Electronics - GoalZero or Jackery

GENERAL DISCUSSION Gear Reviews
1

Im trying to decide if this is the direction I want to go, so I’m hoping to get some feedback.

For those of you using a goalzero or Jackery as your power source for electronics, can you tell me what size battery you got, whether or not you use solar, if you use solar what panels you got, me whether you are happy with your overall setup? Anything you don’t like about it other than price? Was the battery you got large enough for what you ended up needing?

I’m also curious if you leave your battery permanently mounted in the truck or just load it up for trips.

Would be happy to hear any other feedback of course

Thanks a bunch in advance.

2

This is a great post as I’ve been pondering the same thing myself. Just don’t know which way to go. Either a duel battery set up or battery bank.

3

After a bad experience with a lithium battery mounted in our campervan, we went with dual batteries in our Jeep Gladiator, and have been pleased with the experience so far. We have not added solar input, as most of our trips don’t leave the truck parked in one place using power for more than a day. We do have a very large Dometic Fridge/Freezer that on days in the 90s+ get close to triggering the safety shutoff to protect the second battery.

4

It’s great how everything comes in one package. It’s also nice that you can use it away from the vehicle, say at a picnic or in your house for a power outage. There are a lot of them out there these days and they get better and better, so research solar generator and make sure you look at the newest models. The ecoflow delta has a great recharge time and output, but that shortens it’s lifespan compared to some. The Titan will cost you, but it’s also interesting. So are the jackery and Buletti. It’s hard to decide what will suit your needs the best.

5

The size you get will depend on what you’re wanting to power. I started with a Goal Zero Yeti 400 which was great for powering interior camper lights and charging phones. Once I got a Dometic, I chained 2 addition 400w batteries to bring total storage up to 1200w and paired with a 100w renogy solar panel. That combo was able keep the battery topped off with the fridge running with maybe 5 or 6 hours of good sun during the day. Goal Zero is a good plug and play option if you’re like me and don’t really want to built a custom solar setup.

The only annoying thing I’ve experienced with the older Goal Zero I have is that the circuitry in the 12v cigarette plug sometimes can’t handle the surge of the fridge compressor kicking on. I got around it by hardwiring a dometic 12v outlet to one of my chained batteries. But having food go bad cuz your fridge turned off unexpectedly sucks!

I assume they’ve fixed this in the newer lithium generations but I haven’t done any research on those. Overall, I’d say the GZ is good if you’re looking for simplicity and mobility and don’t have super high storage capacity requirements.

2 Likes
6

I went with a goal zero set up for the versatility, so far I am more than happy with my decision.

7

we, my wife and I, decided to keep things very simple with our solar set-up. We have a Lensun Solar 60 watt panel that we bungey to the top of the camper while we are parked / camping. That panel handily charges our battery pack. We use the battery pack to run the pump for our Zodi propane shower, charge small electronics (phones, bluetooth speakers, and run LED camper lights. The system works like a champ. The panel folds up and stores inside when driving, its light and small. Its an in-expensive and very utilitarian option without too many pieces and parts. No need for inverters, charge controllers and super heavy batteries. After all, it is a camping trip, no need, in my opinion, to bring a living rooms worth of electronics into the backcountry.

1 Like
8

What battery are you using?

9

This is a good head to head comparison of both. I have the Jackery 500 for fridge and diesel heater. I also have a Goal Zero yeti 150 which I use for charging the usual suspects and powering my camp scene lights. Both are charged via the truck or 100w Goal zero briefcase panels.

If I had it all to do over again, Jackery 1000 and done.

Be well, travel safe.

10

Currently we are using a rather small battery made by NexPowa. It is only a 150 watt battery with an AC plug and two USB plugs. It certainly isn’t near enough to run a fridge but we use coolers. I have thought about sizing up on my battery but ultimately, at this point, we have no reason to. We run lights, music and keep our phones / laptops charged. We came from the Sprinter world in the past and came to the conclusion that a simple solar set-up is far more desirable and affordable. Now we can spend our time mtn biking all day and returning to a lighted camper, hot shower, music and so forth. Our panel is super-slick, well constructed, durable and easy to work with. It could charge a bigger battery but until I find a reason to haul a big battery I will stick with our little battery. Peace!

11

Here’s the fix that GoalZero came up with to fix the problem you have with your frig causing the 12 volt circuit to time out. I use this in a 4 wheel sprinter van and it works flawlessly.

12

I have an older lead acid yeti unfortunately. But I take it that means they still have the same problem with the lithium yeti’s? That’s a bummer. Kind of unfortunate that you have to dedicate all 4 of the 12v ports to running a single appliance as well.

13

I was thinking of getting a Jackery or something similar but I’ve heard that Li batteries don’t do well with temperature changes. So, I’m pretty sure I’m just going to get a smaller AGM and put it on a trickle charger from the AC outlet in the bed. It’ll also be a lot cheaper…

14

Actually, I run to a 12v fuse box. From there I power LED lights, USB ports, etc to different location in the van.

15

I have the Jackery 160 Explorer and a GoalZero Yeti 1500x. I don’t have enough experience with either yet to comment at length but here is my quick take.

The Jackery has been in the GFC for year, charging phones and running some lights. It does great. My take on Jackery so far is that it is a good value and performs well at a lower cost per watt-hour. It has also worked fine in the cold (<32F) and that is my experience with other lithium batteries in the past. However, I understand they don’t like to be charged when cold.

I’m currently building out an old Sprinter van for family camping. The Yeti 1500x will live there with alternator charging, ~300W of solar and it will be tasked with powering lights, a water pump, a diesel furnace, a refrigerator and an induction cooktop. I’ll try to remember to check back in later this year with an update on how this works out.

I see a lot of questions here (and everywhere else) about how big of a battery to get. The math isn’t too bad…but the Electrical Calculator here on this site is quite handy for quick estimates: https://faroutride.com/van-build/tools/van-electrical-calculator/.

16

So I went two routes here: Dual battery setup in my Gladiator (Genesis kit) and a Goal Zero 1000 battery with two Renogy 100W panels wired in parallel.

My plan is to hard wire any lights or things like that to the second battery under the hood, and use the goal zero battery for any type of phone charging and my ARB Fridge.

This very well could be overkill, But splitting up the workload seemed like the best bet to me as you never know how weather is going to turn out. Now, I do not have my GFC yet, but will in a month so I have no real world experience to give yet.

The last major electrical wiring I need to do at this point is figure out how to rewire the bed power from the main battery to the secondary battery in the genesis kit. But damn I can’t find anything about how to do that on the Gladiator forums or the Taco forums.

17

Bit late to the dance on this thread, but wanted to offer our experience. Though we’ve used a variety of dual-battery options and solar generators over the years in our old RVs and in friends’ rigs, what we ultimately landed on for our truck was a hybrid solar generator / dual battery setup. We have a detailed explanation of the exact setup here (towards the bottom)

But essentially: we use an old 1100watt Inergy Kodiak lithium solar generator, that has a 12v DC charge rate of 240 watts through the car charger, this was double the rate of the Goal Zero options at the time (Goal Zero did briefly offer an adapter called the Yeti Link Car Charger that allowed for even faster charging, but they’ve discontinued it, at least for now).

This faster charging rate allows us to fully charge the generator off the truck’s DC in about 3.5 hours of drive time, and we can supplement with solar as needed (though on our last one month trip we didn’t even bring the panel, and never needed it). We’ve run our fridge, lights, (a vent fan before we got the GFC), and charged two laptops and two cell phones daily for 4-6 weeks at a time with this setup over the last couple years.

Unfortunately, Inergy discontinued the Kodiak awhile back - but their new model the Flex is due out soon and looks to be an even better solution…time will tell.

What you need will ultimately boil down to your specific personal power needs, cost, and how comfortable you are with the complexity of install (or paying someone who is) - we’ve found solar generators to be a better long-term investment overall because of their portability, versatility, simplicity, and weight-savings compared to traditional dual battery setups using AGMs or lead-acid.

**Know that we’re not sponsored by Inergy (or anyone for that matter), just super stoked on their product (they’re based in Pocatello, ID too, which is cool because 'Merica), and while there’s a lot of hype on the Goal Zero and Jackery stuff - like to point out there are alternatives.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
18

Opponents of solar energy claim that solar collectors are not strong enough to withstand various damage. However, manufacturers are not fools and always test their products for strength, thereby proving and ensuring the quality of their production. Solar panels https://lightingandsupplies.com/larson-electronics/ can withstand even strong large hail. There is no need to be afraid of such an alternative energy source as sunlight. Most of the negative reviews about solar panels are written by people who have never used them, as evidenced by the myths they use and dispelled in our article.