Head-to-head test
Anker SOLIX F3800 vs DJI Power 1000
Both units land on seventeen cents per lifetime kilowatt-hour, so the money is a dead heat and the only live question is whether you are buying something that gets installed or something you carry.
Full profiles: Anker SOLIX F3800 → · DJI Power 1000 →
Written by Gunner GustafsonUpdated
Whole-Home Backup Tester, Station Arena Test Desk
$2,199.99 · direct from Anker
Last checked 1 day ago. Prices move — check before you buy.
Superseded — buy the V2
DJI has superseded the Power 1000 with the Power 1000 V2 — same $699, with 2,600W output against 2,200W. The original may still be purchasable while stock lasts, but unless it is meaningfully discounted, buy the V2.
Power 1000 V2 · $699.00Spec deltas
Nobody cross-shops these on features. One is a 3,840Wh, 132.3 lb appliance that ends up wired to a transfer switch and never moves again; the other is a 28.7 lb, 1,024Wh box you carry from the car to the campsite in one trip. If you have both tabs open, what you actually have not decided is how much power you need, and that is the whole page.
Here is the number that should settle it and does not. On their rated cycles both units cost 17 cents per kilowatt-hour delivered: $2,000 across 3,000 cycles of 3,840Wh, $699 across 4,000 cycles of 1,024Wh. The big one buys energy cheaper on day one, 52 cents a watt-hour against 68, and the small one earns every cent of it back on cycle life. Energy per dollar cannot break this tie. Sizing can.
So look at sizing. Across the six standard loads the F3800 covers five and the Power 1000 covers two, which sounds decisive until you notice most of it is just a statement about size. What is not about size: the Power 1000 comes 40Wh short of a plain remote workday, 870Wh usable against a 910Wh load. A unit that cannot finish one day of laptop-and-phone work is not a small version of the F3800. It is a different product.
What the Numbers Reveal
Each conclusion stated first — the numbers behind it on one line, the full analysis below.
rated cycles
The warranty column does not rescue the comparison either. Same 5-year term on both, which makes the $400 per warranty year on the F3800 and $140 on the Power 1000 nothing more than the price difference wearing a different hat. There is no dollar metric on this page that separates these two units, which is unusual and quietly useful: it means you can stop pricing and spend the entire decision on how much energy you need at once.
F3800: $2,000 for 3,840Wh, rated 3,000 cycles, 5-year warrantyPower 1000: $699 for 1,024Wh, rated 4,000 cycles, 5-year warrantyRated lifetime energy: 11,520 kWh against 4,096 kWh
Why it mattersWork out your worst-day watt-hours before you look at either price tag, because the price tags are telling you nothing.
The obvious fix is a midday solar top-up, and that is where the second number bites. The 800W solar figure is not reachable out of the box, because there is no onboard charge controller and the panels have to come through DJI's own adapter. So the unit that falls 40Wh short of a workday is also the one that cannot take sun without an accessory purchase first. The F3800 runs the identical day at 28% of its 3,264Wh usable and needs no plan at all.
Power 1000 usable energy: 870Wh, after inverter derating from 1,024WhRemote Workday load: 910Wh, or 105% of the Power 1000's usable energyPower 1000 lists 800W solar input but has no built-in charge controller and needs a proprietary adapter
Why it mattersIf you are buying a power station to work off-grid through a full day, price the DJI solar adapter into the $699 before you compare anything else.
solar input
Which pushes both units back onto the wall, and the wall is where they part company. The F3800's fastest AC path carries a field caveat serious enough that an owner throttled it by handA3, while the Power 1000's wall charge is the one refill path anybody describes as fast and quiet, at roughly 70 minutes from emptyB3. Buy either of these as a solar generator and what you are actually buying is an accessory list.
F3800 lists 2,400W solar input; Power 1000 lists 800W but has no onboard charge controllerOwners consistently report the F3800's input restrictions push you onto Anker's own pricey panels or a secondary charge controllerA1A2A13A14One owner charging from a 120V wall outlet at the full 1,800W rate found the line cord got very hot and backed down to 600-800WA3
Why it mattersSolar-first buyers should budget for Anker's panels or a second charge controller on the F3800, and for DJI's adapter on the Power 1000, before either box gets compared on priceA2A13.
continuous output
Ratio protects a load you already run when its compressor kicks. Ceiling decides whether the load can start at all. The Power 1000's 2x is genuinely reassuring inside its own envelope, and its rating is not soft, since it held 2,400W for twenty minutes without complaintB2. It is simply small. One F3800 owner runs a house off a single 120V feed into a Reliance transfer switch, water pump includedA5, and that is a ceiling story with no ratio in it anywhere.
F3800: 6,000W continuous, 9,000W surge, a ratio of 1.5xPower 1000: 2,200W continuous, 4,400W surge, a ratio of 2.0xReviewers ran the Power 1000 at 2,400W for 20 minutes, above its rating, with no shutdownB2
Why it mattersIf there is one big motor on your list, ignore the ratio; the ceiling is the entire answer.
The specific dimensions that decide these two units — everything else is a tie.
Your Life, Your Pick
Selected because: The Power 1000 finishes two of the six standard loads and misses a 910Wh remote workday by 40Wh; that gap is the decision.
The six standard loads sort these two without much ceremony. The F3800 finishes five of them on 3,264Wh of usable energy, the Power 1000 finishes two, and the two it finishes are the small ones. That is not a criticism. A 320Wh CPAP night uses 37% of it and a 670Wh tailgate uses 77%, and both of those are genuine wins for a $699 box you can lift.
The failure worth staring at is the 910Wh remote workday at 105%. Five percent over is the cruellest kind of miss, because nothing feels wrong until late afternoon, when the screen goes dark and there is no second act. And the load nobody here survives is van life at 4,685Wh a day, which is 144% of even the F3800's usable energy. If that is your number, both of these are the wrong shape of purchase.
Portability & Form Factor
Selected because: 132.3 lbs against 28.7 lbs settles where each unit spends its life more firmly than any spec below it.
weight
132.3 lbs against 28.7 lbs is not a portability difference, it is a category difference. The F3800 is a two-person lift, or a one-person lift you regret for a week. Decide where it lives before it arrives, because those 103.6 lbs of difference are the difference between moving a thing and living with wherever the delivery driver set it down.
The Power 1000 goes car to campsite and back in one trip, which is the entire reason to own one. That mobility is also its ceiling. What you can carry is what you get, and at 1,024Wh it is fixed there for good.
Lifetime Value
Selected because: Both work out to 17 cents per lifetime kilowatt-hour, so the money argument ends in a tie and sizing decides.
Seventeen cents a kilowatt-hour, both of them, and that is the end of the money argument. The two arrive at it from opposite directions: the F3800 buys energy cheaper up front at 52 cents a watt-hour against 68, and the Power 1000 is rated for a third more cycles, 4,000 against 3,000. Neither advantage survives contact with the other.
One caveat to hold onto. Both cycle counts are manufacturer ratings rather than anything measured in the field, and DJI publishes its figure as 4,000+, a floor rather than a fixed number. The dead heat is real on paper. Treat it as permission to stop comparing prices, not as a proof about what either pack looks like in year nine.
What the Specs Don't Tell You
Selected because: Two warnings fire on the F3800, and the noise one is about a figure Anker never published rather than a noise problem.
rated cycles
Two warnings fire on the F3800 and only one of them is bad news. The weight warning means exactly what it says. The noise warning is a disclosure flag: Anker publishes no dB figure for this unit while DJI publishes 23. A blank is not a bad score. On a box that might run in your bedroom during an outage, though, a blank is still something to mind.
Of the info cards, the surge pair is the one to read twice. On ratio the Power 1000 is ahead, 2x against 1.5x. On ceiling it is 4,400W against 9,000W. Those two rows describe different risks and they sit next to each other, which is precisely how people talk themselves into the wrong unit.
Brand Trust
Selected because: A 2024 entrant with no power-station community, against a 132.3 lb unit that ships back as hazmat freight if it fails.
Anker's exposure is what happens after the sale on a 132.3 lb box. The brand's no-hassle replacement culture is why anyone trusts it, and SOLIX support has been drifting the other way: AI-first agents, generic replies, and returns on heavy units that run as hazmat freight. Owner accounts split hard on this, from advance replacements and responsive ticketsA9 to being ignored outright after a five-figure orderA8.
DJI's exposure is that it started selling power stations in 2024 and there is still nowhere to ask. Questions land in a drone subreddit of roughly 250,000 people who are mostly there to fly. The app sits at 3.5/5 across the whole DJI ecosystem, with the on-device screen the more dependable of the two interfaces. None of that should flip your pick, but on a $2,000 purchase the support question is worth considerably more than the app question.
Strengths & trade-offs
Anker SOLIX F3800
Strengths
- +Larger battery capacity
- +Higher AC output
- +Faster solar charging
Trade-offs
- –Substantially more expensive (+$1,301) than the Power 1000.
- –Significantly heavier (+103.6 lbs), making it harder to move.
- –Very heavy unit that may be difficult for one person to lift.
- –Shorter-lived battery — rated for 3,000 charge cycles vs the Power 1000's 4,000, so it wears out sooner.
DJI Power 1000
Strengths
- +Costs $1,301 less
- +Lighter by 103.6 lb
- +Rated for 4,000 charge cycles — much longer battery lifespan
Trade-offs
- –Weaker inverter (-3,800W) limits appliance compatibility.
- –Sealed capacity — the SOLIX F3800 can add batteries to grow past 1,024Wh; this one can't.
Will It Power Your Gear?
Scenario math and per-appliance runtimes, modeled from the spec record.
Scenario verdicts
We ran the math on six real-world scenarios. Here's which unit survives your actual life.
SCN-01 · 2 nights · needs 2,100Wh
Weekend Camping
Two nights off-grid with essential comfort
Neither unit
Neither gives you a powered weekend: the SOLIX F3800 has the energy but doesn't travel, and the Power 1000 covers about 41% of the 2,100Wh. One can't go; the other can't finish.
Battery budget usedlower = more headroom
LOAD Phone Charger 15W×6h · LED Lights 40W×8h · Box Fan 75W×14h · CPAP Machine 40W×16h
SCN-02 · 8 hours · needs 1,645Wh
8-Hour Blackout
Keep the essentials running through a night without power
SOLIX F3800
1,645Wh over eight hours is half a tank for the F3800 and more than the Power 1000 owns. The small unit gets you a bit past the middle of the night on 870Wh usable, then it stops being a power station and becomes a lamp. If outage coverage is why you are shopping at all, this row has already answered you.
Battery budget usedlower = more headroom
LOAD Fridge 150W×8h · Router + Modem 20W×8h · LED Lights (4 bulbs) 40W×6h · Phone Charger 15W×3h
SCN-03 · 8 hours · needs 320Wh
CPAP Overnight
Sleep therapy without interruption — the #1 medical use case
Either unit
Both cover this one and neither breaks a sweat. A 320Wh night is 10% of the F3800 and 37% of the Power 1000, so capacity stops being the question and fan behaviour at low load takes over. DJI publishes 23dB. Anker publishes nothing, which is not the same as loud, but it is the same as unknown, and unknown is a strange thing to put eighteen inches from your head.
Battery budget usedlower = more headroom
LOAD CPAP Machine 40W×8h
SCN-04 · 8 hours · needs 910Wh
Remote Workday
Full work day off-grid without power anxiety
SOLIX F3800
The Power 1000 misses this by 40Wh. A 910Wh day against 870Wh usable comes to 105%, the cruellest possible margin, because everything is fine until mid-afternoon and then it is not. The F3800 runs the identical day at 28% and you never think about it once.
Battery budget usedlower = more headroom
LOAD Laptop 60W×8h · External Monitor 30W×8h · Router + Modem 20W×8h · Phone Charger 15W×2h
SCN-05 · 4 hours · needs 670Wh
Tailgate Party
Game day power for the crew
Power 1000
Both units finish the party. The F3800 wins the row on headroom, 21% used against 77%, which only matters if the game runs long or someone plugs in something nobody planned for. At 670Wh the more honest tiebreak is that one of these can be carried to a tailgate and the other cannot.
Battery budget usedlower = more headroom
LOAD Blender 400W×0.5h · LED TV (55") 80W×4h · Bluetooth Speaker 15W×4h · Phone Charger (×3) 45W×2h
SCN-06 · 24 hours · needs 4,685Wh
Van Life Daily
A full day of mobile living — the ultimate endurance test
Neither unit
Neither unit survives this day. 4,685Wh is 144% of the F3800's usable energy and 538% of the Power 1000's, so the real choice is not between them, it is between a portable and a proper house system with alternator and roof charging. If this is your number, the useful advice is to stop shopping this category.
Battery budget usedlower = more headroom
LOAD Mini-Fridge 150W×24h · Laptop 60W×4h · Phone Charger 15W×3h · LED Lights 40W×5h · Fan 75W×8h
The Load Test
RUNTIME = (Wh × 0.85) ÷ LOAD
None of the scenarios above exactly yours? Build it. Toggle what you'd plug in; both units are tested against the combined draw.
Essentials
Comfort & Convenience
High-Draw Appliances
Test duration
8h
Continuous draw
205W
Projected runtime
For this load: SOLIX F3800 runs 15.9h vs 4.2h.
$1,999.99 list · direct from Anker
Modeled from the spec record — same math as the tables below. Methodology
Runtime by appliance
Real-world runtime estimates for common appliances, modeled at 85% inverter efficiency.¹
Essentials
The basics you need runningscale 0–217.6hComfort & Convenience
Makes off-grid life actually enjoyablescale 0–43.5hHigh-Draw Appliances
These reveal the real limitsscale 0–3.3h¹ Runtime = (capacity × 0.85) ÷ appliance watts. Within each group, all bars share one time scale (the group's longest runtime), so lengths are comparable across appliances; identical runtimes collapse into a single blue/orange bar. Actual runtime varies with battery age, temperature, and simultaneous loads — see methodology.
Conclusion
August 9, 2026
Verdict: the SOLIX F3800, on Power Score margin
If the choice is genuinely between these two, take the F3800, because the Power 1000 cannot finish three of the six loads people buy power stations for: a 2,100Wh camping weekend, a 1,645Wh eight-hour outage, and a 910Wh remote workday it misses by 40Wh against 870Wh of usable energy. The F3800 covers all three on 3,264Wh usable and still has room, it buys energy cheaper up front at 52 cents a watt-hour against 68 ($2,000 over 3,840Wh, $699 over 1,024Wh), and on rated cycles the two tie at 17 cents per lifetime kilowatt-hour. The catch is real: you are buying 132.3 lbs of installed appliance and paying $1,301 more for it. This verdict holds only if your worst day is bigger than 870Wh. If it is not, the Power 1000 is the better buy and the F3800 is 132 pounds of overkill you have to find floor space for.
Editor-assigned confidence, based on cited owner research and spec analysis.
List prices as of August 9, 2026. The links below open Anker's and DJI's current prices.
$2,199.99 · direct from Anker
Last checked 1 day ago. Prices move — check before you buy.
or check the Power 1000 price$699.00 list
Written by Gunner Gustafson, Whole-Home Backup Tester · Station Arena Test Desk · Updated August 9, 2026
Measured Data
Benchmark scores and the full spec record, side by side.
Benchmark scores
Not rated for both units (minimum threshold unmet): UPS, CPAP, Tailgating, Apartment Balcony, Camping.
Full specifications
ᵈ Derived: price ÷ rated capacity. See the data behind our comparisons →
Comparison ToolAdd more power stations, side by sideOpen Tool →How these numbers are produced
Numeric verification
Every figure on this page traces to our spec database or arithmetic on it — no estimated numbers.
Owner claims
Statements about owner experience are cited to published reviews — see Sources & Research Notes below.
Runtime model
Runtime = (rated capacity × 0.85 inverter efficiency) ÷ device wattage. Solar recharge estimates assume panels deliver 70% of rated output. Cold weather, battery age, and stacked loads reduce real-world results.
Power Score
Computed from 14 published spec dimensions, weighted per use-case bench. Higher is better; a unit must meet a bench's minimum threshold to be rated.
See the full weight table and data sourcing on our methodology page →Class ranking (the star rating)
Each unit's star score is a category ranking, not customer reviews — no buyer opinions feed it. We score every station on size-independent quality (value, output, portability, endurance, ports, warranty, and more), then percentile-rank it against the other units in its capacity class, so a class-leading compact unit and a class-leading whole-home unit can both earn 5★. Here, SOLIX F3800 rates 4.7/5 (80th percentile of 16 Home Backup-class units), and Power 1000 rates 3.8/5 (31st percentile of 27 Everyday-class units).
How the class ranking is computed →Test Notes & Caveats
Hidden gotchas and advantages we spotted that you won't find on the product page.
132.3 lbs Is an Installation, Not a Purchase
Decide where it goes before it arrives. 132.3 lbs is a two-person lift and 103.6 lbs heavier than the Power 1000, which means the F3800 stops being portable the moment it is in position. Perfectly fine if it is living beside a transfer switch. A problem if you pictured loading it into a truck bed on your own.
Fixed at 1,024Wh, and the Model Number Matters
The Power 1000 does not expand. DJI does sell battery expansion on the Power 2000 and the Power 1000 V2, so confirm which model is in the box before planning to add capacity later, and do not carry V2 specs over to this unit. The F3800 takes Anker expansion batteries above its 3,840Wh, which is the difference that counts once a load like van life wants 4,685Wh a day.
Two Surge Numbers, Two Different Risks
The Power 1000 has the better ratio at 2x, 4,400W of surge over 2,200W continuous, while the F3800 has the higher ceiling at 9,000W over 6,000W for a ratio of 1.5x. Ratio tells you whether a compressor can kick on top of what is already running. Ceiling tells you whether the load can start at all. Read whichever one matches your list.
Same Five Years, So Warranty Decides Nothing
Both units carry a 5-year warranty, which makes the $400 per warranty year on the F3800 and $140 on the Power 1000 the price difference wearing a different hat. Nothing in this card separates the two. For warranty to break a tie, the terms would have to actually differ.
Both Ratings Outlive the Warranty by Decades
On weekend use the F3800's 3,000 cycles run 28.8 years and the Power 1000's 4,000 run 38.5, against 5-year warranties on both. Cycle daily and that becomes 8.2 and 11 years. These are manufacturer ratings rather than measured results, and DJI publishes its number as 4,000+, a floor rather than a fixed figure, so read the ranking as directional.
A Missing dB Figure Is Not a Loud One
Anker publishes no noise rating for the F3800, so this card fires on disclosure rather than volume. DJI publishes 23dB for the Power 1000 and 23-30dB across its line. The F3800 may well be quiet in your kitchen. There is just no manufacturer number to hold it to, which matters most if it ends up running in the room where you sleep.
Full record above — the Test Desk pick is the SOLIX F3800.
Check SOLIX F3800 price →or check the Power 1000 priceOwnership Analysis
What happens after you buy — true cost of ownership, brand trust, and growth potential.
Lifetime value
Service lifeyears at one full cycle per day
Lifetime energy delivered
Cost per delivered kWh
│ warranty ends · Reaching the cycle rating means ~80% capacity remains — degraded, not dead.
Analyst note
Both units cost the same to own over their rated lives — $0.17/kWh each. Lifetime cost can't separate them, so decide on the sticker price and everything else. One caution on the lifespan row: the Power 1000 takes longer to reach its cycle rating, but a cycle moves a different amount of energy on each unit — the SOLIX F3800 still delivers more over its shorter horizon (11,520 vs 4,096 kWh). Years measure wear, not usefulness.
Brand trust
Anker
Ecosystem
7-8 SOLIX portable power stations across C-series (compact) and F-series (flagship), plus the X1 home energy system
Support
Anker's no-hassle replacement culture is why the brand gets trusted, and SOLIX support has been drifting away from it: AI-first agents, generic answers, and returns on a 132.3 lb battery that move as hazmat freight. Budget more patience than you would for a charging cable.
Community
Moderate — active Reddit (r/Anker, r/AnkerSOLIXCommunity) and growing. Benefits from Anker's massive consumer electronics brand awareness.
App experience
Rated 4.5/5 iOS (~1,100 ratings) · 4.3/5 Android
Unique strength
Parent brand trust from Anker's consumer electronics dominance. InfiniPower technology for long cycle life. Strong $/Wh value in the mid-size and larger units — the S2000, F2600 and C1000 are among the better buys per watt-hour in the catalog.
Worth knowing
Firmware updates on this line have removed features without warning, and the expansion ecosystem is smaller than EcoFlow's. Neither is a dealbreaker at 3,840Wh, but both belong in the decision before the money leaves.
DJI
Ecosystem
New entrant (2024) — five power station models to date: Power 500, Power 1000 (since superseded by the V2 but still sold), Power 1000 V2, Power 1000 Mini, Power 2000. Buying a "Power 1000" listing? Check which revision it actually ships.
Support
Leveraging DJI's established global support and repair center network from the drone business. Generally positive reputation inherited from drone operations, but limited power-station-specific track record.
Community
There is no power-station community to ask yet. Questions land in a drone subreddit of roughly 250,000 people who are mostly there to fly, which is a real cost the night you want a straight answer about your specific unit.
App experience
Rated 3.5/5 iOS and Android (DJI Home app ratings reflect entire DJI ecosystem including drones/cameras, not power-station-specific). Users report the on-device screen is more reliable than the app.
Unique strength
Quiet is the DJI signature: 23dB published here, 23-30dB across the line, and 700+ battery patents out of the drone business behind it. If you already fly DJI, the SDC ports fast-charge drone batteries while the station keeps running everything else.
Worth knowing
DJI began selling power stations in 2024, so there is less long-term field record here than for EcoFlow, Jackery or BLUETTI. Watch the model names as well. The Power 1000 V2 and the Power 2000 are different products with different specs, and figures quoted for them do not transfer to this unit.
Analyst note
One brand brings years of consumer-electronics goodwill and a support operation that is slipping; the other brings deep hardware pedigree from drones and a power-station history that starts in 2024. On a $699 box you carry, DJI's newness costs you very little. On a $2,000 box wired into your house, Anker's support trajectory is the thing to think hardest about.
Growth path
SOLIX F3800
EXPANDABLESupports Anker expansion batteries, so you can add capacity later without replacing the base unit — useful if your needs may climb past 3,840Wh.
Accepts up to 2,400W of solar. Enough for a serious multi-panel array.
Generous port selection supports complex multi-device setups.
Expansion batteries are Anker-specific. You're investing in the Anker ecosystem.
Power 1000
FIXED CAPACITYFixed at 1,024Wh, with no expansion — so size it for your needs up front rather than planning to add capacity later.
Accepts up to 800W of solar. Suitable for a 1-2 panel setup.
Adequate ports for most setups, but heavy users may want a power strip.
Realistic full solar rechargeat 70% of rated panel output — see methodology
Analyst note
The Power 1000 is sealed at 1,024Wh, which is fine if that covers you. The SOLIX F3800 starts at 3,840Wh and can grow beyond it with Anker expansion batteries — real headroom the Power 1000 doesn't have if your needs climb toward partial-home backup.
What Owners Report
Patterns from published owner reports and long-term reviews — every claim cited to its source below.
Anker SOLIX F3800
The F3800's field record has one loud, consistent theme and it is solar. Owners report that the DC input restrictions make it very difficult to use anything but Anker's own panels, which get expensive in a full configurationA2A14, and one owner has given up on solar entirely unless there is no other way to chargeA1. The workaround people describe is bolting on a secondary charge controller, which is not a thing most buyers of a $2,000 appliance expect to be researchingA13.
Two more things to know before you buy. One owner charging from a 120V wall outlet at the full 1,800W rate found the line cord got very hot and dropped himself to 600-800WA3, which turns the fastest refill path into a slower one by choice. And one report says the unit cannot charge from AC while dischargingA4, which sits badly against a spec sheet listing a 20ms switchover. Both cannot be true, we have not resolved which is, and so nobody should buy this unit on the strength of its pass-through behaviour without confirming it for their own setup.
On the credit side, one owner runs a whole house through a single 120V feed into a Reliance transfer switch, water pump and all, with no complaintsA5, and another reports zero issues after months of fighting EcoFlow firmwareA10. Noise is the thin part of the record: the only figures in circulation come from a review write-up rather than long-term owners, putting it at 50-60dB under load with fans that cycle in and outA11A12, and one owner describes about a second of buzzing as the inverter ramps into a heavy AC loadA6, which Anker attributed to a vibrating ferrite beadA7.
“I have been using the F3800 for a couple weeks now, using only a single 120V outlet into a reliance transfer switch and it runs everything I throw at it including a water pump.”
Sources
diysolarforum.com · thesolarlab.com
DJI Power 1000
The Power 1000's record is thin, and honestly so: what exists is review coverage rather than long-term ownershipB1B2B3B4, which is what you would expect from a company that entered this category in 2024. There is no multi-year report here to tell you how the pack behaves once the novelty wears off.
What the coverage does say is consistent. It runs quiet enough to be a non-event, with sound only becoming noticeable past 1,500W and then as a soft whoosh rather than a whineB1. It held 2,400W for twenty minutes, above its 2,200W rating, without shutting downB2. A full wall recharge lands around 70 minutes, with the fan barely audible while it happensB3. And a week of camping with a 45W compressor fridge, phones, laptops and lights passed without incidentB4. That is a good record. It is just a short one.
“Whisper-quiet operation — one of the quietest power stations in its class, nearly silent under normal loads; sound only becomes noticeable past 1,500W, and even then it's a soft whoosh rather than the high-pitched whirring you'd get from BLUETTI or EcoFlow.”
Sources
thesolarlab.com · trailandkale.com · offgridbenchmark.com · superfashion.us · dronexl.co
Sources & Research Notes
Every owner claim in this report is traceable to a published source. The bracketed references above resolve here.
Recurring owner themes
- Owners consistently complain that the solar/DC input is restrictive, effectively locking users into pricier Anker-branded panels rather than generic arrays. [SOLIX F3800 · 4 entries]
- Fan/inverter noise is generally reported as quiet at idle but with occasional intermittent buzzing/rattling under load or fault conditions. [SOLIX F3800 · 3 entries]
- Anker support experiences are polarized — some owners report fast, responsive replacements while at least one reports being ignored after a major purchase. [SOLIX F3800 · 3 entries]
- Standout quiet operation (quieter than EcoFlow/BLUETTI), robust real-world output above its rating, and appeal to drone pilots and campers are the consistent themes. [Power 1000 · 3 entries]
- A1
“The solar input for charging is a pain, so much so that I'm only using it if there is no other way to charge the F3800.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [negative]
- A2
“The limitations of the inputs make it very difficult to use solar panels other than Anker's panels, which are pricey for a "full up" config.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [negative]
- A3
“if you charge the F3800 from a 120VAC wall outlet at full rate (1800 watts), the line cord gets very hot. I've backed off the charge rate to 600-800 watts.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [negative]
- A4
“the lack of passthru mode, you cannot charge via the 120VAC input while discharging.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [negative]
- A5
“I have been using the F3800 for a couple weeks now, using only a single 120V outlet into a reliance transfer switch and it runs everything I throw at it including a water pump.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [positive]
- A6
“I have 4 BP3800s and one of them made similar buzzing/rattling noise when a heavy AC load was starting up... only for around a second while inverter was ramping up.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Big issue with Anker Solix F3800 plus battery pack' · 2025-08 · [mixed]
- A7
“Anker support told me it was a ferrite bead vibrating inside the unit... This reduced the noise, initially. At some point, I moved the batteries around and now the noise is gone.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Big issue with Anker Solix F3800 plus battery pack' · 2025-08 · [mixed]
- A8
“Anker support is ghosting me after I spent over 20k on their solix line and solar panels within a month... they are not answering/returning my calls or emails.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Big issue with Anker Solix F3800 plus battery pack' · 2025-08 · [negative]
- A9
“I've called them and submitted tickets via their portal, always very responsive. They've even done advanced replacement for me.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Big issue with Anker Solix F3800 plus battery pack' · 2025-08 · [positive]
- A10
“I've had zero issues - especially compared to the EcoFlow firmware issues I fought with for months.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker solix f-3800 diy solar array' · 2024-02 · [positive]
- A11
“producing between 50 and 60 decibels when engaged, making it almost inaudible during regular use... until you try to lift it, that is.”
thesolarlab.com — 'Anker SOLIX F3800 Review: Did It Kill the Competition?' · unknown · [positive]
- A12
“Sometimes the fans are completely silent, then they kick in and out intermittently.”
thesolarlab.com — 'Anker SOLIX F3800 Review: Did It Kill the Competition?' · unknown · [mixed]
- A13
“no one on Youtube is addressing the solar input problem directly. But People smarter than myself with secondary charge controllers... are able to navigate around the problem.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [negative]
- A14
“other than the solar input problem having limited panel array choices to max out it's input capability it's a great unit so far.”
diysolarforum.com — 'Anker F3800 user reviews and opinions welcome' · 2024-07 · [mixed]
- B1
“Whisper-quiet operation — one of the quietest power stations in its class, nearly silent under normal loads; sound only becomes noticeable past 1,500W, and even then it's a soft whoosh rather than the high-pitched whirring you'd get from BLUETTI or EcoFlow.”
thesolarlab.com / trailandkale.com — DJI Power 1000 review · 2026 · [positive]
- B2
“Tested at 2,400W — slightly above its 2,200W output rating — for 20 minutes and handled it without loud noise or automatic shut-offs.”
offgridbenchmark.com / superfashion.us — DJI Power 1000 review · 2026 · [positive]
- B3
“AC charging takes about 70 minutes from 0% to 100% (about 50 minutes to 80%), and during full-speed charging the fan barely makes a sound.”
thesolarlab.com — DJI Power 1000 review · 2026 · [positive]
- B4
“Over a week-long camping trip it powered a 45W compressor fridge, phones, laptops, and LED lights; it's also a favorite of drone pilots for fast-charging DJI batteries while running other devices.”
offgridbenchmark.com / dronexl.co — DJI Power 1000 review · 2026 · [positive]
Research compiled August 9, 2026.
What Owners Actually Report
Drawn from 222 comments on independent review channels — not from retailer reviews, which skew to the first week of ownership. Each line is our summary of one commenter's claim, linked to the original. We record what they said, including where it contradicts the spec sheet.
Anker SOLIX F3800
137 claims from 91 comments · 76 from owners · 26 with figures
- Charging
- 19 · 46% negative
- Price & value
- 16 · 47% negative
- Runtime
- 8 · 15% negative
- Other
- 19 · 50% negative
- Expandability
- 12 · 36% negative
What owners complain about
Sarcastic about the $1600 price of each official expansion battery versus cheaper alternatives.
Price & valuemeasuredowner20 agreedsource →
A single Chargeverter only gives ~1200W due to the no-common-ground XT-60 DC inputs.
Chargingmeasuredowner12 agreedsource →
AC charging kills 240V and caps output to one bank at ~1200W of the 6000W inverter.
Inverter & surgemeasuredowner7 agreedsource →
What owners praise
Ran 2 fridges, 2 freezers, lights, pellet stove and Starlink for 6.5 hours using only 32%.
Runtimemeasuredowner61 agreedsource →
Recharged in 1 hour 15 minutes at just under 3000W from the grid.
Chargingmeasuredowner61 agreedsource →
Uses an F3800 for peak shaving on a 6c off-peak / 25c on-peak time-of-use plan.
Price & valueowner10 agreedsource →
DJI Power 1000
200 claims from 131 comments · 98 from owners · 31 with figures
- Price & value
- 33 · 11% negative
- Charging
- 22 · 20% negative
- Solar input
- 28 · 52% negative
- App & firmware
- 27 · 79% negative
- Other
- 20 · 53% negative
What owners complain about
Bought and tested it: 140W is out of the USB-C port's league.
Chargingmeasuredowner9 agreedsource →
The 400W MPPT modules run hot and throttle solar watts until he added copper heatsinks.
Build qualitymeasuredowner5 agreedsource →
Says the inverter draws about 50W, which DJI never mentions but which decides real autonomy.
Idle drainmeasuredowner1 agreedsource →
What owners praise
Ordered one on Amazon for under $400 in a November deal.
Price & valuemeasuredowner11 agreedsource →
SDC ports charge Mavic 3 batteries about 50% faster than the 120V fast charger; USB-C rated 140W.
Chargingmeasuredowner5 agreedsource →
Confirms DJI's quietness claim while charging is not exaggerated.
Noiseowner38 agreedsource →
Claims are weighted by how specific they are, whether the commenter owns the unit, and how many readers agreed. Comments that mention a product under a rival's review count for more, because the commenter had no reason to be there. This is what buyers report, not our test results — for measurements we ran ourselves, see the methodology.
Who Should Buy Which
Buy the SOLIX F3800 if you…
- →Your worst day is an eight-hour outage with the fridge, the modem, and something with a motor on it. That is 1,645Wh in our load model, which is half of what the F3800 has usable.
- →You already own a transfer switch or you are about to. This unit is happiest wired in and left alone, and one owner runs a full house off a single 120V feed exactly that way, water pump includedA5.
- →You suspect 3,840Wh will not be enough in two years. The F3800 takes Anker expansion batteries on top of it; the Power 1000 is sealed at 1,024Wh with no path at all.
- →You want a 2,100Wh camping weekend to be a non-event instead of a rationing exercise. 64% used, no arithmetic required, nobody unplugging the kettle to charge a phone.
Buy the Power 1000 if you…
- →You fly DJI. The SDC ports fast-charge drone batteries while the station keeps running everything else, and that advantage does not exist anywhere in Anker's line.
- →It has to move. 28.7 lbs is car to campsite in one trip, and no amount of capacity is worth a 132.3 lb box that stays wherever you first put it down.
- →You are sleeping next to it. DJI publishes 23dB for this unit and 23-30dB across the line. Anker publishes nothing at all for the F3800.
- →Your day is a laptop, phones, lights and a small fridge, and it stays inside 870Wh of usable energy. At $699 this is a genuinely good buy for that day, and its 140W USB-C charges a laptop faster than the F3800's 100W does.
This is you — check the Power 1000 price
If neither fits
Two readers should close this tab. If you are living in a van and pulling 4,685Wh a day, neither unit survives it: that is 144% of the F3800's usable energy and 538% of the Power 1000's, and the honest answer is a fixed house bank with alternator and roof charging, not a portable with a handle on it. And if the real job is a CPAP at 320Wh a night, you are looking at 10% and 37% of two units that cost $2,000 and $699. Buy the smallest LFP unit that clears 320Wh with room to spare, sleep just as well, and spend the difference on the trip.
The Bottom Line
Seventeen cents a kilowatt-hour, twice, is a strange place for a comparison between a 132.3 lb appliance and a box you carry in one trip to end up, but that is where the money lands and it lands there flat. Which leaves sizing, and sizing is not close: the Power 1000 finishes two of the six standard loads and misses a remote workday by 40Wh. If you are spending real money because you have a real load, the F3800 is the unit, five of six covered on 3,264Wh usable, with expansion batteries behind it if the load grows.
And if you read that 40Wh miss and thought that your day is smaller than that, good, you just saved $1,301. Buy the DJI, put it in the trunk, and go do the thing you were buying it for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers drawn from the spec record and cited owner research.
Is the Anker SOLIX F3800 worth nearly three times the price of the DJI Power 1000?
Only if you need the energy, and then it is not even close. The F3800 is $2,000 against $699 and delivers 3,840Wh against 1,024Wh, so you pay nearly three times as much for 3.75 times the capacity, which makes it the cheaper unit per watt-hour at 52 cents against 68. The catch is 132.3 lbs and $1,301 more out the door. If your worst day fits inside the Power 1000's 870Wh of usable energy, the F3800 is capacity you will never touch and weight you cannot move.
Can the DJI Power 1000 run my fridge through a blackout?
For part of one. Our eight-hour outage model needs 1,645Wh and the Power 1000 has 870Wh usable after inverter losses, so it covers a bit over half the night and then it is a flashlight. Starting the fridge is not the problem, since it has 4,400W of surge and reviewers pushed it past its continuous rating without a shutdown. Finishing the outage is the problem. The F3800 runs the same eight hours at 50% used.
Which one is quieter, the F3800 or the Power 1000?
DJI, on the only evidence anyone has published. The Power 1000 is rated at 23dB and Anker publishes no figure at all for the F3800, which is why our page flags it. Read that flag as being about disclosure, not volume. The F3800 may well be perfectly quiet; there is simply no manufacturer number to hold it to, and the only figures floating around come from a review write-up rather than long-term owners.
Can I use solar panels I already own with either of these?
Probably not without buying something first. The Power 1000 lists 800W of solar input but has no built-in charge controller, so panels have to come through DJI's own proprietary adapter. The F3800 lists 2,400W, and owners consistently report that its input restrictions push you toward Anker's own panels or a secondary charge controller. Price the panels and the adapters before you compare the two boxes, because that spend is bigger than most of the differences on this page.
Is the DJI Power 1000 expandable?
Not this one. The Power 1000 is fixed at 1,024Wh with no expansion path. DJI does sell battery expansion on the Power 2000 and on the Power 1000 V2, so check the exact model on the box before you plan on adding capacity later, and do not assume specs quoted for the V2 apply to this unit. The F3800 takes Anker expansion batteries above its 3,840Wh.
Brand matchup
Anker SOLIX vs DJI: measured across every matchup →Where to buy
Anker SOLIX F3800Pick
$2,199.99
$2,199.99 · direct from Anker
Last checked 1 day ago. Prices move — check before you buy.
DJI Power 1000
$699.00
$699.00 · direct from DJI
Last checked 1 day ago. Prices move — check before you buy.
Prices may vary by retailer and are subject to change.