Extra battery or a second power station?

What an extra battery adds, and what it does not

An extra battery adds watt-hours, and almost never watts. The station's inverter still sets how much it can run at once and what it can start, so a battery makes the same devices run longer. One exception: Dabbsson says its DBS1000 Pro gives 2,400 W instead of 2,000 W with a DBS2000B or DBS2100B attached. Most batteries join the station through its expansion port and add to its own battery. A few work in power bank mode instead (BLUETTI B80, BLUETTI B230, BLUETTI B300 on some stations): they recharge the station through one of its inputs, at that input's speed. Each battery fits only the stations its maker lists, and the most one station takes is the maker's figure; the extra-battery list gives both for every station.

When a second station is the better buy

• You need more power at once, not more hours: two stations give two inverters and twice the outlets.
• You run things in two places, say a fridge in the kitchen and a router upstairs, or a campsite and a van.
• You want a spare. With a battery, one fault in the station stops everything; with two stations, one keeps going.
• The battery costs as much per watt-hour as the station, or more, as it does for 6 of the pairs below.

The battery is the better buy when the job is one place and more hours: an outage plan for a fridge and a few lights, a CPAP on a long trip, an RV that sits for days. To see how many watt-hours your devices need, put them in the watt-hour calculator first.

Every pair, at the makers' prices

Price per watt-hour the battery adds, against the station's own price per watt-hour; the lower figure is marked. A battery the maker sells for several stations appears once for each.

Questions buyers ask

Does an extra battery make a power station more powerful?

Almost never. It adds stored energy, so the same devices run for longer; how much the station can run at once, and what it can start, is still set by its own inverter. The exception we know of is Dabbsson's DBS1000 Pro: with a DBS2000B or DBS2100B attached, Dabbsson gives its output as 2,400 W rather than 2,000 W.

Can I use another brand's battery, or a battery from an older model?

Only the batteries the station's maker lists for it; the plugs, voltages and battery management differ between models and makers. The extra-battery list names each maker's batteries for each station, with the maker's own words.

Is a bigger station cheaper than a smaller one with a battery?

Sometimes. Compare the price per watt-hour of the larger station with the smaller station plus its battery: the table above gives both figures for every pair, and each model page gives its own price per watt-hour.