The Jackery 3000 is a seriously powerful portable power station. Let’s get the big details in first – the battery consists of a hefty 3024 Wh, and the unit can output 3000W of continuous power. It has a massive 6000W peak surge capacity, which means you can run extremely heavy power consuming appliances, especially the likes of air con units, sump pumps, and electric power tools that have a massive start up wattage. It’s got a best-in-class power-to-weight ratio, it oozes 3024Wh of power out of a 63-pound box. Light for a power station with this much juice. Once you add solar panels – the Jackery 3000 Pro becomes one of the fastest charging solar generators in the market, and with smart battery management, you will never run out of power.

Jackery was the first company to bring portable power stations on the market in 2016, and since then they have gone on to sell more than 2 million of their products (including solar generators and all the accessories).

If you are going solar, there is no point in getting it without the solar panels. So this review will focus on the Jackery 3000 Solar generator bundle.

Here’s what you get with this package.

• Jackery 3000 Pro Portable Power Station
• 2 X 200W Solar Saga Panels

Jackery calls the design of their power station a portable suitcase. It’s like a chunky box with an extendable handle and wheels. So it’s easy to pull its 60 pounds of bulk about, letting the handle and wheels take the load so your poor back doesn’t.

Jackery 200W SolarSaga Panel

The accompanying panels with this solar generator kit are the most powerful in the Jackery line-up. These 200-watt panels are definitely the best option for charging the 3000 Pro power station. Here is the difference in recharge times for the Jackery 100 and 200 watt solar panel models, so you can clearly see that a high output power station needs the most powerful solar panels possible.

If solar is going to be your main means of charging, then you can see why you need at least two 200W panels. If you are powering smaller devices, you can opt for a much smaller portable power station like the Jackery Explorer 1000 or the Jackery E1500, and that way your recharge times are going to be faster. But a 3000Wh battery needs a lot more solar input; if not, you are going to have to wait forever for it to charge. If you opt for the 3000 Pro solar generator package, you receive 2 x 200W panels. Then, some time in the future, if you decide to purchase another 200-watt panel, you can reduce the recharge time from 9.5 hours to a very manageable 6.5 hours. A single panel will do it in 19.5 hours, so that’s not going to fully work. But you could still get it up to maybe 50% if you were to hook it up to one for most of the day.

Where Will The Jackery Explorer 3000 Pro Solar Generator Excel?

Normally I’d say camping, but with this much power, that will automatically be elevated to glamping, as you can bring loads of luxuries and keep them charged for days without having to top up the power stations battery. Jackery reckons it can keep all your essentials going for 48 hours without needing a recharge.

If you are someone who likes to get away and enjoy the tranquility without the annoying hum of noisy appliances, you won’t notice when the power station is running as it operates at 30 dB, which is barely audible. It’s actually equivalent to whispering. A library with an overprotective librarian usually levels out at 40 dB.

When you are on the move, the solar panels fold up for easy storage and snap together with magnetic strips. They are pretty light, weighing 7.93kg (17.5 lbs) each. They have a top handle, so you can easily carry them when you are on the move. They can be placed on the ground and have 3 adjustable kickstands on the rear to keep them upright and help with angling them towards the sun. These monocrystalline silicon cell panels are also pretty tough, and weather- and corrosive-resistant, just like regular roof top panels, only lighter and more portable. But one more thing not often mentioned is that these solar panels look absolutely gorgeous. Yes, you can say that about them, with the blazing orange and black Jackery colors, these babies look slick and will turn heads when you’re on the campsite or having a garden get together.

Explorer 3000 Pro Shortcomings

If you want ultra fast charging times, especially if you are on the move, you will have to use AC. Car charging takes way too long, you can avail of it as you drive between destinations, but once you are set down, you’ll have to find a plug socket at a camp, and if there is none and you want to use solar, it does have pass through charging, which means you can plug in all your devices and recharge it at the same time, but it will take 9.5 hours to charge with the 2 supplied 200W solar panels. Which can be burdensome if there is not much sun coverage.

If you want to get the super fast recharge time of just under 3 hours, you’ll have to buy another 4 of the 200 watt panels, which adds almost another $3k to the price, unless there’s an offer on. Yeouch.

You also can’t expand the system, so if you want to add another battery and increase the watt-hour capacity to 6000Wh it’s not possible. You’ll have to opt for another system like the Jackey 2000 Plus, or buy 2 x 3000 Pros. At that stage, opting for an expandable EcoFlow Delta Pro system that allows you to expand the system would be less hassle than running two separate 3000X power stations. Geneverse also makes a power station especially catered to home power backup, specifically the HomePower TWO PRO. See my post here:

Jackery 3000 Pro Comparison vs Yeti 3000X

So let’s pit these 3000-Wh power stations against one another.

The Jackery 3000 certainly wins this battle. The price is the same at the time of writing, the power station is 15 pounds lighter (which makes it the best power-to-weight ratios in the market), and the solar charging just with a single panel is much faster. It also has 2 more AC outputs and superior wall charge times. The Jackery E3000 PRO also has a much higher surge wattage capacity, 6000 as opposed to 3500 on the Yeti. It can also run 3000W of continuous power the Yeti is limited to 2000W.

One of the main reasons for choosing Jackery over Goal Zero is the superior battery life. It will last 5 times as long before the efficiency drops to approximately 30%. It will keep going for years after this. The Yeti has a relatively short battery life of 500 cycles before it drops to just over 80%. not long enough if you are a power user. They may revamp the 3000X in the future, but for now, the Jackery 3000X is way out in front. And one more thing: you have to upgrade the power supply and pay close to $200 extra if you want to drop the wall charging time from 14 hours to 6 with Goal Zero.

So Why Would Anyone Dare Spending this much on Portable Power?

Apart from the clean renewable power it provides, if you want to b prepared for a blackout, go off-road in style, or like to integrate a solar generator into your home circuits to cut down on bills, a solar generator this size that can replenish itself has some great appliance run times.

You can run these appliances for this long:

• 520W Fridge: 5 hours
• Electric Grill : 3hours
• Coffee maker: 3 hours
• 60W TV: 35 hours

With AC charging, the 3000X Pro charges as fast as some power stations that only output 1000Wh.

Concluding Thoughts

If you want or need stacks of power at your fingertips, and the means to recharge pretty fast, Jackery offers power-hungry users the means to go off grid or back up their home power supply with the 3000X. It’s a serious investment, especially if you want to go full solar. It might be way overboard for someone who just wants to keep the kids devices going on holidays, but for people who are on regular RV tours and want to have everything going during extended grid failures, this is a great option. If you want to really cut back on home grid use or supplement it, 3024 Wh might not be enough. Look at the Delta Pro (reviewed here) or consider the 2000 Plus from Jackery (reviewed here), with additional expansion batteries.