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If you recall, earlier this spring, we talked to you about a very interesting option in power on the go – the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro (you can see that here). Since the time of that first article, we’ve gotten that full kit it, and I’ve been putting it through the paces, powering things up on the workbench, in the backyard, and even at the campsite. So, read on to see what we think of the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro now that we’ve been using it for a while.
What is it?
At it’s core, the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro is actually a building up of the Runhood battery platform. In this package, you’ve got the full system, with a small cooler-sized enclosure that really brings things together in a way that makes you wonder how you got by without a system like it in your life. Not to give away the conclusion, but if you’re finding yourself in spots away from the grid (camping and the like) or just want to have a backup at home if you lose power, the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro is an invaluable addition to your gear.
The battery at the core of it all
At the heart of it all is a 324Wh battery pack that has more capacity than any portable battery pack that you already have on hand. The bright orange “cooler” that is at the core of the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro swallows two of these batteries, giving you a 648Wh capacity. What we really like about this battery system is that they’re modular. If for some reason you don’t have your solar panel available, and you’ve depleted what you’ve got in the case, you can easily pull those out and swap a fresh pair in.
Or, what if you need to power more things? Well, with the included adapter blocks, you can use the battery packs on their own, and either power up things that need USB power, or with a slightly-larger AC adapter, allowing you to plug something in.
How do you charge it up?
Here, you’ve got plenty of flexibility. You can plug in a DC power brick directly into the Rallye, or you can plug that DC power in – via an adapter – to run the electrons into the stand-alone battery packs. If you run it through that adapter, there’s a small fan in there that will power up to cool down the electronics; in the Rallye itself, there are fans that run across the top, to move air and cool things down (for charging, as well as when you’re pulling power out of the Rallye).
The other option, of course, is the solar panel that the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro comes with. This is a large, 6-panel array that can easily power things up. Just as with the DC power brick you can plug into the wall, the solar panels are already wired to put out DC power as well, and it can plug directly into the Rallye, or into the splitter adapter to charge up the batteries.
However you’re charging it, the Rallye will tell you what the power running into it (in terms of watts) as well as if there’s anything drawing power off. If you’re charging the batteries outside of the Rallye enclosure, you’re relying on a 5-LED array that tells you where things are at. If you plug into the wall, of course, you’ll get the fastest charge. On solar, when I had the panels in full sun I was able to get 50-55W of input, so about one-third of what I saw on the plug-in brick. Even in cloudy weather, I was able to see 30W or so going in. That’s not fast, to be sure, but the ability to generate more electrons – and have them stored in the batteries – is a great capability, whether you’re camping or just in an extended power outage at home. And hey, what’s to argue against getting free electricity from the sun?
What is it like using it?
Once you have the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro charged up, you’re ready to go. If you’re heading out to the campsite, depending on what you’re running, you may not even need to bring the solar panel or spare batteries. However, if you do bring the panel to top things off, it’s a simple manner to plug the panel into the Rallye, and get the electrons flowing in.
When it comes time to power something, you just need to power the Rallye on (with the large button on the upper half of the front panel), and select either AC or DC power using the buttons above those appropriate sections. Then, you just plug your stuff in, and you’re good to go. Charging up your phone or tablet, or even running your USB-C laptop off of this? Works like a charm, and your device won’t know it’s not plugged into the wall.
What we really thought would be a test for the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro was running a pellet grill. I just recently got a small, portable unit from Traeger with the idea of seeing if these two could come together for a truly portable, off-grid pellet grilling experience. I ended up running the Traeger through it’s 1/2-hour high temperature burn in, and then ran it for another two hours slow-cooking some steak on Father’s Day. It worked just fine (just make sure the Rallye is far away from the heat the grill creates), and I ended up dropping somewhere between 12-15% of remaining capacity on the Rallye.
So, yeah, that worked way better than I expected, and really shows the versatility of the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro. So long as what you’re plugging in on AC consumes less than 600W peak, you’ll be good to go. Add in the reality that you could also be pulling DC power at the same time (1200W peak output), and this can power just about anything you’ll need to keep going at the campsite, or keep things going reasonably well at the home front in a longer power outage (just not those large appliances). Now that I’ve proven out it can run a pellet grill, that means cooking in the backyard is an easy option after a storm, without having to keep a propane grill on hand.
Would we recommend it?
In a word? Yes, yes we would recommend the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro. I went into this review fully expecting to really appreciate the modularity of the battery system, both in the user-replaceable batteries as well as the modules you can clip onto them. And those are great, especially when you can expand your capacity with more battery packs, or replacing them down the road then you get through the estimated 1000 cycle life of the batteries. Don’t underestimate that, especially if you’ve seen other cooler-sized battery packs that rely on built-in battery packs.
What I was really surprised by how enthused I was about it was the charging capabilities. Sure, having it plugged in on my work bench for a rapid fill, that’s great. But having the solar panel capability – with it all pre-wired to be able to charge the batteries in two different ways – that’s a game-changer. And you can tell the Rallye was built with that in mind, giving you both input and output wattage stats.
Which is actually the third thing I really enjoyed about the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro – the power stats and estimated battery life. We’re used to deciphering battery LED indicators, and guessing how much charge is left in them. With the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro, that guesswork is gone. You get a capacity left in terms of a percentage, but also an estimate of how many hours you’ve got left, based on the current load on the Rallye. So, no more guessing if there’s enough to charge your phone, or, say, run the fan in your tent overnight. This will tell you straight up what’s what, and you know how things will play out.
When you combine those three elements – user-swappable batteries, charging flexibility, and the detailed input/output load stats, it makes the Runhood Rallye 600 Pro a powerful, yet very easy-to-use, power source for whatever your needs are.
How do I get one?
That’s pretty simple, as they’re available directly from Runhood. As we mentioned in our prior article, this is a premium option in the world of large, portable power, coming in at a $1,659 MRSRP for the full package that we reviewed here. Given all that it comes, including the modular power and charging, we think it’s well-worth the price that you’re asking. If that feels a bit steep, however, you can get just a battery (and the charging adapter) for $360 (slightly less on sale), or you can get the full Rallye (without the spare batteries or solar panel) for $739. Really, there’s no way to go wrong with these packages, from our time with the Rallye. If you can swing it – and you spend a lot of time off the grid – exploring that solar panel option is definitely the path to go. Check it all out directly at runhoodpower.com
