As for your Modem & Router, I recommend a UPS. I've had an APC 600 ($80) on my modem, router & security cameras for ~10 years. When the power goes down during storms, they keep running seamlessly...no rebooting. If you are on a laptop, tab, phone, etc they just keep working. Of course The UPS will need some line voltage eventually - *edited upc to ups
@@182QKFTW Excellent, I'll definitely check that out. Side note, this is what I like about youtube, learning from other people. No one knows everything, so it's nice to help each other with experience and knowledge. Thanks for the information!
I got mine today. 20% off coupon. Mine was $159 after the discount. I bought an ecoflow 2 years ago and it didn't last long. Customer service sucked with them. And it only had a 1 year warrenty. This one has 5 years. I called them to confirm. You have to register the unit. Predator and Harbor Freight always have 5 star reviews so I decided to invest in their quality brand. Its not as big wattage 380 vs 600 but its half the price of Ecoflow. Im thankful i had the money and the right timing to get one. They had two left.
If you take the time to read the directions, you would see that the 2 hour charging is accomplished by using the AC wall plug in combination with the usb-c charging port.
This one would mainly be good for devices like phones and tablets, etc. I’m looking forward to getting the next one up from this. Nice entry level power station, but not quite enough for my needs…
I need one of these for my diesel heater. Didn’t see them in the store yet though 😅 good review I’ve been searching for👍 been looking at a jackery or this once I seen them drop.
@@freedomisntfree_44 The startup amperage on a diesel heater exceeds the 12v outputs, and the Anderson is input only. It won't work for a diesel heater, you're going to need a small battery (20ah or more) to act as a buffer between your 12v supply and the heater to provide the amps needed for firing it up.
@@Mowersplus84No exactly the opposite it would have substantially less run life cycles You're a lithium ion battery averages between 300 and 500 cycles while you're lithium iron phosphate averages 3,000 to 5,000 life cycles or charge cycles The disadvantage of lithium iron phosphate is lower power density so if they use lithium ion in this box they could probably make it about 30 or 40% smaller however for something like this I would much rather have a slightly larger box and a 100-fold lifespan for charge cycles and also the safety factor I almost had one of these boxes burned down my house literally I come out the kitchen hearing some hissing sounds and it's full of smoke and little projectile RPGs the battery cells lighting off are ejecting out from under my workbench I had to grab the exploding burning box yanked the cores out of it and chuck it out in the front yard I'll never buy one of these again unless it has lithium iron phosphate only :-)
I was very interested in seeing what the device was going to be like. TY for the review. In looking at the cost near 200$ you have much better options out there right now. I will say the one thing nice about this is 350watt over the standard most are putting out is 300watt. But, the tech you get in say a Anker 300 AC is so much better. You have AC charger cable that does top off device in 1 hr. You can charge at 145 watts out and in via USB C PD 3.1. You also have Solar input port using XT60 port at 100 watts in. This also have amazing app that allows wifi connection and bluetooth. HF just jumped on bandwagon putting this out. But, fell very short on opportunity to do great. It is overall a easy obtainable over the counter grab today though option. Which makes it valuable vs wait times like ECOFLOW which order and ships 1 month later making order almost 2 months.
@@1kzrider Very well said. I agree with you on all the points you presented. I was looking at getting an Ecoflow as well, they're a very well respected brand in the industry. I went with the Predator for a few reasons: Curiosity, I just had to see the fit, finish, and operation of one in order to determine if i want to get a larger one when they come out. Second, like you said, they're available over the counter right now, no ordering and waiting. Third, the warranty. A five year warranty included with the purchase seemed like a good selling point. Fourth, if I do have an issue, I don't have to worry about who to contact and shipping it back to be serviced or replaced. I just drive to my local Harbor Freight and exchange it. This being my first portable power station, I figured I'd take a chance with the Predator, whether I'll stick with that brand is still to be determined. If not, I'll definitely be buying an Ecoflow. Thanks for you comment!
@@KearneyCreekFarm I think you will be happy with the unit. As you pointed out the fit and finish was nice. And like you pointed out the handle being nice just makes grabbing it to use more enjoyable. Like nice grips on a pew pew and good hardware just makes the experience more. That warranty is good to. For me though the over counter pick up today easy return drop off is the win. I have 3 portable power stations river 3 and anker 300 ac and DC. All have great features but, if you want to have more power. DIY all the way. A good 200+ Ah LifePo4 battery, Victron MPPT setup for charge controller and you can always add 12V to usb PD stuff. Add your choice of pure sign wave inverters out there but, I really recommend doing 24 volt and dc dc converter for 12v. You can run way more solar input this way and inverter in much more eff% and can use smaller awg batt to inverter.
@@1kzrider There's a guy on RUclips, 'Fishin and Stuff' who made a DIY power bank. I'd like to make one as well. He mentioned a good point that if any component went out you can fix it yourself instead of having to replace the whole thing. I've had my eye on the River as well and may eventually get one if I have the funds. I'm big on Anker products as well. All of my backup phone chargers, wall chargers, and charging cords are Anker. They make good stuff.
@@MrMcgooOG Excellent question. I read through the owner's manual, searched the web, and even asked ChatGPT. I couldn't find a direct answer to your question. Maybe someone will stumble upon your question and we'll both learn the answer.
Just from watching your video I see a lot of nice pros with this device it's a decent capacity 294 watt hours importantly it's lithium iron phosphate it has DC input and direct AC input meaning no brick also it has bidirectional 100 watt USBC That's really nice does that means you can also charge it by USB-C I suspect the 2-hour full recharge would require you to plug in 100 watt USB-C and AC port together many of these can charge from multiple sources and it'll add them up not always though I don't know what you mean by you can't run your fridge your average refrigerator takes 25 to 50 Watts or 1/5 the power of that charger you just plugged into it so this should run your refrigerator for 8 or 9 hours depending on how power hungry your fridges It's also much higher output than most of these boxes are most 300 watt hour boxes output 300 watts over the AC Even the blue eighty EB3A only outputs 600 Watts this thing outputs 700 watts That's actually really nice so you can actually run some higher power devices off of this of course with only 294 watt hours you're not going to get all that much of a runtime but it will run them What's the warranty like?
I agree although getting blue ID to warranty the EB3A is a little difficult I have one where the cooling fan died and kill the unit and they won't warranty it They keep beating around the bush about it Is this thing 350 watt or 700 w? Or is the 700 w peak? Is this thing is actually 700 w that's superior also I believe the Blue Eddie is PD 60 w? I'll have to check mine this one has bi-directional 100 watt which is really nice The blue Eddie will also work as a UPS in a bench I wonder if this has UPS functionality to test it turn on the AC plug in the AC power cord and plug in and device now yank out the AC charge cord see if the device keeps running The EB3A is also a little lackluster on capacity it's rated that I believe 268 watt hours but I get an effective 210 w hours out of it it'll be interesting to see if this one does better
That's what I was suspecting A lot of these are able to combine all the inputs so you're probably getting 100 watts from the AC input and 100 watts from the USBC input that's 200 w which should charge it in 2 hours
The bad thing is none of these Predator power stations have MPPT solar tracking on the solar charge input. Most of the competition does... because of this 30% of the solar panels power is wasted. It was cheaper to manufacture. They are hoping nobody notices. I will never buy one.
@@perrygibbons1816 In which way would you like to see it tested? This was a 'first impressions' video, not a comprehensive 'how to' video. I plan on making more videos on this power station once Harbor Freight releases their Predator solar panels, stay tuned! Thanks for the kind feedback!
As for your Modem & Router, I recommend a UPS. I've had an APC 600 ($80) on my modem, router & security cameras for ~10 years. When the power goes down during storms, they keep running seamlessly...no rebooting. If you are on a laptop, tab, phone, etc they just keep working. Of course The UPS will need some line voltage eventually - *edited upc to ups
@@182QKFTW Excellent, I'll definitely check that out.
Side note, this is what I like about youtube, learning from other people. No one knows everything, so it's nice to help each other with experience and knowledge. Thanks for the information!
how can I charge this with my Jackery solar panel?
connectors are not compatible
@@kenkellar2246 You would need a adapter.
I got mine today. 20% off coupon. Mine was $159 after the discount. I bought an ecoflow
2 years ago and it didn't last long. Customer service sucked with them. And it only had a 1 year warrenty. This one has 5 years. I called them to confirm. You have to register the unit.
Predator and Harbor Freight always have 5 star reviews so I decided to invest in their quality brand. Its not as big wattage 380 vs 600 but its half the price of Ecoflow. Im thankful i had the money and the right timing to get one. They had two left.
@@talleysartstudio Nice!
I thought Ecoflow were supposed to be a top brand.
@KearneyCreekFarm I thought so too. I can prove it. It was a waste of money
Thank you for this review.
@@douglasarnoldakers You're welcome! Thank you for checking out the channel.
If you take the time to read the directions, you would see that the 2 hour charging is accomplished by using the AC wall plug in combination with the usb-c charging port.
@@billwatcher9321 If I read the directions I'd lose my man card.😄
Looking forward to Black Friday thinking about buying
Supposed to be coming out with two more models soon.
@@M70ACARRY I'll be interested to see how they're priced.
This one would mainly be good for devices like phones and tablets, etc. I’m looking forward to getting the next one up from this. Nice entry level power station, but not quite enough for my needs…
@@oneisnone7350 Totally agree with you. I'm looking forward to the bigger ones coming out.
I need one of these for my diesel heater. Didn’t see them in the store yet though 😅 good review I’ve been searching for👍 been looking at a jackery or this once I seen them drop.
Get the Jackery. I better choice
@@HorseRadish403 jackerys are garbage
@@freedomisntfree_44 The startup amperage on a diesel heater exceeds the 12v outputs, and the Anderson is input only. It won't work for a diesel heater, you're going to need a small battery (20ah or more) to act as a buffer between your 12v supply and the heater to provide the amps needed for firing it up.
@ people run them everyday on them. Plus I used an almost dead car battery that worked fine.
@@freedomisntfree_44 Aahh, the car battery makes all the difference. 👍
Does it require a solar charger controller. Or xan a 12.0 volt panel be pluged right in?
@@calimesacox From what I understand it can charge straight from a solar panel. No charger controller required. 120W max solar input.
@KearneyCreekFarm Thank you for your response. I will try it out... Looking at the Thunderbolt 100 watt panel set up.
@calimesacox No problem. I appreciate the question. A word of caution though, I'm new at the portable power station thing, so I could be wrong. Lol
The charge controller and pure sine wave inverter are built-in to all power stations, so they're safe to run electronics off of.
Get eco flow or BLUETTI to use i. Your truck if truck driver
The only real question that matters is: does it contain a lithium iron phosphate battery? If not, don’t even bother, it’s a waste of money.
@@MsRotorwings It sure does. I agree, I wouldn't have bought it if it didn't.
I just checked online they do have them.
Wouldn't an LI-to be better more life cycles
@@Mowersplus84No exactly the opposite it would have substantially less run life cycles You're a lithium ion battery averages between 300 and 500 cycles while you're lithium iron phosphate averages 3,000 to 5,000 life cycles or charge cycles
The disadvantage of lithium iron phosphate is lower power density so if they use lithium ion in this box they could probably make it about 30 or 40% smaller however for something like this I would much rather have a slightly larger box and a 100-fold lifespan for charge cycles and also the safety factor I almost had one of these boxes burned down my house literally I come out the kitchen hearing some hissing sounds and it's full of smoke and little projectile RPGs the battery cells lighting off are ejecting out from under my workbench I had to grab the exploding burning box yanked the cores out of it and chuck it out in the front yard
I'll never buy one of these again unless it has lithium iron phosphate only :-)
already bought it $50 less than my older jackery 290
I keep the screen protectors on some of my displays too...until they they get nasty(: Like the Flukes!
@@182QKFTW Exactly! May as well keep them as new as possible for as long as possible.
I was very interested in seeing what the device was going to be like. TY for the review. In looking at the cost near 200$ you have much better options out there right now. I will say the one thing nice about this is 350watt over the standard most are putting out is 300watt. But, the tech you get in say a Anker 300 AC is so much better. You have AC charger cable that does top off device in 1 hr. You can charge at 145 watts out and in via USB C PD 3.1. You also have Solar input port using XT60 port at 100 watts in. This also have amazing app that allows wifi connection and bluetooth. HF just jumped on bandwagon putting this out. But, fell very short on opportunity to do great. It is overall a easy obtainable over the counter grab today though option. Which makes it valuable vs wait times like ECOFLOW which order and ships 1 month later making order almost 2 months.
@@1kzrider Very well said. I agree with you on all the points you presented. I was looking at getting an Ecoflow as well, they're a very well respected brand in the industry. I went with the Predator for a few reasons: Curiosity, I just had to see the fit, finish, and operation of one in order to determine if i want to get a larger one when they come out. Second, like you said, they're available over the counter right now, no ordering and waiting. Third, the warranty. A five year warranty included with the purchase seemed like a good selling point. Fourth, if I do have an issue, I don't have to worry about who to contact and shipping it back to be serviced or replaced. I just drive to my local Harbor Freight and exchange it.
This being my first portable power station, I figured I'd take a chance with the Predator, whether I'll stick with that brand is still to be determined. If not, I'll definitely be buying an Ecoflow.
Thanks for you comment!
@@KearneyCreekFarm I think you will be happy with the unit. As you pointed out the fit and finish was nice. And like you pointed out the handle being nice just makes grabbing it to use more enjoyable. Like nice grips on a pew pew and good hardware just makes the experience more. That warranty is good to. For me though the over counter pick up today easy return drop off is the win. I have 3 portable power stations river 3 and anker 300 ac and DC. All have great features but, if you want to have more power. DIY all the way. A good 200+ Ah LifePo4 battery, Victron MPPT setup for charge controller and you can always add 12V to usb PD stuff. Add your choice of pure sign wave inverters out there but, I really recommend doing 24 volt and dc dc converter for 12v. You can run way more solar input this way and inverter in much more eff% and can use smaller awg batt to inverter.
@@1kzrider There's a guy on RUclips, 'Fishin and Stuff' who made a DIY power bank. I'd like to make one as well. He mentioned a good point that if any component went out you can fix it yourself instead of having to replace the whole thing.
I've had my eye on the River as well and may eventually get one if I have the funds. I'm big on Anker products as well. All of my backup phone chargers, wall chargers, and charging cords are Anker. They make good stuff.
Yeah I think HF is a few years late to the game. Their pricing on these PS are like from a couple of years ago. Unless there’s a 40% coupon!
But being able to go into a HFT store and do a warranty exchange for 5 years is a BIG PLUS!
Can you run 2 of these in companion
@@MrMcgooOG Excellent question. I read through the owner's manual, searched the web, and even asked ChatGPT. I couldn't find a direct answer to your question. Maybe someone will stumble upon your question and we'll both learn the answer.
Comes with MC4 to Anderson solar panel adapter, HF only sells panels with SAE connectors. WTF?
So not compatible with Hobo Freight solar panels.
@@rednecktek2873 Good point. I'm not 100% sure, but I think their new Predator solar panels will come ready to hook up to the Predator power stations.
@KearneyCreekFarm I sure hope so, because they sell Jackery and EcoFlow also and none of those will connect to any of their thunderbolt panels.
Just from watching your video I see a lot of nice pros with this device it's a decent capacity 294 watt hours importantly it's lithium iron phosphate it has DC input and direct AC input meaning no brick also it has bidirectional 100 watt USBC That's really nice does that means you can also charge it by USB-C I suspect the 2-hour full recharge would require you to plug in 100 watt USB-C and AC port together many of these can charge from multiple sources and it'll add them up not always though
I don't know what you mean by you can't run your fridge your average refrigerator takes 25 to 50 Watts or 1/5 the power of that charger you just plugged into it so this should run your refrigerator for 8 or 9 hours depending on how power hungry your fridges
It's also much higher output than most of these boxes are most 300 watt hour boxes output 300 watts over the AC Even the blue eighty EB3A only outputs 600 Watts this thing outputs 700 watts That's actually really nice so you can actually run some higher power devices off of this of course with only 294 watt hours you're not going to get all that much of a runtime but it will run them
What's the warranty like?
This versus the Bluetti Eb3a is a HARD Desicion
@@Moes_Prep_and_Tech Bluetti has a good track record, the Predator has yet to be proven. If I had the money I'd compare them. Ecoflow too.
bluetti is a better buy
I agree although getting blue ID to warranty the EB3A is a little difficult I have one where the cooling fan died and kill the unit and they won't warranty it They keep beating around the bush about it
Is this thing 350 watt or 700 w? Or is the 700 w peak? Is this thing is actually 700 w that's superior also I believe the Blue Eddie is PD 60 w? I'll have to check mine this one has bi-directional 100 watt which is really nice The blue Eddie will also work as a UPS in a bench I wonder if this has UPS functionality to test it turn on the AC plug in the AC power cord and plug in and device now yank out the AC charge cord see if the device keeps running
The EB3A is also a little lackluster on capacity it's rated that I believe 268 watt hours but I get an effective 210 w hours out of it it'll be interesting to see if this one does better
Imagine this product with jumper cables. You can start this vehicle with no problems.
@@edgarfuentes897 100%
Watched another video and took over 2 hours from 42% at watt 80 charging plugged in thats not good
@@jodyallenbaugh9427 Oof, that's slow.
It fully charges in two hours if you use the provided AC charger and your own USB c charger at the same time.
It take 4-4.5hrs to get full charge start from 0%.
@@DLong-wp8su you have to use both ac and usb to hit 2 hours
That's what I was suspecting A lot of these are able to combine all the inputs so you're probably getting 100 watts from the AC input and 100 watts from the USBC input that's 200 w which should charge it in 2 hours
The bad thing is none of these Predator power stations have MPPT solar tracking on the solar charge input. Most of the competition does... because of this 30% of the solar panels power is wasted. It was cheaper to manufacture. They are hoping nobody notices. I will never buy one.
@@jimthvac100 I'm hoping Harbor Freight takes note of all the feedback from videos like mine and does a better job going forward.
Another useless video, didn't show us how it works 👎👎👎
@@perrygibbons1816 In which way would you like to see it tested? This was a 'first impressions' video, not a comprehensive 'how to' video. I plan on making more videos on this power station once Harbor Freight releases their Predator solar panels, stay tuned! Thanks for the kind feedback!
Im glad the 12v outlets put out 12v and the 120v puts out 120v, thats good.🙄
@@jaredappleseed7037 Thanks for adding to the conversation!
Its looks too bulky pass