I bought a battery on Black Friday from my mother's kitchen table in Ocala, on my phone, between a slice of leftover pie and a second cup of coffee. It was a Jackery Explorer 300 Plus, it cost $199 on sale, and it was sitting on our front step in Kendall a few days after we got home from Juniper Springs.
I'd been circling the idea since July. This is what it actually does for a family that tent camps without hookups, after a week and a half at home and one test night in the backyard.
Why we wanted one
Our power problem has never been big. It's small and constant. Four phones that double as cameras, maps and weather radar. Linda's old iPad that Maya uses for audiobooks. A USB clip fan. Two Ryobi 18V fans that run on the batteries from my yard tools. On our summer trips I rotated those Ryobi batteries like a pitching staff, and by the last night at O'Leno in July we were down to one half-charged battery and a lot of sweaty opinions.
A generator was never on the table. They're loud, campgrounds have quiet hours for good reason, and I don't want to be the guy two sites down. What we needed was something silent that could refill the small stuff for a weekend.
What it is, in plain terms
It's about the size of a big lunchbox and weighs around 8 pounds. The label says 288 watt-hours, so "300" is the round number on the box. It has a regular wall-style outlet, USB ports and a car-style socket. At home it refills from the wall in a couple of hours. In the car it charges slowly off the Pilot's 12-volt socket, which on a long drive adds up.
That's about the end of my technical knowledge. I'm a PE teacher. I read the manual, wrote the important numbers on a strip of masking tape and stuck it on top.
Our backyard test night
On Saturday the 6th we set up the green-and-tan dome tent in the backyard between the fire pit and the mango tree, charged the Jackery to 100 percent and ran a normal camp night. It was 63 degrees at bedtime, so nobody needed cooling, but our kids sleep better with the hum of a fan, so the clip fan ran anyway. Here's where the battery went:
- USB clip fan on low, about 9 hours: roughly 9 percent
- Two phones, from about 20 percent to full: roughly 13 percent
- The iPad, topped up for the morning: about 10 percent
- One Ryobi 18V battery, recharged through its own charger plugged into the outlet: about a third
So one full night of our real use, including refilling a fan battery, left it at around 35 percent. Without the Ryobi refill it barely noticed the night. For a two-night winter trip, phones and the clip fan only, I expect we'll come home with more than half left. In summer, with the bridge fan running hard, it'll be tighter, and I'll top it up off the Pilot on day trips.
Camp math says it only pays for itself if it changes what we do, and I think it will: no more rationing fan time on hot nights, no more turning phones off to save them for the drive home.
What it won't do
This is the part I had to explain to the family, gently, at dinner.
- It won't run a space heater. Those pull around 1,500 watts, the outlet tops out at 300, and we don't run heaters in a tent anyway.
- It won't make coffee. It doesn't need to. Marisol's cafetera and the Coleman stove have that job covered.
- It won't run an air conditioner. That's a hookup conversation, and the only time we've had one was the rented pop-up at Myakka.
- It won't save a dead car battery. That's still the NOCO's job, and the NOCO still lives in the glove box.
Dana asked about a heated throw for our Jekyll Island trip after Christmas, where the long-range forecast is already flirting with the 30s. On paper, a typical 12-volt throw would drain the Jackery in about five hours, which means it would quit around 2 a.m., right when the night gets coldest. We decided the plan for cold is still layers, hats and the warm-bottle trick. The Jackery's job is phones and fans.
The honest tradeoffs: it's one more thing to remember to charge before a trip, and 8 pounds is 8 pounds when the Pilot is already packed to the ceiling. I'd also be lying if I said $199 felt like nothing in a month with Christmas in it. But two spare Ryobi batteries would have cost about the same and only run the Ryobi fans.
Its first real trip is Jekyll Island on December 26th. The masking tape on top now has a second line, in Maya's handwriting: "NOT FOR HEATERS. Dad said."
