Customer Reviews

Xantrex 852-1840 XPower Powerpack 300 Plus Portable Backup Power Source

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I followed the charging instructions for the Power Pack 300 C. After 48 hours of AC charging, the light was still amber instead of green. The manual said, if the light was amber, wait 15 mins and press a button on the unit that would reveal the charging level. I did this and the unit said it was fully charged. The Power Pack ran a 40 watt table lamp for 4 hours as promissed!

However the next time I charged the system the same thing happened. The light was Amber. After waiting 30 mins I pressed the button on the unit but this time it registered "RED". I moved the unit to another outlet and charged it for another 48 hours. Same Result (RED)! I plugged in the 40 watt table lamp and it lasted only 20 mins.

I love the idea Xantrex had for a portable electronic generator, however their execution came up a little short on this one. The unit is going back!

Overall, I am pleased with this product. However, I ran into the same issues addressed by Ron Campbell in his review. Although the manual states it takes about 40 hours to recharge using the AC adapter (plus an additional 15 hours if you don't see the green light after 40 hours), it took more like 72 hours before I got the green light indicating full charge. The owner's manual states that longer charge times are indicative of less than 120 volts at the wall outlet. I find it hard to believe that my three-year-old house does not have 120 volts at the outlets, but I guess that is possible.

I bought this to use as an emergency jump-start unit and to add air to my tires after they are deflated for offroad travel. It seems to suit my needs. I would recommend this product, but be aware that the charge times may take twice as long as those stated by the manufacturer.

I have sleep apnea and need a machine to help me breath when I sleep. During power failures, I have had to stay up until the power came back on until I received this machine as a birthday gift. It will run my CPAP machine for more than 8 hours!

This product is great! I have used it now for over 6 months and have been very impressed. I've even given two of these away as gifts!

I've used this Xantrex 300 watt generator and it has helped me in numerous situations:

My car battery died. I used this to jumpstart my car.

My car's tire has a slow leak. I used the air compressor function to re-inflate it. It takes a long time to inflate tires, compared to those 50 cent air/water machines at the gas stations, but it gets the job done and I can take it with me. It works on my Acura's 15 inch tires, as well as my friend's Dodge Ram (30+) inch tires. (It also has a needle to inflate sports balls, which I haven't used yet.)

My Shed has no electricity. I use the attached double lamp florescent light and I can see. (Not super bright, but it helps.)

It's primary use, however is for my laptop. I constantly plug in my laptop (Dell inspiron 8600) while in my car. I get power for 2-3 hours. A better strategy to maximize laptop use is: I use my laptop with it's long lasting Centrino battery (last's 4-5 hours). I then shut it down and recharge for 1 to 1 1/2 hours with the Xantrex 300w unit, as it has a standard outlet that I can plug into. I can then use my laptop for another 4-5 hours. Shut it down and recharge it again, etc. etc... Doing this, I can recharge my laptop battery a total of 2-3 times before the Xantrex unit needs to be recharged, and thus I can use my laptop for a total of up to 20 hours!

In response to some other reviews: They do take about 48 hours to charge fully, but you can leave it plugged in and it will automatically maintain it's full charge. I've seen it fully charged, which turns the charging indicator light green. Then I noticed a few hours later that the light was amber again, indicating it was 'maintaining' the charge to keep it full. If I had not previously noticed that the charge indicator was green (full), I too would have drawn the conclusion that it 'took longer than it was supposed to' to charge. But that is not the case.

I've also seen these things sit out in the rain for days and days and still work properly. Although I do not recommend allowing them to get wet, I do think its an attribution to their quality of workmanship.

I don't know what the people are thinking that give this item a one and two star rating because it isn't a gasoline-powered portable generator. No where in the description does it say it's a gas-powered generator, and these people are belittling a product that they bought because they made a mistake by not researching what the product was and because they don't seem to know the difference between a portable power-pack and a real generator.

Now on to the product itself. This is a battery powered portable power unit, first and foremost. It is meant to be mainly used as a jump-start aid on cars with a low (not completely dead) battery. When used in this capacity, it excels at it's job, which is it's primary purpose. The rest of the items on this unit are emergency conveniences, and of course won't hold their own against stand-alone tools built for their specific purposes. The people at Xantrex threw in these few extras for convenience's sake. It has a flourescent utility light that lets you see what you're doing at night, don't expect it to act as a focus-beamed searchlight. The tubes light up bright and will run all night long without going dead. They also put a power inverter on it so that you can power small 110-volt tools if necessary but don't expect it to provide the power of a gas-generator or your ac-mains, and there's a 12-volt cigarette outlet too for 12-volt tools. They put a small compressor on it and it works fine for emergencies, but it's not meant to inflate tires all the time like a Campbell-Hausfield 10-hp dual-stage compressor with 50-gallon tank, it's an emergency convenience, and that's the point that should be remembered.

I've been pleased with the reliability of my unit, I've had it and been using for 5 years without any incident. The battery takes and hold a charge well and the unit supplies all the power I need for small emergency situations when traveling or at home during a minor power outage.

No, it won't run your TV set, it isn't meant to, but when used within it's meant capabilities it performs it's duties fine, such as running a nebulizer for emphazema medication during power outages, or running a small radio. But if you're needing to power large appliances, of course it won't work, you have to rate the power-source to the power consumption of the appliance, including startup surge capacity. In other words, read the power-rating on the appliance and look at the power rating of Xantrex, if the appliance meets or exceeds the rated load capacity of the Xantrex, don't plug it in, it isn't going to magically supply more power than it's capable of. If you want to run your TV, air-conditioner, hot-water heater, well pump, washer/dryer, dishwasher, home theater system, or refridgerator, then buy a gasoline powered generator instead. That's why I bought my 15-Kilowatt gas generator.

Firstly, you should note that I have the earlier 250 watt version of this powerpack (very similar, but without the compressor).

I am buying a 2nd 300 watt version because my experience has been so good with my first one. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I had no charging problems and it has held the charge for the past several years without fail (comforting green light). The real test came during the big NYC blackout-- I was the only one with any lights on! Worked like a champ. As I said, I'm buying another one.

I bought one of these last year in a store and it worked great. Now i bought one again on here at a cheaper price. I use it in the yard to replace a long and tangled power cord to weedwack, to trim my bushes, and light an area at night for 15 -20 mins with a 300 watt light. The little LED lights are great for keeping me informed of the battery status.I filled my bike and car tires with it. I use it alot to go camping and i recharge it ever time im in the car going place to place. And this winter i have jump started 2 cars and one pickup of my coworks so far on the cold nights i leave work. I keep one at home and the other in my SUV and i will say it has payed itself off with the number of times it has come in handy.

I've had mine for over two years and it has been a godsend for me. I have used it three times to power my sump pump during power failures. When my neighbors have been flooded, I just hooked up my power pack to my pump and it was able to run my sump pump for over 24 hours. It is a worthwhile investment for those of you who need a reliable backup AC power source without the hassle of hooking up a gasoline generator.

Get it today!

I bought one of these from Amazon and have been very impressed so far. The major success was that it started my dead car twice on one charge. In addition, I've used it to listen to AC boomboxes, play gameboy, power small devices. The air compressor seems a bit feeble, but does come with a handy stash of nozzles.

This thing has 20 AH batteries (probably 2 6volt replaceable-when-dead sealed batteries). The inverter is rated at 250watts (300 starting/surge watts). Remember WATTS = Volts x Amps, so you can easily run a laptop or a radio, but not a nice big color TV. Most devices tell you either their amps or their watts. You can burn an inverter by plugging to great a load into it.

I purchased 2 of these Xantrex compressors. I planned on keeping one the trunk in case of a tire emergency. What a joke!! The compressor started to make a horrible noise about 2 minutes into the tire inflation and never worked again. Well, I had the "spare" compressor, but the same thing happened to it.

I contacted the company by email and was given a confirmation number stating that technical support would contact me -- that was last week and I am still waiting for an answer. I am very disappointed with the product and more disappointed in the "support", which was just as useless as the item.