Portable Power solution: Battery, Power Inverter, Solarcharging (1 Viewer)

[Surfy]

The "usual heavy duty battery setup" many of us did use may be arround 35 kg, if we use a small battery with 95 AH (most use 100ah or 200ah Batterys in the rear)

26,40 Kg Battery (if using a small 95ah AGM Battery)
3 Kg Inverter 110/220
5 kg Cables
1.5 kg DC / DC charger, booster
1 kg 220v/110 Battery charger
1 kg Solarcharger with cables

Because of the weight and also the space my built-in Power-Setup need, I look a long time after a better solution arround.

For a girlfriend I did point her to the Yeti 400 Lithium unit, she is travelling since some weeks and is happy (running a compressor fridge & Notebook & Camera) I did wrote a more detailled review about:

Just around 7kg, brings converter, solarcharger, battery, battery monitor and so on:

Eine mobile autarke Solaranlage

Eine autarke mobile Stromversorgung mit Solar, 12V und Landstrom Lademöglichkeit.

www.4x4tripping.com

It has plenti of juice, but is a bit weak all about charging: 110/220v is weak with 3A, Solar is weak with 120W and non MPPT Charger, Car charging is weak with 5/10Ampere. Too the sinus converter is not the strongest, but is able to charge a notebook too over 110v/220v.

That it is so much lighter and lightweight - is very very nice, compared to our built-in Setups like mine:

Shortly after I did see a (allways risky!) Crowdfunding Project, who solves some of the most weak Issue:

Here I did a kind of comparison:

Crowdfunding: Ecoflow R600 Solarbatterie vs Goalzero 400

Produktinnovationen bei den mobilen Solarbatterien (USV). Vergleich verschiedener Anbieter und Lösungen.

www.4x4tripping.com

ecoflow is a brand who already exist on the market, so I did take the risk. At Crowdfuning you never know what you get at the end.

Build Quality, details of the setup can change, taxes can be very high, the unit can be s***ty - without any refund options.

I will keep you updated about and will do a review soon it arrives (if it arrives ^^). Good to see that there are inovations coming soon!

What do you think about?

4x4tripping

 

[e9999]

Well, since you asked, I'm thinking there are plenty of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries already being sold around that have some track record. Why go the crowdfunding route, if I may ask?

 

[vipergrhd]

You got my attention, I want to see how this works out for you.

 

[Surfy]

enty of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries already being sold around that have some track record. Why go the crowdfunding route, if I may ask?

I did start to like a mobile battery solution. You can change the car, doing trips with rental cars, going to a boat, or living in a small hat for some days - it gives more flexiblity.

At the start I did try to put it together (calculating) by myself. Battery, Solarcharger, Battery Monitor and so on. Did end with a lot of more used space, more weight, more money. Yes, more capable too. But it seems, not very necessary, when I did watch how a girlfriend was able to travel with the Yeti 400 (32 AH) Lithium. She is running a fridge and charge her Notebook and Camera over 110/220v inverter. But did see too the weak points of the Goalzero Units. The Solarcharger is just PMW (not MTTP), just 120W Solar, the Wallboard charging also weak with 3A, car charging with 5/10A with cigarettlighter Plug. This need a lot of time to charge - but there is too the point that she can live with mostly just using the weak solar.

Conclusion: battery size is big enough. But recharging options are poor.

Goalzero has released at sample the Yeti1500x (2450$) with MTTP Solarcharger and a car charger (25A bis zu 50A (300W - 750W)) for 500$ (both linked in my review) - but that would put the overall battery investment to arround 2`900$ and is again over 20kg together and a bit bulky. And it need 12,5 hours for charging at campsite 110v/220v - wtf??

So I start to search for a small Powerunit like the Yeti 400 who has solved the weak spots.

Ecoflow has finished (at least the plan) that with the R600pro. The Solarcharger is stronger and can handle 220W (bring enough juice at cloudy days, the Inverter is strong enough (600/1200) and you can use the power at home or at campsite for quick charging (500W). Just the car charging is at 10A limited - what means you need some hours to recharge, if you just use that. And it is still at 8.xkg - all together, has a nice Batterymonitor who shows Powerdrain and charging amount. With a 100W USB-C you even can charge any Macbook out there and may not have the need anymore for the inverter for that. If my calculation is right it has a 64 AH Battery which you can really use, comparable to a 120AH AGM Battery and the "legal" 50% discharge of it...

Looking back to the experience of a girlfriend, who lives self sufficent with just solar and the yeti 400 (32 AH)- this Ecoflow unit has plenty of reserve, more battery, more solarcharging power, strong wall charging - this should be exactly what we overlanders need! If it comes at the market.

Did some research, ecoflow is already selling other battery products on the market (worldwide), so I did decide that it is worth a try and to get the crowdfunding risk.

As promised, I will report, even if the result is sh*ty

 

[Prairie Swamp]

the Wallboard charging also weak with 3A,

From a design perspective they probably surmise that people will plug it into the wall overnight at home as opposed to plugging it in while having lunch on the road. This saves manufacturing cost, space and weight in the unit.

car charging with 5/10A with cigarettlighter Plug

I believe that "cigarette lighter" ports are limited to 10A/120W. To get a faster 12V DC charge would require custom wiring in the vehicle. The battery can certainly accept much higher charge current. Once again from a design point of view it is designed to be user friendly and portable.

And this is definitely nit-picking:

But I use 13V to convert watt-hours to amp-hours so 768/13 = 59Ah. And discharge below 15% of capacity is not good for battery life but it can be done. But yes you are correct overall the LiFePO4 chemistry bests lead acid by a very large margin.

Looking forward to your report out - but since it's crowd funding it might be a few years

 

[Surfy]

From a design perspective they probably surmise that people will plug it into the wall overnight at home as opposed to plugging it in while having lunch on the road. This saves manufacturing cost, space and weight in the unit.

I did often see how less stable the power is in remote areas in Africa or Southamerica, even if you had to use a campsite in Nationalparks what has 110v/220v plugs for the customers.

I believe that "cigarette lighter" ports are limited to 10A/120W. To get a faster 12V DC charge would require custom wiring in the vehicle. The battery can certainly accept much higher charge current. Once again from a design point of view it is designed to be user friendly and portable.

Also many 12v Car Plugs not even are made for 10A ongoing (because of that Goalzero has a 5/10A Switch at the car charger) , specially if you had a built-in plug in the rear.

But I use 13V to convert watt-hours to amp-hours so 768/13 = 59Ah.

Thanks for calculate - so 50Ah is really usable at my probaly future setup without hurting? Pretty comparable to my current builtin 95AH AGM Setup.

Looking forward to your report out - but since it's crowd funding it might be a few years

Dont say that

Did that crowdfunding path two times - and always thought during waiting that it will never comes at the marked and no refund possible. Delay was: Traveladapter 3 months, ebike 8 months. But this time the Manufacturer is not new, he is already at the marked worldwide - I hope to see better values. But I use always "play money", it`s out with unclear state of coming back....

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Thanks for calculate - so 50Ah is really usable at my probaly future setup without hurting?

Yes that should give you very good service life out of a LiFePO4 battery.

 

[Surfy]

It did arrive yesterday - too bad that we have winter and snow here in switzerland, not the best time for overlanding ;D

Can these small unit really replace my aged, but well designed Power Setup?

Here I did compare the R600Pro to other brands bevore I did order: Crowdfunding: Ecoflow R600 Solarbatterie vs Goalzero 400

First Impression: Wall charging is pretty fast and yes it charges my Mac Book pro directly with USB-C - no nasty 220 Power Adapter needed.

I`m very curious! I will test it in detail over the winter time in detail. You can add some wishes, what I have to test

More Pictures of my Rig is available here: 200 series picture thread

Surfy

 

[e9999]

so, this is a roughly 60Ah or so LiFeP battery with an inverter, a bunch of USB ports and a built-in solar MPTT charge controller then?
That is nicely packaged. And at $500 it seems well priced with all that. I made something like it myself basically from scratch, although with smaller battery and it wasn't a lot less $ actually.
I personally would like some Anderson Powerpoles type plugs though. I have pretty much standardized on those for all my DC stuff.

 

[Surfy]

so, this is a roughly 60Ah or so LiFeP battery with an inverter, a bunch of USB ports and a built-in solar MPTT charge controller then?
That is nicely packaged. And at $500 it seems well priced with all that. I made something like it myself basically from scratch, although with smaller battery and it wasn't a lot less $ actually.
I personally would like some Anderson Powerpoles type plugs though. I have pretty much standardized on those for all my DC stuff.

I did try to build something like (theoretically) that with components I did like but I did alway cancel that idea when leave the 1200$ benchmark and the use of way more space and weight

The first view tests did run very well.

The embedded 220v Inverter even fire up my Water heater who is rated for 1800W.

And the embedded USB-C Port with 100W is able to charge any modern notebook like the Lenovo Yoga X1 (Gen5) or MacBook Pro (2020).

Here you find some more impressions:

Ecoflow R600 Pro - erster Eindruck

Rund um das Reisen im eigenen 4x4

www.4x4tripping.com

Surfy

 

[e9999]

if you were able to run 1800W for a while, that is quite impressive. Something like 140A DC then (I'm assuming that this is a "12V" battery), that's quite a lot. Are you able to see what's inside, the size of the wiring etc?
Yes, we are usually able to do better in terms of capabilities, price, and versatility if we do DIY builds, but almost inevitably, at least for me, the packaging and form factor suffers and I end up with a klutzy-looking arrangement that takes a lot more space than a good commercial product.
TBH, I don't really like those 12V lighter plugs, though, they are a relic of a bygone time and there is much better now.
Do you know anything about the BMS in there, voltage and current cutoffs etc?

 

[Surfy]

I did got the request to check, how fast the device will cook 1L of water.

Test done.

1L Water at Room temperature (20degres celsius)

79% charged at beginning
53% charged at the end
Difference 26% Capacity on the Ecoflow R600 Pro

The time wasnt same impressive 12 min for 1 Liter.

If I compare the ammount of effort to boil water, this way it is more relaxed compared to a jetboil (gas) or Coleman Dual fuel (gasoline)

My temporary solution we bought in Congo - is also easyer and a lot quicker ^^ Just because of that, I dont carry them with me

Final words: I would never ever would take a water heater with me, when travelling the world by a Land Cruiser. That is fancy s*** for motorhomes...

At the end we want to be able to drive offroad - that is the reason why we try to save weight. Why we buy these energy boxes. We dont buy them to carry an additional water heater..

In my Article you find informations how the Inverter is able to handle that load. These Energy box is in my focus, because we dont need the inverter anymore.

Even any modern notebook can be charged by usb-c directly (12v). In my personal usecase I would just use the inverter rarely to charge my drone... And just for that. So I`m wondering, how we can test these box with the 12v ability??

At the Wallplug the cooker did need 3mins.. Just to compare

@e9999: no idea - and I`m afraid to take it appart

Surfy