I Tested Harbor Freight's CHEAPEST Power Station

Let's find out if Harbor Freight's cheapest portable power station, the Predator 350, is worth the money!

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Editor: Javan Khabi

Music from Epidemic Sound

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For general informational purposes only. Nothing in this video is intended to be professional solar or electrical advice. Please consult with a licensed professional in their field of expertise in your jurisdiction.

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[JackWeems]

Don't undersell the value of being able to walk into a store and buy one of these. I've got two pecrons that I absolutely love but they took forever to get shipped, this wouldn't be my first choice but if it's late Friday and I absolutely needed something for the weekend. This is definitely close enough to everything else that I picked one up

[jemsmay]

Every time I watch one of these comparison vids it convinces me to get the Bluetti. So I did, been running it for almost 2 years with zero issues. Love the fast charging, the extra outlets, the handy form factor and the ease of charge/ discharge hookups (esp ability to do solar and car or outlet charging at same time). It’s been a real winner

[bayoubees]

I bought this when it first came out. I use it for low power ham radio remote use, primarily Parks on the Air. The inverter is quieter than the Pecron, so I can charge my laptop while using the radio. I have a Pecron and you can't stand the noise generated by the inverter on your radio. It runs my Cpap machine all night with no problem. We use it in our small RV for TV & phone charging - it does what I need it to do and when it quits I'll go drop it off and get a new one! This little unit works well for me.

[DPDK]

The thing about slow charge rates is that most of these come with Lithium batteries. With lithium slow charge = safe / fast charge = explosive risk. The explosion risk of lithium batteries is NOT hype. I can personally attest to this and trust me, what ever "secret method" you think you may have to put out a lithium battery fire ... will NOT work. A lithium fire burns hot enough to liquify steel.
Also, the first dozen or so charging cycles will be slower than for the rest of the life of the battery. This is not the fault of the unit, the chemistry of the battery "cooks" with these first few charges and discharges and until it cooks into its full capacity state the battery will charge slower than normal and output at reduced capacity. By the end of (roughly) 10 charge/discharge cycles you will see a noticeable performance rate increase in the battery.
The reason the initial charge is so important is because these batteries MUST be shipped in their lowest energy state to reduce explosion hazard. The dielectric has had no "burn in" or "cook" time. Further discharging a lithium battery that is 30% of charge is a death sentence for the individual cells that make up the battery especially if the dielectric is not yet stabilized.

[pyroslev]

Running a 350 to charge some batteries while I'm clearing a small space for a cabin. It's been pretty awesome. The Anker we have is 'better' but that 5 year warranty on it is why I got it. It acts up, I drive the 20 minutes to get a new one.

[MrSGL]

great review. its nice to see a power station review that involves real world testing.

[awanderson]

Good review. I like the variety of items you tested on it and that you actually showed video of you testing devices and charging it in a variety of ways. Thanks fro putting the review together.

[rob]

I have the Bluetti EB3A in case of power outages and I tested it on a few things when I got it and put it back in the box I break it out every so often run a fan on it for a little while and charge it and put it back in the box basically we haven't had a power outage since I purchased it so if you ask me I'm going to proclaim that they're magical.
What I need is a decent solar panel for charging it so I'm going to go through your videos and see what you have on that particular subject.
Anyway, thank you and keep up the good work.

[jakecroft]

nice review Alex. Thanks for keeping it no nonsense and demonstrating all the ways to utilize it.

[eensperception]

I appreciate this detailed review especially the capacity test, idle power draw, power factor note, the 200w panel = 11 watt charge weird thing #2. Very well made review, I hope Predator sees your video!!

[freenewlife]

What a great product review ~ you really are a VERY talented and knowledgable man. I'm working out a solar generator option to heat a small off grid garden shed-greenhouse on the coldest nights ~ this helped me sort it out immensely! Thanks so much!

[davef.]

Nice work with the comparison spread-sheet, Alex. Thanks.

[NotDrDre]

Thank you for the hands-on, data focus dive into this stuff. You’ve already answered a bunch of questions I’ve had and have turned me on to potential uses that hadn’t occurred to me like using these as a UPS.

[robertemil]

Great Job Alex, thank you. I own this power station and like you said, wait for the coupon and the sales, mine was $149.00. Great for charging devices or lights but that's it.

[floydjohnson]

$200 for such a small power station is pretty nice for emergency power outages during a storm, but I wouldn't want one specifically to operate larger loads. I have a 1500w Jackery that came with two 100w charging panels. Where we live we typically don't lose power for long during a hurricane, but last year we lost power for 11 hours during hurricane Milton. Since it happened in the middle of the night I wasn't going to run a gas generator, so I hooked two refrigerators and operated a medical CPAP for 11 hours and only lost 11% capacity. The Jackery did just fine. I also used a smaller power brick to operate a small fan and power my computer equipment until the electric was restore. The key is having multiple ways to have power and cook and my investments have served me well.

[williammcguire]

200 dollars is actually not bad bc it uses lithium iron phosphate batteries that can be used every day for 10 years straight and not degrade

[TheArcticWonder]

I became an immediate fan of yours after seeing your testing methods. I am looking into either the Anker c300 or the ecoflow River 3 and all the reviews i watch compare features, but not performance. One will be recommended because it has 3 120v plugs. Like cmon, i want raw performance data.

[Goblin_Tank]

I saw these at harbor freight last week and thought i wonder what the battery dude I watched once upon a time thinks about these. Week later here we are. Haha

[williamwalraven]

Jackery 240 is much better. It can fully charge in under an hour. I paid $250 on sale, but I then came across the Jackery 1000v2 during Christmas for $550, from Jackery! I just had to wait until after Christmas for the backorder. The 1000 is the perfect solution if you have the money.

[lowermichigan]

I went bluetti. Love them. Have 4 of them. 2 1800W units. Those are wonderful