Goal Zero Nomad 20 Solar Panel

In my humble opinion, a single Nomad 20 should be the bare minimum any average person should use for portable solar charging, unless your situation is severely dependent on weight (or you live in death valley). They just charge stuff faster. This will make you happy.I picked up 2x Nomad 20's because A) murphy B) they're not too heavy C) they fit in a backpack and D) chained together they usually output 30-34ish watts in strong sunlight in my neck of the woods. A pair of them usually charges up my Sherpa 100 on a good clear afternoon or keeps a Yeti 400 topped off with medium use. If you only use one Nomad 20, expect about 15-17W of actual output - which charges smaller items like an iPhone or a GoPro in a hurry, but larger stuff like iPads, Sherpas, Yetis or other powerbanks will take *a lot* longer.Angling your panels also helps with maximum output so I measured, cut and filed down an old aluminum tent pole to make some lightweight collapsible/adjustable stands for my Nomad 20's, pictures below. As another reviewer stated, you can use a cigarette->USB adapter to bump up your amps for fast charging an iPad or other USB device directly from the panel.Overall, I'm really happy with my Nomad 20's, they're tough, dependable and work well. Hope I don't jinx myself by saying it, but If they were to break tomorrow I'd probably buy the same ones again.

Worked well for the first 2 months, now it's dead. I never exposed it to high heat, or water, or anything else that may cause it to stop working. It's bad enough that my battery almost burned my house down but now my solar panel is worthless, also. Such a disappointing product that I spent so much money on.

The panel works as advertised, but I think the charging times listed on Goal Zero's site are low. After a full sunny day (12 hours) monitoring and adjusting the panel to best face the sun, my Yeti 150 charged to about 20% and gave my Macbook pro an 80% charge (while turned off) before the yeti was completely drained. If you're buying to charge USB devices directly or to charge a portable battery, there are definitely cheaper options. However, build quality is great and 20W will charge any USB-powered device you own.

So Ive been messing around with solar panels for years. I own several from goal zero. I purchased the Nomad 20 since my nomad 7 is just too finicky with the iphone 5 and wont charge an ipad at all.This is what I found. With the Nomad 7, the iphone 5 will charge if you are "NOT" using any apps or the internet.The Nomad 20 will charge the Iphone 5, while using the internet, streaming radio, finally fantastic...The Nomad 20 will also charge the Ipad in "no time" I charged my ipad from 20% to 70% in under an hour while using it.So... If you are like me, and hitting the beaches, campground, fishing or backpacking, the Nomad 20 isnt a huge weight issue, its fairly compact and will fit in a day pack easily.We normally hit the shore and hang out on the beach all day, using the iphone streaming music, and the ipads, as well as small cameras, importing photos and sharing them on FB. The NOmad 20 will allow you to keep all your stuff charged. Highly *****Recommend it****So after further testing I found something out: Avoid using non-apple cables when charging the ipad/mini . Apparently when I used an after market longer version of the charging cable for my ipad-mini, it wouldnt charge. Plugged in an apple cable and it charges fine. Used an after-market standard length cable and it worked fine also. So it seems that its the longer cables that are an issue.

Great panel from a functional point of view. Cosmetically and assembly-wise, the unit leaves much to be desired, especially considering the cost of a top shelf product like Goal Zero. My "new" panel arrived in a factory box that was becoming unglued and with letters missing in the instruction printing on the nylon (see picture). Moderate pressure with a finger along the text dislodged further lettering and instruction pictures. Upon removing the plastic film that protects the solar panels during shipping from the factory, I found the panels did have scratches anyway even though minor. I have an old Nomad 7 (v1) that has been through heavy use and abuse and held steady with none of the cosmetic issues I found in this brand-new panel. Did Goal Zero change factories in China? Regardless, they need to work on their quality control. The quality of the workmanship and cosmetic materials is obviously inferior in the new Nomad 20 when compared to the old. If it bothers me enough I might send my panel back to Amazon for an exchange just to see if this is a fluke. I just hope these minor issues aren't telltales that could translate to problems with functionality "down the road" (literally!).The functioning of the unit is flawless so far. It captures recharging energy even in overcast conditions. As with all Goal Zero products, it benefits from a well engineered design and functions optimally with other Goal Zero branded accessories. Don't expect it to charge your iPhone 6+ flawlessly if there is any interruption In direct sunlight conditions. This is singularly Apple's fault as anything below a 4.7 V feed will prompt an error on your phone with an interruption in charging stating "this Device may not be compatible." The charging will not resume until you unplug and replug the unit back into the solar panel. Not optimal if you want to leave your phone charging while you do other activities such as hiking etc. It is best to combine the panel with a battery unit particularly from GZ, as some of the cables for functions such as chaining two panels together are particular to this brand.Overall very happy functionally, and wish I could give it five stars with a free conscience. Must also mention that before I bought the panel I called GZ with a technical question. The call was immediately answered by a real person who had a wealth of knowledge and was friendly. I hope Goal Zero manages to maintain the solid quality and engineering base they have built upon in the past. All my best to this great company and their products.