I ordered this Ctechi 320w Power Station mainly to handle my modem/router and some lights during a power outage. During the winter, I have a gas fireplace to keep warm and can keep some of the food outdoors if necessary since it's cold. I just want to be sure I can access the world through my tablet and phone during an outage and be able to see when it's dark.
My first thought when opening the box, was there was no plastic sleeve wrapped around the unit. Oh, it was packed very nice and solid. Just thought not having a plastic cover was odd. I checked on line and sure enough, they all seem to come shipped this way. No problem, just wanted to be certain. I turned it on (hold the power button a few seconds) and it showed 4 bars. For the price, I'm perfectly fine with bars instead of numbers. Would it had been nice, sure, but not a deal breaker. I read online you should plug in various things and let it run until discharged when you first get it. That, I did!
At 8:35am I plugged my modem/router (all in one from cable company). Nothing happened. Duh, I forgot to press the AC button on the unit. Then the router did it's start up. BAMM I had internet without plugging it in to the wall. Some folks have asked, if there is internet without power. The answer should be yes because they run their own system with backups and unless they go down, we should be good. I'll find out should we have another blackout. Within a few minutes, it dropped to 3 bars. No worries. I left it going all day. At 4:30pm, I noticed my phone had no internet. I went to check on the Ctechi and roughly 8 hours later, the unit was off. That's with basically 3 bars. Outstanding.
My next attempt will be to use an extension and plug the router and a lamp up to see what happens. If I can get 8 hours, that's pretty amazing and well worth the price. Speaking of, with the $40 off coupon right now, it makes this power station, very affordable.
A few thoughts. I don't know how often, but occasionally when I'd check on the unit, the fan was running and the noise wasn't terrible, but it was there. Otherwise, quiet as can be. Just one of those "need to know" moments. The unit is small and compact and weighs roughly 9 pounds. Very easy to move around and it fits pretty much anywhere. It won't power your refrigerator. Don't even try. I saw a videos where someone powered up a very small refrigerator (smaller than those dorm ones), but that's about it. You probably can do maybe 150 watts?
And finally, it took me a good 6 hours to charge this thing to full capacity. I would have used the supplied PD 60w USB-C cable, which combined with the power adapter, charges in 3.5 hours. But wouldn't you know, they don't supply the adapter for the USB-C !! Not quite sure how they expect you to double charge your Power Station, but I'll order one and all will be good.
At this time I can highly recommend this unit. I'll continue to experiment with various loads to see what all I can get running on one charge. Should anything change, I'll be back to report.
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