Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE after three months: It's not good as an ups. Or backup power when connected to mains. This won't be addressed as there are no firmwares or anything to update. After a few month's, and a few power outages, and after already realizing it doesn't automatically turn back on, I kept it. However the UPS function has more flaws. It fails under a typical brownout. So any short brownout or surge, may not reliably keep power going. It may turn off. I just don't think it's correct to market any UPS functionality. Yes, it can "work". In a lab maybe. But under real world conditions it does not. Examples: Long power outage: AC loss, Battery drains completely, that's fine, but when AC recovers, the inverter will not restore power. So you'd have to be there to turn it back on once it reaches 2% charge. Medium clean power outage: If AC power is removed, the anker will carry the load, and when AC cleanly recovers, it'll passthrough and charge. My computers handle this fine. This is the only scenario that works how an ups should work. Brownouts: Apparently under these conditions, there is no hysteresis, and the anker will just turn off. If power comes back on too quickly?, it'll turn off. A brownout happened while you were gone? Better make sure your fridge isn't off. You had a brownout while sleeping? I guess your CPAP will just stay off because the power blipped :/ So for my real world conditions, it's just as likely to interrupt power than provide it. I've just never had issues like this, with any ups I've ever owned. Execution is 90%, and anker agreed to take it back for a 90% refund after 3 months. I dunno. ===================== Initial review It's very expensive. The manual is incomplete. Lot of sales/marketing cruft can be misleading. Anker support is pretty responsive. They don't get sick of answering questions. They comprehend them and generally give complete answers. I have faith in their 5 year warranty. It's a good product. I don't need a device like this all the time. But I figured it could be a decent computer UPS when not needed elsewhere. It's a very powerful UPS but falls short in a couple areas. UPS stuff: 1. It does not restore power like a normal ups can. This means if you run it down completely, once AC is restored, you need to press the on button again :/ I wouldn't trust it to run a freezer, without human intervention/monitoring, and in fact, I wouldn't leave it inline all the time, in case it got turned off. 2. It does not present any warnings before turning off. I don't think there is anything that can beep on the device. It powers off at 1%, and won't allow you to power it back on (passthrough) until 2% (which it reaches quickly). The display will be off because the timeout is short. 3. It seems more likely to accidentally NOT run your load. If it trips, it won't try again. If it dies, it'll not be on anymore, until you turn it on. It should always be on when AC is connected, and you just cannot be guaranteed that it'll be inverting when the is AC power available. Perhaps I'm being too hard, but no, I wouldn't keep something I wasn't monitoring, connected full time, whereas I WOULD keep my old APC ups inline. Those are just facts. Something I didn't find in the manual, or the marketing crap.... is how to calculate inverter run time. Device run time = 1229Wh*0.8/(<device watts> +30W). So 80% efficient, and 30w consumed in non eco mode, if the inverter is on. This is all reasonable. Run times: The inverter uses 30w (on battery) just to be "on". This means the longest it can run with no load is around 48-50 hours. Just keep that in mind. Don't run small loads on the inverter. Run them on DC. There you are limited to 120w + whatever usb can do (which is a lot). So if you are running a 12w load That's 23.4 hours on inverter. inverter runtime = 1229Wh*0.8/(12w +30W) If you run it on DC That's 80 hours'ish on DC dc runtime = 1229Wh*0.9/ 12W+(1~2W) So if you need a fan, probably get a dc fan. Same with lights. Same with most light loads, because you'll be limited otherwise and it's not intuitive, if you are basing things on their marketing/cruff. It's not lies, it's just, I dislike marketing crap on websites that give vague statements that are partly true. If you are already having to run a load on the inverter, then running smaller loads in addition, will affect runtime less. Perhaps this is common knowledge to people, but I just wanted to drive it home. The marketing page might have you believe you can run your 12w lightbulb for 80 hours though..... That's partly true, just not on AC. DC input. The dc input is limited to 30v and also 10amps?. This is a confusing and somewhat limiting voltage. It's right on the cusp of a 60cell solar panel. Technically, you can charge on a 60cell panel, but you may have to shade it, or wait for clouds, to bring the open voltage low enough, to start charging, then the current will bring the voltage down. The good news is, it doesn't explode seeing 40v on the input, but it also doesn't allow any current to flow. So for solar, It's basically a mess. I'm still not certain how the DC input is "supposed" to function. There are no useful docs about it's behavior. For me, that meant a 240w 60cell panel, once coerced below 30v, and charging, did around 170w at best. YMMV. Now lets talk about 12v charging. It'll only pull 120w. This makes sense as perhaps it's a car, and it shouldn't just melt your wires :) So it appears to me, that the DC input, is current limited to 10amps. Basically, the DC input, is both confusing, and less useful. But hey, it seems to protect itself from overvoltage, and CAN charge from solar. But there is nothing specific in the docs about how it actually functions, and I'm completely guessing only under ideal conditions, of 30v, will it ever actually do 300w..... I assume the panels they sell, in reality are 12v panels, in parallel, which will still only yield 120w best case. But may still yield 120w under not ideal conditions.... But I don't actually know, because there are no docs on this stuff. Anker, wasn't so forthcoming about the DC input, other than it's ok to hook up a 60cell panel, and "it just does not work when the voltage is over 30V." My guess is 10 amps limited. I have not viewed sign waves, or tested for interference.... The AC charger/inverter is fast. It makes up for all the things I don't like. It's the right size, the right build quality, and has enough power. The reasons I kept this expensive device. 1. I think anker will stand behind it, for 5 years. They have chat, and email support. I've talked to both. 2. It charges exceptionally fast. 1000w is no joke. It's great for someone like me, that only remembers I need it, in an hour from now :) It's just convenient. It also cannot be throttled, but I've yet to pop a circuit breaker. 3. It's quiet. Save for the inverter getting a little "ringy" running a 1450w microwave, the fans and inverter are quiet. It's quiet. It really stays pretty quiet :) 4. It's the biggest I want to carry, or be mobile with. It's the right size and still moveable :) 5. usb charges things at 90w no problem. It's pretty legit. 6. Even though the ups stuff is flawed, it can back two workstations and monitors, and doesn't break a sweat running 900w+ on battery. That far exceeds my 1400va ups, which would start screaming at 700w. It's also more predictable displaying the projected runtime, so even though it doesn't yell, I can tell when I need to turn off my computers if I remember to look and click the display button...... Other things I don't like: 1. it's actually really hard to see the sockets :) It sounds dumb, but in the dark it's hard to see that stuff. 2. It's not a real ups :/ It's so close that it makes me a little upset with anker. They shouldn't call it an USP. 3. I've pressed the inverter button many times by accident, when attempting to press the display button :/ It's so bad that I'm going to put a cover on that inverter button. I'd have preferred a switch! 4. The display timeout is not adjustable, and is usually way too short. See number 3. 5. The dc input..... It's limited. 6. The lack of a high powered dc output. That's my review. And I kept it, but unfortunately, I'm still not done testing it. Which is a testament to the lack of technical information available.