Great video. I found an almost perfect carrying case on Amazon. It's the "Luxja Carrying Bag Compatible with Instant Pot (3 Quart), Travel Tote Bag for 3 Quart Pressure Cooker and Extra Accessories, Black (Bag Only)." Okay, the PLB 40 is square and the carrying case is round, but height wise, the Luxja is perfect. It also has a zippered compartment on top for your cords.
Good review. Question about charging the plb 40 with solar. Dometic seems to be saying that you don’t need a charge controller as long as the watts is less than 120. Do you have any experience with charging with solar? It would be great to get a solar blanket and not have to buy the controller to use with the plb40. Thanks
So if you stop your car and leave it plugged in to cigarette lighter, does it drain your starter battery or automatically start using the PLB40 power to run fridge?
I have used this battery a handful of times over the last few years & it was great. Now, as soon as the power readout indicates it is down to 92% when connected to my Dometic fridge, it shuts down & will not work again unless you disconnect it and recharge to 100%. So, it only powers my fridge about 50 minutes at a time before I have to recharge it.. So frustrating for the price!
You just made a great investment. It obviously depends on the ambient temperature, as well as the temperature you're running it at. When we were keeping it in the shade and running it at 40F we were able to get about three days out of it. On that weekend it was 60-70F outside. If we're using it for beer we run it at 34F and on hotter weekends it still easily powers it for two days (as they claim). It's the most impressive battery we've ever tested. Lithium Iron is worth the money (vs lithium ion) if you can afford it. They charge incredibly fast, discharge much slower, and stay charged when not in use for a LONG time. We also take it on group camping trips that are longer than two days to use as a power source for phones and cameras (not using it to power a cooler). It keeps 10 people charged up for four days easily.
Has anyone found a briefcase solar panel that will charge this in the USA? I can’t seem to find a panel that has an Anderson Sb50 connector with it? I looked at Goal Zero Boulder 200 manual but it says it has Anderson High Power Port and looked different
It's not meant to be an inverter so it doesn't have a 110V outlet. Even if it did, A/C units require a tremendous amount of energy. You're better off with a generator if you want A/C.
Looked at the price for PLB 40 and it is $850 for a ~500 Wh battery :O Have you looked at the ~$500 Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500, (518Wh)? It is only 13.32lbs and confirm it will power most if not all Dometic coolers, I have seen it go as low as $399.99 during black Friday and Christmas.
Only advantage PLB 40 has over Jackery is that PLB 40 uses Lithium Iron cell chemistry (slightly heavier but longer cycle life) vs Jackery's Lithium Ion cell chemistry.
They're $850, but you're right, they're not cheap. I'll say the same thing that I always do with products like this - it's not for people that camp for two days a few times a year. Those folks should just get a nice Igloo or Coleman for under $100. We do four trips a year that are a week long, and it's a great thing to have in that situation. They're also very popular in the overlanding community. Every product has an audience, and the PLB40 is for a very specific crowd.
@@outdoorsdotcom i am sure this is a good product,i really like the size of it,i made one myself for a lot cheaper and still working good with a 100w solar panel.Its 1000 dollards Canadian here 😉.
Great video. I found an almost perfect carrying case on Amazon. It's the "Luxja Carrying Bag Compatible with Instant Pot (3 Quart), Travel Tote Bag for 3 Quart Pressure Cooker and Extra Accessories, Black (Bag Only)." Okay, the PLB 40 is square and the carrying case is round, but height wise, the Luxja is perfect. It also has a zippered compartment on top for your cords.
Good review. Question about charging the plb 40 with solar. Dometic seems to be saying that you don’t need a charge controller as long as the watts is less than 120. Do you have any experience with charging with solar? It would be great to get a solar blanket and not have to buy the controller to use with the plb40. Thanks
Great review! We can't wait to get a plb40 to use ourselves!
Thanks Mali. We found it to be a very high-performance battery. The discharge rate on lithium iron (vs lithium ion) is very impressive.
So if you stop your car and leave it plugged in to cigarette lighter, does it drain your starter battery or automatically start using the PLB40 power to run fridge?
It starts using the PLB40. It's an expensive setup, but it works perfectly.
I have used this battery a handful of times over the last few years & it was great. Now, as soon as the power readout indicates it is down to 92% when connected to my Dometic fridge, it shuts down & will not work again unless you disconnect it and recharge to 100%. So, it only powers my fridge about 50 minutes at a time before I have to recharge it.. So frustrating for the price!
Very helpful review - to the point, and exactly what we need to know about the battery. Thanks.
Do you have a link to the cable used for powering the fridge using the 2pin output socket? hard to find this type of cable.
Just bought both of these. Quick question. From 100% battery life on the PLB, how many days/hours would it power the fridge until the battery died?
You just made a great investment. It obviously depends on the ambient temperature, as well as the temperature you're running it at. When we were keeping it in the shade and running it at 40F we were able to get about three days out of it. On that weekend it was 60-70F outside. If we're using it for beer we run it at 34F and on hotter weekends it still easily powers it for two days (as they claim). It's the most impressive battery we've ever tested. Lithium Iron is worth the money (vs lithium ion) if you can afford it. They charge incredibly fast, discharge much slower, and stay charged when not in use for a LONG time. We also take it on group camping trips that are longer than two days to use as a power source for phones and cameras (not using it to power a cooler). It keeps 10 people charged up for four days easily.
@@outdoorsdotcom Thank you for the info. I greatly appreciate it!
Would you like to test SUV Doorstep ?
Has anyone found a briefcase solar panel that will charge this in the USA? I can’t seem to find a panel that has an Anderson Sb50 connector with it? I looked at Goal Zero Boulder 200 manual but it says it has Anderson High Power Port and looked different
What about running an A/C with it..would it be to small?
It's not meant to be an inverter so it doesn't have a 110V outlet. Even if it did, A/C units require a tremendous amount of energy. You're better off with a generator if you want A/C.
Thank you for the video!!
Looked at the price for PLB 40 and it is $850 for a ~500 Wh battery :O
Have you looked at the ~$500 Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500, (518Wh)?
It is only 13.32lbs and confirm it will power most if not all Dometic coolers, I have seen it go as low as $399.99 during black Friday and Christmas.
Only advantage PLB 40 has over Jackery is that PLB 40 uses Lithium Iron cell chemistry (slightly heavier but longer cycle life) vs Jackery's Lithium Ion cell chemistry.
1000$ come'on
They're $850, but you're right, they're not cheap. I'll say the same thing that I always do with products like this - it's not for people that camp for two days a few times a year. Those folks should just get a nice Igloo or Coleman for under $100. We do four trips a year that are a week long, and it's a great thing to have in that situation. They're also very popular in the overlanding community. Every product has an audience, and the PLB40 is for a very specific crowd.
@@outdoorsdotcom i am sure this is a good product,i really like the size of it,i made one myself for a lot cheaper and still working good with a 100w solar panel.Its 1000 dollards Canadian here 😉.
@@229Reaper Awesome! That's a great way to go if you have the skills.