{
  "title": "Power Stations by the Numbers: 43 Portable Units, Analyzed (2026) · Sorted Gear",
  "url": "https://sortedgear.com/power-stations-by-the-numbers/",
  "publisher": "Sorted Gear",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "datePublished": "2026-07-03",
  "source": "Sorted Gear — computed from our free calculators and cited primary sources.",
  "findingCount": 11,
  "findings": [
    {
      "n": 1,
      "category": "What a watt-hour actually costs",
      "stat": "Across 43 popular portable power stations in 2026, the median price works out to about $0.78 per watt-hour.",
      "detail": "That is the number to benchmark any deal against. Below roughly $0.50 per watt-hour is genuinely good value, and above $1.00 you are paying for the brand, the form factor, or a sale that is not really a sale.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis of 43 current US models, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/gear/road/power/best-portable-power-stations-2026/"
    },
    {
      "n": 2,
      "category": "What a watt-hour actually costs",
      "stat": "Small power stations cost about 2.1 times more per watt-hour than large ones: roughly $0.93 per Wh under 500 Wh versus $0.44 per Wh above 1,500 Wh.",
      "detail": "Watt-hours get cheaper in bulk because the inverter, screen, and case are fixed costs spread over more battery. If you are choosing between two sizes, the bigger one is almost always the better value per watt-hour, as long as you can carry it.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/tools/rv-battery-runtime-calculator/"
    },
    {
      "n": 3,
      "category": "What a watt-hour actually costs",
      "stat": "The budget challenger brands undercut the majors by roughly 60 percent per watt-hour, about $0.31 versus $0.80.",
      "detail": "Brands like Oukitel, Pecron, and VTOMAN sell watt-hours cheaply, but the trade-off is that their long cycle-life claims are vendor-stated and rarely tested independently, and their headline list prices are often permanently inflated to make a sale look bigger. The capacity is real; the longevity is a bet.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/gear/road/power/best-portable-power-stations-2026/"
    },
    {
      "n": 4,
      "category": "Chemistry is the whole value decision",
      "stat": "Forty of the 43 units use LiFePO4 batteries; only three still use older NMC lithium, and all three are the weakest buys in their size class.",
      "detail": "The NMC holdouts in 2026 are the Jackery Explorer 3000 Pro, the Goal Zero Yeti 1000 Core, and the Growatt Infinity 1500. NMC is not defective, but for a power station that gets cycled daily it is the wrong chemistry, and the market has almost entirely moved on.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": ""
    },
    {
      "n": 5,
      "category": "Chemistry is the whole value decision",
      "stat": "The LiFePO4 units are rated for a median of 3,500 charge cycles and up to 6,000; the three NMC units for just 500 to 2,000.",
      "detail": "At one cycle a day that is the difference between a battery that lasts about 10 years and one worn out in 1.5 to 5. Cycle-life ratings are manufacturer claims rather than independent tests, but the chemistry gap is real and consistent across every brand.",
      "source": "Manufacturer spec pages; Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": ""
    },
    {
      "n": 6,
      "category": "Chemistry is the whole value decision",
      "stat": "Over its rated life an NMC power station costs about $0.66 per usable kilowatt-hour delivered; a LiFePO4 one costs about $0.25, roughly 2.7 times less.",
      "detail": "Spread the purchase price across every watt-hour the battery will ever deliver, which is capacity times rated cycles times usable depth, and LiFePO4 wins decisively even when it costs more up front. The cheapest sticker price and the cheapest power are rarely the same unit.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/gear/road/power/best-portable-power-stations-2026/"
    },
    {
      "n": 7,
      "category": "The spec-sheet traps",
      "stat": "A bigger watt-hour number does not mean it can run more: nine power stations all storing about 1,024 Wh range from 1,200 to 2,600 watts of continuous output.",
      "detail": "Watt-hours are your fuel tank; continuous watts are your engine. Same one kilowatt-hour of storage, but the Goal Zero Yeti 1000 Core tops out at 1,200 watts while the DJI Power 1000 V2 delivers 2,600. Check the continuous watts against your biggest appliance, or a hair dryer will trip a battery that looks plenty big on paper.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/tools/generator-sizing-calculator/"
    },
    {
      "n": 8,
      "category": "The spec-sheet traps",
      "stat": "Surge ratings are not standardized: the same continuous wattage carries a claimed surge of anywhere from 1.3 to 2.2 times, depending on the brand.",
      "detail": "Jackery and EcoFlow tend to quote a 2x surge; Anker and Bluetti often quote 1.3 to 1.5x on the same class of unit. A 2,400-watt surge on one brand and a 3,600-watt surge on another can hide near-identical real inverters, so surge headroom is not comparable across brands without reading the continuous number too.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/tools/generator-sizing-calculator/"
    },
    {
      "n": 9,
      "category": "The spec-sheet traps",
      "stat": "X-Boost and Power Lifting are software tricks, not real inverter capacity: they run resistive gear above the rated watts by lowering voltage.",
      "detail": "EcoFlow's X-Boost and Bluetti's Power Lifting let an 1,800-watt unit run a 2,600-watt heater, but only for heating elements, not motors or electronics. It is a genuine feature, not a bigger inverter, and it will not start an air conditioner or run a microwave at the boosted number.",
      "source": "EcoFlow and Bluetti documentation; Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": ""
    },
    {
      "n": 10,
      "category": "Weight and portability",
      "stat": "A portable power station weighs about 1 pound for every 35 watt-hours: the median across 43 units is 34.7 Wh per pound.",
      "detail": "That is your fast planning rule. A 1,000 Wh unit lands near 28 to 30 pounds, and a 2,000 Wh unit near 55 to 65. The lightest designs reach about 47 Wh per pound, and the big wheeled units, carrying heavier inverters and casters, drop toward 22.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/tools/rv-battery-runtime-calculator/"
    },
    {
      "n": 11,
      "category": "Weight and portability",
      "stat": "Past about 2,000 watt-hours a power station stops being carryable: every unit above that line weighs 50 to 135 pounds.",
      "detail": "A 100 Wh unit fits a jacket pocket, a 1,000 Wh unit is a two-handed carry, and a 4,000 Wh unit needs wheels or two people. If it lives in a van or truck bed and rarely moves, weight barely matters; if you carry it to a campsite, it caps the capacity you will actually tolerate.",
      "source": "Sorted Gear analysis, 2026",
      "link": "https://sortedgear.com/gear/road/power/best-portable-power-stations-2026/"
    }
  ]
}