Camper Dreamin'
- Oct 6, 2020
- 5 min read

Review | Poweroak Bluetti High Capacity Power Station for RV

An honest review of the PowerOak Bluetti 1500Wh 1000W Power Station. Spoiler alert - it's turned out to be a really good solution for us.

Our electrical setups have never been anything more powerful than 12v. We like that 12v is simpler, safer and hassle free compared to 240v and we’ve always rather make do with leaving some things behind on our road trips rather than upgrade to 240v. However, earlier this year I treated myself to an e-bike and we made peace with the fact that we would need to upgrade to 240v if I wanted to be able to recharge my bike battery when on the road. We researched different inverters, watched and learned as fellow e-bike owners had their inverters fail on them and were just about to grudgingly commit to buying one when MaxOak reached out to us asked us to test out their EB150 PowerOak Bluetti Power Station which powers AC and DC. Talk about perfect timing!

They originally offered us their AC50 which has a rated power of 300W which would be too low for our 380W e-bike battery charger so instead they offered us the EB150 which has rated power of 1000W. We didn’t want to take a risk with our expensive e-bike battery and made sure the power station would be suitable for it.

So, some stats about the power pack before we review it.

The EB150 is a high capacity portable power station/solar generator with 1500Wh power stored in it’s lithium battery pack.
It can run big power devices such as blenders, hair dryers and of course, e-bike batteries.
It features 4 USB Outputs, Two AC Outlets, and Car Port for multiple applications.
It can be charged via solar (MC4 solar charging cable is included) or AC wall outlet.

We decided to give the power pack a good test run on our recent road trip around Wales. We knew we’d be doing a lot of riding so the e-bike battery would need to be topped up regularly. We charged the pack before we hit the road and then stored it away for when we would need it.

Our first impression of the pack was how solid it is and that is reflected in the weight. It weighs just over 17.2kg so something to consider for those who count every kg that goes into their campervans, for us the extra weight is no problem. The plus side to this is that it feels like a very well built bit of kit. Our lifestyle doesn’t lend well to delicate or fragile items so the power station worked well for us on the road. We had no concern stashing it in the garage with all our other gear and hauling it out when we need to use it. We could have it charging in the main cab when driving and not be concerned about it falling over. It has a really good strong handle built into the unit to make moving it about easy.

In terms of performance, it does exactly what it is meant to do. The sole purpose of having this on the road with us was to charge the e-bike and it did exactly that. We reckon we could get 3 full charges of the battery when on the road without needing to recharge the power station - that’s a lot of miles on the bike! As well as our e-bike battery we had it powering our MacBook, phones, tablets, GoPro, speakers and projector (we have an embarrassing number of gadgets) and it powered everything easily. I usually leave my laptop behind on road trips but the power station meant I could bring it with us and get some work done on the road. FYI, the AC outlet is pure sine wave rather than modified sine wave so can charge laptops and other premium electrics unlike cheaper products on the market. Pure sine wave is as close to 240AC as you can get.

The Positives

The biggest positive for us was not having to mess about with installing 240v in our van. After two camper conversions Laurie is a pro at 12v now and is very confident in the safety and efficiency of our electrical setup. However, working with 240v is whole other kettle of fish! We heard a lot of horror stories about inverters failing on the road or causing safety issues and we were apprehensive to install something that wasn’t correct. The Bluetti power station takes all the stress out if it! It’s extremely easy to use, feels incredibly safe and we now feel confident that it wouldn’t let us down on the road. And even better, it’s totally separate, so if it was to fail it wouldn’t cause any damage to the rest of our electrics.

Another plus is it’s portability, we only need to get it out when we need it and it can be carried outside the van for when we want to use it outdoors. We had a power cut at home this week and after the ‘oh sh*t’ moment knowing I had a full day of meetings and no way to charge my laptop, I then had a light bulb moment and realised we had the power station as a back up.

We are super stoked that MaxOak has now also gifted us the SP120 Poweroak Bluetti 120W Solar Panel so we can charge the power station when on the road. We didn’t need to recharge it on our latest road trip (we came back with plenty of juice still in it) but on longer adventures we wanted to have the means to charge it if need be. We took the solar panel for a spin on a weekend adventure and got a real buzz seeing the power station getting charged up from the sun. We anticipate this being really useful on long wild camping trips.

The Negatives

It's easy for us to rave about this product when we haven't forked out the money for it but the biggest and most obvious drawback to the power station has to be the cost. Coming in at £1500 it's definitely not the cheapest solution to having 240v in your van. If we had to choose between installing an inverter or purchasing the power station it's hard to know what we'd opt for. Before testing it out it I think we'd opt for the inverter, but now we have it, I think we'd consider going in this direction as it has so many different uses.

We've read some reviews saying that charging time is slow. We definitely didn't find this to be true but it could be we need to spend more time using the product to give an accurate verdict on this.

Another negative, as mentioned before, is that it is a heavy bit of kit. But you're not going to find a quality product like this that is light. Ok, you can see we're struggling to find any other negatives now!

All in all, we are really pleased with our new gadget and it has been a brilliant solution for us. I think it's going to get a lot of use on the road, especially on longer wild camping trips. And now I can be even lazier with my e-bike knowing I can run the battery down without a care in the world!