In the middle of hurricane season during the 2020 pandemic, The New York Times sent remote workers a Jackery power station to weather any power failures. No blackout was going to stop the news.

I became a bit attached to mine, even though we didn’t have any emergencies on the level of Hurricane Sandy, which knocked out power to my neighborhood for more than a week in 2012.

When I retired in July, the Jackery was on the list of equipment the company wanted back. Parting was such sweet sorrow. So recently I replaced it with the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Portable Power Station.*

This thing is a beast. It can fast-charge in an hour, including with solar power or from an outlet in your car. After 4,000 cycles, Jackery claims it will still have a 70 percent capacity. It has 2 USB-C port, a USB-A port, a DC car port, and 3 pure sine wave AC ports with LED lights. allowing you to charge laptops, phones and other devices, and keep the internet going, at least until the cell tower batteries die, as happened in Sandy. It can keep a fridge cold for 37 hours.

Blackouts and public unrest aside, it’s great for doing some off-grid camping. I’m planning to take it on the road in my retirement.

*(Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)