GET THE RIVER 2 PRO: gohobo.io/river2pro code ECOFLOWAFF [Get it on Amazon: gohobo.io/amzr2pro ] GET THE R2 MAX: gohobo.io/r2max code ECOFLOWAFF GET THE RIVER 2: gohobo.io/river2 code ECOFLOWAFF Ecoflow's Website: gohobo.io/ecoflow code ECOFLOWAFF
Picked up this bad boy with the 220w panel! It was 999$ (already great deal imo those panels are pricey) and your coupon code saved me like 75$ more bucks! Thanks hobo!
You could make the ups test even more realistic by running a load on the laptop (eg video rendering). While it's sitting idle on the desktop screen, that's exactly when ups isn't all that critical
I bought the Bourgerv 1100wh model upon HOBOTECH’s recommendation for $550 last month. I am afraid my garage will be full of solar generators if I keep watching this channel
@@darrellee4953 I’m very happy with it. With a Renogy 175w panel on the roof rack, it charges up to 152w max, and most of the time over 120w. Runs Iceco VL60 fridge for about 50 hours after a full charge.
I purchased this and a Setpower portable fridge/freezer. I ran the firdge/freezer in our car for 5 hours with just the ecoflow river 2 pro. After 5 hours the pro was still at 78%. Pretty impressive in the middle of a Tucson day (110 deg). Quite happy with my purchase.
Hi, did you hear the van blowing while running your fridge? I had my MacBook Air, a webcam and mic running and the van started blowing after 20 min. in the middle of a zoom call.
I have the same set up but the DC output display shows extreme fluctuations in wattage- anywhere from 41 to 59 watts. Are you experiencing the same? Thx
@@judyshorrock7368 Only did this once. I didn't monitor what was going on. I just set it up. Went and did stuff. Ans when I came back this is what I found. So, pretty happy with the setup so far.
As I know is the case with technology, I ordered the Bluetti EB70S just a few short weeks ago. The River 2 Pro was the other contender but it didn't really exist at the time. Still happy with my purchase and of course it is all thanks to the excellent reviews of HOBOTECH. Thanks Professor!
I bought an EB70S about six months ago and I love it. It just works great. The only thing I wish is that I had a built-in power supply as with the newer units from bluetti and ecoflow.
I watch your videos to determine which power supply I will buy. Thanks for the THOROUGH testing, and you cover all the questions a consumer should ask.
I have 2 each EcoFlow, Bluetti, Jackery, Ego and a couple homemade (Battleborn/Chins) power stations in a wide variety of sizes (500wH - 5kwH) and this is one of my favorites. I may get a couple of these.
I live on Maui, we can't get these things shipped here. So I called EcoFlow and they let me know about a dealer on O'ahu called Battery Bob. They were expecting this model soon so I left my information and waited. Today I got the call, paid and they will ship it to my island on the interisland barge. Watching the current CZcams reviews it wasn't too difficult to figure out that this model will serve my needs well.
Good Review as always Prof.Hobo. I have several Ecoflow products now, a 4kw Powerkit and an original Riverpro, both have been wonderful. I was able to score a package deal on the Delta2 with the 220w bifacial folding panel for $1098...I think that's a pretty good deal.
Nice man! I just got the river 2 pro w/ 220 panel for 999 minus hobo code was like 75 off. Thought it was a great deal. I just don’t need a ton of power and liked the smaller size.
I have river pro and used for several camping and long road trip to power my 12v refrigerator. This looks like significant upgrade! I only use DC output and one problem is DC is not very efficient on River Pro. I have two 100w solar panels and I had to connect in parallel. With v2 I can do series (less cable and more efficient) as it supports upto 50v. It also has slightly higher capacity, LFP, and same pass through capability.
THANK YOU for the recommendation and the discount code. I got the River 2 Pro from Amazon during the October prime days and your code still worked. It ended up being 53$ less that the fantastic Costco sale. Great buy!
Hey! Would you be willing to retest the capacity of the two smaller units with the newer firmware? Very interested in seeing if they actually improved. Thanks!
When I want to power a small a/c load with my large power station, I use an old 300 watt inverter. Seems to extend the useful life of the battery with the same load rather than the built in 1000 watt inverter. Thought I'd pass along my experience in case it would be helpful to others.
Yup, I do the same thing. Actually I go one better... most small A/C loads are wall-warts for devices that take 12VDC inputs. Get rid of the wall-wart entirely, turn off the AC output, and run the device from the 12VDC output. Though unfortunately most of these power stations also have fairly inefficient DC outputs. There is no reason for it, buck converters can be made 95%+ efficient. Why they don't do it? Probably don't want to spend the tiny bit of extra money on parts. Still, at least the DC output doesn't have any vampire current. I run my cable modem from a little GoLabs' DC output (which doesn't suffer from the 8-hour timeout that the AC output has, either). The cable modem only eats about 5W and the little power station lasts 3 days without mains. I can also run laptops and mini-PCs from (typically) the USB-C output. You can buy USB-C -> 19V cables (USB-C negotiates the voltage, amperage cap is 5A regardless (100W @ 19V), so you can actually get a decent 19VDC output via a USB-C PD port). And again, they last far longer on backup power verses running them off of AC. -Matt
Ordered this unit, and the Ecoflow 160 W portable solar panel. My little brother stole my Ecoflow River Max and solar panel, so now the money that would have gone on his Christmas gift is now going to keep entertainment available in my hunting cabin!
We need another test - How much battery drainage occurs per hour if the AC is turned on but no devices are connected, or what is the parasitic draw? 800w inverter should be low, but these portable devices are very poor in that area in my experience, which also somewhat negates their very purpose.
Nice, this has some really good upgrades over my Bluetti eb70s. I was annoyed by Ecoflow’s marketing that was claiming 1600w capacity on some ads without mentioning the true 800w capacity of the inverter. My only other gripe is with sogen manufacturers in general - they should provide more than 10amps of dc output. They should go up to at least 12 to 15 amps, but I would like to see it go even higher. A wireless charge pad would be nice too, but overall this looks like a really good product!!
Thumbs up 👍 I am impressed with the programming and your ability to create a picture of the capabilities and details. Great job 👏 EDIT yes I watch till you wave 👋 goodbye 😊
Love your rant about the transfer switch....its complete fair and true I agree with everything you are saying...however. I've noticed that in some cases with lights, which often are the most sensitive smart light are less effected like Philip Hues as as dumb LED lights will flicker.
Its 2023. The smart people know to become self reliant with off grid energy solutions having lost faith in their institutions, MSM, academia etc. The most trustworthy man on the internet is a hobo. Great review as always professor.
I am dubious that capacity can be boosted by 10 or 15% just by firmware changes. Maybe you could retest the smaller River 2 units to see if they've improved.
The amp interference test is exceedingly important. If you're trying to work remotely on a laptop thats running off 120v and have to do a video call or anything that records your voice. The mic will have that noise on it as well. Its why I'm so annoyed I didn't watch hobotech's review of the Jackery 1500 before I bought it. Hope some day you can look at the powerkit. Make sure that doesn't have a noisy inverter for #vanlife people trying to work remotely.
Much better than gen 1 overall. Beyond the LFP, especially like the smaller handle, and now having all the outputs on the face and the main inputs on the back.
They kind of cheaped out by using the same inverter for the pro model, would have liked to have seen a 1,000 watt inverter and wireless charging. The only thing extra to make it pro is the battery size, EcoFlow should have added a few more bells and whistles to have made it seem more of an upgrade.
I mentioned this in another video, I really think these guys need to add a USB-A output to allow communications with the computer being backed up. All they would need is a USB port and a bit of software that allows the UPS to communicate when the AC goes down and also when the battery is almost dead. With it, you have UPS. Without it, not so much, because the equipment being backed up, has no way to know when to shut down.
These power station solar generators remind me of the large radios or "boomboxes" from back in the day, and I remember the D batteries some of them took. It be nice if these units had a battery compartment to change out the batteries when the batteries cycle time maxed out, and no longer able to hold a charge, though that would require all the manufactures to stay on the same page.
These newer power stations that have the LiFePO4 aim to solve some of that. They are supposed to have a 3,000 charge and empty cycle lifespan. If someone charged and completely drained it everyday that would last 10 years. Who even knows where technology will be in 10 years. We didn’t even have these power stations widely available 10 years ago. That’s makes these a safe bet at least until the next step in tech.
I bought the river 2 pro after watching your video and then discovered something! The DC input in the back is an XT60i! If you get the "i" it can handle 13a instead of the 8a the XT60 can. Your test bumped against the 8a limit of the XT60 plug I'm guessing you used. And it can do simultaneous charging but has a hard limit of 800w. If you set the AC charging lower I've seen it charge from both as long as you are under the hard limit. So no massive charging from everything but it can take input from both at the same time. I see mine do it everyday in the morning since the battery discharged to my backup reserve limit and it starts trickle charging from AC and then also solar until the solar can handle the load.
Main issue I have with Eco-Flow products is the lack of blue-tooth on many of their products and/or functionality. I don't want to have setup a wi-fi network or switch my mobile device over to the Eco-Flow just to check status when I'm camping! This is a HUGE no-go for me. Also if a unit can be used as a UPS then make the inverter output AC outlets grounded to the input AC so the ALL devices that require grounds can function properly and safely - another HUGE design flaw. As Always thank you Professor for your most thorough review - you are my go to for these products, and I was LOL at your ROBOTECH parody!
Can you explain what you mean by the grounding of the ac outputs and inputs? I’m planning on using this unit during an outage situation for my laptop and my three monitors. All 4 devices have 3 pronged plugs. Will this unit pose a problem with devices that use those style plugs?
@@thebbiddim882 I'm not sure if this appiles to this product Professor Hobotech is reviewing in his video (since it appears the AC oulets have a ground pin) as I have and older gen River MAX Plus but the AC Outlets (output) on the the right side do not have grounding prong connection (just blank hollow holes) so unit will no ground outlets to the grounded input (house utility plug). this could be a problem for some electronics require that grounded plug to remain safe and funtion properly. BTW I purchased my Ecoflow River MAX plus refurbed from ecoflow a couple years ago and it just failed when I needed it most to keep a small DC fridge running during a power outage - about to contact Ecoflow on how to get repaird. I'll come back and update you.
i have gotten this 2 to 3 days ago, maybe 4 days ago, and tbh, i love this little guy, when the power does get cut off, i have 2 monitors and a desktop computer, i purchased this ecoflow river 2 pro like at the end of august, and got it september 5th. and tbh, with the watts im pulling out of this is 60 - 100 watts, im able to get 7 hours of runtime, if i don't have my other monitor on, 10 hours of runtime. yes, it does tend to discharge though i have it on the really low watt power which is 100, to prolong the battery life, and i am physically using this as a UPS/EPS, however, i do have an APC back up as well too, and that apc plug is hooked into my ecoflow river 2 pro. yet when the power does get cutout, then it'll switch to ecoflow river 2 pro, and there is a fault, however, i don't believe thats a problem, since i get 7 hours, or maybe 8 hours, with the APC backup i have like an additional 50 minutes or so. Desktop tower pc: under full load its 150 - 175 watts. and that still gives me 5 hours of playtime if i ran that. i will be getting the precon as well, since that can last almost a day and a half!
I bought several EcoFlow battery generators and several of their solar panels. When I went to charge them using the solar panels I found out that you need to buy an accessory MC4 to XT60 connector cable in order to charge these with solar panels. I really like the EcoFlow generators, but I thought this was pretty lousy and I'm sure many will find out the hard way when they have an emergency. BTW, Bluetti does come with a connector to use solar charging.
We need to get this man a couple of Ankers to test. It seems the Anker units are serious contenders in the solar generator space, but for some reason they are missing in Mr. Hobotech's video reviews.
I'm pausing at 17:30 -- THANK YOU FOR YOUR RANT!!! -- Just had to say that. Sincerely.. that rant was necessary. Imho, you and Will have encouraged manufacturers to make better products. Win-Win-Win!!!
I'd like to see that, too. He said it's not for home fridges. But, if my fridge defrost is 555, why couldn't it be a backup for my home fridge during rolling blackout?
Thanks for your Protection and Service. Now that the fan noise is low I will consider it when I buy my next inverter in the fall of 23 or Black Friday, etc.
I don't watch all the way to the end because you seem to play the same end-of-show video. I often bail as soon as you say "subscribe". Suggest you mix it up. Before you say goodbye tell viewers what is coming up for "end-of-show". Create a dozen different exit vids and suprise us. You could ask us to send you images of our solar setups and run those at the end. Maybe even have the cat say different things. Keep up the good work!! Thanks!
@@HOBOTECH I was wondering why I haven't seen anything decent reviewed by them...they look to have really good features but the lack of publicity does seem odd. Larger inverters can be synced and stacked together hopefully someone else will add this, I think it would be awesome
@@HOBOTECH They will do split phase but as far as I can tell if you don't have balanced phases the whole system goes down when 1 unit runs out. It would be nice if you could stack together units on 1 phase and have them communicate to use the batteries more equally, especially if you had multiple different solar strings connected. For example if you have 2 AC300's and 4 different solar strings they'll most likely not get equal amounts of power, you'd have to manually swap around strings or charge 1 AC300 with the other if you wanted to balance them.
Hobotech, I’m really looking forward to seeing your review on the Ecoflow 220W bifacial solar panel. I’m thinking about buying one but want to wait till I see your review first. Love your videos, especially the mad scientist theme. Take care!
I have one of the river 2 maxes and in winter it's on my fish tank. Has the latest firmware and weirdly enough sometimes it switches over instantly and sometimes the light on my tank goes out for a second. So probably still not for computers UPS.... They work nice though, I bought a max instead of a pro and it looks like the pro would have been a better size for me.... but I keep it in my truck back seat and it runs a small air compressor in my box so I'm happy as I have mobile air and an always charged 600w power station with me wharever I go. Sure I could have installed an inverter for the compressor but then it's stuck with the truck and loses the ability to be used elsewhere. Good products sofar It seems
Hi, I’m hoping you have the new Bluetti AC180 in the lab on test somewhere, I would be very interested in your thoughts. I never buy without seeing you review the product first. Excellent channel.
You should use your new YEAPOOK TABLET oscilloscope for your sine wave purity test instead of the LIUMY multimeter. It has a much higher resolution and generally nicer display.
Great looking model (the station, not you professor) and another top review. I think your bang for buck verdict here is spot on, which isn't the norm for the premium brands.
I'm a homeless truck driver. I could really use one of these for the truck.....which I live in. Would you consider selling me one of these. I don't want it for free I'm willing to pay whatever you think is fair. I watch all your reviews and actually really like the vigorpool. You gave that one a great review. Thanks for the vids. Keep it up
Thanks very much for the buzz test for musicians. Hope you enjoyed your time away, but glad your back doing reviews. I’m (prob) working as an outdoor festival musician this autumn. I’m not assuming the venue will have power or a PA & I’ll be primitive camping. The “buzz” is the 1° reason for no Bluetti EB3A. This products checks all the boxes - except for the buzz = no go. I’ve had good experience with BLUE customer service. I anticipate good service from EF. So far, EF Delta 2 is my leading contender. ps. Can you add an “approximate residual power loss” aspect? For everything else your reviews are head and shoulder above anything else I’ve read or watched. pps. Keep this up! Really appreciate your content!
Out of the box, WIFI and Bluetooth did not work on my River 2 Pro. After emails, EcoFlow asked me to proceed with a return. Very disappointing. I will edit this comment and let people know what they might expect when dealing with this company. UPDATE. They were responsive and I would probably deal with them again.
I just ad a massive ice storm in Quebec and lost power for 24h and this power supplies would have been awesome to power my fridge to keep it cool until the power came back 🤙 and I think there a peek power of 1600w for a few seconds for something like a compressor on a fridge to kick in?
im looking at some stats that City Prepper did on the Ecoflow River Pro and his numbers are a little lower 768 DC Cap 628.19 /82% AC cap 610/ 79% using the same discharging contraption you use to discharge the battery. It goes to prove not all of those Rinky Dink Battery discharge units(spinning fan and 007 music included?) measure the same. BTW those ebay units are not what i would call high tech electronic measuring devices.
I have a test request....... Can it be left plugged into solar 24/7, with no worries about it charging up, a couple friends have to babysit their generators, when plugged after the sun is up, nice an sunny, they charge all day, When left alone and plugged 24/7 in they dont charge more than about 10% on the sunniest of days, I my self would like to find a Set it and Forget generator, to power the workshop, thanks for your great testing and info, and the rant was fun too, i think you just egged them on a bit there, 'cause we ALL know your right
Dear Prof. Hobo. A question. The manual states that the device shouldn't be left without charging it for the duration of 6 months in order to keep the warranty valid. I ordered one with production date Dec-22. Nearing 6 months now. Is there a factory exception for the first charge, or how do they deal with store shelf life?
Thank you for your amplifier test. I planned on running to small low current amps for guitar and voice. You saved my day when you revealed the amp buzz when powered by the Ecoflow! Does the Bluetti, Jackery or Anker also create amp buzz? Thank you!
Do you have retry the battery capacity test on the River 2 and River 2 Max to see if they have made a software update to correct the 7X % result? If no, can you please do it? Thanks! By the way, great quality content as usual from you! It's always appreciate!
Does the amount of load affect how fast it can change the power source in a blackout? I guess thinking about it it shouldn't matter since it's all about the relay but maybe the differences in power use of say a laptop under load or a pc under load would force it to shut down due to the speed of transfer?
With the not recommended for amplifier use do to the interference I wonder if it would be ok for in the field HAM radio use. Generally, ham radios are well filtered. Any info you can offer on that?
What I want to see is a company making an all in one mppt solar/ac charger module so we can make our own solar generators with batteries of our choosing. Unlikely though since they would rather sell us the batteries at a high markup
GET THE RIVER 2 PRO: gohobo.io/river2pro code ECOFLOWAFF
[Get it on Amazon: gohobo.io/amzr2pro ]
GET THE R2 MAX: gohobo.io/r2max code ECOFLOWAFF
GET THE RIVER 2: gohobo.io/river2 code ECOFLOWAFF
Ecoflow's Website: gohobo.io/ecoflow code ECOFLOWAFF
Picked up this bad boy with the 220w panel! It was 999$ (already great deal imo those panels are pricey) and your coupon code saved me like 75$ more bucks!
Thanks hobo!
You could make the ups test even more realistic by running a load on the laptop (eg video rendering). While it's sitting idle on the desktop screen, that's exactly when ups isn't all that critical
Load or not doesn't matter.
Code no longer valid. do you have an updated one?
Not sure if I missed it, but not in the links. Does the spare battery work for this?
I bought the Bourgerv 1100wh model upon HOBOTECH’s recommendation for $550 last month. I am afraid my garage will be full of solar generators if I keep watching this channel
How’s your BougeRV 1100wh model treating you?
@@darrellee4953 I’m very happy with it. With a Renogy 175w panel on the roof rack, it charges up to 152w max, and most of the time over 120w. Runs Iceco VL60 fridge for about 50 hours after a full charge.
@@LamoidZombieDog 😃😃😅😅😊
😂
Where did you get this deal?
This is what an engineer wanna see! Not unpackage and dumb tests. Good job!
I purchased this and a Setpower portable fridge/freezer. I ran the firdge/freezer in our car for 5 hours with just the ecoflow river 2 pro. After 5 hours the pro was still at 78%. Pretty impressive in the middle of a Tucson day (110 deg). Quite happy with my purchase.
Hi, did you hear the van blowing while running your fridge? I had my MacBook Air, a webcam and mic running and the van started blowing after 20 min. in the middle of a zoom call.
I have the same set up but the DC output display shows extreme fluctuations in wattage- anywhere from 41 to 59 watts. Are you experiencing the same? Thx
@@judyshorrock7368 Only did this once. I didn't monitor what was going on. I just set it up. Went and did stuff. Ans when I came back this is what I found. So, pretty happy with the setup so far.
As I know is the case with technology, I ordered the Bluetti EB70S just a few short weeks ago. The River 2 Pro was the other contender but it didn't really exist at the time. Still happy with my purchase and of course it is all thanks to the excellent reviews of HOBOTECH. Thanks Professor!
Why didn’t you buy the EB70S?
@@darrellee4953 I did, they don't even make the non-S still do they?
Is it still possible to refund? The River 2 Pro kicks it out of the water.
I bought an EB70S about six months ago and I love it. It just works great. The only thing I wish is that I had a built-in power supply as with the newer units from bluetti and ecoflow.
really appreciate you showing the oscilloscope wave when it switches over from ac to battery
I watch your videos to determine which power supply I will buy. Thanks for the THOROUGH testing, and you cover all the questions a consumer should ask.
Oh, and if you lose your day job, you could try and sell your show to PBS. It would be a great show.
Never thought I would watch a review of a power station that's 25 minutes long. Very nice review, thorough. This answers all my questions, thanks.
I have 2 each EcoFlow, Bluetti, Jackery, Ego and a couple homemade (Battleborn/Chins) power stations in a wide variety of sizes (500wH - 5kwH) and this is one of my favorites. I may get a couple of these.
Why do you have so many?
Good lad.
I live on Maui, we can't get these things shipped here. So I called EcoFlow and they let me know about a dealer on O'ahu called Battery Bob. They were expecting this model soon so I left my information and waited. Today I got the call, paid and they will ship it to my island on the interisland barge. Watching the current CZcams reviews it wasn't too difficult to figure out that this model will serve my needs well.
Good Review as always Prof.Hobo. I have several Ecoflow products now, a 4kw Powerkit and an original Riverpro, both have been wonderful. I was able to score a package deal on the Delta2 with the 220w bifacial folding panel for $1098...I think that's a pretty good deal.
Nice man! I just got the river 2 pro w/ 220 panel for 999 minus hobo code was like 75 off. Thought it was a great deal. I just don’t need a ton of power and liked the smaller size.
I have river pro and used for several camping and long road trip to power my 12v refrigerator. This looks like significant upgrade! I only use DC output and one problem is DC is not very efficient on River Pro. I have two 100w solar panels and I had to connect in parallel. With v2 I can do series (less cable and more efficient) as it supports upto 50v. It also has slightly higher capacity, LFP, and same pass through capability.
THANK YOU for the recommendation and the discount code. I got the River 2 Pro from Amazon during the October prime days and your code still worked. It ended up being 53$ less that the fantastic Costco sale. Great buy!
Hey! Would you be willing to retest the capacity of the two smaller units with the newer firmware? Very interested in seeing if they actually improved. Thanks!
When I want to power a small a/c load with my large power station, I use an old 300 watt inverter. Seems to extend the useful life of the battery with the same load rather than the built in 1000 watt inverter. Thought I'd pass along my experience in case it would be helpful to others.
Yup, I do the same thing. Actually I go one better... most small A/C loads are wall-warts for devices that take 12VDC inputs. Get rid of the wall-wart entirely, turn off the AC output, and run the device from the 12VDC output.
Though unfortunately most of these power stations also have fairly inefficient DC outputs. There is no reason for it, buck converters can be made 95%+ efficient. Why they don't do it? Probably don't want to spend the tiny bit of extra money on parts. Still, at least the DC output doesn't have any vampire current.
I run my cable modem from a little GoLabs' DC output (which doesn't suffer from the 8-hour timeout that the AC output has, either). The cable modem only eats about 5W and the little power station lasts 3 days without mains.
I can also run laptops and mini-PCs from (typically) the USB-C output. You can buy USB-C -> 19V cables (USB-C negotiates the voltage, amperage cap is 5A regardless (100W @ 19V), so you can actually get a decent 19VDC output via a USB-C PD port). And again, they last far longer on backup power verses running them off of AC.
-Matt
Ordered this unit, and the Ecoflow 160 W portable solar panel.
My little brother stole my Ecoflow River Max and solar panel, so now the money that would have gone on his Christmas gift is now going to keep entertainment available in my hunting cabin!
We need another test - How much battery drainage occurs per hour if the AC is turned on but no devices are connected, or what is the parasitic draw? 800w inverter should be low, but these portable devices are very poor in that area in my experience, which also somewhat negates their very purpose.
Nice, this has some really good upgrades over my Bluetti eb70s. I was annoyed by Ecoflow’s marketing that was claiming 1600w capacity on some ads without mentioning the true 800w capacity of the inverter. My only other gripe is with sogen manufacturers in general - they should provide more than 10amps of dc output. They should go up to at least 12 to 15 amps, but I would like to see it go even higher. A wireless charge pad would be nice too, but overall this looks like a really good product!!
Great review Hobo, I intend to buy this one to backup my cable modem + wireless router.
It's worth watching these videos for the UPS rant alone. 😅 Thanks as always!! 😍
Thumbs up 👍 I am impressed with the programming and your ability to create a picture of the capabilities and details. Great job 👏
EDIT yes I watch till you wave 👋 goodbye 😊
Love your rant about the transfer switch....its complete fair and true I agree with everything you are saying...however. I've noticed that in some cases with lights, which often are the most sensitive smart light are less effected like Philip Hues as as dumb LED lights will flicker.
Its 2023. The smart people know to become self reliant with off grid energy solutions having lost faith in their institutions, MSM, academia etc. The most trustworthy man on the internet is a hobo.
Great review as always professor.
I am dubious that capacity can be boosted by 10 or 15% just by firmware changes. Maybe you could retest the smaller River 2 units to see if they've improved.
Yes, I always watch the ending because I’m looking for bloopers. And you never know where you might stick them!
The amp interference test is exceedingly important. If you're trying to work remotely on a laptop thats running off 120v and have to do a video call or anything that records your voice. The mic will have that noise on it as well. Its why I'm so annoyed I didn't watch hobotech's review of the Jackery 1500 before I bought it. Hope some day you can look at the powerkit. Make sure that doesn't have a noisy inverter for #vanlife people trying to work remotely.
Just noticed Devil Doll hanging out in the background! One of the best animations of the era. Long live Devil Doll and Radiskull.
Do your thing man, your tests videos rock.👍
Much better than gen 1 overall. Beyond the LFP, especially like the smaller handle, and now having all the outputs on the face and the main inputs on the back.
Would love to see an updated video of the River 2 Max’s “EPS” feature. Would love to know how quick it engages.
Thank you!
They kind of cheaped out by using the same inverter for the pro model, would have liked to have seen a 1,000 watt inverter and wireless charging.
The only thing extra to make it pro is the battery size, EcoFlow should have added a few more bells and whistles to have made it seem more of an upgrade.
I always watch it to the end so you can get credit for the view.
I mentioned this in another video, I really think these guys need to add a USB-A output to allow communications with the computer being backed up. All they would need is a USB port and a bit of software that allows the UPS to communicate when the AC goes down and also when the battery is almost dead. With it, you have UPS. Without it, not so much, because the equipment being backed up, has no way to know when to shut down.
These power station solar generators remind me of the large radios or "boomboxes" from back in the day, and I remember the D batteries some of them took. It be nice if these units had a battery compartment to change out the batteries when the batteries cycle time maxed out, and no longer able to hold a charge, though that would require all the manufactures to stay on the same page.
These newer power stations that have the LiFePO4 aim to solve some of that. They are supposed to have a 3,000 charge and empty cycle lifespan. If someone charged and completely drained it everyday that would last 10 years.
Who even knows where technology will be in 10 years. We didn’t even have these power stations widely available 10 years ago. That’s makes these a safe bet at least until the next step in tech.
definitley watch the ending on every episode
I bought the river 2 pro after watching your video and then discovered something! The DC input in the back is an XT60i! If you get the "i" it can handle 13a instead of the 8a the XT60 can. Your test bumped against the 8a limit of the XT60 plug I'm guessing you used.
And it can do simultaneous charging but has a hard limit of 800w. If you set the AC charging lower I've seen it charge from both as long as you are under the hard limit. So no massive charging from everything but it can take input from both at the same time. I see mine do it everyday in the morning since the battery discharged to my backup reserve limit and it starts trickle charging from AC and then also solar until the solar can handle the load.
Main issue I have with Eco-Flow products is the lack of blue-tooth on many of their products and/or functionality. I don't want to have setup a wi-fi network or switch my mobile device over to the Eco-Flow just to check status when I'm camping! This is a HUGE no-go for me. Also if a unit can be used as a UPS then make the inverter output AC outlets grounded to the input AC so the ALL devices that require grounds can function properly and safely - another HUGE design flaw. As Always thank you Professor for your most thorough review - you are my go to for these products, and I was LOL at your ROBOTECH parody!
Can you explain what you mean by the grounding of the ac outputs and inputs? I’m planning on using this unit during an outage situation for my laptop and my three monitors. All 4 devices have 3 pronged plugs. Will this unit pose a problem with devices that use those style plugs?
@@thebbiddim882 I'm not sure if this appiles to this product Professor Hobotech is reviewing in his video (since it appears the AC oulets have a ground pin) as I have and older gen River MAX Plus but the AC Outlets (output) on the the right side do not have grounding prong connection (just blank hollow holes) so unit will no ground outlets to the grounded input (house utility plug). this could be a problem for some electronics require that grounded plug to remain safe and funtion properly. BTW I purchased my Ecoflow River MAX plus refurbed from ecoflow a couple years ago and it just failed when I needed it most to keep a small DC fridge running during a power outage - about to contact Ecoflow on how to get repaird. I'll come back and update you.
i have gotten this 2 to 3 days ago, maybe 4 days ago, and tbh, i love this little guy, when the power does get cut off, i have 2 monitors and a desktop computer, i purchased this ecoflow river 2 pro like at the end of august, and got it september 5th. and tbh, with the watts im pulling out of this is 60 - 100 watts, im able to get 7 hours of runtime, if i don't have my other monitor on, 10 hours of runtime. yes, it does tend to discharge though i have it on the really low watt power which is 100, to prolong the battery life, and i am physically using this as a UPS/EPS, however, i do have an APC back up as well too, and that apc plug is hooked into my ecoflow river 2 pro. yet when the power does get cutout, then it'll switch to ecoflow river 2 pro, and there is a fault, however, i don't believe thats a problem, since i get 7 hours, or maybe 8 hours, with the APC backup i have like an additional 50 minutes or so.
Desktop tower pc: under full load its 150 - 175 watts. and that still gives me 5 hours of playtime if i ran that.
i will be getting the precon as well, since that can last almost a day and a half!
I bought several EcoFlow battery generators and several of their solar panels. When I went to charge them using the solar panels I found out that you need to buy an accessory MC4 to XT60 connector cable in order to charge these with solar panels. I really like the EcoFlow generators, but I thought this was pretty lousy and I'm sure many will find out the hard way when they have an emergency. BTW, Bluetti does come with a connector to use solar charging.
A very good review for a good unit. For now my solar generator shelves are full. BUT, ya just never know what new little toy catches my eye,
Yes always watch until the end. I like the Odin microphone scene. Amazing that you captured it. Also like the song from your friend. 😀
We need to get this man a couple of Ankers to test. It seems the Anker units are serious contenders in the solar generator space, but for some reason they are missing in Mr. Hobotech's video reviews.
sounds like you got your answer already
Great unit. I’m leaning that way for my CPAP backup
I'm pausing at 17:30 -- THANK YOU FOR YOUR RANT!!! -- Just had to say that. Sincerely.. that rant was necessary. Imho, you and Will have encouraged manufacturers to make better products. Win-Win-Win!!!
Thank you, Sir! Glad to see the EcoFlow performs pretty well!
PLEASE START DOING FRIDGE RUNTIME TESTS ON ALL THESE WITH YOUR ICECO. ITS THE MOST IMPORTANT TEST
💯
I'd like to see that, too. He said it's not for home fridges. But, if my fridge defrost is 555, why couldn't it be a backup for my home fridge during rolling blackout?
I got tgis for 430$ delivered.....i need it for a 400w car heater.....as i live in it......works wonderfully
Thanks Odin! 🐈⬛
I'm upgrading from a River 2 Max to this River 2 Pro, mainly because of fan noise. Hoping that ~10db difference is real!
Thanks for your Protection and Service. Now that the fan noise is low I will consider it when I buy my next inverter in the fall of 23 or Black Friday, etc.
I always watch until the end - must see Odin and the ATV ride in the desert!
Great Review!
I don't watch all the way to the end because you seem to play the same end-of-show video. I often bail as soon as you say "subscribe". Suggest you mix it up. Before you say goodbye tell viewers what is coming up for "end-of-show". Create a dozen different exit vids and suprise us. You could ask us to send you images of our solar setups and run those at the end. Maybe even have the cat say different things. Keep up the good work!! Thanks!
Thanks for the demo and video, I appreciate the extensive test and technical details. Have a great day
Seems like a good SoGen, but I still prefer the Bluetti, of which I have the EB70.
I bought one of these 5 days ago, looking forward to it getting here!
Would be cool if they start allowing you to link up these smaller inverters and sync the AC outputs for higher power and then also for split phase.
I just discovered Inergy does this on the Kodiak X2
Good luck getting anything from that brand. They are non responsive. Bluetti, Ecoflow all have units that parallel.
@@HOBOTECH I was wondering why I haven't seen anything decent reviewed by them...they look to have really good features but the lack of publicity does seem odd.
Larger inverters can be synced and stacked together hopefully someone else will add this, I think it would be awesome
@@rcguymike Like I said, watch my reviews on AC500 and Delta Pro.
@@HOBOTECH They will do split phase but as far as I can tell if you don't have balanced phases the whole system goes down when 1 unit runs out. It would be nice if you could stack together units on 1 phase and have them communicate to use the batteries more equally, especially if you had multiple different solar strings connected. For example if you have 2 AC300's and 4 different solar strings they'll most likely not get equal amounts of power, you'd have to manually swap around strings or charge 1 AC300 with the other if you wanted to balance them.
One of the most thorough reviws I've ever seen, Excellent thankyou, subscribed
Subscribed and liked thanks for the great content. Bought one of these last night after watching your videos.
Hobotech,
I’m really looking forward to seeing your review on the Ecoflow 220W bifacial solar panel. I’m thinking about buying one but want to wait till I see your review first. Love your videos, especially the mad scientist theme.
Take care!
I have one of the river 2 maxes and in winter it's on my fish tank. Has the latest firmware and weirdly enough sometimes it switches over instantly and sometimes the light on my tank goes out for a second. So probably still not for computers UPS.... They work nice though, I bought a max instead of a pro and it looks like the pro would have been a better size for me.... but I keep it in my truck back seat and it runs a small air compressor in my box so I'm happy as I have mobile air and an always charged 600w power station with me wharever I go. Sure I could have installed an inverter for the compressor but then it's stuck with the truck and loses the ability to be used elsewhere. Good products sofar It seems
Hi, I’m hoping you have the new Bluetti AC180 in the lab on test somewhere, I would be very interested in your thoughts. I never buy without seeing you review the product first. Excellent channel.
Thanks much for the review on this product. I just bought one and am waiting from delivery. Can't wait to start using it.
Great video, ran all the tests I wanted to see, especially seeing the sine wave.
You should use your new YEAPOOK TABLET oscilloscope for your sine wave purity test instead of the LIUMY multimeter. It has a much higher resolution and generally nicer display.
Great looking model (the station, not you professor) and another top review. I think your bang for buck verdict here is spot on, which isn't the norm for the premium brands.
Best review on the internet!! Thanks.
I was just updating my eco max 2 and I hope they keep improving their products and specially the firmware...great throughout test...!!!
I have the max and I like it very much ..best power stain around ..
13:55.. ish... Best rant ever, HOBO! and a greatly informative video as well!
Thanks Professor. Like the crystal skull laptop background picture.
Hey Hobotech, love the ending in your videos!
At first I didn't watch the ending. But once I saw it, I do watch till the end most of the time. Odin is the boss, so yeah we are at his command.
I'm a homeless truck driver. I could really use one of these for the truck.....which I live in. Would you consider selling me one of these. I don't want it for free I'm willing to pay whatever you think is fair. I watch all your reviews and actually really like the vigorpool. You gave that one a great review. Thanks for the vids. Keep it up
I love how I get an add Bluetti Ac60 in the misfire of your review
Thanks very much for the buzz test for musicians.
Hope you enjoyed your time away, but glad your back doing reviews. I’m (prob) working as an outdoor festival musician this autumn. I’m not assuming the venue will have power or a PA & I’ll be primitive camping.
The “buzz” is the 1° reason for no Bluetti EB3A. This products checks all the boxes - except for the buzz = no go.
I’ve had good experience with BLUE customer service. I anticipate good service from EF.
So far, EF Delta 2 is my leading contender.
ps. Can you add an “approximate residual power loss” aspect? For everything else your reviews are head and shoulder above anything else I’ve read or watched.
pps. Keep this up! Really appreciate your content!
I use a Ecoflow river to power the local cemetery service, I didn't know where the humming was coming from til now
Ghosts?
Out of the box, WIFI and Bluetooth did not work on my River 2 Pro. After emails, EcoFlow asked me to proceed with a return. Very disappointing. I will edit this comment and let people know what they might expect when dealing with this company. UPDATE. They were responsive and I would probably deal with them again.
Really looking forward to the EcoFlow bifacial solar panel review !
Yes I watch the ending it’s all part of it
I wanted one.!! My question is , would it pwr up a space heater and would it losses its power in cold weather (-2).
I'll be ordering one of these for sure!
Fun HOBOTECH jingle at the end of the review! 🙂
I just ad a massive ice storm in Quebec and lost power for 24h and this power supplies would have been awesome to power my fridge to keep it cool until the power came back 🤙 and I think there a peek power of 1600w for a few seconds for something like a compressor on a fridge to kick in?
@hobotech that b perfect for my 150 watt heat lamp n other mars hydro stuff for my 2.3 by 2.3 kit lol but my set up only runs at 220 watts
Thanks for the review !! Any updated codes to offer ? Just watched today and of course code is expired...
It's not supposed to be deactivated yet. I'll contact EcoFlow to reactivate but it's Chinese Labor Day so it will take a few days.
im looking at some stats that City Prepper did on the Ecoflow River Pro and his numbers are a little lower
768 DC Cap 628.19 /82% AC cap 610/ 79% using the same discharging contraption you use to discharge the battery. It goes to prove not all of those Rinky Dink Battery discharge units(spinning fan and 007 music included?) measure the same. BTW those ebay units are not what i would call high tech electronic measuring devices.
Great review. One request. Can you maybe create content on how to test these please? I’ll like to learn how that’s done. Thanks
I have a test request.......
Can it be left plugged into solar 24/7, with no worries about it charging up,
a couple friends have to babysit their generators, when plugged after the sun is up, nice an sunny, they charge all day, When left alone and plugged 24/7 in they dont charge more than about 10% on the sunniest of days,
I my self would like to find a Set it and Forget generator, to power the workshop,
thanks for your great testing and info, and the rant was fun too, i think you just egged them on a bit there, 'cause we ALL know your right
Dear Prof. Hobo. A question. The manual states that the device shouldn't be left without charging it for the duration of 6 months in order to keep the warranty valid. I ordered one with production date Dec-22. Nearing 6 months now. Is there a factory exception for the first charge, or how do they deal with store shelf life?
Good question
Thank you for your amplifier test. I planned on running to small low current amps for guitar and voice. You saved my day when you revealed the amp buzz when powered by the Ecoflow! Does the Bluetti, Jackery or Anker also create amp buzz? Thank you!
Do you have retry the battery capacity test on the River 2 and River 2 Max to see if they have made a software update to correct the 7X % result? If no, can you please do it?
Thanks!
By the way, great quality content as usual from you!
It's always appreciate!
Excellent review. Thank you so much. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
great review. also, to funny about apcs all over the house. I think I have at least 10 of them, basically hooked to every thing I can.
im very happy with my river 2
Does the amount of load affect how fast it can change the power source in a blackout? I guess thinking about it it shouldn't matter since it's all about the relay but maybe the differences in power use of say a laptop under load or a pc under load would force it to shut down due to the speed of transfer?
With the not recommended for amplifier use do to the interference I wonder if it would be ok for in the field HAM radio use. Generally, ham radios are well filtered. Any info you can offer on that?
Fantastic thorough review.
Good in-depth review, thanks
What I want to see is a company making an all in one mppt solar/ac charger module so we can make our own solar generators with batteries of our choosing. Unlikely though since they would rather sell us the batteries at a high markup
They do exist
Check out the Licitti battery box
Any plans to test the VDL solar power stations? What do you think of them? Particularly the 1200 and 1500 watt ones.