Verdict
The Anker SOLIX C1000 is a merely good residence energy station. Whereas it doesn’t have an enormous quantity of storage, its comparatively excessive energy output means it could deal with highly effective units akin to some kettles, espresso machines and toasters. But someway it’s packaged right into a remarkably compact machine, little greater than we’d anticipate from an influence financial institution with half the storage. It’s not the quietest selection, however it’s in any other case wonderful for mild to medium backup duties within the residence.
Execs
- Excellent vary of ports and capabilities
- Very compact for its capability
- Further configuration and management out there by app
Cons
- Fairly loud beneath full load
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A medium-duty energy stationThe Anker SOLIX C1000 can retailer greater than a kilowatt hour of electrical energy, and supply backup electrical energy for moderately highly effective units. -
vary of ports and capabilitiesWith 4 mains sockets, 4 USB sockets and a automotive charging port, the C1000 will energy a number of units on a tenting journey, or in an influence reduce.
Introduction
The SOLIX C1000 is the most recent battery energy station from charging and energy specialist Anker. It’s a medium-duty machine rated at 1.8 kilowatts (kW), so it’s capable of energy something from a cell phone as much as some lower-powered kettles, however at simply over one kilowatt hour (kWh) its energy storage isn’t particularly huge. That makes it perfect as a versatile residence backup provide, but in addition not too hefty to take tenting, the place its storage is more likely to be sufficient to maintain telephones, lights, computer systems and different tools working for at the very least a weekend.
The C1000 presents some fascinating options we haven’t seen on different Anker units, together with a HyperFlash charging mode claimed to get it from 0-100% energy in 58 minutes. It’s additionally expandable with extra storage, and constructed to deal with surges as much as 2.4kW – 33% greater than its regular restrict.
Like most fashionable battery energy stations, this makes use of lithium ion phosphate (LFP) batteries, which have an extended service life and extra steady chemistry than different lithium ion cells. The C1000 is designed to final 10 years and comes with a five-year guarantee, so you need to use it every day with out worrying an excessive amount of you’ll put on it out.
Design and options
- Amazingly compact
- A lot of ports for this measurement
- Rugged and fairly cell
The very first thing you’ll discover concerning the Anker SOLIX C1000 is that it’s actually fairly compact for an influence station with 1,056 watt hours (Wh) of battery storage. It’s considerably smaller and extra transportable than the Anker SOLIX F1200, and though it offers away virtually 200Wh in storage, manages to cram in additional ports and options. Whereas the C1000 is unavoidably heavy, at 12.9kg it’s not too laborious to lug it round the home, or a brief distance to a tenting website, though the Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus, which has barely extra capability, is less complicated to hold due to its single massive deal with.
On the entrance panel, you’ll discover 4 mains energy ports, with a mixed most energy output of 1.8kW. That’s not sufficient to deal with, say, a washer, however it’s sufficient for some fashionable kettles, and it’s definitely positive for many microwaves or toasters. Actually, the C1000 can energy virtually something besides heaters (or not for very lengthy) and laundry home equipment, so it could possibly be a helpful backup possibility when you’re topic to frequent energy cuts.
This energy station additionally has 4 USB ports, two of that are USB-A sockets rated at 12 watts. There are two USB-C ports, one rated for a slightly tame 30W, however the different good for as much as 100W charging. The ultimate output is a 120W cigarette-lighter model automotive socket.
Additionally on the entrance panel you’ll discover an LED strip mild with three completely different brightness settings, plus an ‘SOS’ mode which really flashes ‘SO’ repeatedly in Morse code. Like different Anker energy stations, there’s a reasonably large show which reveals the battery cost state, along with any enter and output energy, and further info akin to whether or not any USB ports are supplying energy.
The show tells you all it’s essential to know concerning the C1000’s day-to-day operation, together with giving a helpful estimation of how lengthy it’ll take to be discharged or recharged relying on the present hundreds and connections. Nonetheless, the C1000 additionally helps Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, so you too can management it utilizing the Anker app.
On its fundamental display screen, the app mirrors a lot of the show’s capabilities, however dig round and also you’ll discover fairly just a few extra options. It’s right here you’ll discover the Extremely Quick Charging slider, which is the one approach to allow the quickest mode. It’s additionally the one place to entry different settings just like the display screen brightness and energy timeout. The app additionally enables you to obtain and apply firmware updates.
The C1000’s 1kWh of storage isn’t large – it’s sufficient to energy a fridge freezer for 12-24 hours, or run just a few kitchen home equipment for a day – however it has a trick up its sleeve. Prize open a rubber cowl on the appropriate hand panel and you’ll join an non-compulsory, second 1,056Wh battery to double the storage – this wasn’t but out there to check on the time of our evaluate.
Anker says its SOLIX energy stations have a ‘drop-proof’ design, however we haven’t beforehand examined this declare. I unintentionally did so with the C1000 after dropping my footing on the steps and slamming it so laborious into the wall that paint transferred to its rear panel. I couldn’t spot any precise harm, and the facility station continued to work completely afterwards.
The Anker SOLIX C1000 presents bypass energy, so it could cost fortunately whereas additionally offering energy to any plugged in units. You should use it as an uninterruptible energy provide (UPS) for medical or digital tools. Whereas its claimed 20 millisecond switchover time is longer than I’d anticipate from a devoted UPS, it was fast sufficient that my take a look at PC and NAS didn’t flinch once I turned the mains energy off. One essential factor to notice is that, when you’re utilizing the C1000 to energy a CPAP or different important medical machine, you must disable the AC ports’ power-saving characteristic, which may in any other case flip them off mechanically.
Charging
- Cost from mains, automotive, or the solar
- Most 1,300W enter
- Very quick charging, even whereas offering energy
If the C1000’s packaging is spectacular, its recharging efficiency is much more so. Like many energy stations, you’ll be able to cost this one utilizing mains electrical energy, solar energy, or the output from a cigarette-lighter model automotive charging socket. You’ll discover its AC enter port on the left panel, alongside a reset change and an XT-60 photo voltaic socket. This station comes with the required adaptors to attach a cable from a automotive, or from as much as two transportable photo voltaic panels.
The C1000 accepts as much as 600W of solar energy, which in perfect situations can be sufficient to totally recharge it inside two hours. Nonetheless, on the most 120W output from a automotive, you’d have to drive for at the very least 9 hours for a full recharge. One missed alternative is that the C1000 can’t cost from the mains and a DC supply on the identical time, so you’ll be able to’t use photo voltaic panels to hurry up a cost, for instance.
Not that you simply’re more likely to have to. The C1000 can recharge at varied energy settings from 200W-1,000W, which you’ll choose by way of the app. The highest setting is as quick as you’d wish to go in on a regular basis use, whereas the decrease settings are helpful when you’ve solely obtained entry to a restricted quantity of energy, for instance an electrical hookup in a campsite.
I exhausted the C1000’s battery and charged it from mains energy utilizing its 1,000W setting. It recharged in just below 90 minutes, consuming somewhat greater than 1.1kWh. Assuming its battery went from totally empty to totally charged, that’s an effectivity of 92.8%. The C1000 was rather less environment friendly when recharging on the minimal 200W, or at 500W, consuming 1.3kWh and 1.2kWh respectively.
Ninety minutes is fast sufficient, however activate Extremely Quick charging by the app and the C1000 expenses at as much as 1,300W. At this setting, it obtained from 0-80% battery in simply 42 minutes, and went on to hit full cost in 54 minutes – 4 minutes faster than Anker claims. Anker says ‘Regular charging is one of the simplest ways to guard the battery’, which suggests you must save ultra-fast expenses for when you actually need them. It’s definitely rather less environment friendly, and includes louder fan noise than slower cost charges.
Efficiency
- Secure energy output
- Excellent effectivity, particularly over USB
- Loud followers on heavy load
With a good, 1.8kW most energy output, I subjected the C1000 to a few difficult checks. It may fortunately energy my kettle – additionally rated at 1.8kW – my microwave, or my toaster, however not multiple of them on the identical time. At one level I forgot and set the toaster to single-slice mode whereas making tea. I had time to get my cellphone out and snatch a photograph earlier than the C1000 powered itself down gracefully. It was completely satisfied to restart about 15 seconds later.
With the C1000 totally charged I related it to my electrical automotive’s ‘granny’ lead, which has a normal UK plug. I set this to 8A, roughly equal to this energy station’s most 1.8kW output, then waited. Though it solely added an indicated 1% to my automotive’s 64kWh battery, it remained steady for the 36 minutes it took to totally discharge.
The C1000 definitely appeared snug with something as much as and together with its limits, however its compact packaging does give rise to my solely vital criticism: its small followers are barely harsh, and fairly loud because the station begins to strategy its most AC load. That mentioned, they’re fairly measured at reasonable outputs, such because the 1.2kW my microwave consumes at full energy.
I used an AC energy meter to measure the quantity of energy provided at varied hundreds. When charging the automotive, the C1000 offered 0.87kWh. Assuming the battery went from totally charged to totally drained, that’s an excellent effectivity of 82%. With a continuing 200W load, the C1000 offered 0.89kWh (84.2%), and with a middling 750W load it reached a superb 0.95kWh (89.8%). Sometimes for an influence financial institution, the C1000 was most spectacular when offering DC energy over USB. I related a continuing 60W load and measured very almost 1kWh of output, an effectivity of 94.4%.
These are good figures, however just like the charging effectivity quoted above they depend on the idea that the battery goes between totally charged and totally spent. You’ll get a extra correct round-trip effectivity by evaluating the vitality you place in straight in opposition to what you bought out. Utilizing my finest figures, the C1000 managed a round-trip effectivity of 87.6% when charged by way of AC then discharged by way of USB. It managed 83.3% for AC charging and discharging. These are among the many finest performances I’ve measured.
We offer a sign of an influence station’s worth by dividing its value by how a lot electrical energy it could retailer in its lifetime. Anker says the SOLIX C1000 is rated at 1,056Wh, and can retain at the very least 80% of this after 3,000 full cost/discharge cycles. In idea this implies it may retailer 3,168kWh, which works out at an affordable 32p per kWh saved when you purchase it full value. Nonetheless, we’ve already seen the C1000 discounted by as a lot as £250. Snap it up at nearer £750 and it presents a really aggressive 24p per kWh.
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Must you purchase it?
An excellent, mid-range energy station
This is a superb energy provide for medium-duty backup across the residence, or when you plan to take increased energy devices like a espresso maker on a tenting journey. It’s brilliantly packaged and surprisingly compact, significantly when you think about its spectacular charging and output efficiency.
Not highly effective sufficient for every thing
The C1000 doesn’t have the chops to energy laundry home equipment or dishwashers, and its 1kW storage is a bit mild if you’d like a do-anything backup energy provide. It’s additionally fairly noisy when working laborious.
Last Ideas
The SOLIX C1000 seems like a small however vital step ahead for comparatively inexpensive, reasonably highly effective energy stations. It’s fairly small and transportable, but it presents a good output and shops a good quantity of energy – you’ll be able to at all times broaden it when you want extra.
Anker’s energy station screens are nicely designed, however including Wi-Fi connectivity makes it simple to get essentially the most from the C1000, giving energy customers the prospect to tweak efficiency and monitor the station from wherever they like. And beneath all of it there’s an ideal energy provide, providing good effectivity and steady efficiency throughout the vary of situations I examined. Spend somewhat extra on the Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus and also you don’t get the UPS options, however you get extra capability, and a barely increased enter, plus a tool that’s a contact simpler to hold round.
How we take a look at
We take a look at each battery station we evaluate totally over an prolonged time period. We use commonplace checks to match options correctly. We’ll at all times inform you what we discover. We by no means, ever, settle for cash to evaluate a product.
Discover out extra about how we take a look at in our ethics coverage.
We take a look at with quite a lot of units to see how lengthy the battery will final.
We take a look at completely different charging strategies to see how shortly the battery might be topped up.
FAQs
The C1000 makes use of long-life LiFePO4 batteries, which must final for hundreds of cycles. Anker says it’s designed for a 10-year lifespan, and that after 3,000 full cost/discharge cycles you’ll nonetheless have 80% of the batteries’ unique capability. It again this all up with a beneficiant five-year guarantee, so the C1000 must be a secure funding.
Like different Anker energy stations, the C1000 will get a five-year guarantee.