Goal Zero Boulder 100 Briefcase, 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel

10 reviews for Goal Zero Boulder 100 Briefcase, 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   donna farmer – August 14, 2023

   
   This is one of their best products. I live off grid in a remote rural area and use this and another 200 watt Boulder briefcase for every day power. This one is much easier to move around and has been a great addition to the 200, which is much harder to move around due to the weight. These panels are very heavy duty and can be left outside year round, which is essential for me.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Alvaro – February 12, 2023

   
   I received my solar panels 2 days ago and I just set them up to charge my Yeti 1500. I’m a novice to solar panels, but I received great communication from Goal Zero as to which panels best suited my power station and cabling needed. I got the 15 feet extension cord. Recently we had several outages here in California and I ran my 1500 which powered our fridge, router and CPAP machine for almost 2 days. Now that I got the solar panels at least I’ll be able to recharge the 1500 and keep our food from spoiling, internet connectivity and my CPAP Machine.Update: These panels will only charge your Yeti Units, and if you have an appliance connected to the Yeti which output exceeds the input you receive via the panels, you’ll have to disconnect the appliance and let the panels charge the Yeti. Otherwise, your Yeti will be depleted before the solar panels begin charging it. Also, I gave it a 4 star rating because of the weight of the panels and the Yeti 1500, quite heavy.Second Update: I continued using the panels for a couple of weeks now and unless you get full son light, the panels will not charge the 1500, a partially cloudy day will yield no charging power from the panels and I came to find out from other reviews that a $100 solar charging optimizer is required to be installed on the $1500. Pretty disappointing having to cough up an additional $100 after spending close to $800 On the panels, plus $1,700 for the Yeti 1500X. The panels have worked pretty good on full on sunlight though, but the optimizer should be standard on the Yeti units.

   
3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   THOMAS E FAGAN – March 14, 2020

   
   I’m a novice to solar but so far my opinions of it aren’t so bad, especially with this system. I bought a 400w Goal Zero Lithium because I couldn’t find a 1000w & the 1400w was too pricey.I’m a truck driver & I have lots of down time. I thought that buying a small system like this would prevent me from running my engine & substitute for an APU.When I’m driving my truck I can charge the 400w with my inverter using the truck alternator to generate the power and at night I can use the 400 w to power anything I need electrically. It saves lots of fuel and money.I thought that by buying the solar panels I would be able to put them up in the front windows of my truck and collect light but I was sadly mistaken.If you are thinking about buying solar panels, know this and be warned, solar panels take direct sunlight to charge the unit.When I first took these out of the box I was disconcerted about the weight because they were pretty heavy and I was expecting something, not really flimsy, but lighter.They are solidly built and if you take care of them, respect them and do not drop them, they will last you a long time.On the very first day, out of the box, I had good sunlight and figure it out immediately by the lack of charging I was getting from my initial position that I had to put them in direct sunlight. When I did I got 70 watts of power powering them. I was getting about a 9% charge every 30 minutes which is excellent. That is absolutely free energy and you can take that with you anywhere you go, as long as you got direct sunlight. When the clouds came in front of the sun I only got about 19 to 20%.I gave this product five stars for value and weatherproof but only three stars for easiness of use. Solar power and solar panels are not easy to use. I think the word inconvenience comes to mind more often than I wished. I’m sitting here babysitting the panels and my battery because I don’t want them to be stolen. But I can’t keep them secure and get direct sunlight at the same time.Granted most of the time I will be charging this battery the old-fashioned way with an alternator but solar panels are a nice alternative. They do give you options. Just be prepared for the inconvenience.

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Andrew – October 26, 2021

   
   Happy with a Boulder 100 briefcase I purchased a couple years ago, I got this B200 to a) make my solar setups a bit more redundant b) to more rapidly charge solar generators in gray atmospheric conditions, either alone or in series with the B100 briefcase.What more can be said about the Boulder briefcases? They’re rugged and they work! Carry handle and heavy cloth bag make these fairly portable and protect from scratches and dings. Beyond that, they are a bit heavy and cumbersome, so I would recommend taking your time moving these around as to not get injured or damage the panels.Other minor complaint about the B200 specifically, is that its ‘high power plug’ connector is a basic Anderson connector where its terminals have been turned into a “vertical” orientation *without* the option of making them go lateral (you can’t pull back the rubber sheath on the plug). Admittedly I bought these strictly to power Jackery generators, as the GZ ones I found their inverters run forever, needlessly and somewhat rapidly draining the batteries.To properly charge a Jackery with B200, you either need to buy: 1) third party Anderson > Anderson extension with options to make one set of terminals vertical and one lateral -OR- 2) an Anderson > 8mm male adapter cable. Testing my B200 briefcase with Jackery 1000 using an Anderson > 8mm cable, I pulled 120 watts of charge in filtered sunlight with no issues.

5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Chris R – September 3, 2018

   
   I just used two of these briefcase units (2x100w) at Burning Man and they worked great. I put them on top of the trailer and really didn’t bother to turn them toward the morning and evening sun. During the day they got to a high of about 150W generated (combined) which was about perfect for the Yeti 1400 battery we also bought, when combined with my plugging in the yeti battery when the trailer’s generator was on. I might add a 3rd unit in the future, but for now two was just fine.While I did bungee them to the roof of the trailer, they are pretty heavy and I wasn’t too worried about any issues with wind. That said, given their weight, I really wouldn’t want to have a single 200W unit.More specifically on the 2x100W vs. 1x200W, I’m really glad I bought two 100W briefcase units instead of one 200W unit. The two units fit perfectly on top of each other on the Frontrunner Outfitters shelf in the back of my Jeep wrangler. I just put a towel between the bottom unit and the shelf and then a towel between the first unit and the second unit and then strapped them down with two 48″ flat bungee cords. The towels were probably overkill but given the solar panels face outwards (exposed) when the briefcase is closed I wanted to be safer than sorry. Also, the towels helped the units to not slide on the shelf. The size was also perfect in that I had room to the left of the two panels on the shelf to put the battery. Perfect fit. In addition to a single 200w unit being probably too big for my purposes, these units are not light and I wouldn’t really want to haul a single 200W unit onto the top of my trailer.One note on pairing panels: You can’t plug one set of panels into another set and then to your battery. I plugged the two sets of panels into one Goal Zero 4x 8mm combiner to Anderson adapter and then ran a single Anderson power line into the trailer.

6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Solomon Michael – May 24, 2022

   
   I’ve bought 4 of these and it always makes me laugh that every single one of them shows up looking like it just came from the scene of a major car wreck. They are much heavier than they look and the legs open when you don’t want them to, making it very difficult to use in any manner other than what you see in the photo. Durable frame and solar panels (dropped one of them twice from 2 or 3 feet and works perfectly) but the hinges are not sufficient to handle this much weight. One of them is already tearing (literally tearing) loose from the other panel since the thing weighs about 60 lbs and it’s all resting on these tiny little hinges. The legs opening up and swinging around makes it difficult to move the thing around if not in a closed position. Still, very good product and I recommend it to my friends who want to be energy independent and still somewhat mobile. Overall very well done, but figure out a better situation with the hinges.

7. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   stephen s. – July 8, 2021

   
   sOME HOW SOME WAY THEY HAVE TO LIGHTEN THIS 2 PANEL 200 WATT & SO VERY IMPORTANT YOU CAN NOT LOAD IT IN THE BAG THE WAY THE ZIPPER IS CONFIGURED, REALLY HURT MY SHOULDER TRYING T GET IT BACK IN THE HEAVY DUTY BAG, MY RICH PORTABLE ZIPPER GOES DOWN & AROUND HALF THE BAG EASILY SLIPS BACK IN ALSO THE PANELS ARE FULLY EXPOSED AS YOU FOLD IT & TRY & STORE IT, most likely the stands & arms made them come up with the panels ON THE OUTSIDE SO AS YOU RELOAD THEM INTO BAG YOU MUST USE YOUR LEG TO BALANCE SO THEY GET OIL FROM SKIN, HANDS, ARMS SMUDGE THEN IT CRUSHES YOUR TOES BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO LIFT OFF THE GROUND SOMEHOW, I WILL SAY NO QUESTION IN MY 20’s 30’s even 40’s age you probably will be ok I’m years in on moto racing climbing skiing repelling & hockey so, hurt my shoulder which doesn’t take much getting them out of the truck, no way I’m gonna be able to swing these around every day or every other day, I do love the look of the panels, really unique really cool & cant say how much power I got, if my Rich Solar portable with Rich MPPT are pulling in 140-160w I do believe these are gonna be sweet. Also, no way your gonna leave these out (anywhere) even while you go back to sleep it’s a hefty investment, & YES MADE IN CHINA! YES THEY ARE “DESIGNED” IN USA, I HATE THAT FAKE PHRASE, IT FOOLS A LOT OF FOLKS. I WOULD RERUN THEM ON THAT ALONE BECAUSE THEIR ARE LIGHTER, LESS EXPENSIVE, & QUITE STRONG LIKE RENOGY MONO “ECLIPSE” THESE ARE SO EASY TO MOVE SET UP & GET BACK INTO BAG ALSO REALLY COOL LOOKING & NAIL DOWN 160w consistently. MAKE SURE THEY ARE THE “ECLIPSE” VERSION!

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Mar – April 19, 2023

   
   Goal Zero Boulder 100 Briefcase, 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel is a must have! I can’t recommend it any higher than 5 stars but you must have it!

9. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   tom p – July 20, 2021

   
   I love this set. Really it is just two 100’s linked together with a hinge, but it works incredible. The only thing that is a little bit of a pain in every half hour or so you need to adjust the angle to optimize the output; however I assume this is the c ase with any solar panel. It also comes with a case, something wish more if them did. My only other hangup is that it does not come with the 8mm Jack’s. This makes it so you must buy an adapter to connect to other goal zero products with this type of input. This doesn’t take away much from my delight with this product. My Yeti 1000 charges really well off it. I plan to get a 3000 or even a 6000 in the future and I will definitely purchase another one if these to go with it. If you own a high capacity GZ product, don’t waste your time with just the 100, buy this one instead! You won’t be disappointed

10. 

    Rated 4 out of 5

    Amazon Customer – January 17, 2021

    
    First time purchasing solar equipment and decided to spring for a well established brand name. The cost is higher than comparable solar panels so I only gave it 4 stars. The panel is exceptionally well built. The tolerances are tight and the aluminum frame is beefy. The panel is a bit heavier than you would expect. I bought the Boulder 50 to pair with a Yeti 200x. I wanted the solid panel because I plan on setting it up next to an overlanding vehicle while camping and would prefer a more solid panel than the foldable panels. The battery pack will power a phone, tablet, laptop, and some Goal Zero led lights. This panel should be able to give me close to a full charge on a sunny day. I like the ability to chain multiple solar panels seamlessly so I can upgrade to a larger battery pack (maybe a Yeti 500x) and simply add another Boulder 50 and have multiple set ups depending on need. I would recommend this to anyone who is willing to spend a little extra for a solid solar panel with a proven track record of dependability.