Solar Recharging Kit with Inverter

Product Description

Goal Zero's Sherpa 50 Solar Recharging Kit consists of a Sherpa 50 lithium battery power pack and a Nomad 13 solar panel. Depending on weather conditions, it charges fully from solar power in 5 to 10 hours, or from man's... [Read more]

Top Reviews

A most convenient plug to the sun
by Oskar Pineño (5 out of 5 stars)
June 21, 2015

Over the last few years since hurricane Sandy, I have been quite obsessed with solar panels and energy storage. Having to spend a couple of days without electricity (some of my neighbors got it worse) is not the kind of experience I'd like to repeat, but we all know it is eventually going to happen again: The question is whether we will be ready then. Since then, I have purchased a few solar panels, two portable (Instapark and RAVPower) and three regular (Renogy), as well as solar "generators" (Yetis 150 and 400 from Goal Zero), along with a quite large collection of battery packs, which I am trying to hide from my wife in fear that she will kill me.

Because I have so many related "gadgets," I really didn't know if needed this Goal Zero kit. I received it less than 24 hours and I don't know yet if I need it, but I know that I starting to love it. In fairness, I haven't gotten to use it too much. Thus far, I have only tried the Sherpa 50 and I am quite impressed: with the battery charge it got from factory, I charged my wife's iPad mini before the battery suddenly died (the LCD indicator was off and suddenly went from four bars to zero). After recharging it from the wall, I got a better idea of what this little beast is capable of: using the inverter, a single charge was more than enough (20% left still) to recharge my Macbook Air 11" from 5% to 100%. That's when I knew I could get something from this kit that I can't get from any of my regular battery packs (which lack the wattage) and the solar generators (which lack the portability).

Regarding the solar panel, it looks really promising. I really like its multiple connectors. The regular 5V USB can charge any regular battery pack or electronic device, whereas the 12V output can charge the Sherpa or Yeti. The 12V port can also be in connection with the cigarette adapter, which can give you one or two extra USB ports with a USB car charger. It also allows chaining with other panels, thus charging the Sherpa faster. I am planning to give it a try tomorrow... let's see if it meets the high expectations! (Update: I am trying the Nomad 13 panel right now, and it works great both with the 12V charger charging the Sherpa, and with the standard USB por charging a RAVPower 10,400 mAH battery pack -- not simultaneously, of course.)
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Great kit for portable electronics, and taught me a bit more about solar power.
by Jonathan M. (5 out of 5 stars)
September 6, 2014

I purchased this unit in July of 2014, and delayed writing a review until I've had some time with this kit. Here's my thoughts so far:

The Sherpa 50 is solid looking, no cheap plastic anywhere, and the handle is actually pretty nice for hanging it near the ceiling with a carabiner and using the built in LED as a quick area light. That little light is bright! Anyway, I did what the instructions told me, and charged it via the included 120v power brick, and it charged the unit from 20% up to 100 in a few short hours. I then took it with me to work and wherever, using it to charge my phone a few times. I've got a Note 3, with a nice fat 3200mah battery, that can barely last me 8 hours. Chalk that up to my smartphone habits. I could probably get 4-5 full charges of my phone using the Sherpa's built in USB port, and given the size of the unit, I'm quite content with that. I have not let the sherpa battery get below 20%. The first time I got to 20%, I decided to see what the real world time frame would be to charge it with the Nomad 13. I had a day off, so I set it out with direct sunlight, no shadows, on a clear day. The nomad took about 7 hours to fully charge the Sherpa from 20%. Not bad, though I may have been at the upper range of that 20% on the battery display. I also ended up using the 110ac invertor to power a small desk fan during an outage while the power company replaced a buried line to my house recently. No air conditioning, with 94 degree temps and 100% humidity made for a nearly unbearable day. The sherpa with the invertor powered the fan for hours, and merely got warm. I did have to use the high speed setting on the fan, as the low speed seemed to cut out too much power to run normally. The sherpa was fully topped off, and didn't go below 80% with the fan running at high for 4 hours. I do intend to get a DC fan so the power usage is more efficient, but for the unexpected, the sherpa worked flawlessly.

The solar panel is definitely sleek looking, foldable, and has that great zippered mesh pocket that can hold all of your cords and whatnot. Also handy is that the built in power block is inside that mesh pocket. When it's zipped up and all the cables/adapters are stowed, the panel is very compact. I've read some reviews where people are noticing the panels get scratched up when folded. I have not run into that problem yet, but the idea of a microfiber cloth in between them when stowed sounds good.

I can plug my Note 3 into the usb port on the Nomad 13 and charge nicely with full sunlight. If I leave it plugged in like that, the panel will charge it almost 20% give or take, in an hour. Since the panel is rated at 1 amp at the usb port, that's not too bad. If I wanted more, I could use the included 12v auto adapter and plug in my 2.1 amp car charger for faster charging (and more cord length). I'd love to have another to daisy chain them, but that's a future purchase.

Now for the reason it's a 3 star review: I've noticed the Nomad 13 panel has stopped charging as well as when it was new. I've used it via the built in USB port to charge portable Li-Ion battery packs before with no problem, but now it seems to just trickle charge them. I've also noticed that it won't charge my note 3 nearly as fast, about 3% an hour, and when the 12v is connected to the sherpa, it'll even stop charging if so much as a small cloud passes overhead. I will then have to unplug and replug the 12v cable, or close and then open the panel before the sherpa will start charging again. The panel is still putting out power, but it seems like it's not even half what it should be. I have not measured the voltages from the panel yet, but if and when the weather clears up enough, I plan on it. I'm in the middle of email exchanges with Goal Zero support, but their responses are delayed due to them being short staffed I'm told.

All in all, it seems like a great kit for camping or especially when the power goes out. I did specifically purchase this for hurricane season (I live in Louisiana) so I can keep communication going, as well as portable lights and the ability to recharge off grid. I'm hoping the solar panel was just a fluke, and a replacement will be more reliable. The modular design of the goal zero products makes expanding your setup easy, and if I get my current issue resolved, I plan to add more products to my setup in the future. I'll update my review pending the result of Goal Zero's technical support.

Edit 10/5/2014: Working with Tech Support has definitely made me more aware of what this kit is capable of and especially how environmental factors and positioning the solar panel will affect charging. Using their suggestions seems to have resolved my issues as far as performance of the unit, so I'm upgrading my rating. No qualms about purchasing this, and I've gone ahead and ordered a few extra solar panels that were on sale. I'm really looking forward to putting this through it's paces on trips!
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A little cosmetic flaws...
by Luis (4 out of 5 stars)
February 9, 2015

The Sherpa 50 kit is an awesome little mini solar generator!

I should mention that when I got the kit, it wasn't opened or anything lt looked fresh out of the box, the Sherpa 50 with the inverter new, but when it came down to the nomad 13 solar panel it seemed like it was refurbished or something like that, I say that because when I peeled of the plastic film off of the solar panel it did in fact have a couple of scratches and a few dings.

Plus, part of one of the solar panel's wire strip (what sends the electrical current from the UV rays received from the actual noncrystalline panels.) was looking whiter, brighter than the rest of the panels, just a small section, like it was fried or overheated.

I have a yeti 400 aside the Sherpa 50, so I was able to determine actual watts being transferred form the panel and it rated around 7 - 10 watts which seems to be about accurate so i'm just seeing these as cosmetic flaws for now.

Another thing I should add is that the label "nomad 13" that's in the exterior of the panel when closed peeled right off which was somewhat of a bummer for me, because there's residue where that label once was. I haven't really tried to remove it, and I shouldn't have that kind of problem to deal with because I paid a substantial amount of money for this kind of thing to happen.

Anyway, I paid for functionality not cosmetics, and so far this thing works as advertised! So that's a plus!
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Never need another charger
by dwarf (5 out of 5 stars)
February 21, 2014

I have purchased several battery chargers, some with solar panels. This is the first such package that actually performs above expectations. The solar panels are well crafted and have all the connectors you could want. The inverter on the battery pack come in really handy for several devices that will only charge with their 110 volt adapters (my transformer rejects all battery chargers, but the inverter works great! The battery pack also has all the connections you could want. There is even a set of connectors for a wide range of laptops that can plug the battery pack directly into the battery pack. While this set is fairly expensive, if I had bought it first, I would have spent a lot less money overall and now I have a permanent solution to my remote charging needs!
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A great tool to keep you charged!
by Norman Arnett (4 out of 5 stars)
June 9, 2015

I ordered this to charge our devices when we are off grid and away from any standard recharging sources like wall outlets or USB ports in a vehicle. This was a great investment and I look forward to using it on my overseas travels to Africa. I was able to prop up the solar panel and charge the Sherpa during the day at our base camp while we were out tracking in the back country, and was able to recharge devices on our return. Worked like a charm!
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Nice work Goal Zero !
by Christine (5 out of 5 stars)
March 13, 2015

My first Solar charging device . This is truly a plug and play device. Small size, portable and easy to operate and use. Top quality build and finish. Nice design features like loops on the solar panels and the ability to remove the AC inverter means they put some thought in this product. No problems charging my tablet and phones. I am going to set this up to power my Elecraft kx3 ham radio for EmComm situations.
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the concept of this device is AWESOME. But modules are low quality
by Totoraux (3 out of 5 stars)
January 27, 2016

the concept of this device is AWESOME. And it worked pretty well as long as I was following the sun and tiling the panels as the day progressed. The issue for me is unfortunately for Sherpa is I work in solar. After ONE day of use I spotted two burn marks on my panels about the size of a dime, areas where the module burned out. After 3 days, I had at least 5 hot spots, and at least one on each panel. Hot spots on panels are normal after some time but if this is happening after 3 days of use, then the long term use even in emergency situations that may last more than a few days of this product isn't ideal. Maybe if it came with spare modules to change out?
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I wanted to like and use this but I returned it
by M. Markworth (2 out of 5 stars)
February 18, 2015

As another reviewer noted my Sherpa looked as if someone else had used and returned it. There were scratches and scuffs on the solar collector and the case. I couldn't seem to get the solar collector to charge anything either directly or via the inverter. I could get the goal zero box to charge by plugging it into the wall. I wanted to like and use this but I returned it.
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... it kept my items charged the whole time works great even on low
by stumpy (5 out of 5 stars)
March 30, 2018

Camped with this for a week and it kept my items charged the whole time works great even on low light
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Worth the high price.
by M. Dillon (5 out of 5 stars)
January 24, 2015

All goal zero stuff is expensive but very high quality. I bought this for our Africa Safari trip and it worked perfectly. Wound up not having to use the solar panel but the Sherpa 50 was very useful. Note that both the U.S. and the European AC chargers will work with 240V power (read the AC input spec on the AC charger to be sure), needing only an adapater. In anycase, I used the Sherpa 50 to charge up all my devices. When in the safari vehicle we sometimes had access to an inverter but it was quite flakey. I used that to charge up the Sherpa and charged all my devices (more reliably) from the Sherpa. Also great when several people wanted to charge stuff... I only needed to charge up the Sherpa.

I was very impressed by this product. It is properly current-limited on all outputs (I shorted things while messing around quite often and it didn't hurt it... just me being a fiddler, not related to any deficiency in their product). The 110V inverter built into the device was useful as well but tended to get pretty hot. I overheated it once and it simply shut itself down until it had cooled off. I definitely needs ventilation. But when I had access to (Africa) AC I could leave it on and plug my own AC stuff to the Sherpa for reliable power so I could use it to e.g. expand my USB charging ports.

I'm going to give it 5 stars despite wanting a second USB port output (it only has one). It wasn't that big a deal on the trip. Also, the laptop adapter kit didn't come with an adapter that worked with my chromebook, so I had to charge the chromebook using its AC adapter off of the inverter. Still. 5 stars. If you can afford it it is the best.
-Matt

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