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Black Friday is a great day to shop for new jeans and soundbars, but it would be a mistake to stop at the basics. There are plenty of deals to be had on newer product categories, stuff that you might not have bought before but should definitely consider. Case in point—this solar generator-slash-mobile battery pack from industry leader Jackery, which is great for camping, road trips, and even home backup, and it's a whopping $320 less than its normal price at Walmart during the retailer's Black Friday sale.
The Jackery Explorer 500 Solar Generator is on sale at Walmart for $479, 40% less than the $799 it’ll normally cost you. It has earned a 4.6-star average rating on more than 80 reviews, with customers finding it "lightweight and convenient" and "very rugged" and eminently useful for everything from powering up off-grid to CPAP machine backup power to backyard parties. Even if you’ve never used a portable power station like this before, its wide range of use cases means it can be tremendously helpful in almost any situation.
This particular Jackery model is pretty compact, at roughly 12-by-8-by-9 inches, and it weighs just 13.3 pounds. It’s well-suited for taking on the go, as a temporary backup power supply for small to medium-sized devices. Inside is a lithium battery pack that, at 518Wh, can power a laptop for 30 hours, a TV for 7, or a mini-cooler for 9. It has a beefy handle for easy carrying and a slew of outputs—12V car, three USB-A, and a regular home outlet. Its coolest feature, though, is that the included solar panel can, on a bright day, recharge this thing from 0 to 80% in 7.5 hours.
One buyer bought their Jackery as a backup to their existing gas generator, liking it as an option that didn’t need gas or make a bunch of noise while running at night. “The thing I did not know when purchasing the Jackery was how much I would love using it,” they wrote. “I used the Jackery for running my section of my town's ‘Haunted Trail,’ as well as our annual Halloween festival” to power a sound system, lights, and fog machine while charging phones. “I am very impressed at the versatility as well as the ease of use of this product,” they continued. “It is very intuitive and it's super easy to use.”
The steep discount and wide range of uses for the Jackery Explorer 500 Solar Generator mean it’s likely in high demand this Black Friday. We’d recommend picking one up ASAP, just in time for any blizzard-related power outages you might face in the coming months before Walmart's sale ends on Dec. 1.
