Testing the giant Anker F3000 battery in Northern Ontario

A few weeks ago I headed north to the Timmins, Ontario area to spend a few days in the woods with my dad and other friends and family.

We typically power our small camp and single trailer with power from a gas generator, so I was interested to see how the F3000 could replace that. Although it worked great, it was outperformed by two elements. Firstly, I couldn't charge it without using a generator, and secondly, it was pouring rain, and it's not designed to get that wet.

However, when we used it, it was fantastic: it provided uninterrupted power for about nine and a half hours, which was impressive. However, given that the battery weighs 100 pounds and is difficult to transport, I would have liked it to last a little longer. Our camp has five lanterns and two regular outlets that people use to charge their phones. We could probably replace some of the light bulbs with more efficient LEDs, but as it stands the camp uses about 200-250 watts to run all this equipment. If we had used the battery to run power tools on the day we repaired the roof, it would have drained even faster.

This simply means that you need to keep a close eye on the power consumption when using this battery. For example, it can work with a refrigerator for about 48 hours if it only works with a refrigerator. Ideally, given its large size, this device is probably better suited for use at home or on weekend camping trips in a caravan. If you kept the lighting minimal and just used a small refrigerator in the trailer, this would be ideal. However, staying in the trailer is key here, so ideally you can just leave the battery in one place all the time.

You can even connect to the monitoring app via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

While we were camping, my brother-in-law Riley received a call on the second day that the power went out at his house around 8 p.m., and only my sister and their 11-month-old daughter were home. So even though he tried his best to teach her how to use their backup generator, Moira's frustration could be heard over the phone. After the call, Riley suddenly became even more jealous of my giant battery. If he had this at home, it would be very easy for my sister to plug in a few things without stress to get enough power to run the essentials for a day or two.

If you plan to use the battery as an emergency backup power source, you can use it as an uninterruptible power supply to keep it charged at all times. If you want to store it, Anker recommends giving the battery a full charge every three months to keep it running. You can also connect it to existing solar systems. My uncle has a small solar system at his fishing camp in Quebec and he only stores 2000 watt-hours of energy in his batteries as the panels recharge them every day. Something like this would have been a great option when he was building his system, especially since in a pinch you can move it around.

I think I should address the size right now. It's huge and has big wheels on the back, like the ones on a refrigerator, that allow you to roll it around. However, at 100 pounds, it is not easy to carry. My fiancé couldn't lift it and I even had to carry it because it was bulky. It can be done, but even loading and unloading into the car is a pain in the ass. If you're looking for a high-capacity portable battery, consider a 1000-2000 Wh option, e.g. DJI battery I recently tested or the smaller Anker variant.

However, if you need more ports, the F3000 has it all. There are four 120-volt outlets, one 240-volt plug for camper hookups, and four USB ports. Two of them are USB-C, and the other two are regular USB-A. There is also a 12V car outlet and a DC port. There are also several options for replenishment. You can use solar panels, regular 120V household outlets, a car charger, or even an electric vehicle charger to quickly charge your battery on the go. However, I just charged at home and was able to charge a large battery in about two hours.

Overall, this is a really heavy duty battery, but I would love to have some way to make it waterproof so it can withstand rain if it needs to be outside. At this price ($3899) and weight, I think it would be very useful. However, it didn't let me down and it has all the bells and whistles that most people would want in a battery of this caliber.