Jackery Explorer 2000 Review

The Jackery Explorer 2000 launched and was sold out within hours of the launch beginning. Many people have been anticipating their new solar generator launch because every year on March 18^th they launch their new products. They launched a Jackery Explorer 2000 and a Jackery Explorer 1500. The Jackery Explorer 2000 has some incredible specs and features that will make many people want to take a look at this unit.

The Jackery Explorer 2000 is their largest unit that they’ve released so far. The largest before was the popular Jackery Explorer 1000. There were a few things that didn’t go so well with the Jackery 1000 but it was lightweight and easy to use.

The Jackery 2000 has many new features such as an upgraded display screen, an upgraded fast wall charger, and is extremely compact for its capabilities. With a max solar input of 800w, this unit should charge up extremely fast. But the solar charge rate may actually be the #1 reason you don’t want to buy this unit. We’ll address that shortly.

The Jackery 2000 is very similar to the Bluetti AC200 and the Elechive 2200 solar generators. The Jackery Explorer 2000 will be slightly more in price than the Bluetti AC200 and a little less in price than the Elechive 2200.

Battery

Jackery has proven itself to be a major company in the power station and solar generator world. They are tried and true and have become a very reliable company for customers to work with.

The Jackery Explorer 2000 has a 2,060wh lithium nmc (lithium-ion) battery that helps keep it lighter for its size. This is what gives most of the weight to the unit at a total weight of 43lbs. That’s definitely on the heavier side but not totally unmanageable. By comparison, the Bluetti EB240 weighs 48lbs, has a 2,400wh battery, but only a 1,000w inverter, and only 400w of solar input.

The Jackery 2000 has a similar-sized battery to the EB240 but has twice the inverter size and twice the solar input and it weighs less than the EB240.

What’s new with the Jackery 2000 is that it uses a 36v battery instead of the traditional 12v battery. Having a higher voltage battery makes it more efficient so you get more power out of the battery through the inverter.

Sadly, the Jackery E2000 is only rated to 500 cycles of battery life. Many different companies rate their batteries in different ways, but it would be nice to see more than 500 cycles out of this unit since it is a powerful unit. It is rated to last 500 cycles or 8 years before the battery is at 80% efficiency.

Inverter

One confusing feature of the Jackery 2000 is that the name doesn’t exactly refer to the size of the battery or the inverter. Since the inverter has a 2,200w continuous output capacity and the battery is 2,060wh, it can get confusing why they put “2000” in the name.

But this unit uses a pure sine wave 2,200w inverter that is very powerful for its size. What’s nice about having a 2,200w pure sine wave inverter is that the Jackery Explorer 2000 is capable of powering anything that you’d plug into a normal wall outlet at home. Whether it’s a microwave, toaster, coffee maker, fridge, tv, chop saw, room-sized/window a/c unit, e-bike, you name it and it can run it.

Now it will only run as long as it has enough battery power or solar power but still, the inverter is very strong. It can be running a fridge and a microwave at the same time which is a nice feature since we don’t want to unplug the fridge just to heat up a burrito.

One neat feature or what some may consider an annoying feature is the auto-off setting in the Jackery Explorer 2000. If there is less than a 25w draw for more than 12 hours, it will automatically shut off. This could be problematic for some if they are just charging a phone since a phone won’t draw more than 25w. But they are also unlikely to be charging for more than 12 hours. This will most likely be appreciated by most people in case they forget to turn it off it won’t drain itself to empty.

Another nice feature is if you overload the unit and it’s not working properly you can reset the battery and the whole system completely. Normally if you use too much power, the Jackery 2000 will simply cut power to all outlets. Then you can turn it off, turn it back on and it will work again. But if for some reason it doesn’t do that, you can hold the USB and Display button for 13 seconds and it will completely reset the system. This is the same idea as other solar generators but other solar generators usually have a breaker button that can be used.

The inverter is actually capable of running 20amp equipment if needed as well.

Charging

This may be the one reason you may want to reconsider getting a Jackery Explorer 2000 or any Jackery solar generator. The Jackery 2000 says it can handle up to 800w of solar input which is incredible for a unit of this size. With a battery size of 2,060wh and a solar charge rate of 800w this system can be recharged in as little as 2.6 hours.

That’s a very fast charge rate which means it’s easy to use the Jackery 2000 all day long to run something like a fridge and then still be able to recharge it fully by the end of the day while still running equipment all day long.

With those kinds of charge speeds, this would be the first Jackery solar generator that could be recommended to have for emergency preparedness and longer blackouts. But, can it really input the full 800w it’s rated to?

With every Jackery Explorer solar generator that has ever been released, none of them have had the ability to reach their full solar input rating. For example, on the Jackery Explorer 1000 video, the maximum solar input we could get was 130w even though it has a 200w MPPT charge controller. That’s only 65% of what the rated amount is. That’s not very good at all.

The Jackery Explorer 2000 is rated to 800w solar input between two MPPT charge controllers (400w each) but Jackery specifically explains that the fastest time that the E2000 can be charged in is 3.9 hours. If we take 2,060wh and divide it by 3.9 hours that tells us the max solar input of (2,060wh ÷ 3.9hrs) 528 watts. Then if we take the actual solar input of 528w and divide that by the rated input wattage of 800w we get (528w ÷ 800w) 66%. That means that Jackery has stayed on par with their previous units of only being able to input about 66% of the total rated solar input. That’s not great.

Losing the ability to charge nearly 300w more per hour is huge! An 800w solar charge rate is extremely fast for a unit of this size. Really they need to advertise to people that it has a 500w solar charge rate and then when people get above 500w they are happy. Rather than saying it’s an 800w solar charge rate and people can’t get above 528w and be upset. This is something that everyone needs to know about this unit.

Everyone who’s interested in this unit needs to be aware that they are looking at around 4 hours to charge it up instead of about 2.5hrs. This is really unfair to do to customers. It’s all about letting people know upfront what they’re actually getting.

Does that make the Jackery Explorer 2000 a bad unit to buy? No, not necessarily. There are 5 solar peak hours every day. Meaning for 5 hours every day, on average, you can make the maximum wattage your solar panels are rated to. If you’re using the Jackery SolarSaga 200 solar panel it is capable of making 200w for up to 5 hours each day. It will still make power when the sun is out outside of that 5-hour window but you can count on the 5 solar peak hours to be the average solar production each day.

With a 4 hour charge time, it’s still potentially possible to get a fully charged unit while still running vital equipment such as a fridge and freezer all day long. Especially if you use an outlet timer to control when the fridge and freezers are running during the day and night. This is best used when there is a power outage to help conserve energy off of the unit.

It may not charge in 2.6 hours, but it still may be a good unit for you if you don’t need it to charge in less than 4 hours. At a minimum, because it still can be fully charged in a day in under 5 hours, it’s still a solar generator that can be recommended for small power outages.

On a happier note, it does use a very fast and simple wall charger that will charge the entire system from 0% to 100% in 2.6 hours from a wall outlet. And it does include a car charger that will recharge the whole system in 18 hours which is a typical charge rate for any solar generator.

Outlets

It has four AC 110v outlets which are the most Jackery has ever put on any of their units. Four outlets are usually enough to run all the essentials during a blackout or while traveling. Running a fridge, freezer, laundry machine, and microwave is all possible on the Jackery 2000. Of course, it’s easy to grab a power strip and add more outlets too but you just can’t exceed the 2,200w output of the solar generator.

There is one USB-C 60w port, one USB-A 12w port, and one USB-A QUAL COMM 3.0 multi-voltage port that can go up to about 18w output.

There is the standard regulated 12v and 10a DC cigarette lighter port that is typical with all Jackery solar generators.

For having an inverter and battery this large in the Explorer 2000 it would have been nice for them to include an RV plug since it is capable of running small RVs. It is also possible to simply purchase a 15a to 30a dog bone adapter as well and run an RV that way. Keep in mind, it is not going to run the A/C very long at all but will run pretty much everything else quite well.

Pricing

For everything that is included in the Jackery Explorer 2000, it is a very fair price. I have developed a way of comparing all solar generators’ prices based on their battery size, inverter size, and solar charge controller size. Those are the three most important features in reviewing any solar generator.

I take the total price of the unit and divide that into the rated limits of those three items in the solar generator. The Jackery Explorer 2000 costs right about $2,099. With a 2,060wh battery, 2,200w inverter, and 800w solar charge controller, the “Unit Wattage”, as I call it encompassing the biggest features, comes out to be only $1.53/unit wattage. That is considered to be a very good price for all the features you get.

However, after reviewing the Jackery 2000 and knowing that we can only get 528w of solar input, if we substitute that true number for the rated number for solar input and redo the math it comes out to be $1.98/unit wattage which is only okay.

The best solar generator that has the lowest “unit wattage” is the Titan solar generator. The Titan has a 3,000w inverter, 2,000wh batteries that are expandable, and has 2,000w of solar input. The Titan’s unit wattage price comes out to be only $1.33/unit wattage which means it is a better “bang for the buck.” For everything included in the Titan, it is the absolute most affordable system to go with when factoring in all its features.

There are other features to the Titan such as its ability to split into multiple pieces so it never weighs more than 35lbs which makes it lighter/easier to move than the Jackery 2000. It is also rated to 2,000 cycles per battery and includes a 30amp RV plug on it. The Titan is considered the #1 best solar generator currently. But maybe you don’t need the strongest solar generator available.

Conclusion

After investigating different reviews of the Jackery Explorer 2000 and comparing it to other solar generators, it is safe to say that the Explorer 2000 is truly the best solar generator that Jackery has made so far.

It is fully capable of running bare essentials for long-term power outages or running a small RV. For outdoor activities and camping, it is a great resource and will help many people in times of need.

It may not be the #1 solar generator of all the different solar generators currently available, but it is definitely within the top 5. A unit that anyone would be proud to own.