This winter on the homestead, frozen water troughs, cold mornings, and the risk of power outages are just part of the routine. Today I’m putting the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 to work around our property — powering water heaters, keeping our milking area warm, and showing how it can serve as a reliable backup generator for our fridge and freezers. The 1000 v2 is 18% smaller, 30% lighter, and charges insanely fast — hitting 0–100% in about an hour from AC, or around 3.8 hours with the 200W SolarSaga panels. With a 1500W output (3000W surge), it runs real appliances like pumps, heaters, a fridge, coffee makers, tools, and anything else we rely on through the winter months. If you’re preparing for winter storms, homesteading, RV life, off-grid camping, or just want peace of mind during power outages, this system is a game changer. And right now, during Jackery’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale (Nov 5–Dec 8), you can save up to 65% off — the lowest prices of 2025. Jackery 1000 v2 Key Features: • 1500W output / 3000W surge • 1070Wh LiFePO4 battery (4000 cycles) • 0–100% fast charge in ~1 hour • Solar charge in 3.8 hours (2×200W panels) • Multiple ports: USB-C 100W, USB-A, 3×AC outlets • Quiet operation (30 dB) • Foldable handle & portable design • Smart App Control • UPS seamless switch (20ms) for outage protection • 5-year warranty In this video I’m using the Jackery to: • Power a water heater at our animal trough • Run a heater at the milking stanchion • Keep morning chores warm during freezing temps • Provide backup power for our basement fridge that stores all our milk • Test solar charging • Walk through real-life winter homestead scenarios Whether you’re a homesteader, farmer, camper, RVer, or just preparing for emergency power outages, this is one of the most practical portable power stations we’ve used on the farm.
What's up everyone, Jonathan Murray here.
Today we're partnering with Jackery to promote
their 1000 V2 solar generator.
And I'm really pumped to show you guys this.
I haven't used this exact solar generator at the moment.
This is obviously in its box still,
but we do have some other Jackery products
that we are loving because out here,
we definitely need power all over the place.
And sometimes it's not easy to access.
So yeah, let's unbox it, get it plugged up.
All right, so this winter on the homestead,
we've been really wanting something that can give us power
where we actually need it outside around the animals
and something that's not big and bulky.
So the Jackery 1000 V2 showed up this week
and I'm unboxing it and getting it hooked up
to our 200 watt solar panel.
This thing is surprisingly compact.
It's about 18% smaller than the previous generation.
And it's only around 23 pounds.
So it's super easy to carry around.
And I love that the handle folds flat
so it doesn't get in the way
when you set something on top of it.
It's a great little unit.
The Jackery 1000 V2 is our go-to power hub,
keeping families connected at home and outdoors.
So one of the biggest selling points for me
is how fast this thing charges.
With the 200 watt panel, it's a little slower.
If you get two of them,
you can get the full battery in around 3.8 hours of sun.
We actually have a 500 watt panel
that we'll be using with this as well.
But from the wall, it can emergency charge
zero to 100% in right around an hour.
You've got plenty of output too,
1500 watts with a 3000 watt surge.
So it can run real appliances,
your fridge, coffee maker, tools, heaters,
all at the same time if you need to as well.
And real quick, while we're here,
Jackery's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale
is happening now through December 8th.
So don't miss it.
It's up to 65% off the lowest prices of 2025.
Power your family with unbeatable deals today.
So it's obviously gonna take a little bit of time
to charge this up with this solar panel.
You also have the option to charge this through your home.
So that's what I'm gonna go ahead and go do.
I just wanted to set it up,
see what it was gonna say, how long it would take.
And we see it'll take a little bit of time,
but if that's your only option,
then at least we have an option
away from having power at a home or wherever
to get this charged up.
So if you need to use it off grid,
it's totally set up for that.
But we are going to go ahead and hook it up
right here into the house.
Let's see how long this takes.
It should take a lot less time than using the solar panel.
But again, if that's your only option, great.
We'll hook this in over here.
So we can see that's gonna take a lot less time, 1.3 hours.
So I'm gonna let this charge up,
and tomorrow morning I'm gonna show you
how I will be using this around our property,
especially as the winter months are approaching
and how much of a benefit this thing is gonna be
to our home during the winter time.
Come on up, Dad.
I don't know if it's cold outside,
but it's freezing out here.
Freezing, boy.
You big, crazy boy.
Now get out of here.
Y'all go play, y'all go play.
Go play, go play.
Go play.
So the battery charged really quickly
after I plugged it into the wall
and was ready to use the next day.
Winter always means frozen buckets
and colder, milky mornings,
so having portable power I can carry around the property
is a huge help.
One hand carry, no problem.
There's so many other power stations
that are just so bulky and heavy,
and this one is 30% lighter,
but still has tons of power.
The first stop is the animal water trough.
On these cold mornings,
the water can sometimes be iced over
or even just too cold for them to wanna drink.
So I'm hooking up a little water heater into the Jackery,
and with the 1500 watt output,
it means it's gonna handle this with no problem.
Also, these things aren't supposed to be plugged in
to using extension cords.
So we're well over 100 feet from the house right now,
and there's just no way I could get power to this
unless I was using an extension cord.
So enter the Jackery.
This thing is perfect.
And the winters around here can be really wet and muddy.
The safety system on this thing matters.
The Jackery has the Jackery's ChargeShield 2.0
with 62 layers of protection,
and it is designed for harsh environments.
Next, I'm using it over at the stanchion.
Having a little heater running
makes milking so much nicer in the winter,
especially when it dips down
into these really cold temperatures.
The Jackery's also really quiet,
so it's not gonna spook the animals
and they're not gonna have any issues with it.
And it's really cool, the Jackery has so many ports.
There's two 100 watt USB-C ports,
three AC outlets, a USB-A port,
so I can charge my phone at the same time if I need to,
or if I wanna have anything else connected
while I'm doing this, it wouldn't be an issue.
Once the milking's done, I bring the milk inside
and strain it and get it into the jars.
And this is something I wasn't even really thinking about
until I was making this video,
that we have our milk all in a fridge down in our basement.
And if the power were to go out,
it would be really a pain if we lost all that milk
or didn't have a place to store the milk.
That would be a huge problem for us.
And same if we had our freezers full of meat,
if they went out, that would just be a really big pain
and a big loss.
But the Jackery can run a standard fridge
for around 12 hours on one charge.
And if the outage went longer, for days,
again, we could use the solar panel
to help keep it running so that we're not losing
any of our milk or meat.
And long-term, it's built with a Life P04 battery,
so even if we use this thing every day for 10 years,
it would still keep over 70% of its capacity.
That's a decade of morning chores,
camping trips, and backup power.
Plus, the Jackery 1000 V2 comes with a five-year warranty,
so you never have to stress about after-sales issues
and can enjoy reliable power for years.
Overall, it just fits into our homestead rhythm perfectly.
I'm really excited to have it,
giving us power where we need it,
inside or outside, summer or winter.
We're gonna be using this thing a lot.
So even after all of that, it's down to only about 60%,
so I could let this run to maybe three days
before I'd actually need to charge it.
I'm gonna figure out a system
because we have a new animal shelter we've built
that we will be milking in.
And so I'm gonna try to keep maybe the Jackery out there.
So I'm probably gonna keep the Jackery out there,
where it will be protected from the elements
and things like that,
and potentially have the solar panel set up
so that I can just plug it right into the solar panel
each morning and it get charged out there,
so I'm not having to bring it back and forth.
But even if I do, it's only 20 pounds, it's not that heavy.
So it's really simple to get it places.
But obviously, it'd be much easier
if I could just keep it where I'm gonna be each morning.
But I'm really liking the setup.
I'm liking the system.
Again, we love Jackery's products.
We have the 3600 home generator as well,
and that was phenomenal.
That thing is like a powerhouse.
No pun intended.
Yeah, this'll be a great portable taking
around our property when we need it,
if we need any power tools that are not battery powered,
things like that, this'll be a great option to have.
If you're interested in getting one,
check out the link in our description.
Whether you have property and land
where you need power around,
or you just have a house and you may lose power,
this'll be a great option to have in case of an emergency.
So check it out, link's in our description,
and I will see you guys later.
