Qi charging pad is a nice modern touch and convenience for when you want to quickly charge your devices without plugging them in. As mentioned, you need to use the USB button in order to activate it.

 

Charging The Voyager 1000

The EBL Voyager 1000 supports charging from an AC wall outlet, car outlet, or optional solar panels. The AC power supply is not built in, however, so you'll need to keep the power brick safe. The benefit is that it allows the EBL Voyager 1000 to be smaller and lighter than competing options. With portability being one of its best-selling features, this is a worthy trade-off, especially if you'll be pairing this with solar and heading out to a location without a wall socket.

 

 With the wall charger, the Voyager tops out a charging rate of 150W, which should fully charge the unit in about 7-8 hours. Using the 12V car charger can take 9-11 hours. While solar charging depends on the conditions, at the optimal charge rate with two panels it would be roughly equivalent to using the wall charger.

 

If you opt for the bundle that includes the two 100W solar panels, you can expect surprisingly fast charging speeds provided you have a very sunny and clear sky day. EBL claims their solar cells "achieves 23% high efficiency" which allows them to perform better than conventional panels in strong sunlight.

 The panels have Smart IC which prevents overcharging, overheating, and short-circuit protection. The solar panels can theoretically fully charge the Voyager 1000W to 100% in about 6-7 hours, though a lot of other variables will affect your actual charging speeds. While this won't always be the fastest way to charge the power station, if you leave the solar panels hooked up for a few hours, you can easily gain some significant battery percentage.

 The solar panels have a convenient built-in pouch that stores all of your connection cables when not in use.

Each panel has an adjustable stand that helps you get a better angle for capturing the most sunlight. They fold in half to be compact and to protect their cells and have a handle at the top for easier transport.

 EBL includes several attachments with it solar panels making it widely compatible with other power station brands as well. Similarly, the Voyager is also compatible with other solar panels which use the Anderson Interface or have their own MC4 adaptor cabling.

 

The Voyager 1000 is compatible with any solar panels that operate at 12-26V. So with a voltage of 22V on the Apollo 100, you'll need to use some Y-parallel adaptors (not included) to charge with both—this doubles the current without affecting the voltage. For a single panel, no adaptor is needed.

 

EBL Voyager 1000 Is Great for Camping and Emergencies

The EBL Voyager 1000 is a compact power station that makes it easy to charge or power most of your devices including larger tools and appliances. For its size and weight, you are getting far more capacity than most of its competition, and fantastic value. With sunny skies, its optional solar panels help you take this portable charging experience even further.