review – ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W Portable Power Station is perfect for camping, picnics or short power outages and can come in handy in these and many other situations where 500 watts of power is required. Let’s take a look at what this sleek and powerful device has to offer.
What is it?
ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W Portable power plant The simplest is a rechargeable 505 W/hr battery, electronics that produce 500 watts of pure sine wave AC, circuits that provide standard USB-A and USB-C with 45 watts of power output, and a regulated 12V DC output. If you have access to a set of devices, that device can be charged using AC, DC, USB-C and/or a solar panel.
It’s a small and powerful power station that can power almost any typical electronic device. It perfectly powers my 55″ LG HDTV, Xfinity cable box, Apple TV, Bose soundbar and my APC UPS at the same time. The entire setup requires only 133 watts of combined power, as indicated by the device’s built-in display.
Specification
- Capacity 504.44 Wh/140,400mAh
- Dimensions 12.0” x 9.0” x 6.1”
- Weight 12.3 lbs
- Input DC Port: DC Port: 24V @ 3A, 72W
- Input USB C PD Port: USB-C PD Port: 5V@3A, 9V@3A, 12@3A, 15V@3A, 20V@2.25A
- Solar Panel: Solar Panel: 11-24V 120W Max
- Car Port: 12V @ 10A
- 2 x 5mm DC ports: 12V@5A
- 2 X AC output: 100-120V 60Hz (500W nominal, 750W peak)
- 2x USB output: 12V@5A
- USB-A QC output ports: 5V @ 3A, 9V @ 1.5
- USB-C PD output port: 5V@3A, 9V@3A, 12V@3A, 15V@3A, 20V@2.25A
- Battery Type: Lithium Ion
- Lifetime: ≥ 500
- Operating temperature: charging temperature: 0°C – 40°C, discharge temperature: -10°C-40°C
- Safety protection: overheat protection, overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, short circuit protection
The ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W Portable Power Station can power almost any electronic device and is perfect for all handheld electronics, laptops, TVs, portable speaker systems, and more. Any combination consumes less than 500 watts of power.
It should be noted that it is not intended to power larger appliances such as full-size refrigerators and freezers, microwaves, space heaters, toasters, hair dryers, etc. It’s a perfect size for almost every other device. While I haven’t camped with this unit, I think it’s perfect for more primitive campsites that require AC, DC, and full USB charging.
What’s in the box?
My ROCKPALS Rockpower 500 Portable Power Station sample comes in a visually appealing box designed for store shelves. I would like to see this unit shipped in a more discrete fashion. Depending on where you live, this box will scream “steal me” from the curb. That said, the box contains the device, an AC charging brick, a DC charging cigarette lighter plug, and three small documents: a user guide, safety precautions, and a quick-start guide.
What’s in the box.
The unit arrived at 59 percent state of charge. Before use, I use the included AC adapter to fully charge the device to 100% as recommended in the documentation. During charging, the device’s fan will start. Recharging takes approximately 3 hours and 35 minutes. Once the device is fully charged, the device will shut down along with the fan.
Charge with AC
Design and Features
In my opinion, the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500 Portable Power Station, a grey box with red and black accents, is visually appealing at least to me. The unit has a really nice display that can be turned off and communicates all the information you need to know while the unit is running, whether it’s charging, discharging, or both.
There are four different ways to charge your device. As mentioned, the unit can of course be charged via the included AC adapter, which charges at 68 watts. You can use USB-C PD to charge at 45 watts, and you can charge the device at 54 watts using the included DC cigarette adapter, at least that’s what my car offers.
One thing that was a bit of a headache at first was that the unit didn’t seem to be able to charge some of the newer external battery packs that use USB-C to charge and discharge. When you plug in one of the battery packs, the external battery pack starts charging the device instead of the device charging the external battery pack. I can tell you that using an external battery pack to charge the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W power station does drain the external battery pack very quickly. This is the case of a glass for filling a pitcher versus a pitcher for filling a glass.
Of course, I’m sure the reason the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500 Portable Charging Station’s USB-C port accepts power for charging is to accommodate USB-C power as a charging option, such as the power brick that comes with laptops. This feature also allows people to quickly charge the device using both the supplied AC charging adapter and the power provided by the USB-C laptop brick. In fact, using AC and the output of my M1 MacBook Pro brick, I achieved 107 watts of input device power versus 67 watts from the AC charging brick itself.
In addition to this unit, ROCKPALS also ships a very nice 100W portable solar charging pad. On a clear morning, the solar panel provides the same charging capacity as the included AC adapter at 68 watts. I’m sure in a more perfect direction; you’ll get something closer to the solar panel’s 100W rating. Unlike the unit’s shipping container, the solar panels come in a plain brown box that doesn’t hide its contents.
100 watt solar panel in shipping mode
The solar panels are fully on.
Units powered simultaneously, AC, DC, USB @ 117 watts
The unit has four separate power buttons. One main, one for pure sine wave inverting AC, one for controlling the 12V DC port, the DC part of the cigarette lighter, and the last one for the USB port. Note that all three sections can provide energy at the same time. So you can power an AC fan while simultaneously powering a portable DC refrigerator and charging your phone, iPad or even a laptop (AC or USB-C).
One thing to note about charging is that this unit can only accept and deliver energy on the DC portion of the unit. Regardless of the charging source (AC, Solar, USB-C, DC car adapter), as long as you try to charge the device while supplying AC power, the AC pure sine wave inverter will turn itself off to charge the device. This means that the unit will not be able to power your AC home electronics while it is being charged. Thankfully, one can charge USB devices and even power a DC appliance or two while charging from a solar panel, with a reported total of 117 DC watts.
I couldn’t load the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500 portable power station to 500 watts, I tried. I have a halogen work light that draws over 500 watts at the highest setting, which resets the unit. The best I could do was hook up a bunch of stuff to make this unit draw 450 watts, which is really cool. When doing so, a 10% drop in state of charge appears to happen in about five and a half minutes. If you do the math, the unit should be able to power that load for nearly 50 minutes, considering that the unit won’t be running below 10% AC load. Creating such a load is indeed an artificial situation. Again, it seems to me that the unit is designed to power typical portable electronics, so I just don’t think it has a problem powering the various things it’s adapted for.
One thing that was a little disappointing was the loudness of the fans. Since I’m sure heat dissipation is a big deal, it’s probably not something that can be completely avoided. The fans are activated when charging and discharging with any load above 40 watts. I can’t find the exact location. The speed of the fan depends on the load (charging and discharging), as it speeds up as the load increases and shuts off when the load drops below a certain threshold. I think I noticed three different speeds. It’s worth mentioning that there is no fan running when using this unit powered by USB, again, if it’s not overloaded by a heavy USB load. So completely silent operation in this mode.
set up
Depending on your planned usage, I would make sure that the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500 Portable Power Station is fully charged before you try to use it heavily. Press and hold the main power button for a few seconds to wake the device and display the battery’s charge status. You can then activate any of the three separate powered sections, AC, DC or USB. Each button has an embedded LED so you can easily see which parts of the device are powered.
Another thing to keep in mind is that once the battery state of charge reaches 10%, the unit will block the use of AC loads. Notably, the DC and USB circuits remain active at 10% charge. I have an iPad that is 57% charged and has 6% remaining. It takes more than 7 hours to charge the device from 6% AC to full charge.
Another test I ran was with an M1 MacBook Pro. I dropped my laptop’s battery down to 38% and decided to see how the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W Portable Power Station would perform in this situation. The ROCKPALS was at 44% state of charge to start the test. Laptops stop charging at 80% via USB-C (Mac OS manages laptop charging to extend laptop battery life), ROCKPALS is 38%. Doing a little math, this is predicted based on the size of the ROCKPALS battery and the size of the laptop battery. Like charging a phone, the laptop didn’t generate enough power to trigger the fans to keep running, so the laptop charged quietly throughout the test.
Finally, here is a set of images showing the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500 portable power station being charged by the sun. This whole sun-charged thing is pretty cool, I just had to attach some pictures. This is my first exposure to this and it feels good to charge the device through the sun.
Solar panels charge the unit
what do I like?
- Love the unit’s sturdy look, convenient size and weight.
- The display tells you everything you need to know and can be turned off when needed.
- The construction looks very solid.
- Flexibility in the number of outputs and charging options.
What would I change?
- I wish the fan was quieter.
- It would be great to accept energy while powering an AC load.
Final thoughts?
Back in the 80s, when I had a pop-up camper, I had an external 12V car battery and a very industrial 200 W non-pure sine wave inverter. The camper’s battery will charge while the camper is being pulled, and this setup will provide enough power to power two small fans or a small TV on weekends. I never actually used the TV and never knew how much battery I had left. Enter the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W Portable Power Station. ROCKPALS not only provide more power, but in more different ways, accurately display remaining power, and are much easier to carry and charge than 12V car batteries and inverters of the past. In short, the ROCKPALS Rockpower 500W Portable Power Station is compact, beautiful and perfect for what it was designed for. Just like the 12V battery above, it can be easily charged while driving to your destination, and if you add a solar panel, then you can easily charge at your destination using solar energy. You can’t beat that.
price: $344.99
Where to buy: Amazon
source: Samples for this review are provided by rock buddies.
