ALLPOWERS R1500 Portable Home Backup Power Station review

REVIEW – If you’re in an area that gets occasional power outages, having backup power options on hand might be worth the investment.  Even better, if you can find something that can serve in a dual role as a power station and on-demand battery backup for sensitive equipment.  We’re looking at the ALLPOWERS 1500 to see if it can do the job in a pinch.

What is it?

The ALLPOWERS R1500 is a portable home backup power station, capable of serving as an uninterruptible power supply or in any capacity where power is needed around the house.  In the R-series the 1500 is the bigger brother to the smallest R600, with the range going all the way up to the R4000.   The R# is generally indicative of the wattage.

Alongside power stations, ALLPOWERS also produces solar panels and other off-grid accessories. We’ve featured a few ALLPOWERS products here at The Gadgeteer since 2018.

What’s included?

• ALLPOWERS R1500 power station
• AC Charging Cable
• MC4 to XT60 charging cable
• User manual
• Soft case (fits manual, cables)

Tech specs

Design and features

ALLPOWERS usually does a good job in the design of their power stations, and the R1500 is no exception.  All of the outputs are found at the top or front of the station, with input and battery expansion inputs found underneath flip covers on the side.  Handles are built into the body to keep the size down, and I found them robust enough to be comfortable.  At 37lbs, the R1500 isn’t the lightest power station out there in the portable class, but its capacity and output capability make up for the extra weight.

At the top of the power station are two 15W wireless charging pads.

While the power station can be used outside if the weather permits, it’s not water proof and should be kept dry.

One of the standout features on the R1500 is its ability to operate as an uninterruptible power supply.  With the power station plugged into a power source, it will automatically kick in the battery should that power source drop.  This process happens fast enough that the equipment plugged into the power station doesn’t skip a beat.

Other notable features of the ALLPOWERS R1500:

• Companion app support
• Solar panel input compatibility
• Expansion battery capable

Assembly, Installation, Setup

Out of the box, there isn’t really much to do to up and running with the ALLPOWERS R1500 power station.  Pressing the power button will turn on the display which is helpful to see status at a glance.  Our review unit arrived with 80% charge, so I plugged it into the wall to top it off and get things going.

The onboard display covers pretty much everything you’d need to know about the R1500 in operation:

A companion app is available, though isn’t really required.  It does allow you to change a few settings, but by in large I didn’t find it particularly powerful or interesting.

Once installed (Android screencaps follow), the app will guide you through setup.  You can connect to the power station through either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi after turning the radio on by holding the DC Output button.  Bluetooth is the most straight forward and does not require an account.

A Wi-Fi connection will keep your ALLPOWERS R1500 available through the app so long as it has internet access, though does require an account.

Regardless of how you connect, you’ll be given the same options when looking at your R1500 in the app.  You can toggle on the outputs remotely, or adjust a couple settings – work mode, and eco mode.  Work mode isn’t defined in the manual, but I noticed when toggling between Standard, Mute and Fast that the input while charging would throttle or ramp up, with the fan matching.  Eco mode is essentially a sleep timer.

Interestingly the Firmware Upgrade requires a code, but may just be a by-product of this being a pre-launch review sample.  It’s good to see there is a vehicle in place for delivering updates down the road, at least.

Performance

There are a lot of wooded areas in our neighborhood which is lovely, but it’s not uncommon for an errant branch somewhere to knock our power out for a few hours.  I prefer not to run our gas generator unless I really have to, so a power station like the R1500 with the capability to run our full size fridge and freezer is a nice backup plan.  Real world for us had our fridge and freezer running for about 5 hours – it’s older, and with a family of four constantly opening and closing it.

Since this is one of the smaller power stations in the ALLPOWERS lineup, where the utility really shines through is as an uninterruptible power supply.

Naturally, we didn’t have any power outages since the review unit showed up, but in my unscientific testing of yanking the power cord out of the wall, I’m confident it’ll be ready when we need it.  The R1500 is capable of powering my gaming PC, monitor, router, and modem for at least a couple hours – giving me enough time to finish a game and gracefully shut everything down.

The power station remains quiet unless under demand, and the internal fan will kick on in step with the demand.  Charging the station is pretty quiet, but output demand over 1000w will ramp it up in kind.  While operating as a UPS, there’s no noise unless the power station is charging or running on batteries.

Over the past month I’ve been putting the R1500 through it’s paces, and am generally impressed by its capabilities, performance, and utility.

What I like about ALLPOWERS R1500 power station

• Well designed and built
• UPS functionality that really works
• Capacity and output is sufficient for covering appliances with expansion capability

What needs to be improved?

• App doesn’t have strong utility value – missed opportunity for push notifications in UPS mode, and device health metrics

Final thoughts

The R1500 by ALLPOWERS isn’t their biggest power station, but it’s enough to save the contents of our fridge in a power outage without running the generator.  As a UPS, it’s well suited to cover your computer equipment and peripherals, though it is detracted by a sub-par app experience.  The app isn’t necessarily bad as these things go, but it doesn’t feel very useful aside from the delivery of firmware updates.  All in, the R1500 will be holding it down for all of our home office equipment as a UPS, and covering our appliances for our typical short-term power outages.

Price: $899 (on sale for $599 at time of review)
Where to buy: ALLPOWERS (10% Off Discount Code: thegadgeteer) and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by ALLPOWERS. ALLPOWERS did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.