Guide
Updated · 25 Sep 2026 · Sheet checked · 25 Sep 2026
It depends
For homeowners choosing a portable power station (or expanding one) and deciding whether lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 / LFP) in the brick matters versus AGM lead-acid expansion — chemistry, usable Wh, cycle life, and weight, not a brand beauty contest.
Compare / chemistry guide, not a SKU. Continuous watts still size the inverter; Wh and chemistry size the hours. Cross-check /stations/ecoflow-delta-2, /stations/bluetti-ac200l, /stations/goal-zero-yeti-1500x, and /guides/fridge-modem-furnace-8-hours.
Most current ~1–2 kWh consumer stations ship LiFePO4 in the sealed pack. EcoFlow’s DELTA 2 page and BLUETTI’s AC200L battery table both list LFP with 3,000+ cycles to 80% capacity. That is the greenfield default in 2026.
Lead-acid still shows up as expansion, not as the modern sealed brick. Goal Zero’s Yeti Tank Expansion Battery V3 is AGM lead-acid, 1,200 Wh (12 V, 100 Ah) nameplate, 77.1 lb, chained through Yeti Link to compatible Yeti X stations. The Yeti 1500X base pack itself is Li-ion NMC (1,516 Wh; manufacturer 500 cycles to 80%), not LFP and not lead-acid — do not mash those three chemistries.
U.S. DOE’s July 2023 lead-battery strategy assessment (Storage Innovations 2030) states the core tradeoff in plain terms: lead-acid cycle life rises sharply when depth of discharge is lowered, and deep daily cycling is a hard stationary-storage challenge for legacy SLI-style designs. That is the engineering reason Tank nameplate Wh is not the same planning number as an LFP station’s rated Wh.
Measure first. Chemistry does not raise continuous AC watts. DELTA 2 stays 1,800 W continuous; AC200L 2,400 W; Yeti 1500X 2,000 W. A Tank adds duration (Wh) through Link; Goal Zero’s own station page already notes expansion does not raise the inverter ceiling.
Usable Wh (Outage Stack planning assumption, not a manufacturer guarantee): usable ≈ rated × 0.85 for sealed lithium stations. Worked 500 W lines:
| Live station / Tank | Chemistry | Rated Wh | Planning usable (~×0.85) | ≈ hours @ 500 W |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EcoFlow DELTA 2 | LFP | 1,024 | ≈870 | ≈1.7 h |
| BLUETTI AC200L | LFP | 2,048 | ≈1,741 | ≈3.4 h |
| Goal Zero Yeti 1500X | NMC | 1,516 | ≈1,289 | ≈2.6 h |
| Yeti Tank V3 (each) | AGM lead-acid | 1,200 nameplate | treat as much less if you protect cycle life | hours shrink if you stay shallow |
For AGM, plan shallow depth of discharge if you care about life. DOE’s assessment and the Tank’s own cycle claims (Goal Zero Tank guide: on the order of 300–400 cycles at 100% DoD) pull in opposite directions from LFP’s 3,000-cycle-to-80% marketing. A 77 lb Tank that you only half-use is closer to ~600 Wh of gentle energy than 1,200 Wh of free runtime.
Weight density snapshot: DELTA 2 is ~27 lb for ~1 kWh LFP; one Tank is 77.1 lb for 1.2 kWh AGM nameplate. That is the carry and closet math, not a price argument.
Stack still matters: sized station (continuous W + Wh) → listed transfer / interlock if you feed circuits → CO alarm if any fuel generator is involved. Chemistry guides Wh; it does not replace a generator for multi-day ice storms (dual-fuel guide).
station. Street prices: not published here.Skip treating every “lithium” carton as LFP — NMC (Yeti 1500X) is a different cycle-life and thermal story. Skip buying AGM Tanks as a greenfield first station when you wanted LFP cycle life and carry weight. Skip reading Tank 1,200 Wh as equal to 1,200 Wh of LFP usable energy at the same DoD. Skip assuming a Tank raises continuous watts. Skip a ~1–2 kWh brick of any chemistry as a three-day sole plant.
It depends. For a new consumer power station in 2026, LiFePO4 is the default that matches Outage Stack’s live LFP pages: thousands of cycles to 80%, deep usable Wh relative to nameplate, and far better Wh per pound than AGM. Choose AGM lead-acid only when you already run a Goal Zero Link stack and want cheaper nameplate Wh on the floor, knowing you trade weight, shallow-DoD discipline, and hundreds of deep cycles instead of thousands. Until ownership path and DoD discipline are known — It depends, not Buy.