Review: Pecron E2000LFP Expandable Portable Power Station

Earlier this month, a late winter (or early spring) ice storm hit a large swath of Eastern Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Freezing rain coated tree branches and power lines, ultimately resulting in hundreds of thousands of homes being without power – some for days. Where I live in Ontario, we received a lot of freezing rain, but escaped relatively unscathed. Still, the storm and its aftermath was yet another reminder of the growing threat of extreme weather knocking out power. And another reminder of why it increasingly makes sense to invest in a battery portable power station for your home. Something to keep lights on, power some fans, even keep the fridge running. Safe to use indoors and portable enough to take on a camping trip.

I just wrapped up testing on the latest example to come through my office for evaluation: the Pecron E2000LFP Expandable Portable Power Station.

This portable power station can be expanded to up to 8kWh using optional external battery modules.

The Pecron E2000LFP is a rugged-looking portable power station.

My review unit was black with flexible orange bumpers on all corners. Across the front is an impressive array of power outputs (including six AC outlets), each covered with flaps that keep dirt out. Also on the front is an LCD display showing key info like percentage of battery charge remaining. There are handles with rubberized grips molded into both ends of the power station. Between them, the top surface features a Qi wireless charge pad.

Pecron E2000LFP charging.

You can charge or power multiple devices simultaneously, so long as you keep the total power draw to 2000W or less. That means it can be used to run appliances like electric kettles or toasters that would be beyond the ability of many battery power stations to handle.

Both ends are equipped with cooling vents, and one also houses the connector that allows you to plug in an optional external battery. Using Pecron’s EB3000 external batteries, the power station’s impressive 1920Wh capacity can be increased to as much as 8kWh.

The power station’s batteries are Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4). While heavier, advantages over traditional Lithium-ion batteries include lasting for more charge cycles (longer life), better temperature resistance, and increased safety.

1920Wh of power on tap with 2000W of output makes for a very capable portable power station. You could keep your smartphone going for several months. And thanks to its Qi wireless charge pad, you wouldn’t even need to plug it in!

However, most people don’t spend this kind of money to keep their phone charged – they are looking for something that can keep key appliances and devices running if they lose power. So how does the Pecron E2000LFP perform in some real-world situations?

Most high-capacity power stations I test out spend time in my basement, powering our spare fridge. It is a full-sized, 21 cubic foot model and it’s about 20 years old, so it’s not particularly energy efficient. And the testing took place during a mini heat wave, when temperatures topped 80 degrees. The E2000LFP kept the fridge running for 29.5 hours.

The Pecron E2000LFP has the power to run a portable heater.

Just a week after the heat wave, it was snowing again. I turned off the furnace and set up in my home office with a 1200W portable ceramic heater. The window was cracked for airflow and the temperature quickly began to plummet. The E2000LFP was able to power the heater to keep my office at a comfortable 70 degrees for two hours. That may not sound particularly impressive, but it was a good showing – a portable heater puts incredible demand on a power source.

Instead of heating an entire room, you could plug in an electric blanket and run it for 24 hours or more. It would be able to keep vital equipment like a CPAP machine running for three or four nights.

If there’s one thing that stands out as a bit of a misfire in the Pecron E2000LFP design, it’s the power brick.

The charger is noisy.

Required to charge the power station using an electrical outlet, this is a big component. Look at the photo below and you can see it absolutely dwarfs my iPhone 13 Pro Max. When in use, an angry red glow is visible from inside. Its metal case never got hot to the touch, but a big part of that is the fan that came on almost immediately. It quickly ramped up to 66 dB and stayed at that level for the entire duration of the charge cycle. The fan is not only loud, it distributed an unpleasant “chemical” odor as well. The smell faded somewhat after three charge cycles, but so far it has not entirely disappeared.

The charger is also big. It dwarfs this iPhone 13 Pro Max.

The super-sized charger does have the advantage of keeping the power station itself smaller.

The battery charged from zero to 100% in around three hours. You can actually cut that time in half if you invest in a second charger – the E2000LFP can take on two chargers simultaneously. You can also charge it from your vehicle, or by using solar panels.

Pecron E2000EFP + optional cart and solar panels

I didn’t care for the Pecron E2000LFP’s power supply – it’s bulky and noisy. The handle design is convenient for two people carrying the portable power station, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as a traditional handle for solo lugging. Because power output is an all or nothing affair and the display is always-on when the unit is in use, the battery can drain more quickly than competitors that only deliver power to selected output ports.

However, despite those few downsides (which may not even matter to potential buyers looking at this as a once or twice a year home emergency power supply), this portable power station has a lot going for it. It has a wide range of power output options, it supports fast-charging, it can handle high-demand appliances like portable heaters, it can be expanded through optional external batteries, it supports the use of optional solar panels, and Pecron even offers an optional cart accessory if you find its 48.5 pound weight is too much to move around.

And at a regular price of $1499, it’s running about $500 less than many of the other options with this kind of capacity.

If you’re worried about being able to maintain basic electrical services to your home during a blackout (or you need portable power for activities like camping) the Pecron E2000LFP is well worth considering. It offers a lot of power, a lot of outputs, and a lot of flexibility (should you choose to expand its base capabilities) at a very compelling price.

Disclosure: Pecron provided a E2000LFP power station for evaluation purposes but had no input into this review.