As part of my quest to optimise my energy bills, I’ve been looking into power stations and building up my arsenal of energy storage. Whenever I spot a reasonably priced power station (and budget permits), I decide to grab them for my own needs and run them through tests along the way.

When it comes to big-brands in the charging world, Anker is definitely well-recognised and their products usually carry a premium price-tag, up with the likes of Bluetti and Ecoflow. But just before the financial year was up, Anker came to the OzBargain table with quite a few tempting offers – unfortunately, I did miss a few but this one I did manage to catch. The deal was the Anker Solix F1200 1500W output/1229Wh capacity power station for AU$599 including delivery or just under AU$0.50/Wh which is quite decent for a branded product with a five-year warranty. Of course, this was a clearance as new models were on the way (this model is no longer listed), but this was a deal so hard to pass-up on that I ended up purchasing a few units, just like the DJI Power 1000 that I previously reviewed.

Unboxing

The first unit arrived in a very odd cardboard box. The design of the box has a lift-off lid and a base, resulting in a “rim” of packing tape left to secure the lid on a box containing more than 20kg of goods. Hardly a secure way to close the package, making it feel “spongy” even when it arrived.

Because of its weight, there are “team lift” stickers on the sides. Additionally, it is labelled with the necessary hazardous goods shipment labels, but from the sides, it is mostly plain.

The label on the side gives some information about the consignment, some of which I have blurred out. While the label on the outer with the model A1770C11A indicates a 2023 year, the label underneath (contrast-enhanced) indicates a date of manufacture of 2022.

The overpack protects the retail art box inside with an extra piece of cardboard at the top.

Everything is in a matte black, blue and silver colour scheme. An authenticity check label is affixed to the top.

The unit is branded Anker 757 Portable Power Station (PowerHouse 1229Wh), but online, it is also known as the Anker Solix F1200. This is part of their “Series 7” of products and comes with five year arranty. The front has an isometric view of the product.

The rear introduces the user to the main features of the power station, with a front-on view of the unit.

The sides provide an overview of some of the other features including the things which don’t come up in specifications – like the internal chassis. The other side shows an application for power stations – i.e. camping.

There are more details about the company on the underside of the box.

There’s a thank-you message printed on the internal flap.

The accessories are contained in a box, in foam, on the top layer. Below is the power station inside a foam cradle, wrapped in a protective plastic bag.

Included is thin nylon cover bag, a cigarette lighter charger cable, a solar charging cable for three panels, a mains lead and a user manual.

The front is rather spartan, with a reset pin-hole, a slide switch for the efficiency mode, a button for light, display, car socket output and AC output. The blue USB outputs which are very “Anker” in colour appear to be always active.

The ports on the rear are covered by a protective flap. A label reminds the user that they need to charge the unit to activate it prior to first use.

The full specifications and contact details for help are provided on the rear. The text 16IFpR27/72-6 is likely a hint as to the battery configuration internally – 16 series of 6 parallel 26700 cells.

Opening the magnetically-secured rear flap exposes the XT60 solar/DC input, a push-to-reset button for an overload breaker and an IEC input for charging/pass-through power.

The silver accent on the handles forms an X (or is that an angular “infinity”) when viewed from the top. But the arrangement is not simply flat – there are subtle natural curves throughout.

The unit is kept in place with two large, ribbed rubber feet. The heavy weight also keeps it firmly planted.

The two end-vents are stylishly fashioned out of slots with interleaved blue plastic tangs, making for a grille that is large, tough but resists entry of larger foreign matter.

The included mains cable comes from Linoya with the plug (XYP-05) carrying the RCM logo and an SAA number.

The IEC plug (XYC-05) carries a lot of the foregin approvals and both are stamped with 10A 250V rating.

The cable consists of three 1.0mm^2 cores, appropriate for the intended load.

For solar charging, an XT60 female to three XT60 female cable is included for use with specific solar panels, to allow three to be connected at a time in parallel.

The cable for the solar and for the included cigarette lighter charger cable is 14AWG which is appropriate for a current of 10A. The cigarette lighter socket contains a 10A fuse.

My final consignment was not quite as pleasing. This one had a more traditional box which is easier to seal …

… but the text on the side suggests to me that this item has been returned and refurbished. The label inside seems to suggest it had passed their internal check. This one was more willing to advertise the brand on the outside of the overpack.

It is telling when the label on the side has a number beginning with RMA! The date of manufacture is still in 2022 making this unit close to four years old. While the time may take a bit of a toll, the price is still exceptional and I’m fairly sure there’s quite a bit of life left in it. Rather than be petty and reject the unit, I decided to accept it – with such durable goods, I generally don’t mind if it’s a little used. The alternative may be that they tell me there’s no units left in their clearance and so I’d be left with a refund instead …

User Experience

For peace of mind, I did check the security verification code.

On the correct entry of the code the first time, you are given the indication that it is genuine. On subsequent queries, it tells you it is genuine along with the first date/time it was looked-up. As expected, this unit is genuine, so let’s see what the user experience is like.

Being an older unit, the F1200 (PowerHouse 757) is pretty spartan. There’s no remote control in the form of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. In fact, there isn’t even any configuration except for a slide-switch that controls the power-saving “eco” mode that automatically shuts down unused outputs after a certain length of time. The threshold is not configurable and neither is the charge rate or output.

The LCD is quite simple to read, with a large battery icon on the left and the percentage remaining in very large font (the largest I’ve seen to date). This is very easily readable at a distance. This is checked by pressing on the “Display” button or by toggling any output status. The remaining time is estimated on the lower row in a smaller font – it would be nice if both were given nearly equal prominence.

Instantaneous output wattage is displayed to the left side with the unit having about a 1700W peak and 1500W sustained constant-power capability to run simple appliances like heaters. In case of severe overload, the output switches off automatically.

Charging input power is displayed towards the centre and begins slowly when the battery is fully depleted. It appears the final percentage is reserved and cannot be used. The solar input seems to be a bit sub-optimal due to its low-voltage range of 11-30V and doesn’t seem to automatically start when the sun rises (at least, in my testing, I had to push the display button to wake the station to have it start charging). The cable which parallels three solar panels is wired as XT60 female plugs, so it’s not going to work with all solar panels, but also means that all panels must be equivalent in voltage specifications for the unit to be able to maximise extracted energy.

On the upside, the most basic nature of the user interface makes it dead-simple to use. There’s no master switch. The USB outputs seem to be always active. The other outputs are a case of pushing the button once to turn on, in which the button illuminates to indicate it is active, then pushing against to turn off. It’s so simple that my Dad can use it without any ambiguity. While there is more in the way of inputs and outputs compared to the DJI Power 1000’s accessory-requiring nature, but overall the offering of the F1200 is still limited with only two AC outlets (equal to the DJI but less than my VTOMAN FlashSpeed 1500) and the USB-C ports being 100W and 60W rather than the 140W of the DJI.

Acoustically, it fares well as I rarely ever hear its fan, except during charging where it has a habit of coming on in short-ish bursts to keep the internals cool. The result is that sometimes you might be working away with the station nearly silent, but then it roars into a low “whoaaaarrrrr” for two or three seconds then stops. This might happen once every five or ten minutes. The fan arrangement is the opposite of the DJI Power 1000 – this unit exhausts to the left rather than the right. There is a little bit of coil whine that manifests itself as a high-pitched hiss under load but the fan doesn’t come on in discharge unless you’re running a heavy (>100W) load continuously and even then, it is thermostatically controlled with a speed that is proportional to cooling needs. Overall, I’d still say the DJI Power 1000 is quieter.

I think the Anker Solix F1200 looks quite aesthetically pleasing with its grey, silver and blue highlights and curved lines, but these looks hide a very substantial solid chassis. The build quality is indisputably first-rate, but being an older station, it does suffer from the fact that it’s one of the heaviest in this capacity class, weighing in at 19.9kg. That’s approaching the safe lifting limit for a single person. That’s not unsurprising when you realise that the capacity appears to be made up of 96 x ITR26/70-40E 3.2V 12.8Wh cylindrical cells (you can spy the markings from the side vents). Unfortunately, it would seem that age may have cost a little bit of the cell’s capacity.

While there is a warm-white light bar, I usually don’t find such frills all that useful as a power station is rarely placed where a light would be all that useful, but it is noted that it cycles through three brightnesses and SOS mode by long-press.

Testing

This section contains the results of measurements made using various pieces of test equipment which include the Tektronix PA1000 Power Analyser, Thermal Master P3 Thermal Camera, FNIRSI FNB58 USB Tester and Rohde and Schwarz MXO4 Oscilloscope.

USB Output Modes

One of the USB-C ports is rated at 100W and offers four fixed PDOs with one PPS PDO that doesn’t cover the full range (3.3V to 16V, 3.25A). The supported legacy fast charge protocols is somewhat limited, surprising given the IQ branding on the unit.

The other is rated at 60W and offers a similar mix but with lower current limits. It should be noted that the absence of 12V PDO may be unfortunate for some users.

The USB-A ports are very spartan, supporting Apple 2.4A and USB BCS (1.5A) only.

Discharge Tests

I used my fan heater load which is nominally 1.9kW to test the power station at high load. As the unit cannot sustain the full load, it appears to operate at a “peak” rating of about 1740W for the first minute, then falling back to about 1505W until the discharge completes. However, it does seem that the last percentage of capacity is not available for use, which does complicate calculation of efficiency – I’ve used the claimed capacity for all the computations just to be consistent, which results in an estimated discharge efficiency of 76.9% based on 945Wh delivered to the load. This implies a self-consumption (or loss) of about 454.5W under this load which is not great – the DJI Power 1000 manages a better result.

Moving down to a more modest 150W load, two stations were tested this time, producing very similar results. The discharge efficiency was 71.6%, with approximately 880Wh being delivered to the load. The computed self-consumption under this load was 55.4W. Once again, the DJI Power 1000 is better, but only very slightly.

The output voltage is quite well regulated, staying within around one volt throughout the full discharge process.

But it seems the Anker Solix F1200 does quite acceptably when it comes to the very light load circumstance of a single 2.9W LED lamp. While the efficiency of 15.8% is very low, it was still ahead of the DJI Power 1000’s 11.8% and the run-time is about 26 hours longer, also in part due to the larger cell capacity. The computed self-consumption is 15.3W, less than the DJI Power 1000’s 21.9W. So while the inverter isn’t as efficient under load, it’s slightly more efficient under a light load.

This pay-off can be seen in the fridge run time test – while the fridge load will vary due to the defrost cycle kicking in at intervals and changes in room temperature/food placed inside, the results are a bit neck-and-neck – 530.7Wh delivered is less than the 574Wh delivered from the DJI Power 1000, but the run-time of over 28 hours is longer than the 21 hours achieved in the DJI Power 1000 review. The computed self-consumption is 24.7W. This variation is not unexpected since the variation in fridge operation leads to differences in draw – but it is noted that the fridge does spend a little over 50% of its time idling, where the Anker would be more efficient. In the end, it seems there is no clear winner here.

The cigarette lighter socket output appears to be well regulated, outputting about 13.12V under a 10A load. It delivered 1013Wh for a 82.4% estimated discharge efficiency (27.8W calculated self-consumption). For a DC output, the efficiency is a bit lower than expected.

Under a 60W USB-C load, the unit delivered 900.4Wh for an estimated 73.3% discharge efficiency. This corresponds to a calculated 21.2W self-consumption, again, not the best. So it would imply that perhaps the older design of this power station and the fact there is no master-switch (so USB outputs are always live) may be the cause of the higher self-consumption.

Charging Tests

In the meantime, charging appears to be quite decent in terms of efficiency, with a computed 91.2% estimated charging efficiency. Charging took just shy of one and a half hours, making this a bit slower than the leading-edge one-hour charge stations, but faster charging does often come with lifetime risks, so this is not a bad compromise. There is no selection to charging speed, however. Charging is a little more gentle at the beginning when the cell voltage is low and tapers down to a finish. The quiescent draw at the end with the outputs turned off is around 5.3W. Based on the 150W discharge, the cycle efficiency is 65.2% which is fairly similar to other stations.

When charging via the DC solar input, it appears clear that the input is current limited to 10A, but it hovers more around 9A in reality. The calculated efficiencies exceed 100%, suggesting that the DC solar input is perhaps the most efficient, but also that the internal cells may be less than the rated capacity due to ageing and thus the poor showing for DC discharge efficiency may be representative of lost capacity instead. Nevertheless, in all cases, it appears that after charging completes, a constant 60mA is consumed regardless of voltage.

Plotting the same data as a function of power suggests that the charging input really is more a ~250W input assuming you manage to hit 28V, and more like 160W if your panels operate at a more 12V-nominal 18V maximum power point, which is not ideal for such a large station.

Thermal Profile

With such a big chassis and a lot of material inside, it’s no surprise that the exterior temperature is relatively low even under heavy loads. From the front, the outer only reached just shy of 35 degrees C, with the heat mostly concentrating on the left, as that is where the heat exhausts from.

Over the top, the temperature remained within 35 degrees C.

Peering through the side vents, internally, the temperature appeared to be up to around 50 degrees C, which is quite reasonable.

Standby Power

Using PWRVIEW in IEC 62301 mode, the standby power with no outputs enabled measured 5.5W.

In UPS mode with the output on, the power curves down (due to relays warming up) to settle at a power of about 10.9W. This is not particularly great but is quite a bit more acceptable than the DJI Power 1000’s 28.8W.

UPS Change-Over Time

Measuring change-over time is a but tricky as the mains waveform seemed to come back but that could have been capacitive coupling due to low load. Most optimistically, I’d say the switch-over from mains to inverter occurred in 30ms, but it could have been as long as 50ms.

Another two more attempts and the switch-over time was 42ms and 18ms respectively. This suggests that the speed of changeover may depend on where in the mains phase the power loss occurs and/or the output loading.

A final fourth attempt measured 34ms, in-between the measurements made so far. It’s not a very consistent performance.

Going from inverter to mains is a consistent 16ms across attempts.

Inverter AC Waveform Quality

The output is a pure sine wave with an accurate voltage and frequency. The first spur is about 48dB below the fundamental.

Under 150W load, the difference reduces to about 44dB. This seems quite acceptable, although the output does appear to have a slight DC offset (the probe had been zeroed to re-confirm this).

Conclusion

I think that the Anker Solix F1200 (Anker PowerHouse 757) is a decent offering considering its 2022 heritage. It is aesthetically elegant, functionally sturdy and easy-to-use, but is also no-frills without any remote control capability. It stays quiet under a majority of use cases, with only a slight hissy coil whine and the occasional fan “roar” during charging. While the LCD provides easy-to-read remaining charge percentage, the remaining time and instantaneous power readings are de-prioritised and are quite small. The AC and DC outputs are well regulated and clean.

Perhaps the biggest downside is that the sturdiness comes with a weight penalty, being 19.9kg making it less portable than other stations of this capacity class. Some of the original capacity may have been lost to ageing while in storage, resulting in lower discharge efficiency estimations. Cycle-efficiency is still within range at 65.2% based on the 150W discharge data and AC charging data – not the best and not the worst, but it is bested by the DJI Power 1000 at 67.7%. While the idle power consumption of 5.5W is not anything special, UPS mode consumption was 10.9W which seems in-line with other units of the era and is better than the DJI Power 1000’s egregious 28.8W. The inverter output power of 1500W (1700W surge) seems enough for a lot of loads, and the 60W/100W USB-C ports aren’t too bad, the USB-A ports did lack support for many alternative legacy fast-charging modes. Solar charging input is relatively limited depending on the voltage of your panel and doesn’t seem to automatically wake the station each morning.

One risk is the UPS functionality – while inverter to mains seemed consistently fast at 16ms, going from mains to inverter was a lot more variable, with a number of measurements ranging in-between 18 to 50ms which might not be fast enough for more sensitive linear-based power supplies.

In all, for the price, I think it was a fair purchase especially given the five year warranty and likely better-quality components than low-end power-stations of today. It has been running solidly for a couple of months now without any signs of errors. As long as you’re aware of the limitations, it’s definitely still a very solid power station at a good price. Too bad this one’s off the market now … so perhaps a new one will be coming soon. Perhaps they might improve upon efficiency which seems to be a key limitation of many current stations.

I hope you enjoyed this power station review. There’s another to come as the data gets processed, as I’ve already made some investments into a few units thanks to the Solar Sharer Offer. I hope to make this site a bit of a “home” for some more power station reviews in the future … but one person can only afford to buy so many! If you’re a company and you’re interested in contributing one for review, then take on my review challenge and reach out.