Goal Zero Sherpa 50 Power Pack With 110V AC Inverter, 5200mAh/58Wh

Love this in the wilderness and the travel scene! Works with portable-solar

This seller sold me a broken item. This item DOES NOT hold a charge at all. I plugged it in for 2 days, and the display said it reached 60% battery (and won't charge higher), but when I plug my smartphone into it, it tells me the unit has no battery powet to charge with.

Before I get into my review of the Sherpa 50 AC, I have to get my biases on the table. I have quite a bit of GZ gear. Some of it I like, some I don’t. In general I find GZ products to be overpriced and needlessly proprietary. Especially their connectors. I always bake that into my reviews. I paid $100 for the Sherpa which I find to be a reasonable price assuming the included inverter.Ok on with the review. My Sherpa arrived completely drained. The reason is because to LED light had been activated (maybe in transit) and had drained the battery pack. I was worried when I first connected the AC adapter and the “!” symbol popped up. Luckily it went away in a couple minutes and I got a full charge. I tested the 12V connection and the inverter, etc. Everything was fine. I’m not sure about capacity yet, but it appears that my Sherpa is at or near rated capacity just based on my initial testing.I have to say that I’m impressed with this little power pack so far. I plugged in a 65W laptop charger to the inverter and the Sherpa did fine. Of course the inverter and battery pack began to get warm and I only went for about 15 minutes before ending the test. I drew about 20% off the pack in that time. I would NOT recommend pushing the Sherpa 50 that hard for very long. For my Surface, or my iPad, I think the inverter would do better. Really the inverter should just be for things like battery speed chargers.The regulated 12V port is really the star of the show. I can actually run a 12V fridge for some time without setting off the low voltage warning. I wish the larger Yetis had regulated 12V outlets.The USB port is a USB port. Not much to say here except remember that this is only a 5200 mah pack. Don’t go thinking you’ll just charge up all your electronics with this.Mostly I’m very satisfied with the Sherpa. I haven’t tried to charge it directly from a solar panel because I’m a bit scared to. My smallest panels are 100 watts. That seems like a lot to throw at a little 50 watt Sherpa. Oh and no chance I’m getting one of the Nomads. Classic overpriced GZ nonsense. I’ll be perfectly happy to just use the AC adapter and charge off my Yeti. It’s still solar after all. I think what I might try is using one of my Rockpals 100s with just 1 or 2 panels unfolded and see if the Sherpa will charge that way. If I do that, I’ll post results.Long story short for $100 US, you’re getting one of the good GZ products.

Bought this battery at the beginning of the panny incase the world ended, and it would be great if the battery didn’t go bad over and over again. Not sure if this is even for sake anymore but definitely has major QC issues, I would not reccomend.

Very sturdy, compact and perfect for hiking/outdoor use. Can be charged and discharged simultaneously - quite a few 12v power banks capable of this.Why three stars? 1) Proprietary connectors with short cables, longer cables are pricey and sold separately. 2) very sensitive and bulging button for LED torch - can be switched on incidentally. 3) Backcountry are selling pretty outdated devices - manufactured at 2014, so, li-ion cells are not in perfect condition. Load test shows 4Ah (48Wh) @ 2A load maximum, while it should be 58Wh according to manual!So, you have to accept real capacity of each of 6-cell - 2160 mAh @ 3.7v ~13000 mAh in total, not 6 x 2600mAh @ 3.7v ~ 15600mAh!Yeah, it should be some losses during conversion from 11.1v input to 12.5v output, but not this big... Pity.

I bought this for a trip overseas, to Germany and Romania, in particular. The Goal Zero power bank was fully charged before we left. It was in my carry on so no damage. Plugged it in over in Romania and immediately went into failure mode. Literally. It is now in the garbage somewhere in Romania. Goal Zero offered no assistance nor warranty replacement, and while overseas, no chance of returning. A waste of money.

Very versatile little, when it works. I bought (5) of these power packs. While relatively new, one failed to recharge after using it overnight where it fully discharged while using it to recharge a cell phone. And another used in the same way, will now only recharge to 40% of capacity. An online search revealed sone other Sherpa 50 owners have experienced the same problem. Inexpensive, USB battery packs can all discharge fully while in use, and always be fully recharged. I suspect a design flaw with this product.

Battery stopped taking a charge after four months of sitting (fully charged upon receipt) in my office. Return window closed at one month. Bummer.