I own 3 of these units and use them in the most difficult of situations. We own an RV and go camping regularly. Many of the campgrounds do not offer electricity and we must turn our generator off at 9 pm. We use 1 unit to power our 2 computers after quiet hours and it works great. We also have needed to jump start our camper when we accidentally left the cab light on and after a 3 minute charge it kick right over. We have also used the unit to give a booster charge to the RV house batteries to get the generator going.
Additionally the unit has literally been a life saver. My husband must sleep with a positive airway machine that needs to be plugged in to AC while he sleeps. We have 1 unit that we have dedicated to that purpose and it provides sufficient power to run his machine all night without a problem! As long as you keep the AC requirements under the manufactures specs (400 watt surge, 200 watt continuous) you will have no problems. If you try to run a toaster or a coffee maker though, these things run 700+ watts, and the unit automatically shuts down.
For the down side, yes the unit is heavy. It is in essence a car battery with an handle, plus a power inverter, with an air compressor and work light thrown in for good measure. But we knew it was heavy when we bought them so that doesn't bother us, and the upside far outweighs the weight issue.
All in all, it is an excellent unit that does all that it was advertised to do.
I initially bought this unit for my husband to use at his tractor pulling events. He takes it to every event he goes to and it hasn't let him down yet. He also uses it to start a very finicky riding lawnmower that, even when a regular battery charger is left on it for a day (or more), won't start. Yes, it pulls a majority of the charge off this thing, but it does indeed start this lawnmower that is on it's last leg.
I was surprised that even though I bought this for my husband, the longer we have it around, we keep finding handy uses for it that we hadn't even thought of upon purchase. The AC outlets are really nice, especially when we go camping. We have a fifth wheel trailer and before when the kids needed to charge their ipods or PSP's they would have to start the generator and leave it on to charge their stuff. Now, we can just use this unit and save the generator gas and noise. Also, on long trips if I ride in the trailer, it sometimes gets hot and stuffy and gets boring really quickly. It's nice to have this unit on board so I can use my laptop or portable DVD player to my hearts' content and also have a small fan to keep cool. This unit also has a really bright worklight built right in that I use for reading, which is a nice feature. It's also been really nice to be able to inflate water toys and bike tires while camping.
The inflator for bike tires and such is tucked in the back of the unit with an attached little felt bag that holds the needles for the hub. I just wish that the unit itself had a similar bag to hold the bigger inflator hose and charger cords since it does include an AC charger and a car charger so you can charge your unit from your vehicle while you are traveling. It would also be nice if the USB port had some kind of rubber cover like the AC ports do to prevent dirt and water from getting into the port. Instead, I just used some tape to cover the port to prevent this.
I make sure to keep this unit charged so that in a power outage I will still be able to use my laptop and charge my cellphones. This unit keeps a charge very nicely. I just plugged it in after is had been sitting in the garage unused for 3 months and it still has a 99% charge and quickly charged to 100% in less than 5 minutes. I would highly suggest that you charge this unit fully before storing it away so it will be ready for you when you need it. If you use the unit in a heavy duty capacity (like jumping batteries) or for extended periods of time with smaller charges (like computer, cell phone, or fan) then you do need to make sure you recharge the unit without overcharging. Once the unit gets to 100%, unplug it. Our unit charges very slowly especially when the remaining charge left is low (50% or less), but the cord for charging is much like a cell phone charger. I don't mind the slow charge time when the battery is getting high use. It will charge fairly quickly up to 99%, but then stay at 99% sometimes for hours until it finally hits 100%.
Do your homework on price. I bought mine at a 'big box store' for $100.
Pros:
*jump starts tractors/lawnmowers very well
*has USB outlet
*has AC outlets
*bright worklight built in
*digital display indicating the amount of charge
*inflator capability
*can charge unit either by plugging in at home or car.
Cons:
*no rubber cover for USB port
*can be slow to charge (so keep it charged)
*no storage compartment on unit for charging cords
Keep in mind that this unit is a portable battery source, NOT a generator. It does a great job with what it is intended to do. However, (as another reviewer posted) it will not run a coffee maker. Check the specs of whatever you think you will want to use it for and compare it with what this unit will do so that you are not disappointed. I absolutely love this unit and so does my husband. I'm sure there are uses for this unit that we haven't even discovered yet. We will be buying these for gifts, especially for those who love to camp and also for that 'hard to buy for' guy. It's nice to know that if you don't have a generator in a power outage you'll still have the ability to use/charge your radio, computer, or cell phone. That alone is worth the $100 purchase!
Buy Schumacher XP2260 Instant Portable Power Source Now
I want to start out by saying that I really love this unit for its jump starting and power source features. The jump starter works exactly as advertised. The 12 volt power source is massive, and lasts forever; I drive a vintage car with a non-operational 12v lighter outlet, and so this thing can sit in there for weeks on end and supply my phone, iPod, or whatever with hardly any drain. I actually bought this because I was going on a four night camping trip to a place without power, and I use a cpap machine when I sleep. If I had bought the dc adapter for my cpap machine, I'm sure that it would have lasted the entire trip. As it was, running on grossly inefficient AC power, it still got me through a couple nights before I had to take it to a place with power to charge up.
That brings me to the one and only pitfall of this power source, and it's a big one. The charger that comes with this unit is absolutely pitiful. I was literally speechless when I pulled what looked like a cell phone charger out of the box. At the moment I saw it, I said aloud to no one in particular "I'm supposed to charge this thing up with THAT?" Looking at the power supply, I saw that it was rated with a 700mA power output. For reference, I have a AA battery charger that charges at 700mA, and the charger for my DSLR batteries is rated at an output of 720mA. Both of those chargers take HOURS to charge relatively small batteries. So I think to myself, how long will it take to charge the 20 pound monster battery at the heart of this machine?
As it turns out, it takes a VERY long time. According to the manual that comes with this power source, it can take 72 hours (three days!!) to fully charge the power supply. I imagine that were I an executive at Schumacher and some young engineer brought this to me, I'd throw it across the desk at him and tell him to give me something that charges in significantly less than half a week. Indeed, after I ran the batter dead on the second night of my camping trip, it spent the entire day plugged into power at the camp office, and after all that, didn't quite have enough power to get through night three. Night four was worse still, and after about 4 hours I was awake and the power source was dead.
Having said all that, I am still very happy with the power source itself, and I decided to keep it. In the future, I will use a dc cable for my cpap machine if I go camping, and I imagine it should work for a far longer duration. As I said, it goes and goes forever powering small 12v applications, and is heavy enough that when I take a tight corner at speed it doesn't flop around. For everything that it does, it does it very well, and I would recommend it for those features. If charge time isn't a big factor in your purchase, I would think you would be very happy owning it. But if you need something that can go from depleted to fully charged in less than a day or two, this might not be the best fit for you.
EDIT: Shortly after doing this review I discovered almost by accident that by clamping the jump start cables to a running car you can charge the battery in less than an hour. This is really useful information that I'm surprised was not in my instruction manual. (Someone in the comments said that their copy of the manual talked about a 12v male-to-male lighter cable doing the same thing, but I can't find that in my manual. Besides, You probably charge much faster with the heavier gauge cables on the jump start.) That really does make a difference, and as such I bumped the rating up a star. I'm sure that to some veterans of portable jump start kits this is common knowledge, but as this is my first time with one of these as my own, I sure would have loved reading about this in their manual!
In what has been almost a year since buying this, I have used it a number of times for a number of different situations. I drive a classic car that doesn't have a 12v lighter outlet, so this has come along on many trips allowing me to charge my phone or run other portable technology that I would have to be without in my car. I have used it numerous times as a portable AC power source when I didn't have access to AC, such as when I have needed to charge equipment in remote locations. And on a couple occasions I've even used it to jump-start a car.
Bottom line: I'm very happy with it. I still don't like that pitiful little AC charger. They would have been better off not including it at all and actually mentioning in the manual that a quick clip to a running car would have you charged in no time. Still, I would definitely recommend this as a good value for the money.
Read Best Reviews of Schumacher XP2260 Instant Portable Power Source Here
I purchased two of these from Wal-Mart.Since we've been experiencing particularly odd weather, they've been quite handy in the blackouts. The only time they weren't, had to do with the fact I did not charge them. The weight of them had everything to do with that.I've had a few abdominal surgeries therefore the risk of lugging the VERY heavy battery did not appeal to me.
However, after a year and a few occasions, I must say they have helped tremendously with phone charging, single lamp lighting and charging laptop at the same time.
Not being an expert on portable power, I will assume all batteries drain at a quicker than slow rate, therefore the advice on making sure you check on it at least once weekly to redo charge.
Finally, they have been used two times each to jumpstart vehicles;worked well.
Pro: multiple outlets for varied small appliances, usb outlet, BUILT IN BRIGHT LIGHT, smartly designed body to avoid tipping, excellent price
Con;The weight, NOT going to run big screen TV (chuckle)
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I love these things!!!
Would gladly pay twice as much.
I jump started my Chevy Avalanche three times in one day without re-charging.
Used it to run a 36" TV & DVD player & charged two smartphones during a power outage.
Power came back on before juice ran out but I estimate it would have lasted two full movies.
When something is connected, press a button and it tells you how many watts are being drawn.
When not in use, the same button tells you the current % charge.
To prolong it's life, always fully re-charge after every use (no matter how brief) or every month.
In response to the person who mentioned the storage of accessories, here's what I did.
Get one of these or similar:
Black US Army Style Travel Kit Case (Cotton Canvas)
Put all accessories in this bag and then secure bag to the handle of the XP2260 you will never lose the power supply, inflation pieces or instructions.
Save 39% Off
This little gadget is a very cool idea, but unfortunately it seems to trigger a fault protection if a cell phone tries to draw close to (or more) than 5V/0.5A out of it. I tried a bunch of different HTC phones and this little device seems unable to feed any juice into it. On the flip side, all bluetooth headsets I tried charge fine.
