The Runhood RALLYE 600 Plus Solar Generator — CleanTechnica Tested

Runhood has developed an innovative take on the portable power station that brings a ton of innovation to a market which is largely stagnant. The core of the Runhood RALLYE 600 Plus Solar Generator is a set of battery blades with the ability to store a 324 watt-hours each. These blades slide into the base unit, which can hold up to two energy storage blades at a time for a total capacity of 648 watt-hours (Wh).

Additional blades can be charged outside of the base station while the base station is being used to provide power. It’s an interesting solution that allows owners to decouple the charging of the smaller batteries from the base station itself. To further sweeten the deal, Runhood has developed an AC outlet that can be directly attached to a blade, providing 110 volts and up to 100 watts of power out without having to use the base station.

Charging

Runhood also sells an adapter that snaps onto a blade with several USB ports on it, including a bi-directional USB-C outlet. With this attachment, individual blades can be charged from the bi-directional USB-C port with up to 100 watts, assuming the USB-C cable and outlet can keep up. The beauty of this solution is that this adapter lets you charge a blade off of just about any USB outlet, or directly from a wall charger.

The base station can also be plugged into a solar panel to charge the two blades currently installed. The amount of flexibility Runhood has brought to the table with this solution is unprecedented. It enables a wide range of creative applications and use cases for energy storage, lower power energy storage, portability, and decoupled charging, as well as direct charging from the sun.

In our testing, charging the compact unit from Runhood’s 100 watt SERI100 solar panel was easy to set up and effective, pushing in between 60 and 103 watts depending on the time of day and orientation relative to the sun. Blades can currently only be charged with solar by plugging a solar panel into the base unit, but Runhood is working on an additional adapter to allow you to charge blades directly from solar panels.

Plugging an individual blade into a USB-C wall charger gave us anywhere from 30 watts up to 96 watts of power depending on which USB outlet and USB cable we used. Not all USB chargers can push out 100 watts, and not all cables can handle the power. The Runhood unit seemed to know what the charger and cable pair could handle and would upgrade or de-rate charging based on what it detected was attached. Smart.

The base station can also be plugged directly into a wall outlet with the included AC adapter. With this, we were able to recharge the unit at around 175 watts.

Usage

The Runhood Solar Generator system provides an equal number of options when it comes time to use the stored power. Much like traditional portable power stations, the Runhood base station can push out power to a range of devices through its integrated AC ports and USB ports. As a lower capacity unit, with just 648 Wh of capacity on board, it also has a lower power output than units with all their storage capacity built into one single unit.

The Runhood HE600 base station can push out 600 watts of power continuously and up to 1,200 watts peak. That’s more than enough to heat a kettle of water or run many full-sized appliances or power tools one at a time. The blade architecture makes it easy to right-size the amount of capacity you bring with you and allows for new options for portability.

A single blade with an AC or USB adapter attached is smaller than most comparably-sized portable power stations, and having the option to pick a smaller or larger system depending on what you’re using it for is a huge advantage. Output capacity does scale down with smaller units, with the highest possible output coming from the base station with two fully charged blades in it.

Overall

The flexibility of the Runhood system is super impressive and truly unlike anything else we’ve seen on the market. It lets you choose how to use and recharge the batteries, scaling from a single blade with an adapter all the way up to the full system with two spare blades in tow.

Need to recharge your laptop or phone? Grab a single blade with the USB adapter and stay lightweight. Need a bit of extra capacity and more outlets for your devices? Pick up the base unit and you’re all set. Want to head out for the weekend without having to worry about running out of power? Bring the full complement of the base station with two spare blades and the solar panel. Solved.

For more information about the Runhood RALLYE 600 Plus Solar Generator, solar panel, additional blades, or the ever-improving array of adapters, head to the company’s website.

Specs

HE600 Base Station

• Weight: 3.8 kg / 8.4 lb without any blades inserted
• Dimensions: 13 x 6.8 x 8.8 inches / 33 x 17.3 x 22.4 cm
• Capacity: 648 Wh with two batteries installed

EB324 Single Blade Battery

• Weight: 3.9 lb / 1.77 kg
• Dimensions: 10.2 x 2.3 x 4.1 inches / 26 x 5.7 x 10.3 cm
• Capacity: 324 Wh
• Chemistry: Lithium-ion NMC
• Cycle Life: 1,000 cycles with 80% capacity remaining

INPUT

• 1*Solar panel 15V-23V 10A max, MPPT supported
• 1*Adapter 180W
• 1*USB-C PD 100W max
• 1*Car charger 12V 10A 120W

I don’t like paywalls. You don’t like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don’t like paywalls, and so we’ve decided to ditch ours.

Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It’s a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So …