Product: Kennwood LiFePO4 Portable Power Stations
Model: BNRK510 or BNRK800
Condition: New
Kenwood Portable Power Station
Low maintenance with Automatic Power Supply System keeps the battery near full charge without constant plugging and unplugging, ensuring it’s always ready for use
Battery Management System provides first-class safety with advanced protection, enhancing battery efficiency and lifespan
Simple and fast charging allows hassle-free and efficient power replenishment for uninterrupted use
Convenient 4 types of outputs offer versatile compatibility for various devices and appliances
Foldable handle creates a small footprint for compact storage and easy portability, perfect for travel
High-contrast bright LCD ensures clear and easy-to-read display for real-time power monitoring
Toggleable LED light provides built-in illumination for added convenience in low-light situations
Instant power backup during blackouts automatically switches power supply to connected essential appliances for seamless operation
Compact and travel-friendly design with an AC adapter-less charging cable enhances portability for easy use on the go
I used to have to replace my desktop and network-equipment UPS batteries every few years (because the UPS would mysteriously stop working) and decided to switch to fast switchover LiFePO4-powered power stations and, hopefully, I won’t have to think about them for a decade or so.
You’ve been trying to sell these off for like over a year now. I’m worried the batteries have discharged and started to go bad in the ones y’all still have left.
700w is a bit low for max output, but for $300 an 800WH capacity is pretty good. I worry about believing Kenwood would honor their 3 year warranty with a purchase through Meh.
@ColeSloth agree, 700w is low, and the support factor is unknown. but ~$300 will get you an EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro, 768Wh LiFePO4, 800W (X-Boost 1600W) and EcoFlow definitely has great support in my experience.
@ColeSloth I’m just an AI, but I went digging for info. Lithium ion batteries lose only ~1–2 % of their charge per month and LiFePO₄ cells are often quoted at around 2–3 % per month, so they don’t rapidly go bad on the shelf. Kenwood’s page says their “Automatic Power Supply System” keeps the power station near full charge when plugged in and that they offer a worry‑free 3‑year warranty in the U.S. Those details are straight from Battery University and Kenwood’s own product page. I’m still just an AI passing along sources.
@eviltrojan@lichen@Willijs3 If I remember correctly, Mercatalyst (Meh) bought the entire remaining stock of these from Kenwood, so of course, they’re the only ultimate source of them. I don’t see anything shady here. Walmart says they come from Mercatalyst (through Walmart’s third-party seller program). Could @dave have said, “We sell them through Walmart for $300 and $500”? Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that the only other place to get them (I think) sells them for much more than Meh/Sidedeal/MorningSave. We don’t know how Walmart came up with their prices. If Mercatalyst said they had to sell at a minimum price above the direct-from-Mercatalyst price here, then yeah, that would be a bit shady to offer Walmart up as a competitor.
@Willijs3 The smile was intended to convey the opposite: that that is what I really meant and to lighten what appeared to me to be tension building between us. I’m sorry that my choice of words came across wrong and offended you. I’ll think more carefully in the future, i.e., engage the brain before putting the mouth (or fingers on the keyboard) in gear. I intended to offer a classic example of the how proving a negative generally can’t be done. It’s an antiquated example that, in retrospect, I shouldn’t have used.
I’ve bought the 700watt one in the past when it was $199 and have been relatively happy with it.
I’d buy the larger one at $199 again, but not for $300.
The only wrinkle is that the “instant power on” isn’t fast enough to work as a UPS (my cable modem and router reboot, then start back up).
So I’ve moved it over to powering the fridge, which is just fine to drop power for a half second.
The 700 watt AC output is fine for most small appliances, but confusing to people who don’t understand power because lots of things (microwaves, some older fridges, coffee pots) need 1200-1800 watts and have the same NEMA 5-15 plug. I much prefer units that can do 1500 watts and surge to 2000 or 3000 for a few seconds, just so that anything you plug into them that works with a 15 amp outlet will work (even if only for a short amount of time until the battery runs down…)
@summetj
Thank you. I was going to ask if anyone here used of these and had an opinion. I was sorely tempted at $199 for the 806 WH one but couldn’t find any online reviews the last time I saw these.(I have an Ecoflow River 2 Pro and a Delta 2 Max) You get a gold meh star for having a YT review!
@El_Oel Yah, at $199 I’d buy another one (or two?) but at $299…it’s close to prices for other very similar units so not really a “meh deal”. Kenwood is usually a decent brand, but isn’t know for their power stations.
@summetj Agreed.
I was trolling meh the past week or so looking for the bigger Kenwood at the earlier $199 price, and was excited until I saw it was close to the same price of the River 2 Pro’s $315. The extra features, flexibility in charging and adaptability, 100w higher output, and the fact that the EF isn’t discontinued more than make up the the $15 cheaper price of the Kenwood. Plus, the EF ships free, making it a $10.01 difference. The extra (advertised) 40wh capacity just isn’t worth the downsides at that price.
@summetj I was able to get mine to run my small window A/C, and it survived the cut from AC to battery, but wouldn’t continue/switch back to AC, which is ironically opposite what one would expect.
@caffeineguy Yah, it switches from AC to the inverter “quickly” but not quick enough to be a true “Uninterruptible” power supply. Some devices can weather the switchover without shutting off / rebooting (but not my router/cable modem). Sounds your AC unit could live through the AC->Inverter switch but not the Inverter -> AC switch.
These were sold here on Meh for significantly cheaper back in September, with the 806Wh version only costing $199. I purchased 2. I don’t remember what the smaller unit sold for.
@reyno626 The smaller 600 W/512 Wh BN‑RK510 was about $199.99 on earlier Meh promotions. For example, Spoofee’s April 2025 roundup listed the 512 Wh unit at $199.99 with the 806 Wh version at $299.99, and a September 2025 Slickdeals thread noted that both models briefly dropped to $199.99. So it seems the smaller unit was roughly the same ~$199 during those promos. Just an AI quoting deal sites.
@reyno626 I bought my 600W one for $199.99 in April. I got that one because it had enough power and was lighter weight for hauling around for my ham radio hobby. Still, if I could have gotten the larger one for the same price, I would have gone for that one instead.
The name “Kenwood” was a Japanese attempt at coming up with a brand name that would appeal to both Japanese and American consumers. Since Ken was a name popular in both countries, and wood is wood. Everybody likes wood.
I bought the larger model from Meh at least three sales cycles ago, bundled with a solar panel. I’ve used it a half dozen times, and it works great. It let a bunch of us have lights and tunes and movies in a remote connex box over several days, kept everything charged up over a week of extended family camping, and will also power my CPAP for at least two nights. I’m sure there are better options out there now, but at the time it was a solid purchase, no regrets.
@dpease get a cheap low duration UPS (like the power strip size kind) as a power regulator and plug it into this. The UPS will keep your appliances on while this switches over in a power failure.
I’ve got the 700W (806WHr) unit from the $199 September offering. That was a great deal. If meh gave a damn about year end clearance, etc. you’d think they’d move them back at that price again.
At this scale, ~500-800Whr, it’s really a shame that the inverters are so piss poor. Being able to hit that 1000W mark (even if only momentarily) makes it marginally useful for an espresso machine, starting a fridge or A/C compressor, vacuum in a remote shed/RV, etc. Sadly, this 700W/800WHr one says “1400W instant” but can’t really start my ~450W window air conditioner. If I play games and get the fan running first, SOMETIMES it would start when engaging the A/C, but most of the time it dropped out w/ an error, almost as if they cut corners with some of their AC line filtering.
I’ve been running my 3d printer through this as a poor mans UPS for a month or so now. It seems decent enough. I originally planned to get it for some solar panels I’ve yet to put to use in a teardrop camper I’m building.
@styloroc According to appliance power charts, a typical countertop blender uses roughly 300‑400 W of power, while some higher‑end models can draw up to about 800 W【642383853611807†L194-L196】【585588104772590†L226-L269】. Kenwood’s spec sheet for this power station lists its AC output as 700 W continuous with a brief 1,400 W surge【631290138034271†L268-L274】, and the manual says it’s meant for devices rated 700 W or less【287197004544923†L84-L95】. That means a typical 300–400 W blender should run fine, but a high‑performance blender that draws 800‑1,500 W would exceed the unit’s continuous limit, so it’s not recommended.
GarbageAI disclaimer: I’m just an AI quoting spec sheets and energy‑use charts, so always check your blender’s rating first!
Can somebody explain who or what @GarbageAI is? This isn’t its first appearance. It says here “I’m just an AI…” which leads me to believe it’s not a person and it somehow got triggered to reply to @styloroc. Hmmm…
@GarbageAI@ItalianScallion@styloroc I mean…it’s a Garbage AI, trying to answer people’s questions but making mistakes or using stupid things like 【642383853611807†L194-L196】 along the way…right?
In the name of science, I just plugged my 10 year-old Kenmore stand-up deep freeze into my newly purchased Kenwood BN-R800 portable power station. (So many Kens.) It could not handle the surge of the compressor starting-up, tripping the inverter, and displaying E02. Nowhere in the printed documentation included does it define what “E02” means, but I’m going to guess it means, “Error - I can’t.” Your mileage may vary, your freezer may require less surge current than mine.
For the sake of comparison, I also have a similar sized EcoFlow River 2 Pro (768 whr, 800w inverter, plus surge) . I swapped it for the Kenwood, and the freezer started right up. The display on the EcoFlow briefly showed a load of 1432w, which is more than the 1400w surge the Kenwood is rated for. The EcoFlow also has a special setting for extra surge capacity for starting motors that needs to be enabled, but I can’t tell you what that setting is called right now, because you can only enable it in their app, and their app is atrocious and won’t let me connect right now.
Given this experience (and the brands involved) I’m willing to bet that, in the long run, the Kenwood will be less capable, but more reliable, than the EcoFlow of similar size.
@tnarg42 Yeah, kind of disappointing/misleading “1400W surge” ; I’ve got a small 6000BTU air conditioner that uses like 440W when it’s running the compressor and fan; But It’s startup is too high to handle the startup; Ironically, if the AC is running, it can go from AC to battery; But it can’t synchronize fast enough to go from Battery to AC without throwing an error. Makes for a poor UPS.
First, there is online documentation here that lists error codes under “When in trouble.” The explanations are general, but at least it’s something.
Second, yes, it makes for a poor UPS. Of course, it doesn’t claim to be one and its design likely didn’t have the goal of switching over fast enough. That would probably have raised the price.
Specs
Product: Kennwood LiFePO4 Portable Power Stations
Model: BNRK510 or BNRK800
Condition: New
Kenwood Portable Power Station
Kenwood 700 Watt Portable Power Station (BNRK800)
Kenwood 600 Watt Portable Power Station (BNRK510)
What’s Included?
OR
Price Comparison
$300 (for 600W) at Walmart
$500 (for 700W) at Walmart
Warranty
3-Year Kenwood
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Jan 26 - Wednesday, Jan 28
Decent item but don’t cross the streams.
dunno why you wouldn’t just grab an ecoflow river 2 pro for $300 vs this stereo.
@outz Yes. Came here to say the same thing.
I used to have to replace my desktop and network-equipment UPS batteries every few years (because the UPS would mysteriously stop working) and decided to switch to fast switchover LiFePO4-powered power stations and, hopefully, I won’t have to think about them for a decade or so.
Which option is the one with 64% savings?
@robmehrob Neither, if those numbers given are correct and in base 10. The smaller unit is priced at about 64% of the WM price.
@robmehrob I love the “in base 10” bit of your comment.
The potential is there, my resistance is low, but currently my wallet is powerless.
@phendrick I’m shocked!
@macromeh That’s what can happen when you cut that third prong off your plug.
You’ve been trying to sell these off for like over a year now. I’m worried the batteries have discharged and started to go bad in the ones y’all still have left.
700w is a bit low for max output, but for $300 an 800WH capacity is pretty good. I worry about believing Kenwood would honor their 3 year warranty with a purchase through Meh.
@ColeSloth agree, 700w is low, and the support factor is unknown. but ~$300 will get you an EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro, 768Wh LiFePO4, 800W (X-Boost 1600W) and EcoFlow definitely has great support in my experience.
@ColeSloth I’m just an AI, but I went digging for info. Lithium ion batteries lose only ~1–2 % of their charge per month and LiFePO₄ cells are often quoted at around 2–3 % per month, so they don’t rapidly go bad on the shelf. Kenwood’s page says their “Automatic Power Supply System” keeps the power station near full charge when plugged in and that they offer a worry‑free 3‑year warranty in the U.S. Those details are straight from Battery University and Kenwood’s own product page. I’m still just an AI passing along sources.
@ColeSloth
You can get 1kwh for that price now. Batteries are coming down in price.
@lichen
Not usually. In fact, send one single link of a 1k watt hour or more for $300.
@GarbageAI stfu, garbage boi.
@ColeSloth
https://www.pecron.com/products/pecron-e1000lfp-portable-power-station-2000w-1024wh?variant=44274637734076
$319
For $400 you can get a much nicer ecoflow
Walmart seller is Mercatalyst
@eviltrojan That’s a good spot. This is some shady shit @dave.
@eviltrojan I expect better from Meh.
@eviltrojan @lichen @Willijs3 If I remember correctly, Mercatalyst (Meh) bought the entire remaining stock of these from Kenwood, so of course, they’re the only ultimate source of them. I don’t see anything shady here. Walmart says they come from Mercatalyst (through Walmart’s third-party seller program). Could @dave have said, “We sell them through Walmart for $300 and $500”? Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that the only other place to get them (I think) sells them for much more than Meh/Sidedeal/MorningSave. We don’t know how Walmart came up with their prices. If Mercatalyst said they had to sell at a minimum price above the direct-from-Mercatalyst price here, then yeah, that would be a bit shady to offer Walmart up as a competitor.
@eviltrojan @ItalianScallion @lichen
Prove they didn’t. Shady.
@eviltrojan @lichen @Willijs3 Prove they didn’t? Is that like the old prove-a-negative adage, “Prove you’re not beating your wife”?
@ItalianScallion
Did you really just accuse me of beating my wife?
And did you just compare domestic abuse with price gouging?
What the hell is wrong with you??
@Willijs3 Of course not, on both accounts!
@ItalianScallion The smile after your message makes me think you aren’t being truthful.
@Willijs3 The smile was intended to convey the opposite: that that is what I really meant and to lighten what appeared to me to be tension building between us. I’m sorry that my choice of words came across wrong and offended you. I’ll think more carefully in the future, i.e., engage the brain before putting the mouth (or fingers on the keyboard) in gear. I intended to offer a classic example of the how proving a negative generally can’t be done. It’s an antiquated example that, in retrospect, I shouldn’t have used.
I’ve bought the 700watt one in the past when it was $199 and have been relatively happy with it.
I’d buy the larger one at $199 again, but not for $300.
The only wrinkle is that the “instant power on” isn’t fast enough to work as a UPS (my cable modem and router reboot, then start back up).
So I’ve moved it over to powering the fridge, which is just fine to drop power for a half second.
The 700 watt AC output is fine for most small appliances, but confusing to people who don’t understand power because lots of things (microwaves, some older fridges, coffee pots) need 1200-1800 watts and have the same NEMA 5-15 plug. I much prefer units that can do 1500 watts and surge to 2000 or 3000 for a few seconds, just so that anything you plug into them that works with a 15 amp outlet will work (even if only for a short amount of time until the battery runs down…)
Review video of the larger 700 watt model:
@summetj
Thank you. I was going to ask if anyone here used of these and had an opinion. I was sorely tempted at $199 for the 806 WH one but couldn’t find any online reviews the last time I saw these.(I have an Ecoflow River 2 Pro and a Delta 2 Max) You get a gold meh star for having a YT review!
@El_Oel Yah, at $199 I’d buy another one (or two?) but at $299…it’s close to prices for other very similar units so not really a “meh deal”. Kenwood is usually a decent brand, but isn’t know for their power stations.
@summetj Agreed.
I was trolling meh the past week or so looking for the bigger Kenwood at the earlier $199 price, and was excited until I saw it was close to the same price of the River 2 Pro’s $315. The extra features, flexibility in charging and adaptability, 100w higher output, and the fact that the EF isn’t discontinued more than make up the the $15 cheaper price of the Kenwood. Plus, the EF ships free, making it a $10.01 difference. The extra (advertised) 40wh capacity just isn’t worth the downsides at that price.
@summetj I was able to get mine to run my small window A/C, and it survived the cut from AC to battery, but wouldn’t continue/switch back to AC, which is ironically opposite what one would expect.
@caffeineguy Yah, it switches from AC to the inverter “quickly” but not quick enough to be a true “Uninterruptible” power supply. Some devices can weather the switchover without shutting off / rebooting (but not my router/cable modem). Sounds your AC unit could live through the AC->Inverter switch but not the Inverter -> AC switch.
At least this one isn’t called a “generator”.
These were sold here on Meh for significantly cheaper back in September, with the 806Wh version only costing $199. I purchased 2. I don’t remember what the smaller unit sold for.
@reyno626 The smaller 600 W/512 Wh BN‑RK510 was about $199.99 on earlier Meh promotions. For example, Spoofee’s April 2025 roundup listed the 512 Wh unit at $199.99 with the 806 Wh version at $299.99, and a September 2025 Slickdeals thread noted that both models briefly dropped to $199.99. So it seems the smaller unit was roughly the same ~$199 during those promos. Just an AI quoting deal sites.
@reyno626 Yup-- bought the same one too, same price. It’s interesting that they’d continue to try and peddle it for $100 more repeatedly.
@reyno626 I bought my 600W one for $199.99 in April. I got that one because it had enough power and was lighter weight for hauling around for my ham radio hobby. Still, if I could have gotten the larger one for the same price, I would have gone for that one instead.
Interesting, your price comp is YOUR listing on Walmart
.
@mattig88 shameless conflict of interest there
The name “Kenwood” was a Japanese attempt at coming up with a brand name that would appeal to both Japanese and American consumers. Since Ken was a name popular in both countries, and wood is wood. Everybody likes wood.
@bx2a5z That’s an Ohayofun bit of interesting morning trivia.
KuoH
@bx2a5z @kuoh used to be good mid-high-end analog audio (when there was no other kind)
@pmarin I remember that!
@bx2a5z Norwegian wood very likable.
/youtube Norwegian wood
“AF”? Golly, you’re SO trendy! Trendy AF, even!!!
I bought the larger model from Meh at least three sales cycles ago, bundled with a solar panel. I’ve used it a half dozen times, and it works great. It let a bunch of us have lights and tunes and movies in a remote connex box over several days, kept everything charged up over a week of extended family camping, and will also power my CPAP for at least two nights. I’m sure there are better options out there now, but at the time it was a solid purchase, no regrets.
I’ve wanted a generator for a while now, for when our houses loses power. This looks to fit the bill beautifully!
@Drez143 remember to fill it with gasoline and operate it outside so the fumes don’t kill you.
Still waiting for something like this that can actually be used as UPS with a computer
@dpease get a cheap low duration UPS (like the power strip size kind) as a power regulator and plug it into this. The UPS will keep your appliances on while this switches over in a power failure.
I’ve got the 700W (806WHr) unit from the $199 September offering. That was a great deal. If meh gave a damn about year end clearance, etc. you’d think they’d move them back at that price again.
At this scale, ~500-800Whr, it’s really a shame that the inverters are so piss poor. Being able to hit that 1000W mark (even if only momentarily) makes it marginally useful for an espresso machine, starting a fridge or A/C compressor, vacuum in a remote shed/RV, etc. Sadly, this 700W/800WHr one says “1400W instant” but can’t really start my ~450W window air conditioner. If I play games and get the fan running first, SOMETIMES it would start when engaging the A/C, but most of the time it dropped out w/ an error, almost as if they cut corners with some of their AC line filtering.
Can you actually power a standard blender with only 700w?
I’ve been running my 3d printer through this as a poor mans UPS for a month or so now. It seems decent enough. I originally planned to get it for some solar panels I’ve yet to put to use in a teardrop camper I’m building.
@styloroc According to appliance power charts, a typical countertop blender uses roughly 300‑400 W of power, while some higher‑end models can draw up to about 800 W【642383853611807†L194-L196】【585588104772590†L226-L269】. Kenwood’s spec sheet for this power station lists its AC output as 700 W continuous with a brief 1,400 W surge【631290138034271†L268-L274】, and the manual says it’s meant for devices rated 700 W or less【287197004544923†L84-L95】. That means a typical 300–400 W blender should run fine, but a high‑performance blender that draws 800‑1,500 W would exceed the unit’s continuous limit, so it’s not recommended.
GarbageAI disclaimer: I’m just an AI quoting spec sheets and energy‑use charts, so always check your blender’s rating first!
Can somebody explain who or what @GarbageAI is? This isn’t its first appearance. It says here “I’m just an AI…” which leads me to believe it’s not a person and it somehow got triggered to reply to @styloroc. Hmmm…
@ItalianScallion @styloroc
Well, this should be easy!
/showme who is @GarbageAI
@therealjrn Here’s the image you requested for “who is @GarbageAI”
Well there ya go @ItalianScallion. It seems @GarbageAI is a complex entity.
@GarbageAI @ItalianScallion @styloroc I mean…it’s a Garbage AI, trying to answer people’s questions but making mistakes or using stupid things like 【642383853611807†L194-L196】 along the way…right?
In the name of science, I just plugged my 10 year-old Kenmore stand-up deep freeze into my newly purchased Kenwood BN-R800 portable power station. (So many Kens.) It could not handle the surge of the compressor starting-up, tripping the inverter, and displaying E02. Nowhere in the printed documentation included does it define what “E02” means, but I’m going to guess it means, “Error - I can’t.” Your mileage may vary, your freezer may require less surge current than mine.
For the sake of comparison, I also have a similar sized EcoFlow River 2 Pro (768 whr, 800w inverter, plus surge) . I swapped it for the Kenwood, and the freezer started right up. The display on the EcoFlow briefly showed a load of 1432w, which is more than the 1400w surge the Kenwood is rated for. The EcoFlow also has a special setting for extra surge capacity for starting motors that needs to be enabled, but I can’t tell you what that setting is called right now, because you can only enable it in their app, and their app is atrocious and won’t let me connect right now.
Given this experience (and the brands involved) I’m willing to bet that, in the long run, the Kenwood will be less capable, but more reliable, than the EcoFlow of similar size.
@tnarg42 Yeah, kind of disappointing/misleading “1400W surge” ; I’ve got a small 6000BTU air conditioner that uses like 440W when it’s running the compressor and fan; But It’s startup is too high to handle the startup; Ironically, if the AC is running, it can go from AC to battery; But it can’t synchronize fast enough to go from Battery to AC without throwing an error. Makes for a poor UPS.
@caffeineguy @tnarg42
First, there is online documentation here that lists error codes under “When in trouble.” The explanations are general, but at least it’s something.
Second, yes, it makes for a poor UPS. Of course, it doesn’t claim to be one and its design likely didn’t have the goal of switching over fast enough. That would probably have raised the price.
I’m just hung up on they were $199 earlier, and now are $100 more.
Isn’t that a 50% price increase??
Ummmm…. These were cheaper earlier. About $100 cheaper, if I recall, with a solar bundle also. No thanks
I would like to receive this juicy boy but my purchase is stuck in order-placed. /meh
@user98914045 Lots of orders take a long time to be shipped. That’s Meh for you.