CleanTechnica Tested: Dabbsson Portable Power Station & Folding Solar Panel

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Dabbsson is newcomer in the world of portable power stations and is pushing into the market with two massive new portable power stations. The Dabbsson DBS2300 is a 2,300 Wh / 2,000 W unit that can be bundled with one or two of their Dabbsson DBS3000 units for an additional 3,000Wh of storage capacity per additional battery. All told, the units work together as a single unit with anywhere from 2.3kWh up to 8.3kWh of storage capacity and can be powered fr0m an AC wall outlet or solar panels.

Dabbsson is clearly targeting the home backup power market as their primary beachhead market. It is evident in their marketing material and the way they’re bundling their products. This makes sense given the large storage capacity of both the base power station and the additional backup batteries. It’s a bit mind-boggling to think that with just a few simple clicks of the mouse and after unpacking a few boxes, you can be plugging in 8.3 kilowatt-hours of portable storage capacity for your home.

This is made possible by Dabbsson’s product design, with a base station that’s easily bundled with one of their 200 watt folding portable solar panels to create a pretty solid minimum viable product for a home backup solar generator. A solar generator is simply the bundling of a battery system with an integrated inverter and a solar panel to generate power. The result is an almost endless supply of power from the sun to power just about anything in your life, whether it be your home, RV, tiny house, campsite, or your off grid photography kit.

Charging

Given the large size of Dabbsson’s products, they are primarily intended to serve as stationary storage in all its many forms. We tested the unit as a solar generator plugged into one of their 200 watt folding portable solar panels and found this to be an extremely effective combination. At only 200 watts, it’s also a bit undersized if you’re looking to fully recharge their batteries from a portable solar setup.

Dabbsson’s 200 watt folding solar panel is extremely thin, lightweight and compact with a gray fabric coating stitched onto it. It seems durable, but is more of a lightweight design intended for infrequent use rather than daily use. That makes it better suited as a backup power source in the event of an outage or for use on summer camping trips. Their 200 watt folding solar panel pushed out plenty of power in our testing, providing between 100 and 210 watts of output to the base station depending on the time of day and angle relative to the sun.

The lightweight nature of Dabbsson’s 200 watt folding solar panel stands and stark contrast with the heavy duty heavyweight nature of Dabbsson’s power stations and cables. That’s fine with us as Dabbsson’s panels use the standard MC4 solar cable connections to connect to the base station by way of an adapter cable. Dabbsson solar panels are compact and fold up into a very small format, making them ideal for stowing them away for a rainy day when the power goes out.

Given the lightweight nature of their 200 watt folding solar panels, it would not be surprising to see Dabbsson introduce a smaller, more portable power station to complement their solar panels. Conversely, we would love to see a larger 350-400 watt folding solar panel with a more rugged build to better complement the capacity of their massive 2,300 Wh and 3,000 Wh battery packs.

As it stands, Dabbsson’s portable power station is also more than up to the task of providing backup power to the home in the event of a grid outage for short-term outages. For installation in a tiny home, RV, or other off-grid scenario, customers will likely want to look elsewhere for solar panels that can be installed permanently on the roof of the RV, tiny home, or home. Dabbsson’s panel is made for temporary portable use and not intended for permanent installation.

Recharging the Dabbsson units from an AC outlet is a breeze, with a maximum AC charging speed of 1,800 watts when fully drained. Plugging in the single base unit to the wall outlet with around 50% capacity, the Dabbsson DB2300 pulled down nearly 600 watts of AC power from the wall. Connecting a Dabbsson 3,000 wH expansion battery to the base station, the combined stack pulled down 930 watts of power continuously.

When connected in tandem like this, the AC charging stack was biased towards charging up the primary power station first. Any additional AC capacity would then overflow into the second unit through the proprietary Dabbsson connector cable.

Usage

When it comes time to use the stored power, the DB2300 boasts a handful of USB outlets on the front and 5 AC outlets on the right side of the unit. The AC outlets sit just below the covered panel that protects the AC and DC inputs to the unit. Awkwardly, the expansion batteries don’t have any usable outlets, with all power flowing in and out from the trunk cable. This helps keep the cost down but does limit the use cases of a larger storage stack.

This number of outlets would make sense if the Dabbsson DB2300 was just a standalone unit. Because it is designed for use as a base station with several expansion packs that can be added with a total capacity of up to 8.3 kW hours, it would be nice to see more AC power outlets and even a higher powered 30 amp AC outlet.

This would make it easy for RV owners and tiny home builders looking to use the Dabbsson units as the primary energy storage facility. The 30 amp AC outlet is especially clutch for RV owners looking to replace or upgrade the power system for the entire vehicle.

We put the Dabbsson’s DB2300 to the test with our standard array of kitchen appliances and as expected it had no trouble powering them all in tandem. We crank them all up to the max and the Dobson DB2300 simply ramped up pushing out nearly 1,500 watts continuous.

Overall

With 2,200 watts of continuous AC output capability and up to 4,400 watts of peak power output Dabbsson’s DB2300 and the DB3000 expansion packs are especially effective combination. It’s easy to imagine these installed under the seat in an RV connected to several hundred watts of solar panels on the roof. Similarly, they could serve as an expandable power system to be used in a home in the event of a grid outage. This could be stored in a garage alongside a set of Dabbsson’s 200 watt solar panels or simply charged up and ready to go.

At $1,799, the base station is a decent value in the world of portable power stations, though Dabbsson is admittedly a newer player. It’s sure to appeal to customers looking to add several kilowatt-hours of capacity to their system and the $1,599 3.0kWh expansion battery is one of the best values around.

For more information about Dabbsson’s portable power stations and solar panels or to purchase one for yourself, head to the official Dabbsson website.

Dabbsson DB2300 Power Station Specs

• Capacity: 2.33kWh, expandable up to 8.33kWh
• Chemistry: Semi-solid state LiFePO4 battery cells
• AC Output: 2,200W (4,400W peak) at 120V~ (50Hz/60Hz)
• AC Input: 1,800W peak, Full charge in 2 Hours
• DC Solar Input: 12-60V 12A Max, 600W Max
• DC Auto Input: Supports 12V/24V Battery, Default 10A
• Recharging: 4 fast ways to recharge (AC/Solar/Car/Generator)
• Recharge Time: 2 hours to 100% via AC
• Dimensions (LxWxD) (in):17.0 x 10.0 x 11.9
• Weight: 54.2 lbs / 24.6 kg
• Operating Temperature:0℃~40℃
• Cycle Life: 4,000 Charge Cycles at 80% capacity
• App Connectivity: Wifi & Bluetooth
• MSRP: $1,799

Dabbsson DB3000 Expansion Battery Specs

• Capacity: 3.0kWh
• Chemistry: Semi-solid state LiFePO4 battery cells
• AC Input: 1,800W total when connected to the DBS2300
• DC Solar Input: 12-60V/12.5A max, 600W max per port, double to 1,200W max
• Cycle Life: 4,000 cycles at 80% capacity
• Dimensions (LxWxD): 17.0 x 10.0 x 11.9 inches
• Weight: 58.2 lbs / 26.4 kg
• MSRP: $1,599

Dabbsson DB200S Folding Solar Panel Specs

Disclaimer:  Dabbsson provided the power station and solar panel to the author for the purposes of this review.