Anker SOLIX C800 Plus – Portable Power for Drone Pilots and Outdoor Adventures

Introduction to the Anker Solis C800 Plus Power Station

Good day, folks! Shawn here from Air Photography. Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the Anker Solis C800 Plus Power Station. A power station like this can be very important, not only for emergencies but also if you’re a drone enthusiast or a content creator. Whether you’re out camping or on different road trips, something like this can keep you powered up when you’re not around traditional power. This particular unit has a couple of tricks up its sleeve that makes it very useful, and we’re going to take a look at that here.

As a drone and RC enthusiast, a device like this keeps all my devices powered up when I’m away from traditional power. As a creator and a YouTuber, this can be very important. Now, some of you may already know that I am working on an outdoor adventure channel, and this is going to be very important to me this summer to keep me powered up and keep all my devices charged. In this new channel, we’re going to be doing stuff like camping, kayaking, cycling, and a lot of the places I am going to be camping are unserviced. They’re very rural, so having portable power is going to be super essential.

Renewable Power and Unique Features

Not only is portable power important, but a way to renew it is also crucial. This power station is capable of being recharged by a solar panel up to 300W. Anker sells some really nice solar panels, so for me, it’s going to be very important this summer in creating this new channel.

Anker Solix C800 Plus - Portable Power For Drone Pilots And Outdoor Adventures

Now, one thing that this power station offers that’s very unique and handy is that when we open up the lid here, you can see we have two types of flashlights. These are multi-purpose; they’re flashlights but they’re also lamps that you can set at various levels. They have magnetic ends and also a clip, so you can hang these in a tent or on a tree. They’re super long-lasting; at the highest power, they’ll last for over 8 hours, and at a low setting, they’ll run for over 100 hours. And the nice thing about it is when you’re done with them, you can just put them right back in the case, and they’ll recharge.

But what’s really handy is that it also has this extension pole in there that we can screw into the top here. It extends out, and then we can add either one or both lights to it. So now we have a lamp if we’re going to be doing any kind of meal prep, or in my case, I’m going to be doing some editing on the road, maybe out at a picnic table. I’ll have light, and it’s just really convenient. This extension pole is actually just a standard extension pole with a special end, so you can actually make use of this extension pole to put your action cameras on a 360 camera.

Definitely, a really handy feature. As mentioned, when you’re done, everything packs nicely into the top here, and you’ll know that they’ll be ready to go the next time you need them.

Fast Charging and Versatility

Another really nice thing about this power station is that it can be recharged from zero all the way up to 100% in 58 minutes. That is really important, especially if you’re on a road trip. If you’re on a road trip for an extended period of time and you’re stopping to do laundry, you can go into a laundromat. Most laundromats will have a receptacle available. You can just plug it in, and by the time you’re done doing your laundry, this is going to be fully charged and ready to go again.

So having that hyper-charging technology is super important. As mentioned, you can also charge it up to 300W with a solar panel, but you can also charge it with your car accessory port. Now, it doesn’t charge quite as fast, but enough that if you’re doing a road trip and you have this in your car plugged in, you could plug in a cooler, and while you’re going down the road, this is going to be recharged. When you stop for the night, the power station will continue to power the cooler, and then when you head out on the road the next day, this thing will get recharged again as you’re going down the highway. So, very convenient.

As you can see here, there are many different options for power. You can power up to 10 devices up to 1,200W, and it also has the pad surge technology in it, so it can go up to 1,600 Watts. So, there’s plenty of power there to power even some of the most demanding devices. We have two USB-A ports, we have two USB-C ports (one is 100W, the other one is 30W), we have five traditional plugs, and we have an accessory port here where you can plug in a cooler or other devices that take that type of connection. Additionally, we also have another built-in light here at the front, offering more lighting options, which is very important when camping or road-tripping.

On the side here, we have all our charging ports. The regular plug is going to be your fastest way to charge it, making use of the hypercharger in under an hour. That’s where you would plug it into the car accessory port or a solar panel, and all the cables that are required come with this in the package.

Emergency Power and Lighting

This thing is powerful enough to power even the most demanding coffee maker. If you’ve ever used these, you know that something like a full-size Keurig draws a lot of power, and I’ve already tested it several times with this, and it works with no issue. Not so much for camping, as I’m not taking a Keurig camping with me, but in an emergency situation when the power’s out, there’s nothing worse than not having any coffee. So, with this, you know you’re always going to be able to cook, have some emergency lighting, and most importantly, brew some coffee.

Now, we’re simulating a power outage situation. You can see I’ve got the lights on, and that’s all that’s illuminating this room. The lights are actually quite nice. It’s fairly bright in here. My phone’s not really picking it up quite like it is, but there’s plenty of light. The lights are nice because they’re not overly blinding. If you’ve ever used any camping lights in the past, those LED lights sometimes are quite annoying and hard to look at, but these have a nice soft glow to them, so they’re not obtrusive in any way.

Versatile Charging Capabilities Include Charging Your Drone

And as mentioned, you can take the lights off here. Right now, we have them in lamp mode, but you can also put them into flashlight mode, and you can see it is nice and bright. Then there are two actual brightnesses for the lamp, so whatever you find most useful to your situation. And as mentioned, you can take them off the stand and set them around wherever you need them.

I’m just going to demonstrate to show you that the C800 works perfectly. We’re going to plug it in, power on the unit, and turn on the AC plug. Notice here we are fully charged; we’re at 100%. The reason I want you to make note of that is once we’re done brewing a coffee, you’ll see that that barely moves. So, you can actually brew a fair amount of coffee with this system. Now, it is late at night, so I’m going to brew some decaf, and we’re brewing Tim Horton decaf.

As mentioned, this has the 1,600-watt surge, so it’s going to go up really high. You can see right now we’re pulling 1,300 watts, and it tells us there how much time we have remaining. It’s saying we have 1/4 of an hour left. Now, that’s just because we’re pulling that really high wattage right now, but it only pulls that high wattage when it’s heating up the water in the Keurig. The heater just comes back on as it heats the water back up, and you can see we’re pulling that high wattage again, and it’s almost done here.

But if you look at the power remaining, we still have 99% left, and that was after running extremely high wattage to brew a coffee. So, you could brew quite a bit of coffee in an emergency situation, and that’s not just with coffee. If you have to do some cooking or you need to power up your devices in an emergency situation, you know you’re going to have plenty of power.

And as mentioned, these lights just come in really handy. You know they’re always going to be charged up when you need them. Nothing’s worse than going to grab a flashlight in a power outage only to find out the batteries are dead. With these, you just don’t have to worry about that.

So, let’s go ahead and demonstrate just how much you can charge and just how powerful this unit is. We’re going to plug in our DJI Mavic 3, a smartphone into USB-C, and then we’ll charge up a remote and some DJI Mini 4 Pro batteries, our DJI Pocket 3, and the DJI Action 4. Now, how about our DJI Air 3 batteries? Let’s go ahead and plug that in.

Anker Solix C800 Plus - Portable Power For Drone Pilots And Outdoor Adventures 1

We could keep going here; we still have two AC ports and the accessory port, so we could continue charging here, but I think you get the picture. This thing can push a lot of power. We’re only drawing 156 watts, and at the current rate at which we’re withdrawing power, we have 3.9 hours remaining.

This demonstrates there’s plenty of power available for various needs. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the power station can be connected to a solar panel, allowing for power to be fed into it as we’re drawing from it. This capability is especially valuable for extended outdoor activities or emergencies, ensuring a continuous power supply.

Longevity and Smart Features

This unit is also rated for 3,000 charge cycles, indicating you’ll have a durable and reliable source of power over time. Theoretically, you could charge it every day and use it for almost a decade, which speaks volumes about its longevity and value. Anker also provides a companion app for this power station, allowing you to connect your smartphone via Bluetooth.

This app gives you access to all the critical information about the remaining power and lets you manage some of the power settings. Though it may seem like a small feature, it can be incredibly handy for optimizing your power usage and staying informed about your power reserves.

Additional Uses and Future Plans

Another way I plan to utilize this power station this summer, which some of you might relate to, is for charging eBikes. As mentioned, some of the places I’ll be camping at for several days or even a week have no power sources. An eBike battery can be depleted in a day, and with this power station, I can easily recharge my eBike and still have power to spare. Coupled with a solar panel, this setup will provide me with perpetual power throughout my outdoor adventures.

For anyone who loves the outdoors, does a lot of camping, or is a drone pilot, photographer, mobile content creator, or vlogger, having portable power is crucial. As I’ve already mentioned, I am working on an outdoor channel this summer. If you join me for that adventure, which I will be announcing soon on my main YouTube channel, you’re going to see a lot of this power station. It’s going to be essential for helping me capture the content I want this summer.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

So, that is the Anker Solis C800 Plus. It’s a bit of a mouthful to say, but what a great little device. I should have mentioned too, it’s just a little over 20 lbs (20.8 lbs to be precise), so it is very manageable. Sometimes these power stations can get big and heavy, making them inconvenient to take with you. But this one is quite manageable. It has two handles on the side here to make it easy for carrying.