Ego Nexus Power Station - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2019
- An unbiased, unpaid user review of the Ego Nexus Power Station Inverter.
Overall, a good product with more flaws in the advertising than the actual functionality. While it does a good job inverting battery power to AC, it's hard pressed to say this is a direct replacement to a gas generator. More well suited for tailgate parties, camping and construction sites vs a sustained power outage generator for your home. - Věda a technologie
Thanks, brother, for the straightforward HONEST review! Much appreciated!
i agree
This review has the most accurate power output representation. Great information for someone who almost jumped on it. I was planning on using this as a buffer unit between my gas-generator and appliances. A portable AC and small fridge will draw around 3000W peak and 2000W continuous, this will be great for a hour or two. The draw back after doing simple math, it takes *10-12 HOURS* for the charger to fully recharge 4-5.0Ah batteries. I was hoping to run my gas-generator on eco-mode to increase run time during an emergency. I guess it's no go...
Thank you so much for the information and honest review. It’s hard to get through from people nowadays. I look forward to seeing your future videos
Hey I wanna thank you, was really thinking of getting this. Glad that you were realistic with expectations.
Great review. Almost bought it, good thing i check your review. Change my mind. Thanks again.
Great review! This answered all my questions.
dont usually sub after watching just one video but your simple, easy to understand explanation without all the rambling and nonsense...of the performance and run time was great. thank you.
Real talk , thanks for your sincerity , i am totally sure this video will be very helpful thousands of people out there, keep it real you have a new subscription in your channel
Good review. I'm considering one of these and I appreciate the advice. I think I'm going to wait for the price to come down a little.
I definitely would wait as well. I don't see it dropping a ton, but eventually they will have to start offering it as a bare tool only and that would probably be the best time to jump on it
@@HexedInOhio It's ready as a bare tool now and fairly cheep.
www.homedepot.com/p/EGO-Nexus-3000-Watt-56V-Lithium-Ion-Power-Station-Portable-Generator-Powered-by-EGO-Batteries-Only-Tool-Only-PST3040/310012955
I actually got mine brand new on eBay for 750 with two of the 7.5 amp hour batteries so I recommend checking eBay
@@mettiusmaximinus18 HD has dumped EGO and Lowe's is picking it up. Likely cause Chervon the owner owns Skil, Kobalt also, part of Lowe's line up
Great review, thanks a lot! Looks good for some power tool use & random stuff here and there.
Great video! I was going to buy one, now forget it. thank you very much for the presentation.
Just glad to get the facts out about this unit. While it is a nice unit, there's a lot of misrepresentation with it as well
@@HexedInOhio It's flat out deception.
Excellent review on this - thanks! I’m moving soon and will be picking an EGO riding mower that comes with EGO batteries. Seems like a no brained to get the bare nexus that is now available. Thanks!
A common household energy star rated refrigerator will pull anywhere from 70-100w continuous. Therefore you could run a fridge from that power station with four 7.5ah batteries for roughly 13 hours.
Pretty accurate. I did a test with three 7.5 ah and one 2.5ah battery and it lasted 13.5 hours. At times it reported 4 watts but the auto-defrost, compressor, and ice making surely caused a load.
Wow. Actual electrical science applied to the design and performance of the battery. So refreshing! Most reviews are done almost as infomercials with kids running around in the background and people showing their clean garage floors. NOT HERE. Well done sir! I will be back. This is exactly why I come to CZcams :^)
Exactly why I decided to throw some of these videos out there. There's far too many videos that are clearly paid advertisements disguised as reviews.
Best review on this product!
I liked your review a lot. Convinced me to save my money. Then I saw one of these at Home Depot for $999 (with two 7.5 Batteries). It was an open box, and they gave me another $50 off. So I figure, what the hell let me try it for 30 days and see what I think. I already have the Ego mower, hedge clipper, edger and string trimmer. My intended use would be for quiet power tent camping, running a portable fridge, small fan, recharging electronics. My jeep has 12V and 120V inverter outputs, so this would supplement that.
My other primary use would be during power outages. We’ve had several days to weeks power outages from hurricanes over the years. I have a couple of generators (a 2K Honda knock off and a Champion 3400 gas/propane). The game plan would be to use the Champion to run an AC unit in the bedroom, the fridge and maybe a few other items. But I really hate running the generator all day when we are away from the house to keep the fridge cold. I think this unit would be great for that. Charge it at night on the generator, run the fridge off it during the day.
Anyway, since I’m off for the next couple of days I’m experimenting. I plugged the fridge into it at 8:30 this morning. Its now 4 PM and the monitor says there is 2 hours of charge left. Of course that is based on the fridge drawing about 180 watts right now. Once the compressor stops, it goes and says there are almost 8 hours of time left (the fridge draws about 20 wats during idle). So this looks like a real possibility assuming I can get all four batteries charged during the night when the generators are running (I have 3 7.5 AHs and a couple of 2.5s.
The 7.5 AH batteries seem to go for around $325 to $350. So I suppose for $950 I suppose I could look at it as $700 for batteries and $250 for the bare box. It would be even better if I got your price on the unit.
The app is pretty so-so. It is kind of neat to be able to see what the charger is up to when you’re away from the house. Many of the times we were without power, we still had cable/internet connection. So I’d be able to check my fridge status remotely. I found out accidentally that if you touch the outlet control part of the screen, it toggles the power on and off. I accidentally turned the fridge off. Good thing I saw that or I could have been in big trouble.
I want to see how it runs some of my power tools. I’d bet it similar to by 2000 watt inverting generator. It will run some of the smaller tools, then gag on my table saw or mitre saw.
Jury is out if I’ll keep it. Its a lot of money, and seems to have fairly limited usefulness. Its nice to be able to use the batteries for something other than my lawn tools.
An interesting real world case
informative, unbiased vid, decided to save my money after watching , thanks
You did an excellent job on this and the information was credible. I’m listening and appreciate it. When I calculated the numbers, you’re right!!!! Nice product which I have the ego blower but the generator is not what I need for the long haul in Texas and especially when the Texas grid gave out. No such thing in philidelphia. Never had that problem back home. I love Ego products but the generator has not yet progressed enough for me. Thanks.
Thank you Andy, this was super helpful!
Thank you for taking your time to inform the consumer. You helped me. Money corrupts some of these companies.
Great review from a truly independent reviewer! That is why most reviews that are sponsored leave me so dubious. I love Ego, but I hate misleading claims. Thanks.
Great review - I hope EGO continues this. A much bigger generator, with 24 hours run times. This way I can run one, and using solar panels recharge the the other. Then Swap. We get a lot of tornado, and storms in Texas. During summers we even get scheduled power outages, because of demand on the grid during summers.
Any suggestions on what type of generator I was looking for something like this because like u have seen people draining the fuel supply now during these times
@@lonestar2107 just get a home power station no point getting battery generator for these prices
Used mine during a power outage a couple weeks ago. Was able to run enough led light bars to pretty much light the house. Charge phones and tablets and run a floor fan and watch tv. . All inside. Made the 16 hrs without power much much more comfortable. I do have a Honda generator but never felt the need to fire up. If power outage went any longer I would have used that for the refrigerator. Luckily I didn’t have a stocked freezer so I didn’t really feel the need. More for convenience than for a major emergency. But sure glad I had it.
I keep a four large bottles of water in the freezer. When the power goes out, I remove two bottles from the freezer and place them on the top shelf inside the fridge, which keeps it cool for hours. When my power goes out, I need more than a few led lights and phone charges. Sticking with my honda genny.
"But sure glad I had it". Yeah, having to pull the cord on that genny would have been a nightmare, at least it was only $1200.
Detonate Klubstompers 2 batteries and the machine. Was $700. Not sure why anyone would pay 1200. Use your Honda geni in the house save us all from your stupid comment.
This was a great review!
i agree
This fully explains why I CANNOT run my portable ac over two hours before the unit shuts down 😩 thank you for this! I will be returning this product.
If I'm being honest Candace, I'm surprised it was able to absorb the initial power surge of the compressor for an A/C unit. Portable A/C units tend to be pretty power hungry
@@HexedInOhio is there one you’d recommend for extended running of a portable ac? I’m a newbie wasting money 😩 lol
@@candaceblair if your talking about electric inventors/generators, honestly I don't think you'll find a whole lot better. Once you step up to gas/propane, the options get to be much h more plentiful and don't actually get all that much more expensive, respectively
@@HexedInOhio Yes, at this point I want cool air and don't mind gas/propane. My only preference is not to be the person with the extremely loud generator at the campsite if they make them in gap/propane.
Thanks! very helpful review.
thank u soooo much for the video sir, i was thinking about purchasing one of these, thanks for the info
Great review Andrew. The hard truth hurts. Love how you broke it down for home power outages, USLESS. We all know why we need generators for home, and it ain't to
power no darn toaster!! I was ready to pull the trigger on the two 7.5a battery setup, but after this review for home power outage review, I have to pass and look for
a quiet gas generator. I need to run 2 fridges in case of power outages, and this won't do. Thanks!!!
2 fridges!? That’s even worse than the toaster! Seriously, what do you really need in the fridge to stay cool 🤔 Cause it won’t last forever, same goes for both battery & gas generator. You better think long & hard how to survive long term if something like that should ever happen.
If u want a battery one get home powerwall for power outages
VERY informative. Many thanks!
Nice review. I have the exact same feelings about the unit overall. I have a bunch of ego stuff. Just a quick little addition...the batteries are advertised at 56volt but they are actually 52 volt. They are 14S batteries, that's a 3.7volt 25R lithium ion cell, 14 in series. Us engineers, we find this stuff funny;)
Haha I'm a pretty big guy on details too and never caught that. Stuff like this makes me laugh too. Reminds me of how the original "5.0" Windsor 302 V8 engine put in Mustangs in the 80s and 90s actually wasnt even 5.0 liters. In fact it was exactly 4.948 liters. Little white lie, says Ford.
Nice review, Andrew. I have been using one of Ego's mowers for the past 3 years and have two of the 2.5 batteries. Can't see investing in bigger batteries and the nexus station for that little run time. Still searching for a unit that would be better for indoor use. The Apex unit has some mixed reviews though that will allow hook up to portable solar.
Great review. Love all the information you provided with an unbiased opinion. I just have 2 things, 1. This unit is a generator. A generator generates electricity using a rotational device, this unit just changes 56 DC volts to AC voltage. 2. Every generator advertises peak wattage over running watts for advertising purposes. 3000 watts sounds a lot better than 2000 watts. While it is deceptive, its unfortunately the way things work in the world. But great video. Keep it up.
The EGO documentation thankfully never calls this a generator.
Thank you for this. I had thought about this device, but it looks like a larger Bluetti "solar generator" will be a much better choice.
Ego should have came with a solar option for RV/ overland community.
They should have put a 12volt output on it. Most camping stuff is 12 volts.
great review by the way
Thanks for a sincere review!!!
E-go did come out with the riding lawnmower 42" cut zero turn. May 2021. They also have snowblower and a multi attachment tool. I believe that has 7 different attachments. 2 attachments look like sweeper attachments (broom) maybe for lite amounts of snow? Also a tiller attachment. I love my weedeater and blower! Next is hedgetrimmer! Since I have a smaller yard I hope to get the self-propelled front wheel drive walk behind mower. It comes with main blade and 2 other blades u can attach. Mulching blade and a second clean cutting blade. Love saving the gasoline and electric with E-GO!
Thanks for the great review.
Awesome real life review
A lot of folks are looking at Ego batteries as solar charge storage from solar panels.
Ego has to know there is a MASSIVE market just waiting for batteries (like ego) to come available to charge with solar power.
Average home would need 3 ego power stations to make it thru one day (running fridge, ac/heater, tv, etc ).
6 kW is a start point.
I have to know ego is all over this!
HUGE, HUGE money in solar batteries!
While it is huge huge potential here, it's also huge HUGE cost in batteries. 3 power stations each with (2) 7.5Ah batteries would be $3k total. Then you need to buy (6) more 7.5Ah batteries for a total of $2k. So $5k just for the inverters and batteries, which doesnt include the solar panels or hardware related to regulate it, which could very anywhere from $2k up to $15k . You'd be fast approaching the cost of a full-on solar system designed specifically for that purpose. I love the EGO products for what they are, but I can see why they havent yet ventured down that road. And on a side note, a 6kW system might work for a few, but likely wouldn't meet the needs of most people unless they are being particularly frugal with their power usage.
Great, honest review
Excellent information! Thank you.
Good review sir. Stay honest and your channel will succeed.
One thing to be aware of with the EGO Nexus Power Station is that the Android app only works properly with Android 8.1 - 10 right now. With Android 11, bluetooth will work, but wifi doesn't. With Android 12, neither bluetooth or wifi will work. I have reported this to Ego after trying to get them to fix this for 3 months. I finally found an old Galaxy Tab S3 (Android 9) and was able to get it to connect to both bluetooth and wifi.
Thanks so much for the honest review,
Thanks for the detailed info. I will stick to a gas portable generator.
The new EGO 10Ah batteries help a little bit, though even pricier. They are not available bundled with the unit, so you would have to buy a bare unit and then 1 to 4 of the 10Ah batteries.
Candid opinion !!!!! Thank-you highly appreciated !!!!! Good man
Pure honesty. Only if companies would take this approach
very nice review, thanks, nicely done,...
Fridges don't use 700w continuously only when the compressor kicks in which isn't that often.
Someone mentioned that in a previous comment and I can appreciate that. Until it gets down to temp itll run continous but how long that takes depends on how long the powers been off and the size of the fridge.
Thank you for that review! I needed the low-down on just how long these batteries would last and how many items I could run on four 7.5 batteries because I'm still thinking about getting one to run a couple of lamps to light up the living room and bedroom and charge our cell phones when the power goes out in an emergency. I'm really looking for the ultimate power station.
Timothy Peterson For what you’re looking to do you would have way more than enough power. I actually powered my air conditioner at 74° for four hours with this thing which is a very high draw but you can power your refrigerator for almost 2 days. You could power your TV and PlayStation all the same time for almost 2 days. This thing is excellent and if you’re using it very little you probably get a lot more time out of it of course. The only downside is that you cannot charge it by Solar (Not yet that will be coming next year) and also it does not have Pastor charging which is irritating because it would be nice to just leave this plugged in to the wall in charge of the things off of it until you need it but that may be either a hardware limitation or maybe they can issue a software update not sure.
Needs some plug in PV panel options. Some are getting close to 500 watts each in density.
right I thought the same thing. if it had a MPPT charger on it then it would be pretty good
Best honest review ever.
Good review man.
Very nice breakdown, it's great to find an honest review. Imagine a world of honesty!
This is a common problem with power packs up here in Canada we have Canadian tire and they have booster packs with inverters and also inverters and they all advertise the the peak watts glad i found your channel i was going to phone tomorrow and try to find info about the product but your video answers them all and as far as I can see it has no USB FAST or type C nor a regulated 12 volt cigarette lighter plug either
Yes you're correct. It does not have any USB FAST outlets nor a 12V or micro C. I'm hearing more and more comments about how "this is the industry standard" to list them by peak wattage, but I still don't care for it, as it's misleading to the general public that doesn't routinely deal with generators and inverters.
@@HexedInOhio another problem I have with the booster packs Is that they are designed to fail I've had a lot over the years mostly Canadian tire but also a black and decker and now a couple of Walmart ever start by the time you find they won't take a charge the warranty is over I've always blamed myself for not keeping them charged properly then I found utube and found that a sealed lead acid battery is supposed to be charged to 14.8 and should not be discharged below 12.2 I thought that had to be wrong so I took apart my old black and decker and written right on the battery was do not discharge below 12.2 float charge is 13.4 and full charge is 14.8 and the charger was 12 volts so it was wonder it failed it was dead to start with and being discharged below 12.2 in the case of Canadian tire it was discharged to 10.8 before the inverter shut off I've also found out that modified sine wave inverter are not good for running appliances or electronics products so my three 1750 watt inverters are not good for running my house and I need mppt not pwm for my charge controller so lm back to square one for going solar unfortunately on all these units and now the new ones coming out the reviews are glowing even Duracell has a unit out after reading all the reviews I thought that it was the one then after weeks and many phone calls I found it had too many flaws then I found about these units and again great reviews until I found your site the problem is with the booster packs the big three review chanells will p David poz and hobo tech won't do them because they use sealed lead acid battery but this is the price level us poor people need to start with its tough to come up with 5 or 6 hundred dollars close to impossible to get 15 hundred dollars for a unit to power the house and cut the grid i found one that has at least got a pure sine inverter with sealed lead acid batteries but it's has the wrong charging parameters and the solar controller is pwm they show how easy it is to change battery but if you have to replace them every 12 months or so it gets expensive I did submit a suggestion to them to go to mppt and make it programmable so when you have replace the battery you could upgrade to lithium if they fixed the problem it would add 2 hundred dollars tops and still be under a thousand dollars a perfect starting price and size
Are any of these issue fixable via firmware?
Thankyou for the valuable information
So can you do one on 150w power inverter by its self and compare it to this
Hey Andrew good review. If only ego made this solar compatible; it would have opened up a lot of possibilities. Any chance they will do this down the line?
Joshua Moor they are. I found out in other channel :p
I already understood the power capacity but the thing that bothers me is no 12v DC outlet. I was looking at it for camping and wanted to power my BPAP machine and it is better on DC. I think I am going with the Goal Zero unit. More actual a/h, cheaper and more compact. It's a bummer because I have a couple other EGO products and was looking forward to using the batteries I already have.
You have the 3,000 watt rating to allow for the inrush current for say, the compressor on a refrigerator or the motor in a sump pump. I have the two stage snowblower so, this could interest me, but it's easier to store gasoline for an unexpected power outage than electricity. Especially if you get the batteries and they discharged in maintenance mode!
How many cycles?
Thanks for setting the record straight on this power station. Doesn't look like it would be a good multi-day power station for a camper or van.
It really depends on 3 different factors, honestly. What you plan to power, how long it will be in use and how many batteries you have. If your going a minimalist route and just simply want power for charging phones, a small TV or some other simple/small electronics it may actually fit the bill for you. However, if your thinking more "big picture" and wanting to maintain normal life on the road with all the same creature comforts you have at home, you're likely gonna find yourself a pretty short runtime without a ridiculously expensive supply of batteries.
Any recommendations ?
Basically if it heats, don’t use this. My refrigerator is 180 watts so I could run that for a day and a half could probably stretch that out by raising the temp. I don’t have this one but I do have the little 150 and I was skeptical at best on it by reading numbers. Real world usage on a 5ah battery ive powered a 40inch led tv, a Apple TV box and an apple HomePod for about 5 hours which I’m impressed with. If there’s a storm and the powers out I can entertain myself for 5 hours which is rare to have an outage that long in this area. I have 3 ego batteries so I may get another 150 watt inverter for my networking stuff. The power station plus 2 batteries would be a go for me at $600
It sounds to me like your being realistic in your expectations of this inverter, and that it fits your needs perfectly. I've told many others that it works great when used on a few medium-draw items for a short outage, just dont expect it to power a good amount of your house for extended periods of time.
we just got one of these at work. for $1,000. after seeing this, I think I'll reconsider, but however, if no one buys it and it gets cut half off, then I might reconsider. but yeah, if the generator would last longer (like for a refrigerator like 8-16 hours) then maybe I'd consider.
Thank you!
Bare tool is now offered @499 street price. Perhaps an update to the review is in order.
Strange how they didn't do 3000peak/2000watts continuous like most generators I see. All the people I know with generators the same size as that ego unit never pull 2kw continuous. Just sporadic use as you mentioned this one would be used for. Good review man 👍
Thought it was a little odd as well...
Thank you sir.
The truth really come out.great review.
I’m still doing more research buy I like this unit.
Great review can you do a goal zero 3000 yeti I really like the things you bring up to consider before buying it.
As much as I'd like to review one, for $3k I just cant see myself picking one up. Specs sound promising, but at that price your knocking on the door of whole house generator money
Thanks Siddoway great review on that product you made me really think about it have a great day
@@HexedInOhio This and similar items are what you should be comparing it to and I didn't see any mention of that on the review. Your response says much in itself.
Hey Andrew, i have a nexus 3000 and i would love to see you do a youtube video on boosting the Ego nexus's output power. I believe if you combined the Ego's output to a power converter (120vac input to a 12vdc output) then add that 12vdc output to (3000-5000 watt) inverter to go back to a vac power, thus increasing your power out.you could conceiveable run anything in your household or garage for that matter. (What do you think?) Love to see your youtube video on this idea. (Bernie out)
While in theory this sounds conceivably like a good idea, it wouldn't be practical at all. What your talking about is essentially creating a makeshift transformer. The money that your going to have in 2 additional units needed for this (120V to 12V) then (12V to 120V 5000 watt) is going to be immense, and the bigger issue at hand is going to be that your not figuring in efficiency of changing currents 3 different times. Wowsers! You're gonna be talking some mad loss of power in all the transitions happening here. I might try to sit down and do the math one of these times but I'm gonna roughly guess that you'll lose at least 1/2 the power with all these changes. Changing from 56VDC to 120VAC is already not that great, but going from AC to DC to AC again. Ouch. Now, that's not to say it won't work, but given the runtimes of the stuff in this video, imagine losing even half of that time to all these loses. You'll be looking at less than 20 minutes of runtime, and that's if your lucky. And this is all assuming it doesn't trip the breaker on the EGO unit, which i've also proven is easy to do. Remember, in something that's been daisy chained together like this, the weakest component will either fail or bottleneck the whole project. You'd be dealing with 2 different units of AC/DC and DC/AC here, so they would both have to be of very high quality to be up to such a task.
So, that said, is is plausible? Maybe. Real world application beside a science experiment? Unlikely. I do like to hear that people are thinking outside the box though!
Thanks for the infos, I'll wait for the milwaukee gen, since I'M a fan of milwaukee's tools. I have a subaru fuel inverter gen. 3200W and the peak is 4000W but they advertised a 3200W gen. But just like you've said this isn't honest from EGO.
False advertising surprised no one has taken them to court.
Great review. You pointed out the misleading numbers for people to better understand. Unfortunately, it seems all the power station sellers operate this way. As to watt hours, it seems most only give you 80-85% of what the maximum number is. Their logic seems to be they dont want the batteries to go all the way down to zero as it reduces the number of times you can recharge them back to full status . They should just be more up front on this .
Also it seems all power stations can't handle any big power hungry items for very long. You arent going to find anything that will power a decent size space heater for more than 1-2 hours, if that.
You are spot on with the pricing. At 1360 usable watt hours, this should sell for $800-900 max and that includes the 4 7.5 batteries.
I think this is a cool unit overall, though, and will strongly consider it if it gets down to that price range
Can anyone help me out? I got a power station from a company that closed and it supposed to have 2 - 7.5ah batteries but instead one was a non working 2.5ah battery. I called ego but they need a receipt and the company. How should I go about it? I dont have the receipt. Thanks
The power station never came with 2.5Ah batteries. Wither someone opened it and swapped the 7.5Ah for a smaller battery or it was a bare tool and they thought they were doing you a favor by throwing a 2.5 in. EGO is very strict about their warranty claims requiring a receipt. If you cant find yours and the business is completely dissolved, you're up a creek without a paddle.
i've watched a few videos on this unit, and I'll be a broken record by saying the same thing on all of them: This would be a game changer IF it acted as a UPS. I still think this is very good, no replacement for a true generator, but very nice. I think since I've invested in the EGO eco, it's a no brainer.
The UPS thing... wouldn't it be great to plug the wifi and router into it? if the power goes out, you'd still have internet, without having to unplug from the wall and plug into the Ego. Handy where I live, since in my major metopolitan area, my 4g/5g is absolute garbage.
You'll get no argument from me there. Sure would be nice. The unit does use battery power when it's on standby though as you can hear the fans running and a light humming sound so I'm sure there's more running than people realize when it's on and not even in use
Love my ego power station
to power one led bulb yeah is great. Pay $1200.00 not so great.
Well said!
nice basement. wish we had them.
Does this have the ability to charge and discharge at the same time. I want to have something as a battery backup for my sump pump. So I need to leave the sump pump plugged into this portable power station. I would also need the portable power station plugged into a 120v outlet. If the power goes out while I am not home, will the p.p.s. just automatically kick on, and supply power to the sump pump. Any information would be helpful. Thanks.
Unfortunately this is not able to charge and discharge simultaneously. Furthermore, it has an auto shutoff function after 5 minutes or so when it senses there isnt any power being drawn. Once its shut off, it will NOT turn back on automatically by sensing a draw. It has to be manually turned on. For this reason, this should NOT be used as an automated backup for a sump pump. Your looking more for something such as WatchDog sump backup system. Now during a heavy storm where the sump is constantly running and you lose power, it would be a good choice as long as you are nearby to monitor in a pinch.
I have 4 EGO garden tools, 5 Black & Decker battery powered garden tools, an electric car, and a solar roof on our house. But I have a gas generator. For me a battery powered station like this just doesn't fit in my household use because the available power duration is just too short. I can buy individual 20 lb cylinders of propane for the gas generator for 1/10 the price of an EGO single battery and run the whole house for 5-6 hours with it.
Perhaps a battery powered bank like this might be a good addition to a gas generator setup so we could run laptops, charge cell phones, etc even while the generator is not running. A power station might be useful for a contractor for low power tools, or for a camping application.
Thanks man
Nice foreshadowing 15:37 at the end of the video considering you can now get a 'tool only' Nexus for $499.
I'll wait to the price (tool onloy) drops a little more.
I was hoping this would be a solution for my vehicle fridge but unfortunately seeming like not the solution for me
Good review. Most people powering a fridge report getting up to a day with 4x7.5Ah batteries (take with a grain of salt). It makes no sense to to run fridge for 30 minutes in a short outage. There's enough thermal mass to maintain safe temps for hours if you don't open and close the door a lot. As far a truth in advertising goes, the Goal Zero Yeti does about the same thing. 3000W surge, 1500W continuous for $3,000. Two quick other points: This type generator is the only option if you're somewhere you can't run a fossil fuel gen (like in an apartment). Also, these 120V outlets don't really put out 120V (more like 80), so some appliances may not work.
I've used a Kill-A-Watt gauge to confirm and the outlets DO put out between 109-119V at any given time. Furthermore in another video I've posted, I managed to charge a Tesla Model 3 with this inverter. Teslas are notoriously picky about bottoming out around 110V before they throw errors and wont charge. Never had a single drop out with this inverter. It has a number of shortcomings but a constant, clean power flow has never been one of them. In fact, one of Egos bragging points on the inverter is how well it works with finicky electronics that require consistent power.
Great video but the biggest problem with these that NO ONE is talking about is this is a very poor option for a power outages unless you remember to charge the batteries first, and no one ever knows when an outage will occur. Remember, Ego DOES NOT recommend keeping the batteries stored charged and in fact they automatically will discharge after 30 days. You could of course put the solar panels outside and wait a day or two for the batteries to charge :)
There is definitely some truth to that, but it's not as cut and dry as it might sound. From personal experience of charging these batteries then taking them off the charger, I've learned that even after a few months of non-use, then throwing them back on the charger, much of the time they are still topped off and won't cycle the charger. This creates a double standard that many might not see at first. EGO tells you to charge batteries after use, but it only goes into a storage mode after 30 days IF sitting on the charger. If it's taken off the charger, it won't discharge meaning they DO want you leave them on the charger if you want it to be properly stored. Confused yet?
At any rate, I've stressed before that this is NOT an optimal unit to be used as a standby generator for unexpected power loss, but rather for events at places where power isn't available and the need will be known beforehand.
And on a side note, most of my EGO first-gen batteries have always sat on a charger in our basement, and only 1 of the 4 of them has noticeable losses in charge capacity...that one being the oldest at 7 years old. Remember, lithium ion batteries typically only have a life expectancy of 3 to 5 years before they start to lose capacity pretty quickly. EGO knows this which is why they only warrant them for 3 years. I really feel that for a long as most people will own these products vs the expected life span of a battery, (assuming you don't let it sit in the freezing cold or scorching sun all year round) the issue of whether you keep you batteries on the charger or remove them will be rather inconsequential.
Great info Andrew! I agree with you completely on everything you said. You make some great videos, they are very informative!!
I just bought this unit with the two 7.5ah batteries. I live in a building so I can’t run a gas genny during an outtage :( . I live in NY so thankfully I’m not normally subjected to any crazy acts of God but we do have power outages during the summer when the grid becomes overwhelmed or a tropical storm knocks out powerlines. I hope it serves me well
Is there a generator replacer that you would recommend?
If your looking for something to power an entire home, your pretty much stuck with a standby generator running off natural gas/propane/gasoline. However if your just looking for something for the essentials, this will work in a squeeze, as well as some of the others such as the Yeti but they will run your boo-koo bucks. You'd almost have to be more specific on what your power needs are. And to be clear, I DO recommend this inverter/generator, but also just want to make people aware of its realistic limitations
Wait so without the batteries 🔋 on the side its basically useless?
That you sir , I think I’m just going to just keep my goal zero 1400 because I actually have 1400 Watt hours available.I’m going to get a Inergy Kodiak Apex for my second generator again because I have 1100 Watts available.
that's a nice generator!
Does the new 10ah battery work in these too?
Yes. The beauty and best selling point of all EGO batteried are that they are 100% interchangeable I'm all their tools. The only thing that might limit some of them are if they have a lid such as the snowblower or mower. The Power Station has no limits to height of the battery tho so you should be good to go!
So say if you wanted to use it to cut lawns, is it still useful? because that what I was gonna use it for to keep my batteries charged
Not completely sure I understand you question. This is a generator and won't cut lawns. Yes it can be used to charge and maintain batteries. But if that's all your gonna use it for, save a ton of cash and just buy some of the regular chargers. People on craigslist and FB marketplace are practically giving the non-rapid chargers away
The charge rate on this unit is 170watts as well, which is pathetic considering it has the ability to access 4 batteries at once. Not to mention it only charges one battery at a time. Even as it focuses on one battery, then another it still uses that small 170watt charge rate. The normal external charger at least does 210watts! This was a MAJOR mis-step by eGo. I simply bought 3 more basic chargers off Facebook for 30 bucks total. They can charge all four of my batteries in 1-2hrs at a combined 840-850watts draw...an amount easily handled by a 1000watt solar inverter/charger, or Honda EU1000 gas generator. As people get more eGo products some rapid chargers go for 40-80 bucks! So at some point Ill simply use 4 of those to rapidly charge off a solar battery bank and keep this inverter going! With only an hour worth of charge time needed by rapid chargers...an amount of time my four 2.5ah batteries can supply power to cover the gap, eGo should have at least made this unit charge at a 8 amp rate spread over 4 possible batteries at 2 amps a piece, and no more than 4 on any single battery. Hell, they should let you adjust and see the charge rates in the app! Instead we get just a countdown of the eternity it takes to charge any size battery really, from the charging side of the app. EGo really screwed up with the incredibly weak charging rate, and from what I hear its not something software that can be updated to unlock more charging potential can solve. Hopefully the 170watt charging block is the physical limitation and not something internal and specific to the unit that cant be firmware updated or upgraded to unleash more power?!. This would leave the power block as a possible upgradeable component with better charging capability! Im a bit annoyed 4 seperate chargers are needed to keep the batteries juiced, esp when the math indicates batteries alone only supply 1300watt hours of power. Recharging faster is a must when theres a deficiancy in capacity. I wont even get into the fact that ego doesnt allow you to charge WHILE you use the unit simultaneously, even if it affected the charge rate or time till full. As soon as you plug it into charge it cuts off the inverter, making external chargers a nessesity if you plan to power something significant for any period of time. Many many little thimgs could make this unit a no brainer and a game changer for camping, backup power or a compliment to any size solar system. I really hope eGo is able to upgrade this unit AND the app, as they have the potential to be AMAZING!
So in your opinion, what’s the best battery powered generator?
Bit of a loaded question. Depends on budget, power needs and practicality of the situation needed
Thank you Andrew. I was almost hoodwinked [3000] hmmmmm.
I have heard a word or two about how the batteries are not very good in the reliability department. Thoughts? Good/Bad Experiences?
In my personal findings (which I never speak for others), besides one 7.5Ah battery thats coming up on 6 years old and lost maybe 20% to degradation, I've had no other issues with batteries or reliability. They are pretty rock solid as far as battery powered equipment goes.
Honda does the same thing on their generator line: EU2200i, EU3000is, and EU7000is, but they can only product 80% continuously.
Does use lithium ion vs lithium iron phosphate which means much lower service life?
Little too much in the battery chemistry for me. I'm sure customer service could answer that one for ya