Cobra 200W Power Station - Portable Power, Fast Charge USB, LED Flashlight, AC Outlets, 200W Pure Sine Wave, 12V Socket, AC and 12V Cables, Solar Panel Compatible

Purchased tow, both defective and both appeared to have been returned as they were missing warranty cards and had open booklets. Neither would hold a charge and neither would function. Each appeared to have had the internal battery removed by the person who previously purchased them or both had been unused for so long the battery became stagnant. Either way, will not be purchasing again. Very disappointed in the quality control of this item and situation.

I really liked this unit for charging from a 12v solar cell and then charging my phone/laptop/etc. Here are the pros and cons. Pros: -Has a big and clear LCD readout for status. It dims after a bit to use less power but is still, dimly readable. -Has a molded and sturdy handle, very handy. -Clearly labeled on bottom with input/output specs which is convenient if you don’t have the manual handy (or lost it). -Has a fan to cool when using the AC power out; this could help save it from overheating. -Charges with the included charger, a solar cell or other DC voltage source at 12-30V. That is a useful range because most solar cells I have are at 12-18V DC. My pack’s input center pin is positive (but double-check your unit to be sure). -Can charge out of every USB port at once which is helpful for charging many phones/etc. at once. -Has built in LED light, handy in a power outage. Minor Con: -Charges with the included 7.9x5.5 mm DC connector not the more common 5.5x2.1 mm DC connector. If needed, an adapter is easily obtained for charging from a solar cell with the common 5.5x2.1 mm DC connector, but it took me a bit to verify the connect measurements with a calipers.

I got this because I live in the mountains in California and between fires, squirrels (yes, squirrels), and snow storms, power outages are kind of a thing here. So I thought, this handy doodad can help us be a little more comfortable when we refuse to fire up the generator because we're still in denial about how long the power will be out. For those of you who don't speak "electricity," and by that I mean "what on earth is a watt?" - I've run some simple tests on this battery. Obviously things like the fridge, the standalone freezer, and the computers were out of the question. I started each test with the power station fully charged to 100%. 1.) A 70w fan. I don't know what 70w is, but my husband does. It's a box fan that sits in the window, roughly 2ftx2ft square. I plugged this bad boy in, set it to "2," then walked away. The alarm for the battery went off after 15 minutes. I theorize the alarm goes off at 10%, but by the time I'd walked from my computer to the window fan, it was down to 7%. So for those of you hoping for a window fan on those blistering summer blackouts, this will not fit the bill. 2.) My laptop. So it's not a beastly laptop, it's a Lenovo Flex14, basically a touchscreen with a keypad and a windows 10 operating system strictly for writing, googling, and zoom meetings. I plugged it in to this power station when the laptop was at 5%. Output read 33w. Weirdly enough, after 15 minutes the power station read 0%, yet the alarm never went off, the fans kept going, and the laptop kept charging. I shrugged at let it be. The output continued to shoot around between 48w and 54w over the next 2 hours and 16 minutes, until my laptop was fully charged. All while the power station read 0%. I didn't know how much power was really left in the power station. And it's not the fastest power transfer, as the laptop usually charges in the wall socket in about half an hour. 3.) Because we always need more light in this big house at night, I plugged in some LED christmas lights. They drew 4w. After one hour, they only dropped the power station to 96%. Based on this math, I can logically deduce I can string together the maximum amount of these (They say on the box - isn't it like 21 of them?) and only burn like 84% of the power station in an hour. Easy light. Moving on. 4.) My kid's ipad. It was at 0% on start. The tablet drew 6w from the power station, and after 5 hours and 22 minutes the tablet only reached 80% charge and the experiment had to end because unlike my test subjects, I am not a machine and needed sleep. The power station was still at 72% at this point. 5.) The TV. We have a 55 inch Roku smart TV. It drew 126w at startup, then hummed at 112 for basic running. At 50 minutes, the power station's alarm for low battery went off (meaning 10%). You get about an hour of TV watching out of this. I only ran 5 experiments on it. Will be willing to do more as long as it's not too much of a pain. The weird thing is the fans on each side are amazingly loud. Like probably the same amount of noise as my box fan (see above). The red "input" light comes on around 20%, indicating that the power station is hungry for more juice. I find this a bit redundant, as I can hear the alarm and see the remaining charge on the display (which might be questionable). Why did I knock off a star? Because as seen on experiment #2, the remaining charge is unreliable. The fans are extremely loud. The charge is far from "fast." It has a very strong "new plastic" smell - which I kind of like but others might not. And despite this power station's size, it really doesn't offer too much oomph. Still, I give it four stars because it will come in handy mostly for lighting. We tend to string christmas lights all over the house for those weekend-long blackouts, and this will be safer and brighter than our oil lamps. It'll also come in handy for keeping the kids' devices from flatlining, but I doubt any of my ankle biters are going to wait the 5 hours it takes to charge an ipad. Overall: Neat power station for all the little things, but not enough juice to make a significant difference in our blackout glamping.

The media could not be loaded. I do a lot of camping, tailgating, and fishing so having means of portable power is a huge must! I have a decent assortment of powerpacks and solar generators so I am always grabbing new ones when I see them which is how I ended up trying the COBRA 200w Power Station. First off this seems to be very nice, great capacity at 200Wh and plenty of outlets, 2x AC, 2x USB standard, 1x USB fast, 1x 12v car style. Best of all it can be charged via standard solar panels! First a little TLDR: Pros: 1) 200Wh capacity. 2) Passthrough power/charging. 3) Works with standard portable solar panels. 4) Has both work and flashlights. 5) Pure sine wave, while I do not have an oscilloscope to verify this, I do trust COBRA products and have no doubt that it is true sine wave. Cons NOTE: that these are more of nitpicks than real issues, THERE ARE NO issues I have seen in my testing: 1) The plastic casing, I prefer metal but this is a personal preference. 2) Lack of a folding handle, the outsized handle is nice but makes it impossible to stack when packing the back of my WJ for a camping trip unless it is on top. IN THE BOX/ASSEMBLY – In the box we have the power station, the AC charger and cable, a 12v charging cable, and the manual. There is literally no setup other than topping off the batteries on a first charge USE – Use is super easy, the display is informative and will tell you input and output wattage, battery level in both percentage and gauge, and what outputs are on, each output has a output on light also where the buttons are located. To use the lights press once to turn on the flashlight and rapid press to switch from always on, strobe, and SOS settings. Long press to switch to work light, and press once to turn off. Note that if there is a drawback here it’s to have the worklight on, the flashlight must also be on. To use the power outputs press the button next to the desired output and plug in the device or devices. You can use any one or combination of outputs at the same time. I tested the USB ports using them to charge a portable battery pack and measured 12.2V at 1.48A from the fast USB port and 5.05V at .29A from the standard USB port. I took it out for the day and ran various items off of it including my laptop and charging the batteries for my Mini2 drone. I meant to bring my watt meter but forgot it. I can say it had zero issues running everything for the few hours I was out and still had 12% when I got home. I also tested it with both offbrand 50W solar panels I own and they charge the power station with no issues. One last thing to note, the COBRA power station will power your items while it charges which is a huge plus in my book! FINAL THOUGHTS – This power station is a big bang for the money and if I had any complaints pricewise is I think it should be about 30 buck cheaper for the capacity it has OR should be in the 250Wh capacity at the price it currently is. That said I am NOT disappointed and will be using my COBRA for years to come I am sure!