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A couple of years ago, I received a power station from a brand I hadn’t worked with before: Oupes*. In a market dominated by Jackery, EcoFlow, and others, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a newcomer. Would they be offering a robust product at a competitive price, or would they be trying to enter the market at the bottom by cutting corners. Today, I have not only the answer to that, but also a product review that shows where the company has gone since we’ve first worked with them.
Oupes Products Hold Up
If you’re unfamiliar with Oupes power stations, I want to first talk about my experience with them over the last couple of years. When I was done doing an initial review of an Oupes 1800W power station, I gave it to some relatives who like to go camping a lot. Eventually, the station became the main power source for an off-grid cabin, being ferried back and forth from a house in the desert to the mountains. The power station has also been taken on trips all over the United States.
Riding around in the back of a pickup on these trips, the power station has seen a lot of conditions that put it to the test. Hot weather, cold weather, altitudes from sea level to 10,000 feet, bumpy roads, dirt roads, a poorly repaired road that was bad enough to shift a slide-in camper around in the bed, and even a little rain—the power station has been fine through all of this. While many people see generators as the gold standard for off-grid power, the Oupes largely replaced one at the cabin running everything from power tools to a TV to a toaster.
I’d have to say based on this experience that Oupes makes a good power station.
But, Can Oupes Innovate?
Recently, the company sent us a newer power station to test: the Oupes Mega 1. When I first unboxed it, I loved seeing that the company had a sense of humor. When I gave my relatives the older Oupes station, the first thing they said was, “I sure hope nothing goes wrong, but if it does, the station already says ‘oops’ on it!” Seeing that their marketing tagline is now “No power oops with Oupes” shows that they’ve embraced what came from a cross-cultural marketing effort.
The first thing I noticed was that the Oupes Mega 1 has both a good number and a good variety of outputs:
- Two USB-PD 100W ports
- Four USB-A quick-charge ports
- A cigarette lighter plug and two other 12v outputs
- Four 20-amp 120v outlets
It also has a decent display (it looks better in person) that shows not only the percentage, but also time remaining at current power usage. With many older or cheaper power stations, you don’t have that kind of information and have to guesstimate time remaining while running an appliance. This takes all of the guesswork out, letting you have an easier time managing remaining energy storage.
Another important feature it has is the “IOT” (internet of things) function. It’s possible to turn the wifi and bluetooth on and off and connect it to an app for power management. This is great for camping, especially if you’re in a warm sleeping bag and don’t want to get up, or simply if you don’t want to walk to the next room or outside while it charges on solar.
Speaking of solar power and charging, there are several good inputs to charge it up. For solar, the Oupes Mega 1 has standard Anderson Powerpole connectors that are compatible with all sorts of power inputs. As you can see in the featured image at the top of the article, it comes with a cigarette lighter plug and a solar adapter to feed power into this port. But you can put any power source that meets the specifications (12–80 volts, up to 12 amps) to charge it up! There’s also a standard 120V plug to charge it at home or from a generator, as well as a breaker reset.
One thing that confused me about the power station initially was that the power station has so much output power (2000 watts continuous, 4000 watts in bursts) with only one kilowatt-hour of storage. This is pretty different compared to most power stations. However, when I saw the extra battery port, it all made sense. The Oupes Mega 1 is meant to be the center of a larger ecosystem where you can upgrade the storage capacity with a second battery or carry a more compact power station to go.
Can It Power A Hungry Appliance?
Yes, it can! I often use a toaster oven to reheat pizza leftovers, so this seemed like a good opportunity to see how it handles some real power draw. Some power stations freak out or cut power back after a few minutes, despite advertising high power output. But this one doesn’t do that. Not only did it heat the little oven up, but it got my pizza hot and ran for several more minutes. So, I wouldn’t be afraid of using it for real jobs.
All in all, I’d have to say that the Oupes Mega 1 works well, and the price is pretty good considering all of the features and the high power output. As of this writing, it’s going for $499 (with a special discount code included in the link — normal price is listed at $699). This gives both a good initial price plus the opportunity to pick up more storage without having to buy a whole power station later.
All images by Jennifer Sensiba.
* This article has been sponsored by Oupes.
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