Is the Oukitel P2001 a Good Solar Power Station?
Overview
The Oukitel P2001 solar generator is a powerful tool that can run and charge multiple items at once, though it is not particularly convenient for on-the-go or outdoor use. If you’re looking for a moderately large amount of watt-hours, lots of cycles in the life of the generator, convenient cord storage, and good emergency preparedness, then this power station is a great option. However, if you’re looking for something light and simple just for camping or other light recreational use, this power station may not be for you.
Battery
The Oukitel P2001 power station has 48 LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) cells that contain enough energy to power most appliances, including a refrigerator for an entire day.
Recharge
When plugged into an AC power source (such as a typical wall outlet), the Oukitel P2001 can charge from 0% to 100% in 2 hours. This fast charge is impressive for a power station of this size. When plugged into solar panels, the Oukitel P2001 can charge in as little as 4 hours. Though when tested, we have found that it takes 4-5 hours minimum with full direct sunlight without running any equipment while charging.
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This is also true of the car charging speed of the Oukitel P2001, as both the car charger and the solar charging cords plug into the Anderson input outlet on the left side of the solar generator, which has a maximum input rate of 500 W. These are slower than AC charging because the AC input has a max of 110 V, allowing the power station to receive more energy faster.
General Info
The Oukitel P2001 solar generator weighs 49 pounds and measures 15.5” x 11” x 13”. With 2 metal handles, it is easier to carry than if there were only one, but it is pretty hefty, and therefore not good for frequent moving. This makes it not very convenient for camping, hiking, and on-the-go use, though it is very useful when frequent moving is not a concern.
When fully charged, the Oukitel P2001 is capable of storing 2,000-watt hours of energy and over its lifetime is rated for 2,000 full cycles, ensuring long life and lots of use. Another convenient feature of this power station is the shelf life – the Oukitel P2001 can sit charged for an entire year before the battery drains, making this solar generator a good choice for emergency preparedness.
The Oukitel P2001 has a 2-year warranty and sells for around $1,699 without solar panels. Though this is a good chunk of money, the warranty, life cycles, and watt-hours help offset the cost, ensuring that customers get the value of what they pay for.
The Oukitel P2001 comes with an AC charging cord, a solar charging cord, and a car charging cord that plugs into the ports in your car for charging while traveling. This solar generator is designed for use with all solar panels that aren’t specific to only one power station.
The LCD display panel of the Oukitel P2001 has a variety of information for the user’s convenience. The display panel shows the energy input into the power station, the energy output of the power station, the percentage of battery that is charged, the estimated time remaining based on the current load being run, which ports are currently running power, and the temperature warnings that appear when the power station is either too hot or too cold.
Ports
The Oukitel P2001 has one overall power button that turns on the display screen and four smaller power buttons that turn on different parts of the solar generator. Overall there are 16 outlet ports on the power station in a variety of different types.
On the left side of the Oukitel P2001 is the input section. Here there is a rigid plastic flap that lifts up, revealing 2 ports for power input, one AC (to attach the cord that plugs into the wall) and one Anderson port (to charge from solar panels or from a vehicle).
On the front left of the solar generator is a 12 V 10 A cigarette lighter plug that allows you to plug in any device that you would usually plug into a car, an XT60 12 V 10 A port, and two DC5521 12 V 3 A ports. Both the cigarette lighter port and the WXT60 port have covers, though none of the other ports on the front have covers.
The middle section on the front of the power station is the USB ports. There are 2 traditional USB A ports, 2 fast-charging USB A ports, and 2 USB C ports. The right section of the front of the power station holds the light. The light has three modes, solid, SOS, and flashing. To turn it on you have to hold the power button until the unit starts beeping, and the unit beeps every time the light is turned on or off.
On the right side of the unit are the AC output plugs. Just like their counterparts on the left side of the unit, the AC and Anderson input ports, the 6 AC output ports are covered by a large solid plastic flap that you lift to plug items into the power station. The AC output plugs have a continuous output capability of 2000 W (1,100 W in UPS mode) and a 4000 W peak. This is helpful because most appliances require more energy when they start up than when they’re running, so while the power station may only need to continuously run 2000 W, it may need up to 4000 W for a few seconds while any large energy-consuming appliance starts up.
The Oukitel P2001 is able to be plugged into a power source while running other devices, which is called UPS technology. This allows the Oukitel P2001 to constantly be charging and full of power, and then if the source of the power station’s energy stops feeding it, the power station will start powering the devices plugged into it within 10 milliseconds, an incredibly fast turnaround time that allows the user to keep using their devices without a hitch. Generally, this technology works best with appliances and devices that use 1800 W or less.
Strengths
The 2 metal handles of the Oukitel P2001 are a definite perk for transportation. Another useful feature is the storage compartment located between the two handles that is a convenient size for storing the AC charging cable, the Anderson solar charging cable, and the Anderson car charging cable, ensuring that your power station and its cables don’t get separated from each other.
Oukitel advertises the ability of the Oukitel P2001 by showing that you can charge or run anything from a microwave to an electric vehicle with the solar generator, and a refrigerator can be run off of it and last an entire day so long as the door isn’t opened with high frequency. This is good for emergency preparedness and being ready in case of disaster to help keep food cold and any essential items running.
The Oukitel P2001 has an extraordinary range of running temperatures. This power station can run in temperatures as low as 3° F and up to as high as 104° F and can be stored in even lower temperatures, even down to –4° F.
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Weaknesses
A weakness of the Oukitel P2001 is that it has no option to attach expandable batteries, so the battery capacity is fixed at 2000 watt-hours. If there is ever a need for more energy storage, the Oukitel P2001 has no way to meet that demand. Instead, the user simply has to purchase a new power station. However, with the large amount of power that can be stored in the Oukitel P2001, most users will not find the need for more energy storage.
The time remaining feature on the LCD screen is not very accurate, though when there are larger energy-consuming loads running it is more accurate than when there are smaller energy-consuming loads. This, while slightly annoying, is more inconvenient than a deal-breaker. This can easily be worked around by seeing how much battery each device takes and calculating how long the rest of the battery lasts.
Another downfall of the Oukitel P2001 is the way that the solar generator is not really designed with outdoor use in mind. It is not waterproof or particularly water-resistant. Some ports are covered, some are left exposed, and even those that are covered are covered by rigid plastic flaps that have no place to retract when the station is in use, leaving them vulnerable to being bumped and broken off. In addition, the air intake grills on both sides of the Oukitel P2001 are not well protected from rain.
This solar generator is powerful, but cannot be left outside unprotected from the elements. As an indoor unit, or protected from weather, this unit is quite powerful. The non-weatherproof aspect of the OUkitel P2001 makes it non-ideal for camping and outdoor living, as well as its weight.
Comparable Units
The Ouktiel P2001 has a very high voltage when compared to similar solar power stations. Whereas other comparable power stations such as the Jackery Explorer 1500 is rated at 24 V, the Oukitel P2001 is rated at 51 V, allowing the user to power more devices at once than most of the competition. While the Allpowers Monster X Pro and the Pecron T600 have a capacity of 51 V, they both have Lithium NMC batteries, which means that they aren’t designed to last as long as the Oukitel P2001’s LiPo4 batteries.
While the non-increasable battery seems annoying, for this size solar generator it’s not uncommon. Only a few other power stations have the ability for the user to add batteries, including the Inergy Flex 1500 and the Lion Energy Safari ME. The downside to both of those is that they both have a small individual capacity than the Oukitel P2001. The Oukitel P2001 may not be able to add battery capacity, however, it has far more battery capacity than the Inergy Flex 1500 or the Lion Energy Safari ME do without purchasing battery-extending capabilities.
The 4-5 hour minimum charge time of the Oukitel P2001 isn’t the fastest of all the competition, but it’s pretty mid-range, with other comparable solar generators taking anywhere from the Lion Safari Energy ME taking 1.6 hours to charge up to 922 watt-hours of capacity, to the Pecron T600 take a full 14.1 hours to charge 5,657-watt hours of energy. For the amount of energy it stores, the Oukitel P2001 charges at a decently fast rate.
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Conclusion
Overall the Oukitel P2001 is a useful power station with a lot of great features. It is convenient for emergency preparedness and indoor/covered use but is not designed for light use and frequent transportation.