GoalZero YETI 1500X power station review

The GoalZero YETI 1500X is a power station seeming to offer the perfect solution your indoor/outdoor power needs. TentLife got our hands on a YETI 1500X power station to test and here’s what we found.

One thing I can say faithfully, is that having tested quite a bit of GoalZero stuff, what they say on the box is usually what you get in reality. However, in true TentLife fashion, we don’t take the manufacturers word for things around here and so we took the YETI 1500X and put it to test in the real world.

It's one thing for the manufacturers spec to tell you what a product is supposed to do, but sometimes, and from experience, this has not been the case. When that all-singing-all-dancing product has been used in the real world, they’ve fallen short and not delivered on their promises. This was not the case with the GoalZero power station.

So what is a ‘power station’ and what are they for?
There is only one Bear Grylls, one Ray Mears etc., living off the land, loving the outdoors and it would appear surviving almost purely on fresh air. For the rest of us who want to enjoy (instead if enduring) the outdoors, many of us would like to bring along a few electrical creature comforts. Afterall, where is Mr TentLife going to plug in his hair straighteners?

It's not practical for most of us to have a solar power system fitted to our vehicles. Not all of us drive expensive campers or vans, and it isn’t very practical to fit a solar panel to the roof of your little Fiat 500 an fill it’s boot with electrics, wiring and batteries. Therefore a decent power station is your best solution to having power when on your outdoor adventures.

They should provide plenty of power output options, such as USB/USB C for your low voltage stuff (phones etc.), but most importantly they should provide a 240v output via the appropriate socket (3 pin for the UK market).

There will be what’s called an inverter built into the power station and this should provide pure 240v power for your appliances. Most importantly this should be what is referred to as ‘pure sinewave’ power. Without getting too technical, modern appliances require a pure power supply in order for the electronics inside them to work. We’ve plugged modern appliances into cheap inverters (none pure), and they just don’t work. We were also fortunate not to damage them, so think on that – buy cheap buy twice! Afterall, who wants to fry their laptop!

For camping, a reliable power station also gives you the option of choosing campsites that don’t have electric hookups. Also, from our experience, many of the pitches without an EHU often have the best views.

So back to the GoalZero Yeti - We definitely put it through its paces, and the location we were at was VERY off grid. It was tested beyond what most campers would use if for, and it came through with flying colours. Lets just say that if you ever needed to strim the grass in some very remote location, then this is the bit of kit to handle the job, read on ……….

For charging up at home before your journey, the YETI is supplied with both a UK 3 pin cable as well as a 2 pin version charging up whilst you are in Europe.

The display on the front, is very informative and lets you know how much charge the battery has and how long remains until it is fully charged. For faster home charging, you can get the YETIFAST power supply that charges up to 5 times quicker. We had a play with this and it works a treat.

240v output on this YETI version was via a euro 2 pin configuration, so a 3 pin adapter was provided (white plug in photos). Future UK versions of the YETI will have a UK 3 pin output, so there will be no need for an adapter.

This is a very well built bit of kit, very rugged and definitely well made. The carry handles on the top make it easy to move the unit easy to lift up and around.

We had it working in some quite serious heat, although common sense did dictate that we sat it in the shade, and it functioned without a single blip. This is probably because the Yeti has built in cooling fans, something that you won’t find on many other power stations.

Recharging whilst off-grid is also a cinch. Using an appropriate solar panel, the YETI1500X can be recharged using just the sun. We used the GoalZero Boulder 100 solar panel for recharging and it did a pretty good job of meeting our quite demanding needs.

PORTS – We’ve mentioned only a few of the power outputs that the GoalZero YETI has but there are more, including a 12v cigarette socket, 2 x 6mm outputs, 12v Pole Port as well as USB-C and a traditional USB-A port too …… phew, a lot more than many other power stations. Check out the photos within this article for more info.

INSIDE - The large lithium battery provides 1516 watts of performance and a larger 2000 watt inverter that is designed to take surges of up to 3500w. So whether it’s a medical CPAP machine, using power tools remotely, fridges, TV’s and much more, the YETI1500X capable.

TESTING - We could have tested the YETI by charging up mobile phoned and laptops, but where would be the challenge/fun in that.

The first challenge for the GoalZero YETI 1500X was in blistering heat to help clear some land of thick grass, reeds and undergrowth from some land using a 240v strimmer. Quite thirsty work for the operator but not for the YETI, it was running for many hours solid and performed brilliantly. After one part of the job was done, we recharged its Lithium battery back up with the solar panel, ready to start again the next day.

Upon our return, before we sent the YETI back to the supplier, we tested it on a few other domestic appliances and here’s what we found;

Kettle – This is our domestic 240v kettle and it’s quite a thirsty (excuse the pun) machine, as it’s one of these rapid boil types. We felt that this was a rather challenging test for the YETI, so we had filled it to the brim and got started.

So what happened? It cut out!! The YETI switched off its 240v output, showing a red LED on the AC button. There was a flashing thermometer symbol and the word HOT showing on the display.

However, as soon as the YETI had cooled itself with its internal fans (took 20 seconds), it automatically restarted. It did this one more time, and then all the water was boiled and ready to make a brew.

I put this down as a success, showing that the YETI will protect itself when pushed, and it still got the work done. The battery percentage dropped by 5%.

Other stuff – We used it on our household SHARK vacuum cleaner and worked a treat, barely touching the battery percentage, only moving it 1% every 5 minutes.

I used it to strim the grass on our front lawn, this took the capacity down from 57% down to 54%.

Then it was tried on a handheld steamer that was being used to get the creases out of some tents that we were photographing. Again, only dropping the battery capacity by 1% every few minutes.

It was also tested on a pair of hair straighteners and an expensive GHD hair dryer, both with sensitive electronics in them and both working fine.

YETI APP
This is a really clever and handy addition to any power station. Having the ability to monitor how well it is operating and also make changes to what it is doing (from a distance if needed). It helps you monitor and control many functions as well as checking stuff like battery temperature etc.

CONCLUSION
Reassuringly, having used the GoalZero YETI 1500X for a while now, we can confidently say that this power station does what it promises and more importantly, it does it reliably. The 1500X coped with all the challenges we threw at it.

If you need something larger or smaller, there are other YETI sizes in the GoalZero range (200X, 500X, 1500X (the one we tested), 3000X and 6000X).

The advantage of the optional faster charging adapter (YETIFAST) is a great addition too, as is their vehicle integration kit for charging your YETI whilst on the road.

GoalZero tagline is “power anything anywhere”, go check em out! www.goalzero.co.uk