I bought this with the intention of taking it on my upcoming trip to Cameroon, where power outages are pretty much a daily thing, and can even last for several days at times. Then I found out that you can’t take it on commercial airlines. No lithium battery of any size is allowed in checked baggage, and those in carry-on must be of no more than 100 watt hours capacity. The only exception is that with the permission of the airline, which no one explains how to obtain, you can take up to two batteries of no more than 160 Wh each. So no matter how you look at it, the Jackery isn’t flying. Interestingly, there appear to be no restrictions on sealed lead acid batteries in either checked or carry-on baggage. They are far lower in capacity for their weight though. There does not appear to be any limit on how many 100 Wh or less lithium batteries you are allowed in your carry-on.The next biggest bummer with this product is that the battery is not replaceable, not even by the manufacturer. Thus, this is engineered to be a throw-away product. So much for green energy. When Tile came out with their original key-finder tags, the world was outraged that the coin battery was not replaceable, and those only weighed a few grams. They eventually redesigned it to make the battery user-replaceable. Every Jackery Explorer 240 sold is 6.6 pounds (3 kg) of future e-waste. If you think you could re-battery it yourself, you’d better have a look at a teardown video on Youtube. There’s a lot of cylindrical cells spot-welded to metal strips in a series-parallel configuration. You’d have to be a pretty serious and resourceful DIYer to tackle that.Next, there’s the USB ports, which are not only just Type A, they don’t support any quick-charge standard whatsoever. There’s no excuse for not including a USB PD port on this thing, which is the only way to fast charge Apple devices, and is what all mobile devices have been migrating to for some time now. Even most current pocket-sized lithium battery portable chargers support both USB PD and multiple other quick charging standards on the Type A ports. Not the Jackery though, which seems outdated in this regard. There is a work-around, since the Jackery has a 12v automotive outlet, but it will cost you another $40 or so. You can get an automotive quick charger that supports USB PD and Quick Charge 4.0 or 3.0 and some lesser known standards. I bought a Wordima 85w automotive charger here on Amazon, and it works great. Make sure you have compatible cables. This setup will allow you to charge your devices about 3 times faster than the Jackery’s built-in USB ports. Of course, you could also just plug your regular device AC charger (or several with a power strip) into the Jackery’s inverter output, but this means more stuff to carry and less efficient use of the Jackery’s capacity.I like that the Jackery accepts a wide input voltage range from 12v to 30v, and has MPPT to optimize the utilization of variable power sources like solar, wind, small-scale hydropower or even an exercise bicycle generator. You can also charge and use it at the same time, as would be common when using solar panels. Not all similar products allow this. But I was very disappointed to discover that it does not pass any excess available input power through to the load. Thus if your solar panel is producing 100W and the Jackery is only accepting 30W because it’s nearly full, and you have a 50W load running, you are still draining the battery even though you are generating 20W more than your total need. I double checked this with an ammeter in series with the input power, in case the displayed input power represented only what the battery was accepting, and I found that the input current does not change at all when a load is switched on. Thus any available input power in excess of what the battery can accept is wasted, even if there is a load that could use it. The load is always using only the battery and the input is only charging the battery. Thus any load watts in excess of the watts input to the battery is draining the battery, even if you have way more power available from the input source. That’s disappointing to say the least.The LCD display simultaneously shows the battery percentage remaining, and the input and output watts. It’s very informative, but they used an older LCD technology that is extremely sensitive to the viewing angle. The display is crystal clear when viewed from above, but it is very faded when viewed at eye level, and completely invisible above eye level. This irks me because even the cheap 20 year old dumb thermostat I replaced in my home uses the type of LCD that is very sharp viewed from any angle. Better LCD technology has been around for decades, but the Jackery doesn’t use it.The power bank contains a pure sine wave inverter which produces clean AC power most closely resembling what comes from a wall outlet. This pretty much guarantees that you won’t have trouble with your AC powered devices as long as you don’t exceed its 200W power limit.Jackery recommends that you not drain the battery below 15%, so the real usable capacity is only around 200 Wh, not its rated 240 Wh. Another page of the same manual says to recharge it when it drops to 20%, which gives you even less usable capacity.The unit comes with a hefty 65W AC charger that accepts 100 - 240v 50/60 Hz, a 12v automotive charging cable, but certainly no solar panels. You don’t have to buy Jackery’s solar panel, which is 60 W and costs as much as the Massimo 100 W foldable solar panel that I purchased. On a cloudless day, I can charge the Jackery from 15% to 100% when not simultaneously draining it.I love that the Jackery has no fuses to blow or reset buttons to push. It has self-resetting overload protection. I like that the internal cooling fan runs only when necessary, which for me hasn’t been very often. It’s nice that all connections are on the front. You don't have to go searching all around for the different inputs and outputs - everything is in one place. I usually am not swayed much by looks over specs, but this unit looks good and feels sturdy while being light weight. The handle grip is non-slip without using any of that grippy rubbery coating that inevitably turns sticky with age.Since I can’t take the Jackery on my flight, I bought a few INIU brand BI-B5 large pocket-sized power banks, which are 74 Wh each, and thus won’t be at odds with the TSA and FAA guidelines. Four of these together have greater battery capacity than the Jackery Explorer 240, but with no 110v AC or 12v DC outlets, of course. They have a numeric LED display showing charge percent level but not watts in & out. These will give me 2 USB Type A ports and one USB PD port each, all supporting quick charging standards. These units can only be charged via the PD port. The Type A ports are output only. I don’t know if it is safe to use the Type A ports to power things while charging via the USB PD port. I have to use a number of adapters to charge these with my foldable solar panel, using the automotive fast charger I mentioned earlier. It’s a pain compared to just using the Jackery with the solar panel, but I don’t have much of a choice when traveling by air.I bought this item 12/2/2019 and I really wanted to write a review even though I haven’t fully tested it yet. I will update this review once I do all the other things I want it to do. But for now here we go.I bought the Jackery 240 because we lost power for several days in NJ. I was tired of waiting for my husband to fix our broken gas generator. I wanted a rechargeable generator that can 12 volt appliances like little cooking thing or a low powered heater. I boiled eggs/heated food with a sterno cooking thing. It worked but I wanted other alternatives. I know there is a lot of other alternatives for cooking (like propane stuff, wood stove etc) and heat (I used Hot Hands all sizes) and the hubby has all these equipment. But I think he is saving all his equipment for the ultimate doomsday 0_0 and I’d have to ask permission to use them. So I’m like to heck with this I’m going to get my own stuff – something not too exorbitant and not a repeat of equipment he already has. I am supposed to be the helpless female (LOL) but I guess when you have kids (or when you’re tired of waiting to be rescued) you gonna help yourself. Ok that’s my lifestory don’t downgrade my review its down below LOLLLI have the Honeywell HeatBud 250 Watt Personal Ceramic Heater, Black (HCE100). This heater has a low setting – 170 watts and high setting 250 watts. I tested it on both settings and it works! Of course it would be silly of me to use it just for that purpose. As a previous reviewer said, the heater sucked the power off the Jackery and I think it ran between 60-90 minutes. I don’t remember because I was watching TV and then then it just turned off LOL. The Jackery didn’t give me any warning that it was low battery. I also charged other items on the Jackery for 10 minutes before I tested the Honeywell which Im sure drained it a bit but I’m pretty sure it was at least 60 minutes or more before the Jackery was empty. I don’t think I’ll be using the Jackery for heating purposes as that would be such a waste of power. Guess it’ll still be the Hot Hands scenario for heat! But it’s nice to see that the Jackery can power the Honeywell Heatbud heater. So if someone’s hands is close to frostbite I can power on my Honeywell for 90 mins of heat. I also tested a smaller Lasko heater (which I returned actually). The Lasko heater was advertised as 200 watts. It was totally brand new and on first use it was using 240 watts + and the Lasko kept turning on and off. That went on for about 5-10 mins. Then the Lasko began to stabilize and pulling a regular 200watts+ from the Jackery and stayed on. So my assumption was that at first use/brand new the Lasko was trying to heat itself up (??) My Honeywell Heatbud didn’t do that but then again the Honeywell Heatbud was not brand new. But anyway, I’m not too pleased with the Lasko especially as it doesn’t have the tip-over safety feature and lower heat settings. So if I *had* to use a heater with the Jackery it would be the Honeywell Heatbud.I bought a mini hotpot from Amazon that has two power settings 200 watt and 600 watt. I will update my review once I use it either tonight or over the weekend. I am curious to see if the 200 watt setting will work on the Jackery and how long it takes to boil water at the lower setting. I have a review for the mini hotpot somewhere in case you’re curious. But my plan is to use the mini hotpot to boil eggs/heat soups/coffee/chocolate milk for the family faster than the sterno stove (during power outages) and when we go on sporting events several days in a hotel – things like that.The next major test I did (which I would definitely be using the Jackery more this way than any other) was plugging in my Wagan Thermoelectric Cooler/Warmer in the DC outlet – cigarette lighter) My sons had a swim meet competition and we always have hot food cooked. I would use the Wagan to keep it warm for them. In the past I would power the Wagan with my Honda CR-V cigarette lighter. But whenever I turn my car off it cuts the power to the Wagan. Also, there is a warning that in order to avoid the Wagan from malfunctioning I must power off the Wagan then shut my car AND/OR plug the Wagan to the car before powering it on. So with the Jackery 240 I don’t need to worry about any of that! So at 100% I plugged in my Wagan and powered on the Jackery and the Wagan respectively about 730AM in the morning with my 3 already hot spaghetti inside. I never turned off the Wagan or the Jackery. About 5 hours or so later I checked on the Jackery and it was about 40% power remaining! Cool!Since using an electric cooler (and soon my Alpicool compressor fridge/freezer) is mostly what I’ll be using the Jackery for (as well as the mini hotpot if it works) – and the minor charging of other electronics I’d leave this review here for now. My husband uses a CPAP machine – Resmed Airsense 10. I read in the reviews that the Jackery can power this machine so that is cool. Although my husband says he can live without the CPAP since power outages (or vacations somewhere is temporary) I am unable to test this for myself. Since he gets mad if I nag him I won’t bother convincing him. But it’s good know that if need be the Jackery can power his CPAP machine if he ever decides to use it.In summary below are what I like, dislike, the items I used it for/tested with, final thoughts until my next update with other things I want to test it with.What I like:1. Seems durable and high quality - doesn’t look and feel like it will break easily2. Light and portable – carrying it around is no biggie for 5ft me3. 12V DC outlet works (I heard that it gives the max power even when battery is low) it worked well with my 12volt thermo electric cooler4. You can power and charge the machine at the same time (haven’t check this yet)5. Bought it at the lower price during an Amazon Lightning Deal (yay!)What I dislike:1. Wish it had a USB-C outlet (that’s what my tablet and phone use)2. Slow charging – in the AC outlet I saw it pulls in 39 wattsFinal Thoughts:This is my first “solar” generator. But I did research a lot - or should I say Amazon reviews and Youtube research LOL. Jackery seemed to come up as being reliable and not too expensive like Goalzero. Maybe just maybe if I did the whole off grid living and conversion van life I would get Goalzero 1000 as well but I’m not. And I don’t want to throw my money away. The consensus seems that Jackery is a solid brand and worth it.I plan to keep my Jackery 240 in my car as I drive 64 miles one way to work. I like the Jackery 240 so much that I may just buy the 500 watt version if it goes on sale again. It’s back to $500 right now. But anyway, I’m still researching and maybe I’m getting carried away. But I want the ability to higher wattage appliances and/or charge a lot more. I like the previous reviewers advice of having two of these. Since they recharge slowly one can be used while the other is recharging – perfect! But $$$. I usually like to get two powerful items. But the 240 is only 6 lbs while the 500 is 13 lbs. So I think it’s a wise decision for me to have a Jackery 240 and Jackery 500. Now if they come out with a Jackery 1000 I might get that instead. Jackery are you coming out with a 1000???I recently purchased a Rockpals 100 watt folding solar panel which should be delivered today. (Yep I’m getting carried away!!!) I want to be able to charge my Jackery 240 while I’m at lunch by putting it on the roof of my car. I did not get the Jackery branded solar panels because it was too expensive for me. The Jackery 60 watt panel – though it went on sale – can only charge the Jackery alone. The Jackery 100 watt panel - which I REALLY liked and wanted to get since it can power other things as well - was $299! Since I plan to buy another Jackery (either 500 or 1000 if they make it in the future) I need to purchase wisely.Appliances I tested with:1. Honeywell Heatbud2. Honeywell Desktop Air Purifier3. Wagan Thermoelectric Warmer/Cooler (using 12v, didn’t try the AC plug)4. Android Tablets & Phones5. Rav Battery Bank6. Rechargeable Flashlights & LampsAppliances I will test with soon:1. Coolio Thermoelectric Warmer/Cooler2. Alpicool C20 Fridge & Freezer3. Rockpals 100 Watt Folding Solar Panel4. Acer Chromebook5. Dell Laptop6. Modem & RouterI bought this so that I could busk with my guitar amp rather than buying a new battery-powered amp.While I haven't busked yet, I did test it at a gig yesterday. I powered a Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb and a pedalboard powered on a Strymon Zuma by connecting a power strip to the jackery. I played at gigging volumes (with a loud drummer) for the whole of the 3 hours.This amp is actually a 100 watt class D solid state amp that is meant to emulate the classic 22 watt tube fender deluxe. But together with the pedalboard with the volume loud (but not dimed), the Jackery only showed my rig pulling about 30watts of power at any given moment.At the end, I still had 70% battery left on the jackery.So I estimate I could power my full rig at high volume for about 9 hours, which is amazing. I could busk with my normal rig and not sacrifice anything.I also tried charging a macbook on it and it pulled a similar amount of power overall. 60w while charging, but around 25w once it was charged.I also tried using it to power some tabletop kitchen appliances. So far this has not worked out for me. If I plug in a toaster or an electric kettle, it basically stays on for about 3 seconds. You see the outgoing wattage on the jackery's display go up very quickly. When it reaches like 350-400, the jackery cuts off the power.The 300w continuous power provided by this particular Jackery is not enough for anything with a heating element.