Jackery 2000 Pro Review – a Flagship Power Station
Check out our in-depth video review of the Jackery 2000 Pro power station!
Jackery have gone big with their new 2000 Pro model – ultrafast charging, a 2200W inverter and 2160 Watt Hours of capacity – it could be a game changer – but is it…?
What we like about the Jackery 2000 Pro: Extremely fast charging; 1200W solar capability; compact for the 2160 Wh capacity; feels rugged; powers nearly everything!
What we don’t like about the Jackery 2000 Pro: Only 2 x AC sockets; uncommon DC solar input sockets; rubber flaps over some ports are fiddly.
We’ve previously tested several Jackery power stations (the Explorer 500 and Explorer 1000), and have been impressed with the ruggedness of the designs and the quality of the manufacturing – they’ve always felt like products which are suited to the rough and tumble camping life.
One area where those earlier products now seem a little old fashioned is the charge time. When the Explorer series first came out, a charge time of 4-7 hours was fairly acceptable, but as new products from other companies have come to market, this definitely seems to be on the slow side.
Now, Jackery have taken a giant leap forward with their ‘Pro series’. We’ve got our hands on their current flagship model, the Jackery 2000 Pro. Charge times have drastically come down to frankly insane levels (1800W input from AC power), storage capacity is up (2160Wh), and they’ve included a 2200W inverter which can power nearly everything you could wish for.
In this comprehensive Jackery 2000 Pro review, we’ve tested a range of important features on the device, such as charge/discharge times, actual storage capacity vs nameplate storage, as well as the ability of the power station to power up a range of meaty household items. We’ve also tested the use of the 2000 Pro as an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS). Does it pass with flying colours? Read on to find out……
Jackery 2000 Pro – What’s in the box?
As always, Jackery equipment comes packed in two layers of cardboard boxes, as well as polystyrene bolsters around the actual power station – this system offers good protection against damage from UK courier transport. Inside the main Jackery box you get:
- A carry bag with AC power cord, 12V DC power cord (for car charging) and instructions.
- An adaptor to convert the old-style Jackery DC7909 connectors (as used on the SolarSaga 100 solar panels) into the DC8020 connector used on the 2000 Pro. More on this below…
- The 2000 Pro power station itself – a handsome beast!
If you’ve purchased the Solar Generator version of the 2000 Pro then you will also get some SolarSaga 200 W panels (up to a maximum of six). This is what we did, but we won’t be reviewing the solar performance until the sun starts shining in the UK.
Dimensions and Features of the Jackery 2000 pro
The first thing that strikes you as you lift the 2000 Pro out of the box is that it incorporates a folding carry handle on the top of the unit which uses a nice ‘soft-close’ mechanism. Previous Jackery power stations such as the Explorer 1000 used a fixed, rigid handle. The new version of the handle still gives just as much confidence when lifting up the power pack but can also fold flat when not in use. This means that the top of the power station can be used as a makeshift surface for appliances to be placed. A much more efficient use of space in my opinion.
The 2000 Pro measures 38.4 x 26.9 x 30.75 cm and weighs a fairly substantial 19.5kg. This is not a power pack which you can casually carry to the beach for a picnic. However the handle does allow carrying a reasonable distance and we would not rule it out for camping trips if you’ve got room to take it in your car or campervan.
Front Panel
The front has the following buttons and sockets:
- Colour LCD display – the 2000 Pro has a great display with a full range of performance monitoring. You can see input and output power, remaining time for charge, remaining time for discharge as well as indicators for the different charge types (AC, DC etc). The display is colour and will show various alarms if something goes wrong – for example if you trip the unit. You can configure the display to remain permanently on, or to time out.
- DC output – to the right of the display is a small rubber flap, behind which is a 12V, 10 amp DC output. This uses a typical cigarette lighter style socket and is great for powering your 12V items like cool boxes. The DC output has its own activation switch.
- Flashlight – to the left of the display behind another rubber flap is a flashlight. This is quite a powerful light and can act effectively as a camping lantern. It has its own activation switch.
- AC output – on the front lower right of the 2000 Pro are two 3-pin AC mains outputs which can each supply 230V, and power UK AC appliances. The AC circuits also have their own activation switch.
- USB sockets – on the lower left of the front panel there are fourUSB sockets and the on-off switch for the whole device.
- 2 x USB-A sockets with Quick Charge 3.0 and 18W output
- 2 x USB-C having a maximum power output of 100W (5 amp, 20V). These are great and will power or charge modern phones or laptops with ease.
Rear Panel
On the rear of the 2000 Pro is a mains input socket. It’s important to realize that Jackery have dispensed with the need for an external power brick for mains charging of this power pack. This is great and means that you just need to use a standard ‘kettle lead’ for charging it up at home or wherever you have mains power. No need to lug around that brick which the older Explorer series required.
Solar Input Sockets
Also on the back are two DC8020 sockets. These are used for solar charging the 2000 Pro. The latest solar panels from Jackery use these connector types (for example, the Jackery SolarSaga 200 solar panels), but they are not a common or ubiquitous connector. This seems to be a conscious decision by Jackery in order to try and keep their customers using their solar panels. Of course, you can buy or make converter cables easily enough, but I would like to see manufacturers including conversion cables with their power stations – after all, you’re paying alot of money for these things!
Ironically, Jackery’s older solar panels used different connectors (DC7090), and so they will not fit the 2000 Pro without using some converter junction connectors which Jackery include with the 2000 Pro.
Storage and Power Delivery
Battery Technology in the 2000 Pro
With the 2000 Pro, Jackery have stuck with traditional Lithium-ion battery technology. The Jackery batteries use lithium nickel manganese cobalt (Li-NMC) cathodes rather than the ‘trendier’ technology of LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate). We have made our thoughts on this quite clear before, and for camping can see very little downside with NMC. You get more power in a smaller volume, with a lighter weight at the expense of fewer charge/discharge cycles. However, Jackery say that the 2000 Pro will last at least 1000 cycles before capacity has dropped to 80% of its starting level. That’s alot of cycles – if you fully charged and discharged the 2000 Pro once a week, it would last around 19 years and still have 80% capacity remaining.
For us, the better energy density of NMC is a selling point, and not something to avoid. Check out our direct comparison of LFP vs NMC in our dedicated post on the topic.
Battery Capacity of the 2000 Pro
The 2000 Pro has a whopping 2160 Wh of storage capacity which is an impressive amount on paper. In our video review we did a full discharge test and measured a useable capacity of about 1810 Wh which is around 85% efficiency. You have to remember that energy is lost from the batteries to power the onboard electronics, fans and inverter. 85% is towards the top of the range that we’ve seen, but not as high as the Jackery Explorer 1000 which measured 90% efficiency.
Inverter
The inverter on the 2000 Pro is where this station really starts to shine. It can supply up to 2200W of power at steady state and 4400W under surge conditions (about 30 seconds worth we found). This really is the most powerful power station we’ve tested and could handle nearly every appliance we threw at it.
We powered:
- vacuum cleaner
- hair dryer
- jet wash
- leaf blower
- toaster
- steam iron
We even boiled some hot water in a 3kW camping kettle because the 2000 Pro managed to supply 3kW via 30 seconds of surge power – enough to bring the hot water to boiling point. Impressive! Let’s just say that for camping needs, the 2000 Pro has you covered in terms of power delivery.
Charging the 2000 Pro – a key advantage
The 2000 Pro In Operation
We’ve spent a couple of months now with the Jackery 2000 Pro and are finding that it’s our go to device. The fast speed of charging, the high on-board capacity and the powerful inverter together make a very attractive package. I dread to think how big and heavy an equivalent power station made with LiFePO4 batteries would be, but my guess it would be significantly more cumbersome than the 2000 Pro.
This is a rugged battery pack. We’ve chucked it in the back of the campervan, and it’s as happy on the floor as it is on a table. It’s been great for charging up my electric bike when I go off-roading, meaning I can get many more rides in a day. Similarly you could use it for electric scooters, and then have power on tap to make some hot chocolate afterwards to warm up. We’ve powered camping heaters, and it will deliver very decent heat at 1800W for about an hour before requiring recharging.
Are there a few downsides? Well yes, but nothing to get seriously worked up about. I feel that having only two AC sockets on the front panel is a little bit short-sighted. There’s plenty of room on the back of the 2000 Pro, and I feel Jackery could have included a couple more. As it stands, you need to use an AC splitter to create more sockets which is a bit of an annoyance.
I’m not a massive fan of the little rubber flaps over the flashlight and the 12V cigarette socket. They are fiddly to attach and the flashlight cover gets in the way of the USB sockets when it’s dangling down. That being said, I prefer seeing the cigarette socket covered up then exposed like a big belly button.
Finally, those DC8020 sockets for solar charging are just a strange choice. I have many different camping solar panels to use, and absolutely none of them fit into the 2000 Pro due to those sockets on the back panel. I will have to buy some converters, but I wish Jackery had included them in the pack. For example, Xt60 to DC8020 or MC4 to DC8020 or Anderson to DC8020 cables would have been useful to have available.
Solar Charging
We’ve not yet tested the solar charging capability of the 2000 Pro due to the UK weather in the winter months – there just isn’t any sun! We have had 6 (yes six!) 200W solarsaga folding panels delivered for a combined power in direct sunlight of 1200W. In theory, this should be able to charge the 2000 Pro in about 2.5 hours which is insanely fast.
Yes this is an expensive option – the 200W panels are currently about £600 each in the UK. However, my opinion is that due to the variability of sunlight in the UK, it is better to try and capture as much of the available light as is possible. This is because you just cannot rely on sunlight in the UK and so you need to make hay while the sun shines so to speak and use as many panels as you can. If you can afford to purchase a few of the Jackery 200W panels then we would recommend getting them in pairs – i.e. 2 x 200W, 4 x 200W or 6 x 200W. This is how Jackery recommend hooking them up to the 2000 Pro using the DC8020 connectors on board. Look out for our review of the panels and solar charging the 2000 Pro nearer to spring time.
Summary and Conclusions
In our view the Jackery 2000 Pro has leapfrogged to the top of the pantheon of power stations available on the UK market at the time of writing in terms of technical functionality. It’s a great power station in terms of form and function, and I am finding that it’s the power pack I reach for when I need dependable power on tap. On all measurable levels, it performs better than the 2048Wh Bluetti AC200Max we recently reviewed.
I’ve used the 2000 Pro as an Uninterruptable Power Source (UPS). This is when you power an essential appliance via the 2000 Pro and if there’s a mains failure, the 2000 Pro will keep the appliance running automatically by switching to battery power. I tested this with my desktop PC, and the switch over to battery happened without crashing the PC – impressive.
Jackery may be expensive compared to the competition, but I do believe that you get what you pay for. In Jackery’s case you’re getting a three year warranty, and if you buy from Jackery’s website, you get an extra two years – five years in total – nice!
The 2000 Pro is just about all the power station you could ever want, in a reasonable-sized box and under 20kg. It can run a steam iron or heat your campervan up. This is a great bit of kit! Recommended.
