Warning re Jackery product quality/design

[john61ct]

Boing Boing has good stuff on the fight for right to repair going back many years

right to repair | Boing Boing

Posts about right to repair written by Natalie Dressed, Rob Beschizza, Mark Frauenfelder, and Jason Weisberger

boingboing.net

 

[Sneaks]

Well, on a positive note, it broke falling out of the back. It could have been worse, that was 13lbs of unsecured cargo that could have taken your head off in an accident. I have to say, that is the biggest issue I have with portable power stations, they rarely secured properly. Whenever we respond to an MVA in the tourist season, roll up to the scene, and see it is an RV\camper\overlander, first thought is "where the hell is their secondary power system" (since no one seems to think about marking it and it is never in the same place) and "I hope their crap was secured."

 

[outback97]

Well, on a positive note, it broke falling out of the back. It could have been worse, that was 13lbs of unsecured cargo that could have taken your head off in an accident. I have to say, that is the biggest issue I have with portable power stations, they rarely secured properly. Whenever we respond to an MVA in the tourist season, roll up to the scene, and see it is an RV\camper\overlander, first thought is "where the hell is their secondary power system" (since no one seems to think about marking it and it is never in the same place) and "I hope their crap was secured."

That's another motivation for me to put my GoLabs battery in a more durable case... it doesn't have any great tie down points, just the handle.

 

[jhmoore]

But they did help him out. They discounted the item to get him back on the road. This was a good offer, evidenced by the fact that he took it! He obviously didn't have as good an offer used or from another company, or he would have took it.

Consider that I also have money in two solar panels (matched; Jackery) and that I'm in the middle of a trip. At home, time on my hands, no rush, I would and likely will investigate selling what I have and switching.

 

[plh]

Trouble is Dave, If the dearlers won't repair it they leave the owners with no other choice but to Open or Hack it, and the liability then shifts On to the owner and not the company so the Company gets off the Hook either way.

I will never buy any product from jackery Ever based on their of willingness to help Vs their objective of selling him a refurbished one, Personally I would of told them if they don't help I will rip them a New One on Every Media and Review page on the Net,

It seems Jackery are nothing but Stock handlers shipping from A to B with Zero Electronic Skills and as such offer Zero when it comes to warranty and they fix around that is If it is a new item they send you a New One but if it is Used then they will sell you a Polished up Demo model, Thats not a Warranty, Thats wiggling a away around the Laws of what a Warranty actually means,

Jackery You Suck.

I assume that Jackery doesn't make anything and are just a labeled reseller like a lot of other places.

 

[plh]

Get real!

Please identify a similar product/company that would survive this and handle it to your expectation and the price! We'll wait!

Here is a force calculator:

Energy of falling object

hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu

588N I assumed the drop was 1 meter. The Jackery 500 weighs 6kg

 

[jhmoore]

588N I assumed the drop was 1 meter. The Jackery 500 weighs 6kg

I can’t imagine that it was a full meter. Plus you’re forgetting about my foot. Where are the Mythbusters when we need them… especially Kari, of course!

 

[67cj5]

I'm glad I paid extra and bought the Dometic versions, It says in the Manual that the housings are "Shock, Heat and UV Resistant". Not to mention their cycle life,

 

[67cj5]

I assume that Jackery doesn't make anything and are just a labeled reseller like a lot of other places.

It would appear so,

They got off to a bad start when all their early products were not voltage regulated then they fixed that and jacked up their prices and then In car charging or Charging whilst in use was a myth back then, Thing is Bluetti/PowerOak and Dometic are better products,

 

[jadmt]

I'm in the middle of my third trip with my Jackery 500 and solar panel. First two trips: great. Third trip, this trip, not so great. Part of it is my fault, part of it is just plain poor product quality or design.

My fault: I had the Jackery at the back of my 4Runner and it bounced around some and must have been leaning up against the back lift gate. I opened the gate and it fell out. So that's a fall from whatever the height of an un-lifted 5th gen 4Runner is... not all that far. Bonus, I saw it falling and managed to get my foot under it and break most of the fall. Not all, but I took a bunch of the force out of it. The Jackery 500 landed upright, no damage on the outside, much but not all of the force broken by my foot.

But the damn thing still broke. Dead as a doornail. The electronics or something inside is all haywire. I took a video of what the display does and sent it to Jackery and they said that there is "no way to fix the unit as we do not conduct repairs at the component level."

A short fall, landed upright, much of the force broken by my foot, and I have a $500 doorstop. Utterly worthless. And likely difficult to figure out how to recycle it (which was their suggestion).

They did offer me a discount on a refurbished unit with minor cosmetic damage, which I very grudgingly took in order to keep my adventure going, but...

1. How do they sell refurbished units if they can't fix them?? (because I get that ultimately this is my fault and would have paid to fix mine if they would have offered to fix it)

2. This really doesn't say a whole lot about Jackery product quality or design if this is all it takes to turn them into doorstops.

Buyer beware... maybe look at a different manufacturer. I'd love to see any kind of teardown or product stress tests for this category if anyone knows of any videos out there.

Video of what it does now:


(after that, it goes from 98% immediately to 1% battery and stays there)

what was the discount? thanks.

 

[Verkstad]

what was the discount? thanks.

Thanks for the idea.
I will ring up Jackery with a similar sobstory of how I broke my new toy.
Then they sell to me at discount.

 

[Smileyshaun]

I’m still baffled by the whole overpriced Jackery/ any other brand portable battery setup . We are all vehicle dependent.. what’s wrong with a good second deep cycle battery and a isolator ? How many electrons and doodads do you really need to drive around and sleep in the woods ?

 

[john61ct]

These are more portable, not suitable for supporting the full needs of living off grid.

More like weekenders' phone / tablet charging, maybe a few LEDs and a fan.

LFP is great for saving weight compared to lead, but 400Ah is still going to be more suited to a proper installation rather than portability

 

[burleyman]

I've been given quite a few of the old AGM/SLA jump starter packs that contain a battery surrounded by lots of plastic with mainly flashy things and maybe a miniature air compressor. Way back gee whiz factor.

The short jumper cables, 100-200 amp on/off switch, and a few other scavenged parts have come in handy. A few had batteries that could be brought back to life.

I may not live long enough to enjoy ripping apart this latest type of "wow, look at this" discards.

 

[outback97]

I’m still baffled by the whole overpriced Jackery/ any other brand portable battery setup . We are all vehicle dependent.. what’s wrong with a good second deep cycle battery and a isolator ? How many electrons and doodads do you really need to drive around and sleep in the woods ?

I'm baffled by the popularity of rooftop tents. Since I don't want one, I haven't bought one. You could go nuts with every, "why would anyone buy X when Y is cheaper / just as good / better?" question, especially on this forum.

I can't speak for the OP but here's why I bought one of these portable battery units. I bought a 12V fridge. I wanted to be able to power it independently of the starting battery and vehicle's electrical system. My use case is camping and road trips ranging from an overnight up to a week long trip. That length of time is probably pretty common for many of the members of this forum.

Why not a permanently mounted, auxiliary deep cycle battery instead? A deep cycle battery would offer much more Ah / $, no question. And, if mounted properly, it shouldn't ever tumble out of your vehicle unexpectedly and break. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a better choice for everyone.

We own four vehicles. Three of the four are ones I'd consider taking on camping or road trips. None of these three have enough room in the engine bay to just shove a deep cycle battery in without modification and fabrication, if they'd fit at all. Not even considering wiring or battery isolators... I'm just talking about physically mounting another battery. With a portable battery I can use my 12V fridge in any of the three. If I sell one of these cars and get another, I can use it in the new one. Modifications done to a vehicle you sell aren't always simple to take out and transfer to the next vehicle.

If we have a power outage and would like to charge a phone or laptop, or keep our internet connection operating, we can do that with the portable battery. Of course one could do it with a vehicle mounted battery and inverter, but this is convenient.

I was troubleshooting a 12V water pump in the backyard the other day in an area that doesn't have power. The portable battery came in handy for that. An unexpected use, I'm sure I'll come up with more once I've owned it more than a month.

Those are my reasons, other people might have completely different reasons.