Offgrid Power with a Solar Panel and Battery Combo - Rockpals Review - Rob Braxman Tech
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Date: 2022-03-20
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Comments and reviews: 10
Grumpy
Thank you very much for this video. I have been researching portable solar panels and batteries for weeks while looking for affordable dry camping, grid-down, and mobile bug-out solutions. There are so many combinations of brands, models, features, prices, and consumer reviews that my head was spinning. After making my -final decision-, far too many times, I ended with buying this very Rockpals combination of 100 watt panels with 300 watt battery before finding this video. Between spending the money and waiting for Amazon to ship, I began to have buyer's remorse, albeit with no alternative purchase in mind. I'm glad I found this video. It confirmed my research, math, and supports my final decision (really this time. No more buyer's remorse. I look forward to receiving the goods this week.
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Thank you very much for this video. I have been researching portable solar panels and batteries for weeks while looking for affordable dry camping, grid-down, and mobile bug-out solutions. There are so many combinations of brands, models, features, prices, and consumer reviews that my head was spinning. After making my -final decision-, far too many times, I ended with buying this very Rockpals combination of 100 watt panels with 300 watt battery before finding this video. Between spending the money and waiting for Amazon to ship, I began to have buyer's remorse, albeit with no alternative purchase in mind. I'm glad I found this video. It confirmed my research, math, and supports my final decision (really this time. No more buyer's remorse. I look forward to receiving the goods this week.
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Jeff
I just ordered the 300 Watt Rockpals. Under $200 at Amazon. Can't afford the solar panel yet, but I have shore power and water where I take my Mini RV built from a '98 Ford Windstar! I run a 12 can B&D fridge/freezer that draws 60 watts off the 12 volt and a separate freezerless mini-fridge (17- x 14- x 14-) that only draws 11 watts off the 110. (No compressor) This takes care of all the wiring for those of us who aren't electricians. Good to see it tested with the 100 watt panel. Now for some testing!
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I just ordered the 300 Watt Rockpals. Under $200 at Amazon. Can't afford the solar panel yet, but I have shore power and water where I take my Mini RV built from a '98 Ford Windstar! I run a 12 can B&D fridge/freezer that draws 60 watts off the 12 volt and a separate freezerless mini-fridge (17- x 14- x 14-) that only draws 11 watts off the 110. (No compressor) This takes care of all the wiring for those of us who aren't electricians. Good to see it tested with the 100 watt panel. Now for some testing!
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Jenny
Rockpals battery stations do not allow for pass-through charging, this means that they CANNOT be used while they are being charged. Further none of the ports are regulated which means if you have anything attached to them that fluctuates and its power draw then the output on the battery station will shut off the first time the power draw fluctuates and goes below a certain level, thisprevents the use of a 12 volt refrigerator that you may want to use in conjunction with this power station.
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Rockpals battery stations do not allow for pass-through charging, this means that they CANNOT be used while they are being charged. Further none of the ports are regulated which means if you have anything attached to them that fluctuates and its power draw then the output on the battery station will shut off the first time the power draw fluctuates and goes below a certain level, thisprevents the use of a 12 volt refrigerator that you may want to use in conjunction with this power station.
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Max
I have been using 200 watts of panels for 10 years and I've gone through about 12 batteries at $70 a pop
I use 150w Focal inverters which are $20 on Amazon and they don't have the annoying alarm
I use Automotive 12 volt socket connectors on the batteries so you can plug all kinds of things into the socket like blenders and fans and the inverter
My clunker 14in Lenovo I5 laptop uses too much energy for this system so I had to get a l210 Asus low-power laptop
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I have been using 200 watts of panels for 10 years and I've gone through about 12 batteries at $70 a pop
I use 150w Focal inverters which are $20 on Amazon and they don't have the annoying alarm
I use Automotive 12 volt socket connectors on the batteries so you can plug all kinds of things into the socket like blenders and fans and the inverter
My clunker 14in Lenovo I5 laptop uses too much energy for this system so I had to get a l210 Asus low-power laptop
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sw
Thank you so much for this great information. I wanted to purchase two of the rockpal 100 watt solar panels, however rockpal keeps telling me they can't be used in parallel or series for that matter. You say in this video that you can run two 100 watt panels in parallel. Could you please confirm this for me? I keep getting misinformation, and want to make sure I can use two rockpal 100 watt solar panels in parallel. Thanks again
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Thank you so much for this great information. I wanted to purchase two of the rockpal 100 watt solar panels, however rockpal keeps telling me they can't be used in parallel or series for that matter. You say in this video that you can run two 100 watt panels in parallel. Could you please confirm this for me? I keep getting misinformation, and want to make sure I can use two rockpal 100 watt solar panels in parallel. Thanks again
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Voltron512
I have this combo and regret purchasing it. I bought it in the hopes it could run a dometic low wattage fridge over night then use the panels to recharge in the morning. What I didn't know is the Rockpals produces unregulated DC voltage which means once it goes down to 80% it will not power the Dometic. Jackery is regulated so it will run the fridge until it runs out of juice. yikes, should of got the Jackery
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I have this combo and regret purchasing it. I bought it in the hopes it could run a dometic low wattage fridge over night then use the panels to recharge in the morning. What I didn't know is the Rockpals produces unregulated DC voltage which means once it goes down to 80% it will not power the Dometic. Jackery is regulated so it will run the fridge until it runs out of juice. yikes, should of got the Jackery
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Mad
This is way better than the cell phone sized solar power packs I keep bumping into. The last one I played around with would have required something like 7 to 14 of them on rotation just to keep the cell phones going; the earlier tech was way to weak to be practical even with a whole bunch of them they functioned better as just rechargeable usb battery packs than as a way to harvest solar energy.
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This is way better than the cell phone sized solar power packs I keep bumping into. The last one I played around with would have required something like 7 to 14 of them on rotation just to keep the cell phones going; the earlier tech was way to weak to be practical even with a whole bunch of them they functioned better as just rechargeable usb battery packs than as a way to harvest solar energy.
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Maria
I just ordered this Rockpals 100W panel and I'm very happy I chose this one for my Honda Jackery 290 because it offers a great deal of versatility compared to the Jackery 100W panel. Not to mention the price difference. I got mine directly from Rockpal and paid $180. 00. That's a fair price I think.
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I just ordered this Rockpals 100W panel and I'm very happy I chose this one for my Honda Jackery 290 because it offers a great deal of versatility compared to the Jackery 100W panel. Not to mention the price difference. I got mine directly from Rockpal and paid $180. 00. That's a fair price I think.
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Rob
I tested the Solar panel charge time and it fully charged in under 4 hours! This is much better than other reviews that said 5-6 hours. The fact that it charged so fast means you have extra power to spare beyond what I computed in the video, especially during the daytime when it's bright outside.
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I tested the Solar panel charge time and it fully charged in under 4 hours! This is much better than other reviews that said 5-6 hours. The fact that it charged so fast means you have extra power to spare beyond what I computed in the video, especially during the daytime when it's bright outside.
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John
YouTube why are you now just showing me this when I been requesting videos for two weeks for this product? Product ordered already after researching this and the competition but still need to decide on the type of solar panel. Anyone know if I can use a windmill to charge the Rockpalls station?
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YouTube why are you now just showing me this when I been requesting videos for two weeks for this product? Product ordered already after researching this and the competition but still need to decide on the type of solar panel. Anyone know if I can use a windmill to charge the Rockpalls station?
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