Mobile energy sources
Power to go in the test: What power stations have to do
Maybe camping with a fan, cool box and fairy lights next time? And the notebook can also be charged? A perfect scenario for a power station. Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa-tmn
For the cool box at the quarry pond, the fairy lights when camping, the fan in the gazebo or when the power fails at home: that’s what power stations are good for. But how do they perform in tests?
Berlin (dpa/tmn) – When you need to charge more than just your smartphone or tablet when you’re far from a power socket, power stations are the answer. These are, so to speak, much larger power banks that in in addition to charging sockets also offer proper sockets for more power-hungry Gerte, such as for notebooks, fans or battery-powered tools. When choosing a power station, in addition to the amount of energy (watt-hours) that the integrated batteries can store, it is also important how much power the Ger￤te can deliver in the long term, reports Stiftung Warentest, which examined eleven Gerte with 400 to 644 watt-hours (Wh) (470 to 825 euros). This is what determines which devices can be operated with it (“test” issue 8/23).
The most expensive was the weakest
Of all things, the most expensive model in the test was the weakest and delivered at most 300 watts of continuous power via the earthed socket. This was too little for most electrical power tools, but also too little for a television set, for example, according to the testers.
The highest continuous power output of all the power stations tested was delivered by a device with 700 watts: according to the data, this is enough to run a jigsaw, for example, but also many a hoover or hand blender. However, none of the tested devices was designed for very power-hungry appliances such as hair dryers, coffee machines or electric grills. There are, however, appliances on the market that can deliver this much power.
Most deliver 500 watts of continuous power
Most of the power stations in the test deliver 500 watts of continuous power. This was also the case with the test winner Ecoflow River 2 Max (overall rating 2.1), which, with a price of 520 euros, is also the price tip of the product testers.
The Ecoflow was the only one to achieve the grade “very good” (1.5) in the important test item “function”. The only drawback: the 6.2-kilogram Ecoflow is the most unwieldy unit in the test in terms of its dimensions (width 27 cm x height 20 cm x depth 26 cm).
The second-placed Balderia Power Cube 500 (overall rating 2.3) for 525 euros also delivers 500 watts of continuous power, but is much more compact (width 23 cm x height 18 cm x depth 16 cm) and weighs 4.3 kilograms.
How does 10 hours of cooler operation sound?
Third place (overall rating 2.4) is shared by the Anker 535 Power-House (500 watts continuous power) for 550 euros and the Bluetti EB55 (700 watts continuous power) for 570 euros. They weigh 7.6 and 7.3 kilogrammes respectively.
Using a few sample devices, the product testers roughly estimated how far one can get with a 500-watt-hour power station.
65 hours of fairy lights, charging a laptop 10 times, running a cool box for 10 hours, charging a tool battery 13 times, working with a jigsaw for 1 hour, running a fan for 15 hours.
