Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Review

We’re getting to grips with another solar generator teardown; and this time we’re doing a Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Review.

This model is a replacement for the old Jackery Explorer 240 (which used the old Lithium ion battery type), and represents an upgrade in every area; most importantly, it contains a modern LiFePo4.

How good is it in practice, though, and how does it stack up against other portable power stations of this size?

Here’s the price and specifications, at Jackery UK.

Here are the basic specs below, followed by our review.

Jackery Explorer 300 Plus (300W)

  • Max Power: 300W
  • Energy Capacity: 288Wh
  • Dimensions: 23 x 15.5 x 16.7cm
  • Weight: 3.75kg
  • No. ports: 5 ports
Check Price on Jackery UK

What did we take into account in our review?

We evaulated it in the following ways:

  • LiFePO4 battery quality (in particular, the grade of Lithium cells used)
  • Number of charging ports that can be used at the same time (with particular attention on the number of AC ports)
  • Number of charging methods and how fast each one works
Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Review

Rating the Jackery Explorer Plus 300

Here are the pros and cons of this Jackery solar generator.

Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Portable Power Station

Pros and who needs this battery powered generator:

Outstanding safety protections
We rate this as the safest portable power station on the market. Why? In a word (or acronym, anyway), the BMS. It’s clear that though Jackery haven’t released a smaller power station for a while (4 years since the Jackery 240 was introduced), they weren’t resting on their laurels, they were beavering away at the BMS and have come up with one that looks like the best in the business. 52 forms of protection, they boast. We’re not going to say these 52 aspects are each as important as the big, important ones – Over-Charge Protection, Over-Discharge Protection, Over-Voltage Protection, Over-Current Protection, Short-Circuit Protection, High-Temperature Protection, Reverse Polarity Protection, Reverse Charge Protection – since you ask, but it is indicative of their commitment to the quality of their BMS and crossing every t and dotting every i with regards to the safety of this LiFePO4 battery. These are all reasons why we rated as the safest model in our UK rankings of the Best Portable Power Stations.

App with Wifi
When we talk to prospective power station buyers, they’re pretty split down the middle on whether an accompanying App is necessary/desired or not. What we also hear a lot is that for those who do want an App, they want to be able to connect to it via Wifi as well as Bluetooth, giving them another level of convenience. For the newer Jackery models, they’ve listened and made Wifi connectivity possible.

The environmental choice
Jackery have got a zero carbon factory, they use 100% recyclable packaging, and you can whack on whack on a fair few respectable environmental certifications regarding their carbon footprint. We’ve not seen another solar generator put such effort into their environmental impact; frankly, not even close to Jackery’s.

Now, a highly respected brand
We’ve watched as Jackery’s reputation has grown for just over a decade now. We’ve crunched the numbers on Jackery’s quality, done plenty of analysis on user feedback on their products, and Jackery get the highest proportion of 5-star reviews out of all makers, as well as being the biggest sellers.

The cons and possible reasons why it may not be suitable for your needs:

Relatively low number of expected life cycles, compared to other portable power stations
Rated for 1500 cycles to 80% depth of discharge, whereas the EcoFlow, Anker and Allpowers products of this size boast a 3000 cycle lifespan. Why is that? Bear mind mind that these life cycle are the result of a mathematical calculation based on a particular charge/discharge test method; and different makers use varying test methods and calculations. It doesn’t, by any means, mean it’ll last half the amount of time as these other products. You may even interpret it that Jackery are more modest, upfront and honest in their calculations than other battery generator manufacturers. These are mere projections and educated guesses, nothing more.

Fairly slow to charge, compared to the EcoFlow River 2
The Jackery Explorer 300 Plus takes 2 hours to charge fully, and that’s double the 60 mins charge time offered by the River 2. How important is a fast charging time for your specific needs? (By the way we’ve done a full review of Jackery vs EcoFlow)

Where can you get it?

Check it out at Jackery UK here.

Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Review Summary

That concludes our Jackery Explorer 300 Plus review.

It’s Jackery’s entry level solar generator (they do have a smaller 99Wh product, but it’s really more of a large power bank than a portable power station).

You get the all-round Jackery quality, the ability to charge several devices at once, including one AC port. It’s one of Jackery’s new generation of power stations (see our review of the Jackery Explorer 1000 V2, for its big brother of the new generation), and that means a great quality LiFePO4 battery and outstanding BMS protections.

Our quibbles were that its not as fast charging as some other power stations, and is rated for less life cycles than others (though, take all those estimations with a grain of salt for the reasons mentioned above).

Check out price and specs on Jackery UK right here.

Thanks for reading, hope this article helped you.