Use and Performance

The display of the CTECHi ST2000 is pretty similar to what most other mainstream products utilize. It revolves around three main elements: the input values on the left, output values on the right, and a central percentage to give you a quick sense of the charge level. On top of that are several informative icons that light up to give you some additional insights into the type of power input, temperature, or if the LED light is turned on.


The ST2000 shipped to us with around a 75% charge, but after using it as described below, we ensured it was completely drained before starting the charging cycle. The input starts at just over 1100 W and slowly climbs over 1200 W as time goes on. We let the unit get warm and charged to 60% before taking a noise measurement 1 ft away from the side of the unit. At 64.5 dBA, it certainly is not quiet, but that is a small price to pay for charging so quickly. CTECHi mentions less than 55 dBA, but does not provide any insights into how and during what type of operation it was measured.


The ST2000 first hit that 100% mark after just under 2 hours, and a few minutes later, the input wattage dropped to 0 and the fans immediately started slowing down, at which point the power station was completely charged. As you can see, the timer was stopped at 1h58m, which is exactly in line with what CTECHi advertises for the ST2000.


The embedded LED light can easily be turned on by pressing the button next to it. We snapped a picture with a quick shutter speed to expose the number of LEDs in the panel, which turns out to be eight. These illuminate immediate surroundings well enough to be useful in the case of a power outage, or on the park bench when preparing a late night meal during a camping trip. Pressing and holding down the power button for the light triggers an S.O.S Morse code for when you need to catch someone's attention during an emergency.


With its 2000 Wh capacity and 1800 W peak AC output, the CTECHi ST2000 is also competing as an emergency generator. We actually had a scheduled power outage to the electrical grid, which gave us the perfect opportunity to test the unit in a real scenario. While you may use it as a basic UPS thanks to the 15 ms switch-over time, dedicated units for that functions have much smaller power gaps, if any. Before the outage at 9:30 am, we hooked up the fridge, coffee maker, and a few small appliances, just in case the outage would interfere with breakfast preparations. During this scenario, the ST2000 peaked at around 1400 W, especially when the coffee maker was squeezing a shot into my morning mug. The fans within the unit did spin slightly faster, but were still far quieter than the Jackery Explorer 1000 at 500–600 W power draw, for example.


Once breakfast had successfully concluded, the CTECHi ST2000 was used to power both the home office consisting of a notebook, KVM switch and monitor, and fridge, modem and WiFi router. With those preparation done, the power went out at exactly 9:30 am, and we did not even bat an eye as work continued normally and the fridge kept purring away. Only when we instinctively tried to turn on the light in the bathroom were we reminded that the whole building of 300 apartments (and two postal codes) had no power. With the knowledge of being the only person in the building with high-speed internet, we also plugged in a classic toaster around lunch to make ourselves a tasty sandwich. As you can see, the toaster draws around 600–700 W of power.


Even after power in the building came back on and we were able to reconnect the fridge to the external grid was the CTECHi ST2000 used as a source for the whole home office and internet infrastructure to drain it. That finally happened at around 5:30 PM, about 45 minutes after the display showed no charge remaining. The one useful improvement would be an audible alarm to let users know that they are about to loose power—for example, a quick beep at 10% and maybe a triple-beep at 5% charge.

Naturally, those wanting to use the CTECHi ST2000 in an external setting, like camping, can do so, but at nearly 30 kg in weight, its portability is really limited to stationary scenarios instead of back-country journeys. That in turn makes a lot of sense, as you could replace your loud, heavy, and large gas-powered generator in an RV with the CTECHi ST2000 instead, especially if you couple it with solar panels since you can recharge the power station using your vehicle's engine while on the road.