Outdoor power supply for car

Bring big backup power with you with these expert-recommended portable power stations, which can store enough power to charge electronics, appliances, and more.

With a great power-to-weight ratio, the latest version of the Bluetti Elite 200 V2 is a great portable power station for powering a camper or providing backup power for the essentials. With its tremendous capacity, the EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 is truly capable of providing a whole-home backup without gas or solar panels.

To use these power stations as a UPS, plug them into the wall, then plug whatever devices you want backed up into the station's AC output ports. When the power is on, those devices use energy from the grid. When there is a power outage, the power station instantly switches these devices to battery power.

These days most portable power stations, including all those we recommend here, use LiFePO4 batteries, which are capable of holding far more cycles, which is the number of times a battery goes through a complete discharge and recharge, than older lithium-ion batteries while also being less likely to combust.

Portable power stations have control panels with LED displays and buttons that turn off and on inputs and display usage and remaining power. Most portable power stations are also compatible with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing you to monitor and control them remotely from a smartphone app.

He's used portable power stations to keep his laptop charged while working on the road, power his RV during camping trips, and keep his fridge cool when the power goes out. Bradley Ford has been testing generators and power stations at Popular Mechanics for 5 years. In that time he's tested dozens of units, both big and small.