Portable power stations are having a moment. Festivals, camping, garden offices and power cuts have turned them into a summer staple, and they are climbing our most-clicked list fast. But they hide one of the widest price gaps we track. The exact same unit, same model number, same box, can cost you nearly £150 more depending which shop you land on. Here is where the EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max, one of the most-clicked of the lot, actually costs less.

The EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max is a 512Wh power station, a popular mid-size pick for camping and backup. We pulled every live retailer offer for it. After stripping out marketplace resellers, the genuine retail prices ran like this:

• Cheapest mainstream: £309 at a major electricals retailer.
• EcoFlow’s own store: £319.
• A cluster of specialist “Direct” and kit sellers: £429.97 to £452.96.

That is a £143.96 gap on an identical unit, or about 47 percent more if you buy from the wrong shop. Nothing about the product changes. Only the price does.

Two things drive it. First, power stations are still a young category, so pricing has not settled the way it has for, say, TVs or phones. Second, a lot of the listings come from specialist electronics and “direct” sellers who price to their own margins rather than matching the big retailers. When a major electricals chain and EcoFlow’s own store both sit around £310 to £320, a £450 listing for the same unit is simply an overpay, not a premium product.

The rule is the same one that works across our data: never buy a power station off the first price you see. Check the live card above, which compares every retailer we list, and lean on the recognisable names. The brand’s own store and the major electricals retailers are usually within a few pounds of the floor. The eye-watering listings tend to be smaller specialist sellers and marketplace resellers, and on a current model that every big shop stocks, paying them more makes no sense.

The EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max is a solid mid-size power station, but what you pay for it is almost entirely down to where you buy. Our live data puts the cheapest mainstream price at £309 and the dearest legitimate retail listing at £452.96, a £144 swing on the same box. Use the price card to take the cheapest current offer, stick to the brand’s own store or a major electricals retailer, and ignore the specialist listings asking £100-plus more. The product is the same either way.

As a mid-size 512Wh power station it is a popular choice for camping, garden offices and short power cuts. Whether it is worth it for you depends on the price you pay: our live data shows it ranging from £309 to £452.96 for the identical unit, so the model is only good value at the lower end.

It is a young product category where pricing has not settled, and many listings come from specialist or “direct” sellers who set their own margins rather than matching the big retailers. The result is unusually wide gaps for identical units, which is why comparing every retailer matters more here than in most categories.

Check the live price card, which compares every retailer we list. As a rule the brand’s own store and the major electricals retailers sit near the floor, while smaller specialist sellers and marketplace resellers list the same units for far more.

A 500Wh-class unit like the RIVER 2 Max will charge phones, laptops and small devices many times over and run low-draw camping gear, but it is not built for high-wattage appliances. If you need to run a kettle or a fridge, you are looking at a larger 1000Wh-plus model, which the carousel above can help you browse.