How Long Will It Run On One Charge?

Keeping a good power station on hand is great for a whole host of reasons. They’re a solid choice if you need a device to power your campsite with electricity, and they can be a lifesaver when you experience an emergency power outage. The biggest downside to power stations is that the units themselves tend to run on the expensive side, with many of the larger models costing thousands of dollars at MSRP.

Those who are familiar with the brand Ryobi know that the green and black tools made by the company have a well-earned reputation for offering exceptional performance relative to the brand’s reasonably low prices. Bearing that in mind, many people might be interested in picking up one of Ryobi’s 1800-Watt Portable Battery Inverter Power Stations.

But before you go racing to your local Home Depot to pick one out for yourself, you might want to learn a bit more about how these power stations work. One of the first questions that many people wonder is how long the battery lasts, but that depends on a couple of different factors. For one thing, Ryobi currently sells three different 1800-Watt Power Station models that have different modalities for storing power. Second, the duration of the battery will largely depend on the power draw of the devices that are connected to it.

The first model that Ryobi is currently manufacturing is the 18V One+ 1800-Watt Power Station (RYi818BT). This can be either purchased on its own or as part of a kit that includes four of Ryobi’s 18V 6.0 Ah batteries. The station draws power from attached Ryobi batteries, which can either be charged while attached to the unit or charged independently and then attached. It can hold up to eight of the company’s 18V One+ batteries in total, and its storage capacity is directly related to how many batteries are attached and how large each of their capacities is. For example, the largest and heaviest battery that Ryobi currently makes in this voltage is the 18V One+ 12Ah, meaning that attaching eight of them would give the station its highest possible capacity.

The second model is the 40V 1800-Watt Power Station (RYi1802BT). This is a very similar design to the first, but with two key differences. It’s powered by Ryobi’s 40V batteries, and there are only four attachment slots. This can also be purchased as a kit that includes two of the company’s 40V 6.0Ah batteries. This model’s capacity is also determined by the capacity of the batteries that you attach.

The final option is to get the 1800-Watt Portable Power Station (RYi1000). This isn’t powered by any of Ryobi’s removable power tool batteries, like its other models, but rather has an integrated 1094-watt-hour lithium battery. The upside to this is that you don’t need to separately purchase several large power tool batteries to get plenty of power. The downside is that you can’t make use of batteries you already own, and you can’t swap in charged batteries when the station is depleted.

As you can probably guess at this point, the expected runtime is going to vary quite a bit depending on which model you choose and the capacity of the batteries that are attached. That said, Ryobi has given us some information on what you might be able to expect. “Using (8) 12Ah 18V lithium batteries, this unit can power a full-size fridge for up to 28 hours or a 55-inch LED TV for over 14 hours,” the company said about the 18V model. Additionally, its Home Depot listing states that “using (8) 6Ah 18V lithium batteries, this unit can power a full-size fridge for up to 12-hours or a 55-inch LED TV for over 7-hours.” So, half the capacity equals roughly half the runtime. From that, you can approximate how long similar high-draw devices will last based on the collective capacity of all of your attached batteries. The 40V version can produce a slightly higher current, but it has a considerably lower maximum capacity, making it a less desirable choice for most users.

The 1800-Watt Portable Power Station with the integrated battery is easier to mark since it isn’t as modifiable. Ryobi claims that this internal storage alone can “Power a full-size fridge for up to 18 hours or a 32″ LED TV for up to 30 hours.” Refrigerators tend to use a fair amount of electricity, which makes them a good indicator for most appliances. That said, you can always use a watt-hour calculator, such as this one from Renewable Outdoors, if there is a specific product that you want to use with the power station. Simply enter the station’s capacity in Watt-hours (1094) and then enter the wattage used by the device.