Zendure SuperBase Pro 1500 review: the only battery I own that’s afraid of shelves
Gear-nerd question with a side of bitterness.
I charged a Zendure SuperBase Pro 1500 to 100% and stored it indoors at room temperature. A year later it reads 0% and won’t accept a charge from AC or 12V DC. The display still powers on, so something inside is alive. It just refuses to charge.
Two other brands’ power stations, same shelf, same year: both still hold a charge.
Zendure’s manual says low-charge storage “shortens lifespan” and the unit “mitigates the damage by putting the battery into hibernation mode.” Support’s final verdict: over-discharged, “no longer recoverable,” my fault for not cycling it every 3 months.
What I’m curious about:
- Going from 100% to dead in under a year means a big parasitic draw. Could the always-on 4G/GPS module explain that?
- If the BMS has a hibernation mode, shouldn’t it disconnect the load well before the cells hit a damaging voltage?
- Is a BMS lockout like this usually recoverable with a slow trickle charge, or has the pack really gone below the point of no return?
I’m not opening it myself without advice. I’d love to know whether this is bad design or bad luck.
Current status: a very expensive doorstop with a working screen.
>Charged my Zendure SuperBase Pro 1500 to 100% and put it in storage, which is apparently the one thing it can’t survive.
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>A year later: 0%. AC charging, nothing. 12V charging, nothing. The screen still turns on, which is like a smoke detector that beeps only to announce it’s out of batteries.
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>Meanwhile two power stations from other brands, on the same shelf for the same year, are still sitting there with charge left.
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>The manual promises a “hibernation mode” that protects the battery in storage. It hibernated all right. Permanently. It’s less a hibernation mode and more a “Do Not Resuscitate” order.
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>Zendure support spent a month on it and decided that a battery, whose entire job is storing energy, failing in storage is my fault. They never said why the protection mode didn’t protect anything, or how much the always-on 4G module was sipping while it was “off.” My guess: all of it.
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>On the bright side it has GPS, so I’ll always know exactly where my $1,000 brick is. It’s on the shelf. It’s always on the shelf.
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>1/5. Buy something that can handle being left alone for a year. My houseplants did.