22 units compared from our database: 12 EcoFlow and 10 Jackery, 240Wh to 6,144Wh. Judged on tested usable capacity, cost per cycle, UPS switchover speed, solar input ceiling, and cell chemistry. Prices change weekly, so this page focuses on price and value tiers rather than sale stickers.
The 30-Second Verdict
EcoFlow builds a better emergency machine. Jackery builds a better carry-it-out-to-the-campsite machine. That is the short version, and almost every row below is a variation on it.
EcoFlow adds a fast transfer switch and an expansion port to more of its range, and it runs more quietly. Jackery gets more watt-hours per pound and squeezes more of the rated capacity to the outlets, but four of its ten units in our database still ship with older NMC cells, and those units cost several times more per cycle over their lifetimes.
Buy EcoFlow if you are covering Emergency Home Resiliency,r Remote Work, and DIY Tools. Buy Jackery if you are covering Overland, RV, and Remote Dry Camping, and you stay on the LiFePO4 side of the lineup.
Skip both if your budget is under the Budget tier ceiling and you only need to keep phones alive. A 250Wh unit from either brand costs about four times as much per watt-hour as their 2kWh units.
How We Compared Them
Every figure on this page comes from our master database of 124 portable power stations, not from brand spec sheets. Where a row is marked as tested, the usable capacity was measured at the AC outlets rather than taken from the label. That gap matters: a 1,024Wh badge does not mean 1,024Wh of appliance runtime, because the inverter burns roughly 13 to 16 percent of it, turning DC battery power into household AC.
Three metrics do most of the work here, and casual reviews skip all three.
- Usable AC watt-hours. What actually reaches the outlet? Every runtime on this page is calculated from this figure, never from the nominal capacity.
- Cost per cycle. Purchase price divided by rated charge cycles. This is what one full charge and discharge costs you over the life of the pack, and it is the metric that exposes cheap chemistry.
- Watt-hours per pound. Energy density. It decides whether a unit lives in your truck or in your basement.
Brand at a Glance
Read that table carefully, because it contains a trap. Jackery wins the cycle-life row on the median, but the median hides the spread. Jackery ships both 6,000-cycle LiFePO4 packs and 500-cycle NMC packs in the same catalogue. EcoFlow has narrowed to LiFePO4 on ten of twelve units, so its worst case is far less punishing than Jackery’s worst case.
Head-to-Head: The 1,000Wh Class
This is the most contested size in the category, and it is where most first-time buyers land. Both units sit in the High-End price tier, and both use LiFePO4 rated for 4,000 cycles.
Jackery wins the capacity argument by 61Wh at the outlets, which is real but small: about 25 extra minutes on a full-size refrigerator. EcoFlow wins the argument that decides whether an appliance turns on at all. A 1,500W space heater or a 1,400W coffee maker will run on the Delta 3 Plus and will refuse on the Explorer 1000 v2, because continuous wattage, not capacity, sets that ceiling.
The solar gap is the one that should decide an off-grid purchase. The Delta 3 Plus accepts 1,000W of panels. The Explorer 1000 v2 caps at 400W. On a good day, that is the difference between refilling the pack over a long lunch and over an entire afternoon; on an overcast day, it is the difference between recovering and not recovering.
Head-to-Head: The 2,000Wh Class
Move up a class, and the two brands stop looking alike. Both units below are rated 3,000W continuous with a 6,000W surge, so anything one can start, the other can start too. Everything else diverges.
| Metric | EcoFlow Delta 3 Max Plus | Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal capacity | 2,048Wh | 2,042Wh |
| Usable AC capacity | 1,720Wh (84%) | 1,777Wh (87%) |
| Continuous / surge | 3,000W / 6,000W | 3,000W / 6,000W |
| Cell chemistry and cycles | LiFePO4, 3,500 cycles | LiFePO4, 4,000 cycles |
| UPS switchover | 7.9ms | 12.8ms |
| Fan noise | 42 dB | 53 dB |
| Weight | 48 lbs / 21.8 kg | 61.5 lbs / 27.9 kg |
| Energy density | 42.7 Wh per lb | 33.2 Wh per lb |
| Wall charging | 1,800W | 1,500W |
| Solar input ceiling | 1,000W | 1,400W |
| Battery expansion | Yes | Yes |
| Price tier | Premium | Premium |
| Price per watt-hour | $0.63 | $0.69 |
| Cost per cycle | $0.37 | $0.35 |
The 11 dB noise gap is the quiet decider in this matchup. Decibels are logarithmic, so 53 dB is not slightly louder than 42 d; it is roughly twice as loud to the ear. In a tent or a bedroom, that is the difference between background hum and something you notice at 3 am. If the unit lives in a garage, ignore this row entirely.
Jackery offers 400W of additional solar headroom and 57Wh more delivered capacity. It also supports 4,000 cycles for its cells compared to 3,500. For a dry-camping rig that recharges from panels every day, that combination is worth more than a quiet fan.
On switchover, only the EcoFlow clears the strict 11ms threshold we use for desktop PCs and NAS drives. The Jackery comfortably clears the general 20ms line at 12.8ms, which is fine for a router, a fridge, or a CPAP, but is not a guarantee for a machine that trips on a half-cycle dropout.
Head to Head: Whole-Home Backup, 3,000Wh and Up
Split phase is the whole argument at this tier. The Delta Pro 3 outputs 240V to power a well pump, a dryer circuit, or a transfer switch on a real house panel. The HomePower 3600 Plus is a 120V machine, which means it backs up circuits rather than the panel.
If you do not need 240V, the Jackery is the smarter buy, and it is not close. It weighs 36 lbs / 16.3 kg less, its cells are rated for 6,000 cycles instead of 4,000, and each of those cycles costs $0.33 against $0.60. That is roughly 45 percent less per cycle for a unit you will likely cycle daily during storm season.
WcoFlow earns its premium in recovery speed. 4,000W of wall charging and 2,600W of solar means the Delta Pro 3 can refill between two waves of an outage. The HomePower 3600 Plus takes most of a sunny day on 1,000W of panels.
Real Appliance Runtimes
Every runtime below is calculated based on the tested usable AC capacity, not the number on the box. Draws are the standard benchmark loads we use across the site, so the numbers compare page to page.
Note how little separates the two brands within a class. At 1 kWh, the gap is 25 minutes on a fridge. At 2 kWh, it is 18 minutes. Nobody should pick a brand on the capacity row alone, which is exactly what most comparison content asks you to do.
Long-Term Value: Cost per Cycle
Cost per cycle is the purchase price divided by the rated charge cycles. It answers a question the price tag cannot: what does one full charge and discharge actually cost you across the life of the pack? It is the reason a cheaper unit is often the more expensive one.
Both brands still list NMC units. Four of the ten Jackery entries in our database use NMC, against two of twelve for EcoFlow. If you take one rule from this page, take this one: check the chemistry line before the price line. LiFePO4 is not a nice-to-have on a unit you plan to keep for a decade, and it is the reason these packs are safe to store and cycle indoors.
Recharging: Wall and Solar
From a wall outlet
At 1 kWh, the two brands are level: both the Delta 3 Plus and the Explorer 1000 v2 pull 1,500W from the wall, which is roughly an hour from empty. The separation appears at the top of the range. The Delta Pro 3 accepts 4,000W, so a 4kWh pack refills in about an hour and a quarter. The HomePower 3600 Plus accepts 1,700W and takes closer to two and a half hours.
Both brands support pass-through charging on their current lineups, so the unit can power your fridge while it refills. Watch the older units on both sides: pass-through behaviour on legacy models is inconsistent, and it is the single most common source of frustrated reviews.
From solar panels
Jackery leads on median solar input, 900W against 650W, and the Explorer 2000 Plus tops the pair at 1,400W. That is a genuine advantage for overlanding, where the recharge window is a single daylight cycle, and the panels are whatever fits on the roof.
EcoFlow wins at the extremes instead. The Delta 3 Plus takes 1,000W of solar on a 1kWh pack, which is an unusually high ratio, and the Delta Pro Ultra accepts 5,600W, the highest solar ceiling of any unit from either brand in our database. But three EcoFlow entries cap at 220W or less, so the brand’s average is dragged down by its own small units.
Blackout Backup: Switchover Speed
When grid power drops, the inverter has to take over before your equipment notices. We use two thresholds: under 20ms keeps a router, a fridge, and a CPAP alive, and under 11ms is what a desktop PC or a NAS drive needs to be safe from a reboot.
EcoFlow puts fast transfer hardware deeper into its range. Jackery reserves it for the newer Explorers and the HomePower line, and its older Explorers lack a transfer switch altogether, making them portable batteries rather than backup systems. If uninterrupted backup is the job, the model matters far more than the badge, and three EcoFlow units and three Jackery units are outright wrong for it.
Portability: Watt-Hours per Pound
Jackery holds a real edge here: 42.5 Wh per pound across the range against 39.2 for EcoFlow. The best is the SG HomePower 3000 at 52.1 Wh per pound, which is 3,072 Wh in a 59 lb (26.8 kg) chassis. EcoFlow’s best full-size unit is the Delta 3 Max Plus at 42.7 Wh per pound.
The practical read: at the 2kWh class, the EcoFlow is 13.5 lbs / 6.1 kg lighter in absolute terms, even though Jackery wins the brand average, because the Explorer 2000 Plus is a heavy example within its lineup. Averages set expectations, individual models set your back pain.
Where Each Brand Falls Short
EcoFlow’s weak spots
- Older units are noisy. The Delta 2 measured 62 dB under load, the loudest unit in either brand’s field in our database, and roughly at conversation volume at close range.
- Conversion efficiency is the lowest of the four major brands. 84.5% on average, and the River 2 tested at just 74%, meaning a quarter of the stored energy never reaches the outlet.
- Two NMC units are still on the price list at Premium money. The Delta Max costs $2.37 per cycle, the worst figure in our entire database.
- Four units have no transfer switch. Buying an EcoFlow does not mean buying backup, and the product names do not make this obvious.
Jackery’s weak spots
- Four of ten units use NMC cells. The Explorer 240, 300, 500, and 1500 Pro are rated for 500 to 1,000 cycles, which is two to three years of daily use rather than ten.
- App support is patchy. Only six of ten units have it, so remote monitoring depends entirely on which model you pick.
- Solar ceilings are low on the smaller units. 400W on the Explorer 1000 v2 and 100W or less on the older Explorers.
- Expansion is rare. Six of ten units cannot take a second battery, so the capacity you buy is the capacity you keep.
Which Brand Fits Your Use Case
Frequently Asked Questions
Which brand is cheaper to own over ten years?
EcoFlow, on the median: $0.35 per cycle against $0.43 for Jackery. But the answer flips inside individual classes. A1 kWh, Wh both leaders cost $0.20 per cycle, and at the 3kWh tier, the Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus wins at $0.33 against $0.60 for the Delta Pro 3, because its cells are rated for 6,000 cycles instead of 4,000.
Does Jackery still sell older NMC batteries?
Yes. Four of the ten Jackery units in our database use NMC cells rated for 500 to 1,000 cycles, compared with 4,000 cycles for their LiFePO4 models. EcoFlow still lists two NMC units. Check the chemistry line before you buy from either brand, because the price tag rarely reflects the difference.
Will either brand run my refrigerator through a blackout?
Yes, at 1kWh and above. A full-size fridge draws about 150W while running, so the Delta 3 Plus provides 5.8 hours of continuous runtime, and the Explorer 1000 v2 provides 6.2 hours. Because the compressor cycles on and off rather than running nonstop, a real outage typically stretches those figures to somewhere between 9 and 12 hours.
Is the solar input fast enough to refill in one day?
On EcoFlow, yes, at every class: the Delta 3 Plus accepts 1,000W of panels and refills a 1,024Wh pack in a couple of hours of good sun. On Jacker,y it depends on the model. The Explorer 2000 Plus takes 1,400W and refills easily in a day, but the Explorer 1000 v2 caps at 400W, which stretches a full solar recharge across most of an afternoon.
Which is safer to run indoors?
Both are safe indoors in a way no gas generator is, since neither produces carbon monoxide. In terms of chemistry, EcoFlow is the safer default across the range, with LiFePO4 on ten of twelve units, compared to six of ten for Jackery. On noise, the current EcoFlow units are quieter, at 41 to 42 dB against 45 to 53 dB.
Which brand has the better app?
EcoFlow, on coverage rather than features: all twelve units in our database support an app, and most offer both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so that you can check the state of charge from another room or another state. Only six of ten Jackery units have app support at all.
The Bottom Line
If your power station is going to sit in a utility room waiting for the next storm, buy EcoFlow. The transfer switch is faster across a wider range, the fans are quieter, more units accept an expansion battery, and only EcoFlow offers 240V split-phase below the flagship tier.
If it is going to live in a truck, a van, or a rooftop tent, buy Jackery and stick with the LiFePO4 models. You get more watt-hours per pound, a higher solar ceiling on the mid-size units, and 4,000 to 6,000 rated cycles that survive daily off-grid use.
The mistake to avoid is buying either of the brands on the badge. Both catalogues contain excellent LiFePO4 machines, and both contain older NMC units that cost five to ten times more per cycle. The chemistry line and the switchover line will tell you more in two seconds than the brand name will tell you in an hour.
