Portable Power Stations

[Park@82]

So you mean other countries don't have load shedding? It's just us? Weird, wouldn't that make it unique.

I'm just saying that I am not sure that it is a "south african" problem, maybe there is a problem with the product design and certain use cases.

There are many examples of this happening overseas on FB, forums and youtube.

Maybe if they used it as an EPS/UPS as much as we do then maybe they would also see it happen more frequently.

Please read through this thread:

EcoFlow Delta Pro - FIVE Units Down. Something's awry here...

EcoFlow Delta Pro - Reliable, Trustworthy? I posted this is the EcoFlow FB group with minimal constructive input, so I'm turning to the veterans here. TLDR: I’ve now gone had three EcoFlow Delta Pro units go down (overload errors), all within weeks of entirely normal use (two were not even...

diysolarforum.com

This guy had 5 Detla Pros die (over months) And eventually EcoFlow refunded him because they could not figure out what was causing the issue in his use case.

 

[zll]

I'm just saying that I am not sure that it is a "south african" problem, maybe there is a problem with the product design and certain use cases.

There are many examples of this happening overseas on FB, forms) forums and youtube.

Maybe if they used it as an EPS/UPS as much as we do then maybe they would also see it happen more frequently.

Please read through this thread:

EcoFlow Delta Pro - FIVE Units Down. Something's awry here...

EcoFlow Delta Pro - Reliable, Trustworthy? I posted this is the EcoFlow FB group with minimal constructive input, so I'm turning to the veterans here. TLDR: I’ve now gone had three EcoFlow Delta Pro units go down (overload errors), all within weeks of entirely normal use (two were not even...

diysolarforum.com

This guy had 5 Detla Pros die (over months) And eventually EcoFlow refunded him because they could not figure out what was causing the issue in his use case.

Ah okay. I missed threads like that. Didn't really see those complaints when doing my research, but yes, it's entirely possible there's a design flaw.

 

[Mirai]

Ah okay. I missed threads like that. Didn't really see those complaints when doing my research, but yes, it's entirely possible there's a design flaw.

With 5 year warranty, that's not a major issue. As long as it doesn't start a fire.

 

[Park@82]

With 5 year warranty, that's not a major issue. As long as it doesn't start a fire.

I think they are pretty save, especially the LFP ones.
The 5 year warranty is a major selling point.
But I think Rectron is struggling to keep up with the repairs. People are complaining about how long it is taking to get their units back. EcoFlow said they are sending someone over to look for an additional repair centre.

 

[Bliksis]

Probably tried a cheaper battery.

 

[KOPITE]

Never had any issues, just use it when it's loadshedding, don't see the need to us as ups. it's like looking for trouble. i recharge mine between 30 and 50%. simple plug and play solution, can't see why people have these issues.

the gen 1 range will take quite some time to time to run the batteries dead. 800 cycles is a very long time, by then loadshedding might be a thing of the past

 

[Valaskjalf]

I have a River Pro and it never even occurred to me to use it as a UPS, sounds way too dangerous and the change-over is far too slow for sensitive equipment. I simply plug all my goodies into it once loadshedding hits and similarly take my time to plug everything back into mains a couple of minutes after shedding is done.

P.S What's the general consensus on the Delta 2? I had an absolutely terrible experience the past month with a Bluetti AC200 Max and luckily got a refund since the local supplier is out of stock. However it did have twice the capacity of the Delta 2 (which is why I didn't wait for the release of the new EcoFlow range in SA...to my detriment). Its battery expansions also had AC inputs which, unlike the Delta 2's extra battery, isn't 100% dependent on having the main unit powered.

Apart from the LiFePO4, is the Delta 2 worth the upgrade over a 1260wh previous gen Delta which are going in some instances for a pretty decent discount? (I've seen it listed around R21k compared to R27k for Delta 2).

 

[Park@82]

I have a River Pro and it never even occurred to me to use it as a UPS, sounds way too dangerous and the change-over is far too slow for sensitive equipment. I simply plug all my goodies into it once loadshedding hits and similarly take my time to plug everything back into mains a couple of minutes after shedding is done.

P.S What's the general consensus on the Delta 2? I had an absolutely terrible experience the past month with a Bluetti AC200 Max and luckily got a refund since the local supplier is out of stock. However it did have twice the capacity of the Delta 2 (which is why I didn't wait for the release of the new EcoFlow range in SA...to my detriment). Its battery expansions also had AC inputs which, unlike the Delta 2's extra battery, isn't 100% dependent on having the main unit powered.

Apart from the LiFePO4, is the Delta 2 worth the upgrade over a 1260wh previous gen Delta which are going in some instances for a pretty decent discount? (I've seen it listed around R21k compared to R27k for Delta 2).

What was wrong with your Bluetti AC200 Max?
The Delta 2 seems great. I would pick it over the previous model even if the previous model is way cheaper. App support and LFP are major upgrades. I've seen the Delta 2 for 23k before.

 

[Valaskjalf]

What was wrong with your Bluetti AC200 Max?
The Delta 2 seems great. I would pick it over the previous model even if the previous model is way cheaper. App support and LFP are major upgrades. I've seen the Delta 2 for 23k before.

Regarding the AC200 Max, for the better part of the month I had it I was trying to troubleshoot syncing the displayed battery% remaining with what was actually left in the tank. So after countless full charge / discharge cycles I couldnt get the SOC to display properly. With the same load it would go from 100-50% in 7.5 hours and then drop from 50-15% in 2 hours and then immediately go dead. I never managed to get the unit to 0% in a normal way it would fall off a cliff after chugging along to about 15-20% left. Bluetti tech support has no answers apart from "do full cycle a few times". Also their firmware has to be pushed to each machine individually and it can take hours until the message gets passed on to the engineers. When I did the firmware update I got a BMS error which wrecked the bluetooth on my machine and I couldnt get the app to connect with it. Only had a red block with chinese text giving me a warning. Flip knows what it meant.

It appears that quite a few people had this issue and it all stems from the horrendously out of sync state of charge display that doesnt get fixed (from what I could gather they had the same issue with the AC200P from years ago) - they then get firmware pushed to their machines and if theyre unlucky the firmware messes something up. So not sure if its just a bad batch of units but Bluetti customer support is pretty abysmal, firmware has no release notes and you cant have it updated unless you have a complaint about a unit. Doing a full recharge also takes 5hrs and with loadshedding that becomes tricky since you cant interrupt the charge at all...All in all im just glad I got a refund but it was probably down to the takealot supplier being out of stock. Apparently Bluetti isnt very keen on giving refunds if you buy directly from them, but I have zero confidence that a replacement unit would have worked. Such is the level of trust I have in this company. When you drop this much money on something it better be near perfect and not have glaring problems.

Thanks for the Delta 2 feedback, im very happy with my River Pro and have had 0 issues with it thus far so definitely trusting Ecoflow more at this stage. Hope the Delta 2 doesnt have some weird wattage calculation issues like the AC200max though..Ive also read that the poor wattage/% calculations could be a LFP problem but I havent found anything like that on the Delta 2 yet in my research.

 

[Lukitz]

Any ideas when the River 2 Pro will be around?

 

[Bundu]

Regarding the AC200 Max, for the better part of the month I had it I was trying to troubleshoot syncing the displayed battery% remaining with what was actually left in the tank. So after countless full charge / discharge cycles I couldnt get the SOC to display properly. With the same load it would go from 100-50% in 7.5 hours and then drop from 50-15% in 2 hours and then immediately go dead. I never managed to get the unit to 0% in a normal way it would fall off a cliff after chugging along to about 15-20% left. Bluetti tech support has no answers apart from "do full cycle a few times". Also their firmware has to be pushed to each machine individually and it can take hours until the message gets passed on to the engineers. When I did the firmware update I got a BMS error which wrecked the bluetooth on my machine and I couldnt get the app to connect with it. Only had a red block with chinese text giving me a warning. Flip knows what it meant.

It appears that quite a few people had this issue and it all stems from the horrendously out of sync state of charge display that doesnt get fixed (from what I could gather they had the same issue with the AC200P from years ago) - they then get firmware pushed to their machines and if theyre unlucky the firmware messes something up. So not sure if its just a bad batch of units but Bluetti customer support is pretty abysmal, firmware has no release notes and you cant have it updated unless you have a complaint about a unit. Doing a full recharge also takes 5hrs and with loadshedding that becomes tricky since you cant interrupt the charge at all...All in all im just glad I got a refund but it was probably down to the takealot supplier being out of stock. Apparently Bluetti isnt very keen on giving refunds if you buy directly from them, but I have zero confidence that a replacement unit would have worked. Such is the level of trust I have in this company. When you drop this much money on something it better be near perfect and not have glaring problems.

Thanks for the Delta 2 feedback, im very happy with my River Pro and have had 0 issues with it thus far so definitely trusting Ecoflow more at this stage. Hope the Delta 2 doesnt have some weird wattage calculation issues like the AC200max though..Ive also read that the poor wattage/% calculations could be a LFP problem but I havent found anything like that on the Delta 2 yet in my research.

I think it is very difficult with Li batteries to measure their remaining capacity, because their voltage remains very constant over a large part of their discharge cycle.
I wonder if any manufacturers perhaps measure the Wh charged and discharged to come to a more accurate answer?

 

[Park@82]

Any ideas when the River 2 Pro will be around?

Iirc they said in May.

 

[Valaskjalf]

I think it is very difficult with Li batteries to measure their remaining capacity, because their voltage remains very constant over a large part of their discharge cycle.
I wonder if any manufacturers perhaps measure the Wh charged and discharged to come to a more accurate answer?

Not sure, but in Bluetti's case it seems they list the apparent power on screen (VA) but displays it as Watts. That's a big difference. Would've been interesting to see the actual watts, but I don't have one of those watt-reading meters.

 

[bumblebee]

R40 cheaper than the PPS I bought

SOL-I-CN-1L Kool Energy 1kW Portable Lithium Pure Sine Wave Inverter - 25.6V 50Ah with 840W MPPT | Laptop Direct

SOL-I-CN-1L Kool Energy 1kW Portable Lithium Pure Sine Wave Inverter - 25.6V 50Ah with 840W MPPT for sale in South Africa. Kool Energy at Best Prices ✔ Best Service ✔ South African online shop - Buy, Rate, Review the SOL-I-CN-1L

www.laptopdirect.co.za

Prefer Kool as it has an integrated MPPT, with generic solar connectors.

I am looking for a new PPS, after returning my Gizzu that was part of the recall.
How is your Kool unit it holding up with use?
I'm also struggling to see on the website images how well the remaining power in the battery is shown on the display panel, does it show a fairly accurate state of charge/discharge cycle?

 

[AlphaJohn]

I am looking for a new PPS, after returning my Gizzu that was part of the recall.
How is your Kool unit it holding up with use?
I'm also struggling to see on the website images how well the remaining power in the battery is shown on the display panel, does it show a fairly accurate state of charge/discharge cycle?

There have been some complaints on it see:

Mecer SOL-I-BB-M1L Inverter Trolley

Has anyone used this inverter? https://www.firstshop.co.za/products/mecer-1kva-1kw-lithium-battery-inverter-trolley-with-50ah-lithium-ion-battery-and-820w-mppt-controller-sol-i-bb-m1l-158799 I wanted to find out how noisy it is when charging, and when it is discharging? And I'm hoping it isn't...

mybroadband.co.za

Well basically there is 3 complaints: (All come from people using it as a UPS ie: perm on)

• Displayed SoC % dropping over time, not reflecting true SoC (This can be fixed, but if you are unlucky to get such a unit you will probably sit a week without it, while they reflash/recalibrate?)
• Random 3 beeps no one can seem to find the cause. (No indication in the manual either.)
• In Some reports, it fails on switchover, meaning you have to manually turn it back on.

I am lucky enough to report that I only had 1 of those issues. The random 3 beeps, that I had about 2-3 times in the last month. My unit does report accurate state as well as Watt load and does not drop over time. I don't know if it is because mine is newer than the 1st bach that most users in there got.

Let's just say I am a happy camper but mileage may vary.

 

[STORMERSFAN]

Please experts give me your thoughts.. Seems great at R7800-00..

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Please experts give me your thoughts.. Seems great at R7800-00..

It's a scam.

 

[STORMERSFAN]

It's a scam.

How so?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

How so?

It's not possible for them to sell 3kWh of battery storage at that price, nor would it be anywhere near that compact. It's fake.

Rule number 1 of scam detection, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

These Facebook "deals" have popped up in this thread before. Just buy things from reputable stores and not dodgy Facebook ads from places nobody has ever heard of.

 

[STORMERSFAN]

It's not possible for them to sell 3kWh of battery storage at that price, nor would it be anywhere near that compact. It's fake.

Rule number 1 of scam detection, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

These Facebook "deals" have popped up in this thread before. Just buy things from reputable stores and not dodgy Facebook ads from places nobody has ever heard of.

A couple of ppl stated that they had bought them and we're very happy... Another part of the scam?