Duracell 300w Portable Power Station Review

I bought a new Duracell 300w Portable Power Station to supplement the 150w FlashFish Power Station I picked up a couple years ago for the Christmas lighting on my balcony. There’s no electrical outlet out there. On Thursday night I plugged in Dominick the Donkey, and two hours later it turned off by itself. What! This new Duracell will automatically turn off after two hours if it doesn’t sense a load. I turned it back on and was surprised to see it had only dropped to 99% – after two hours! The FlashFish barely lasts three nights with only Dominick connected for 5-6 hours a night. After five hours, the Duracell had only dropped to 98%. I didn’t want to deal with this auto-off all holiday season, So, what’s a guy to do? Simple, go to Home Depot and get more (electrical) load.

I picked up a string of 25 of those retro LED C9 look-a-like lights and a cool LED Santa face that blinks on and off. This new stuff, along with Dominick still will only draw about 30-40 watts, though hopefully enough to keep the Duracell running. If not, I can wrap 500-600 mini-lights around those vertical railings. Look out Clark Griswold. Whatever it takes. Looking at the photos, I think I’m in line for Best Decorated Balcony at Solara this season. What do you think?

Dominick has stood on a Farmland Dairy milk crate the past two seasons – on the safe side of the railing. Though, that made it a bit hard to see him. I started thinking about building a wooden ledge to cantilever him off the edge of the balcony, and then I said, heck with that; let’s do it. Over the side, he went. Two of his hoofs sit on the narrow 3″ ledge. I used zip ties at four points to hold him securely against the rail. Even with a heavy wind he should be ok. It’s hard to tell in the photos, but he looks really good. I added a comparison photo to see before and after.

Nothing like some decorations to get into that holiday spirit. Peace.