Doesn't hold a charge!
I followed the charging instructions for the Power Pack 300 C. After 48 hours of AC charging, the light was still amber instead of green. The manual said, if the light was amber, wait 15 mins and press a button on the unit that would reveal the charging level. I did this and the unit said it was fully charged. The Power Pack ran a 40 watt table lamp for 4 hours as promissed!

However the next time I charged the system the same thing happened. The light was Amber. After waiting 30 mins I pressed the button on the unit but this time it registered "RED". I moved the unit to another outlet and charged it for another 48 hours. Same Result (RED)! I plugged in the 40 watt table lamp and it lasted only 20 mins.

I love the idea Xantrex had for a portable electronic generator, however their execution came up a little short on this one. The unit is going back!

It's a battery, not a generator
The Xanex "Generator" isn't a generator at all; it's a small rechargeable battery combined with a lamp and one of those cheesy little battery powered tire pumps that sometimes come in roadside emergency kits. In other words it's a collection of cheesy tools at a premium price.

If you want a real generator, get a Honda, but be prepared to spend three times as much. And if you want a portable battery/charger package for running accessories and emergency car starting, there are better units.

Very Useful
I have found it to hold a charge very well. It is great to have a back-up when rv camping. It is also reassuring to know that when camping in remote areas that you have an emergency back-up if your vehicle doesn't start. I consider this a good buy.

instant AC power
If your power goes out you can live, for a while, with no lights. The operation of a sump pump is a different matter. Last year I spent 5 hours bailing a sump pump hole with a plastic pitcher. Not enjoyable. I went everywhere looking for this type of unit and spent an hour on the internet. The Xantrex 852-1840 generator seems to be a great insurance policy.

First Rate
Loosing the power cord on the air compressor is worth the purchase price. If you ever had to fill tires on a trailer you know what I am talking about.

Invertor works well, but keep in mind 300Watts of battery power is a small bucket of power, don't try any inductive loads. I managed to burn out the invertor. Xantrax honored the warantee and replace the unit no questions asked. Refreshing change after dealing with Sony's warantee department!

Highly recommended

pleasant surprise
I'm very pleased with the portable XPowerpack 300 Plus. I do a low key lawn service which includes a couple of hedges and assorted bushes. I've used gas powered hedge shears over the years but the cut was cleaner with an electric hedge trimmer. I've run a hedge trimmer (TR1400 Black & Decker) for an hour and a half. I've inflated bicycle tires and we have a VW van that occassionally won't start. The unit has performed better than I expected. Now, if it lasts a few years, I'll give it that 5th star.

I use it all the time!
This product is great! I have used it now for over 6 months and have been very impressed. I've even given two of these away as gifts!

I've used this Xantrex 300 watt generator and it has helped me in numerous situations:

My car battery died. I used this to jumpstart my car.

My car's tire has a slow leak. I used the air compressor function to re-inflate it. It takes a long time to inflate tires, compared to those 50 cent air/water machines at the gas stations, but it gets the job done and I can take it with me. It works on my Acura's 15 inch tires, as well as my friend's Dodge Ram (30+) inch tires. (It also has a needle to inflate sports balls, which I haven't used yet.)

My Shed has no electricity. I use the attached double lamp florescent light and I can see. (Not super bright, but it helps.)

It's primary use, however is for my laptop. I constantly plug in my laptop (Dell inspiron 8600) while in my car. I get power for 2-3 hours. A better strategy to maximize laptop use is: I use my laptop with it's long lasting Centrino battery (last's 4-5 hours). I then shut it down and recharge for 1 to 1 1/2 hours with the Xantrex 300w unit, as it has a standard outlet that I can plug into. I can then use my laptop for another 4-5 hours. Shut it down and recharge it again, etc. etc... Doing this, I can recharge my laptop battery a total of 2-3 times before the Xantrex unit needs to be recharged, and thus I can use my laptop for a total of up to 20 hours!

In response to some other reviews: They do take about 48 hours to charge fully, but you can leave it plugged in and it will automatically maintain it's full charge. I've seen it fully charged, which turns the charging indicator light green. Then I noticed a few hours later that the light was amber again, indicating it was 'maintaining' the charge to keep it full. If I had not previously noticed that the charge indicator was green (full), I too would have drawn the conclusion that it 'took longer than it was supposed to' to charge. But that is not the case.

I've also seen these things sit out in the rain for days and days and still work properly. Although I do not recommend allowing them to get wet, I do think its an attribution to their quality of workmanship.

Great item
I bought one of these last year in a store and it worked great. Now i bought one again on here at a cheaper price. I use it in the yard to replace a long and tangled power cord to weedwack, to trim my bushes, and light an area at night for 15 -20 mins with a 300 watt light. The little LED lights are great for keeping me informed of the battery status.I filled my bike and car tires with it. I use it alot to go camping and i recharge it ever time im in the car going place to place. And this winter i have jump started 2 cars and one pickup of my coworks so far on the cold nights i leave work. I keep one at home and the other in my SUV and i will say it has payed itself off with the number of times it has come in handy.

These batteries really work!
Firstly, you should note that I have the earlier 250 watt version of this powerpack (very similar, but without the compressor).

I am buying a 2nd 300 watt version because my experience has been so good with my first one. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I had no charging problems and it has held the charge for the past several years without fail (comforting green light). The real test came during the big NYC blackout-- I was the only one with any lights on! Worked like a champ. As I said, I'm buying another one.

Not Happy With Item
I purchased 2 of these Xantrex compressors. I planned on keeping one the trunk in case of a tire emergency. What a joke!! The compressor started to make a horrible noise about 2 minutes into the tire inflation and never worked again. Well, I had the "spare" compressor, but the same thing happened to it.

I contacted the company by email and was given a confirmation number stating that technical support would contact me -- that was last week and I am still waiting for an answer. I am very disappointed with the product and more disappointed in the "support", which was just as useless as the item.

never worked but they replaced it
We had the problem noted below but the mfg. did the right thing and replaced it. Terrific and appreciate integrity.



We charged it immediately and put it away for our first power failure that didn't happened until last night (almost a year after buying it). It didn't work. One of the fluorescent tubes lit but it wouldn't take a very small LCD TV.

And we can't figure out how to contact Amazon about taking it back or exchanging it.

Very disappointing from two aspects: (1) it never worked, and (2) Amazon doesn't seem to have any way to contact them about it so they can attempt to replace it.

Does what it was made to do
I don't know what the people are thinking that give this item a one and two star rating because it isn't a gasoline-powered portable generator. No where in the description does it say it's a gas-powered generator, and these people are belittling a product that they bought because they made a mistake by not researching what the product was and because they don't seem to know the difference between a portable power-pack and a real generator.

Now on to the product itself. This is a battery powered portable power unit, first and foremost. It is meant to be mainly used as a jump-start aid on cars with a low (not completely dead) battery. When used in this capacity, it excels at it's job, which is it's primary purpose. The rest of the items on this unit are emergency conveniences, and of course won't hold their own against stand-alone tools built for their specific purposes. The people at Xantrex threw in these few extras for convenience's sake. It has a flourescent utility light that lets you see what you're doing at night, don't expect it to act as a focus-beamed searchlight. The tubes light up bright and will run all night long without going dead. They also put a power inverter on it so that you can power small 110-volt tools if necessary but don't expect it to provide the power of a gas-generator or your ac-mains, and there's a 12-volt cigarette outlet too for 12-volt tools. They put a small compressor on it and it works fine for emergencies, but it's not meant to inflate tires all the time like a Campbell-Hausfield 10-hp dual-stage compressor with 50-gallon tank, it's an emergency convenience, and that's the point that should be remembered.

I've been pleased with the reliability of my unit, I've had it and been using for 5 years without any incident. The battery takes and hold a charge well and the unit supplies all the power I need for small emergency situations when traveling or at home during a minor power outage.

No, it won't run your TV set, it isn't meant to, but when used within it's meant capabilities it performs it's duties fine, such as running a nebulizer for emphazema medication during power outages, or running a small radio. But if you're needing to power large appliances, of course it won't work, you have to rate the power-source to the power consumption of the appliance, including startup surge capacity. In other words, read the power-rating on the appliance and look at the power rating of Xantrex, if the appliance meets or exceeds the rated load capacity of the Xantrex, don't plug it in, it isn't going to magically supply more power than it's capable of. If you want to run your TV, air-conditioner, hot-water heater, well pump, washer/dryer, dishwasher, home theater system, or refridgerator, then buy a gasoline powered generator instead. That's why I bought my 15-Kilowatt gas generator.

Not what I expexted.
I am sure the unit will do all the things it is rated to do, I have not yet needed to try to jump a dead car battery with it. I used the light once, but where my disappointment lies is that I thought it would run my electric boat motor. Which it will not do. So I carry it in a vehicle just in case I need it for another purpose. I hope at that time it will function as it is meant to. I feel confident that using it for it's intended use it may work well. If it doesn't start a dead auto, if I ever need it to, then I suppose it was a waste of money.

Jon.