How Long Will It Run

How long will a Jackery Explorer 500 run a garden inflatable (christmas or halloween)?

About 6.2 hours — 6 h 9 min typically, from 5 h 47 min in the worst case to 6 h 31 min at best. That assumes a garden inflatable (christmas or halloween) pulling 50 W continuously, plus the station's 8 W AC mains socket overhead — 58 W in total out of 357 usable watt-hours.

The fan runs the whole time it is standing up, so the hours it is on decide the cost.

The numbers

Jackery Explorer 500 · 518 Wh · new pack at 20 °C, 10% reserve
SetupAverage drawCautiousTypicalBest case
1 × garden inflatable (christmas or halloween), UK 230 V58 W5 h 47 min6 h 9 min6 h 31 min
2 × garden inflatable (christmas or halloween), UK 230 V108 W3 h 7 min3 h 18 min3 h 30 min
1 × garden inflatable (christmas or halloween), US 120 V58 W5 h 47 min6 h 9 min6 h 31 min
  • 0.8 nights of eight hours, or 0.26 days of continuous running.
  • Usable energy: 357 Wh of the 518 Wh on the box, after chemistry, inverter losses and the reserve.
  • To keep it going for a full 24 hours you would need about 1,915 Wh of rated capacity — 3.7× this station.
  • Start-up: the garden inflatable (christmas or halloween) asks for 50 W at switch-on against this station's 1,000 W peak — comfortable.

Buy the Jackery Explorer 500

Where to buy

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What changes the answer

If instead…Typical runtimeChange
The pack is two years old5 h 40 min-8%
The pack is five years old4 h 55 min-20%
It is −10 °C outside4 h 55 min-20%
You run it flat, no reserve6 h 50 min+11%
You keep 20% back5 h 28 min-11%

If you need it to run longer

These run a garden inflatable (christmas or halloween) for at least twice as long as the Jackery Explorer 500 does, cheapest first.

StationWhTypicalIndicative price
Jackery Explorer 1000 v21,07012 h 58 min£419 / $549
Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus1,26415 h 4 min£549 / $999
Anker SOLIX C10001,05612 h 35 min£699 / $799
ALLPOWERS R15001,15213 h 30 min£699 / $539

The cheapest step up: Jackery Explorer 1000 v2

Amazon and approved-programme links are affiliate links; the site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Links marked “official site” are untracked. Prices and stock change constantly — check before you buy.

Smaller options that still work

StationWhTypicalWeightIndicative price
EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max5126 h 19 min6 kg£449 / $349
EcoFlow RIVER 3 Max5126 h 19 min6.6 kg—
DJI Power 5005126 h 19 min7.3 kg£399 / $449
Goal Zero Yeti 5004996 h 9 min7.3 kg— / $500