Instapark® Mars20S-SP30 Portable & Rechargeable Emergency / Survival 20-watt Solar Power Generator

• Self-contained portable & rechargeable solar power generator for travel, outdoor activities and emergency / disaster preparedness
• AC & DC outputs for charging multiple devices such as small appliances, 12V car electronics, laptop computers, tablet computers, cell phones & other portable gadgets simultaneously
• Charging the built-in 145Wh Lithium battery indoor or outdoor: 110V/AC wall outlet with included power cord or 20 watts mono-crystalline solar panel with one 30-watt external solar panel included
• Built-in super-bright 3 watts white LED bulb with 2 selectable modes, flashlight or SOS beacon light
• Back-lit LCD display with battery strength, input, output and operation status indicators

This product is high quality and well crafted for years of use. It is not cheaply made. It is also lightweight and very compact. The battery has 16 amp hours of usable capacity. Thats enough to run its inverter for one hour at full output. If you are just charging an iphone off of the inverter you will get eight hours of use on a fullcharge. It came with two cords. One cord lets you charge the Mars20S from your cars cigarette lighter. The other cord lets you charge the Mars20S from a home outlet. The included 30W external solar panel came with an industry standard connector on the end of the wire that plugs into the Mars20S. The external solar panel also has screw lugs in the junctionbox on the back of it. So you can hook up your own fittings/wiring as well. Since the Mars20S is waterproof they did not build in a storage area for the external charge cords that came with it into the unit itself. I am making my own cord storage on the back of the external solar panel. So no problem.

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I purchased this item and found that it was clearly well made and designed for rugged terrain. The inverter is awesome, and it's very user friendly. The main issue is this: without the additional solar panel (which is fragile and relatively easy to break, and does not come with a shock proof or water proof case for transportation) the Mars20 has a limited capacity to charge beyond 70-80% even in full sun. I live in Southern California, and without the extra 30W solar panel, this item barely increases 1% in 30-60 minutes. I contacted the customer support, and they stated that it should charge 20% in 4-5 hours, which did not happen when I tested it.

Therefore, I was not be able to justify the $500 price tag for a glorified battery that cannot be charged without the fragile, non-water proof supplemental panel. This package would be much better if the supplemental panel was say 40-60 watts, transportable and water proof.

Therefore, I concluded that the Mars20s as a stand alone unit is limited in it's capacity to get me out of a dangerous situation if that's my only source of power, so I returned the item and will invest the $500 elsewhere.