The Hard Korr Battery Box is a great battery box for camping, and many other situations. Like any battery box, this product is just the outer shell and requires a battery to be purchased and fitted inside the box to make the unit work.
The benefit of battery boxes over other portable power supplies is that if you ever want or need to change the battery, it is easy to do so. Whereas many other units are sealed and all-in-one, so if the battery malfunctions, the units become almost useless.
We love the Hard Korr Battery Box because of the large number of outputs, the 24-month warranty, screw-fastened lid, and the fact you can jump-start your car with it!
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Overview
The box is large enough to fit a battery between 60Ah up to 130Ah, with internal dimensions of 33 x 17.5 x 22 cm. It is wired to work with all different types of batteries including wet cell, AGM, Gel Cell, and Lithium.
The wiring of the Hard Korr Battery box allows you to both draw power with your appliances and charge simultaneously.
With this, you can still use your fridge throughout the day whilst charging it with your solar panel, to make the most of the daylight while you have got it available.
Display
There is an LCD voltmeter on the font control panel which gives not only a readout of the current-voltage, but also an overall ‘charge’ indication with a graphic depiction of a battery and bars that decrease inside the battery as it gets flatter.
Design
The Hard Korr Battery Box is made of tough ABS plastic and is designed to last you for years. The plastic meets UL 94V-0 standards for flammability of plastic products providing further peace of mind.
Once your battery is placed inside the unit you secure it inside with a velcro strap.
This is important as you may have a battery that does not fill up the entire space and you do not want the battery to be moving around inside while you are transporting the battery box.
This would be bad for both the battery and the battery box plastic, and likely to lead to damage to both.
Once the battery is fixed firmly inside the battery box, the lid is secured to the base with four screws. I really like this aspect of the design as a battery box I purchased previously does not have screws, but a strap that goes around the entire box to hold it together.
Though this worked ok, I like the idea of screws much more and it is a more stable way to hold the lid more securely.
Though the box should prevent splashes of water getting in, I would not rely on it being considered ‘weatherproof’, and would always have it under a cover of some sort in your campsite. This advice would stand for all battery boxes.
The Hard Korr Battery Box is manufactured in two colors, black or white, so you can pick the color that best matches your vehicle.
Charging
There are numerous ways that you can charge your Hard Korr Battery Box. Regardless of which one, you need to have a way to connect these different sources to an Anderson plug port.
Solar
Solar is one of the most common ways to charge a battery box, and the Hard Korr Battery Box is no exception. If you are set up and stationary at a camp site then you can hook your solar panel up to the battery to charge.
Just make sure you have a solar panel regulator in between the panel and the battery box so the power is delivered to the battery at an acceptable voltage.
Car
If you have the ability to wire an Anderson plug into your car somewhere, or have a cigarette plug adapter, then you are able to charge your Hard Korr Battery Box while driving.
The level you can charge the battery to will depend on the make of your vehicle and the electrical setup you have configured.
Many newer vehicles do not produce enough voltage to power an additional battery so you would need to connect a DC to DC charger to your car.
However if your car alternator does produce sufficient voltage to charge the battery box, then it would be worthwhile considering the addition of a voltage-sensitive relay (VSR).
This allows power to flow to the battery box when the car is running but cuts off the flows of power when the car stops.
This also means that you won’t accidentally drain your car battery flat overnight, if you leave your battery box connected to the car, and drain all of its additional power. Hard Korr manufactures an SR that you can fit directly into your battery box, seamlessly.
They used to include it in the box by default but did not include it in the most recent version as most people had either a DC to DC charger already installed, or had external VSR’s already fitted in the engine bay.
240 Volt
You can also charge your Hard Korr Battery Box with 240V power, as long as you have the right adapter. You need to get either a transfer that converts 240v current to alligator clips at the right amperage to fit this unit, or use a car battery charger, with an alligator to Anderson plug lead converter in order to hook it up.
This is easy once you have the right gear, but might take a little bit of homework and understanding in order to get set up initially.
Outputs
The Hard Korr Battery Box includes two 12v cigarette plug outlets and two USB outlets on the front control panel. In addition to this, it includes five different Anderson ports on the right hand side of the box.
These ports can be used for both charging the unit and feeding power out of the unit.
A unique feature of the Hard Korr Battery Box is that it can be used to jump-start a car if needed. The majority of portable power packs are not capable of delivering enough cranking amps to turn over a vehicle engine.
However, if your battery has the power, the Hard Korr Battery Box can be used to jump-start a car.
You will need a dedicated accessory that has alligator clamps on one end, and a 175 Amp Anderson plug on the other end to go into the relevant port on the battery box.
Hard Korr manufactures and sells this accessory, but you should be able to find aftermarket alternatives as well if you want to look around.
Summary
For under $200 the Hard Korr Battery Box is a really sturdy piece of gear, and set apart by its 175Amp Anderson plug meaning you can potentially jump start your vehicle if needed, can you believe it!. Check the current price.
