May 16th, 2017

Gear Review

Goal Zero Solar Kit

Introduction

We recently bought Goal Zero’s Yeti 400 solar generator and Boulder 30 solar panel. Yes, they are sold separately, although I believe from time to time they are offered as a kit. That silver box is the Yeti 400 and it’s going to be our solution for powering all of our electronics in the background. The solar panel can deliver up to 30 watts of power, so with good sunlight, it takes about 26-52 hours to charge the Yeti. We also purchased a car charger, which we were disappointed to find is sold separately, to charge the Yeti on long drives. The car charger is also only 2 feet long, so we’ll have to figure out where to put the Yeti when driving. The car charger option charges the Yeti in about 13 hours. The Yeti can also be plugged into a wall outlet. The wall cords were provided. Wall charging takes the least amount of time at about 5 hours.

The Yeti 400

The Yeti 400 weighs a whopping 29 pounds! Under its silver shell is a Lead Acid battery. So, it’s basically a car battery with nice housing and the ability to link up with a solar panel. The Yeti has 2 AC outlets, 2 USB outlets, 1 12V Car Port, and 2 12V 6mm ports. With all the different ports we should have no problem plugging in our electronic gear. The Yeti can charge a smartphone 30 times or a laptop 5 times. According to the user manual, when this thing is fully charged it can even run a TV for 3 hours, but I don’t see us testing that out.

The Yeti has an easy to read LCD screen that lets you know how much battery life is left and the number of watts coming in. It even tells you how many watts you are outputting. There are on/off buttons above the outlets that need to be turned on when in use.

The big thing to be aware of is NOT letting the Yeti 400 run out of battery. There is even a built-in alarm if the battery is getting too low. Because it is a lead acid battery there is a risk of damaging the battery if the charge runs out. Goal Zero recommends you just use it. I don’t see this being a problem for us, but it seems like an important thing to remember and keep an eye on.

The Boulder 30

The Boulder 30 panel weighs 6.5 pounds and is encased in aluminum and tempered glass. It’s water resistant and can take a bit of a beating. Laura even went the extra mile and sewed a simple case for it, although for $100 there is a case for sale through Goal Zero. The cord is a nice and long at about 4 feet. Super easy setup! You just plug one end of the cord into the back of the panel where it says “OUT” and the other end into the Yeti where it says “INPUT”. The key with the panel is to angle it towards the sun and get as much direct sunlight hitting the panel. When the panel is plugged into the Yeti you can see how much wattage is going into the battery on the LCD screen, which is great in helping you figure out if the panel can be adjusted for more power.

The panel can easily be linked up to other panels if we choose to buy another one. If we did buy another panel we could cut charge times in half.

Our Thoughts

So far we are loving this set-up! We chose the Yeti 400 because of its size compared to other Yeti models. The Boulder 30 panel is specifically designed to work with the Yeti and has potential to be linked up with more Boulder 30 panels. The panel is super sturdy and has lots of holes in the frame to hang it from our Jeep. We wish the car charger cord was longer, but the Yeti is small enough that it can be moved around and into a closer position. Everything is made of metal and quality materials. The Yeti has a sturdy built-in handle that collapses down to save space.

So far, this thing is charging our two laptops, our camera gear, cell phones, and our rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. Since charging the pack with the solar panel can take a few days depending on the light, we have realized that the best thing to do is stay in one place for that time. Put the panel on the roof of the Jeep and spend the day hiking or fishing. Or at least take a day off from using the laptops, which use up the most energy.

One of our favorite things about this product is since we do a lot of driving and are using a lot of gas, this is a great way to lessen our carbon footprint. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start. And of course, we can be “digital nomads” anywhere now.