Anker 757 Powerhouse New? Tested??

[MrNatural22]

Anker new addition to the portable power game. Not a lot of tech specs yet.
Special price on their website.

Anker’s biggest battery pack ever is a 43-pound power station with impressive specs

Charges fast and is built to last, claims Anker

www.theverge.com

 

[Ribbit74]

Hmmm, I’ve been waiting for a LFP-based system around 1kwh and this fits the bill.
Only 300W solar input though.

No mention of how AC charging works on the site, but I’m guessing it has a power brick.

I guess we’ll need to see somebody take it apart.

edit - looking at the marketing images on anker.com, there’s no pictures of the back but there is a rendering that appears to show the AC charge cable plugged directly into the back of the unit. So no power brick.

 

[jonathan_winters]

I have this device and have been using it for a week now. This is my first pre-built portable battery system so I don't have much to compare it to, but so far it has been really solid. Everything feels really well thought-through and solid (the buttons don't feel cheap; even the plastic case feels pretty rugged).

Solar inputs are *definitely* a major weak point, but AC charging is VERY fast and the phantom drain has been really easy to manage with physical buttons to toggle the AC and DC outlets right from the front of the device.

I'm still working out how to panel this thing in order to optimize as much as the 300w input as possible. It is limited to 30v and 10a so that *really* constrains things -- this seems like an odd choice from Anker given how fast you can charge via AC.

It also uses xt60 connectors -- it isn't super hard to find adapters, but it definitely will add some complexity into the solar input setup.

No mention of how AC charging works on the site, but I’m guessing it has a power brick.

No power brick -- it is a standard C13 cord (same as a computer/server).

I've been testing it mostly for pass-through power in my office -- so far I'm really happy with it, but I'm taking it camping this weekend so that will be a bit more of a true test for my own use-case.

I'm not willing to disassemble this (I want to preserve as much of the 5yr warranty as possible) but barring a tear-down, if anyone is looking for additional details about this unit or how it performs feel free to let me know.

 

[Ribbit74]

This should use the same solar cable that came with my River Max (MC12 to XT60 plug), right?

I have a couple of cheap 100W solar panels that would work with the 757. Like my River it would be used mainly for backup power at home, using the solar panels to extend the run time.

 

[jonathan_winters]

I have two 100w solar with mc4 connectors -- I did all of the wiring to put them in parallel using mc4, and terminated them right before the 757 with an mc4 to xt60 adapter. It worked perfectly.

My only gripe is how hard it will be to make use of the whole 300w input (30v 10a) without buying 3x of Anker's $330 panels... the 30v input limit is tough to maximize. I'm peaking over 170w input with my two panels which is enough for my usage now, but it sure would be nice to have more solar input available.

 

[Rubidude]

What is interesting is all the initial info on the anker 625 panels suggested they were 18v Vmp, and it turns out they are 30V. Grumble. Explains why Anker included parallel cables with the unit. Bad news is there aren't a lot of options out there that won't over volt the charge controller with it limited that low. Kind of makes me wonder if it was intentional. The good news is there are panels out there that have max NOCT voltage ratings that are around 30V, just few and far between in the range of 300W, even considering multiple lower watt panels They are probably going to make more money from the panels than they are the batteries.

That being said, I do love these 757s. So much so that I bought a few of them.

For those that may run into this, the displayed capacity on one of them was off. Was testing a new solar arrangement and this one unit was showing a discharged level of 97%, but when I hooked it up to solar it would not draw any current. All the others were fine. When I hit the reset button it went up to 100%! Hmmmm. Discharged it a few percent again and it went all the way to 100 without an issue.

 

[jonathan_winters]

Bad news is there aren't a lot of options out there that won't over volt the charge controller with it limited that low.

Fortunately, I did confirm that sending in more than 30v won't hurt anything. It will trip the over-voltage protection and it just won't take the power. I don't want to intentionally send too much power, but this does leave some room for experimentation without worrying about damaging the unit.

Kind of makes me wonder if it was intentional.

Based on the price and profit margins that there MUST be on their panels, I have to believe that this is intentional to at least some extent.

The good news is there are panels out there that have max NOCT voltage ratings that are around 30V, just few and far between in the range of 300W

I'm new to solar hardware and am really struggling to find an easy/efficient way of finding panels that are in a specific voltage range. I don't mind buying additional panels or over-paneling it in general -- I just can't seem to find the right combo of panels to get me in the 25v - 30v range.

30v is a hard top limit - I can't find panels with low enough voltage to put them in series and keep them under 30v, and the highest panel I found (at least in the 100w to 350w panels I'm looking at) peak at around 21v. It seems like there should be some sort of voltage converter that could balance that out for me, but here again, I don't know enough about solar hardware components to know what could do that (and more importantly, what could go between the panels and the 757 without causing problems for the 757).

 

[legger99]

Hello I purchased a Anker 757 about a month ago. I noticed it was losing about a 1% of power a day with the eco switch on. I contacted Anker Support and they had me do simple troubleshooting, but deemed it defective and replaced it. A week ago I received my replacement unit. New in package same as the first, but this one is doing the same thing. Have any of you fellow 757 owners noticed the parasitic drain with nothing on? I am currently working with their support team, but feel this unit will end up being replaced again.

 

[jonathan_winters]

Have any of you fellow 757 owners noticed the parasitic drain with nothing on? I am currently working with their support team, but feel this unit will end up being replaced again.

I have zero drain when I truly have *nothing on* - I had my 757 sitting next to my desk for almost 2 weeks and it held at 87% the entire time. But that doesn't just mean "nothing plugged in", what I mean is: Nothing was plugged in *and* the buttons that power the AC and DC outlets are turned off.

AC power drains more than that in my experience and I haven't tested with just DC power, but DC drain is lower so that could be what you're looking at.

Also, I don't keep mine in Eco mode.

 

[legger99]

I have zero drain when I truly have *nothing on* - I had my 757 sitting next to my desk for almost 2 weeks and it held at 87% the entire time.

Nope the two units I have had will drop about 1~2% a day with nothing plugged in, everything switched off, and eco mode on. Anker had me try the reset button, then drain / recharge and test, and it still seems to lose power.
The support person I have been working with has been checking with a Quality Engineer and apparently the way the 2 units I have or had are not functioning normally.

I am waiting to see what they have to say tonight (as that's when their support responds).

I just am wondering how many returns it will take to get a good one!

 

[eca05rjc]

I've just got my 757 and been running over the past few days.
Have calculated am getting no more than 800whrs (that's 65%) from it max..clearly there's a capacity issue?! Any one else had this same kind of issue. Raised a tech support query with Anker so let's see what they say?!

 

[jonathan_winters]

How are you calculating hours? And are you taking the losses from the AC inverter into account?

I returned mine, but never had an issue with getting the expected watts from it.

 

[eca05rjc]

Watt output x hours remaining...plus 10% for losses.
How much does the AC inverter use?
Still feel well down on spec to me
How come you returned yours? Not a good sign is it.

 

[jonathan_winters]

That is not a super accurate way to measure total power. The hours remaining is calculated internally to the device based on how much power is being drawn, and that aspect alone can throw off your measurements by a huge margin.

I think the best way to get a very accurate calculation of total real-world power availability on a device like this is to charge it to 100%, plug in a kill-o-watt (or something that will give you a very accurate measurement of power consumption) and put a load on there (a small hair dryer or a big light) and run it down until it shuts itself off. You’d have to time it from the point when you turn on the light and be around it to capture when it finally shuts down.

But that method would take the device’s internal system out of the calculation and give you a much stronger idea about the actual power. It would also let you derive the losses in the inverter.

Just based on my own usage I don’t have any reason to believe that this supplies less than the advertised amp hours (as far as a systemic/product level issue goes). So if you test it out and find that yours is lacking I’d say you definitely have grounds to request a warranty replacement. Anker was great to work with on my return… I don’t think you’ll have any issues getting it resolved.

 

[FHorn]

Hello I purchased a Anker 757 about a month ago. I noticed it was losing about a 1% of power a day with the eco switch on. I contacted Anker Support and they had me do simple troubleshooting, but deemed it defective and replaced it. A week ago I received my replacement unit. New in package same as the first, but this one is doing the same thing. Have any of you fellow 757 owners noticed the parasitic drain with nothing on? I am currently working with their support team, but feel this unit will end up being replaced again.

It’s curious why the Anker 757 PowerHouse FAQ says to preserve battery lifespan, recharge to 100% after every use and every month when in general lithium batteries are said to store best at 60% SOC.

https://www.anker.com/products/a1770111

I received this replay from an online forum regarding this:

“Some of those power banks are notorious for standby power consumption, so they are concerned with the pack going totally dead. Some of these packs also use lower grade cells, which have significant differences in self discharge across the pack. Instead of using better quality cells, they tell you to charge the pack to full regularly, which prevents the pack getting out of balance after a few months of sitting, and having a high cell voltage cutout fault.”

Anker will be releasing a new version around July. Wonder if this suggestion will change?

 

[Ely]

For example in the Jackery 1000, 1000Pro and up are BAK N18650CL-29 cells inside and Goal Zero use in all powerstations and powerbanks LG INR18650 M26. Both are very good and long lasting cells, first quality.

But the most no name (Chinese) units use cells with a lower quality, i.e. more cells of second (or even third) quality level.