EB3A "Overload" When Used as Uninterruptible Power Supply

[mactech]

Not that I'm aware of. My personal early-production EB3A had two initial firmware updates when I first bought it and then none since-- I just checked last week. It may be that other EB3A's are getting them, but my personal unit is not.

While monitoring with the Bluetti app, in AC UPS mode, battery @ 100% with 140W load, the battery will drop to 99% every 45 minutes.

At that point it draws another 100w from my (grid) solar for about a minute and a clicking sound can be heard in the unit. It then goes back to Grid = AC with battery @ 100. The additional draw from my solar can be seen in PowerWatch software.

Hopefully, it will not repeat again but I wasn't monitoring the solar output when it tripped last night.

The unit gets warm and emits an distinct odor.

 

[Rabbit]

While monitoring with the Bluetti app, in AC UPS mode, battery @ 100% with 140W load, the battery will drop to 99% every 45 minutes.

At that point it draws another 100w from my (grid) solar for about a minute and a clicking sound can be heard in the unit. It then goes back to Grid = AC with battery @ 100. The additional draw from my solar can be seen in PowerWatch software.

Hopefully, it will not repeat again but I wasn't monitoring the solar output when it tripped last night.

The unit gets warm and emits an distinct odor.

I have owned four solar generators as of this writing. None of the others have ever gotten even remotely near as hot as my EB3A did after the brief power outage described above, though I noted no smell. It may be that mine is extra-bad somehow or perhaps there's more than one root cause of these problems, so that yours may well behave entirely differently than mine. Note that mine was at 100% when I found it, with the fan screaming along at the very top speed. Indeed, many EB3A owners seem to experience no problems at all, and I envy them. But after finding the unit so hot even just that one time I'll never attempt to use this specific power box in backup mode ever again. I still use the EB3A for other purposes-- it came in handy in support of a phone and laptop on a weekend trip just forty-eight hours ago as I type this. That one severe overheat, however, was scary enough that I'll never trust this individual, specific device again in backup mode, even for non-medical gear. I watch it _closely_ whenever I use it or recharge it, except when using a relatively gentle 100 watt DC source to recharge. (This is my normal method.)

Good luck!

 

[mactech]

I have owned four solar generators as of this writing. None of the others have ever gotten even remotely near as hot as my EB3A did after the brief power outage described above, though I noted no smell. It may be that mine is extra-bad somehow or perhaps there's more than one root cause of these problems, so that yours may well behave entirely differently than mine. Note that mine was at 100% when I found it, with the fan screaming along at the very top speed. Indeed, many EB3A owners seem to experience no problems at all, and I envy them. But after finding the unit so hot even just that one time I'll never attempt to use this specific power box in backup mode ever again. I still use the EB3A for other purposes-- it came in handy in support of a phone and laptop on a weekend trip just forty-eight hours ago as I type this. That one severe overheat, however, was scary enough that I'll never trust this individual, specific device again in backup mode, even for non-medical gear. I watch it _closely_ whenever I use it or recharge it, except when using a relatively gentle 100 watt DC source to recharge. (This is my normal method.)

Good luck!

I have not felt this unit to be hot at any time, I hardly push it and only use it to cover the 10 seconds I might switch from solar to grid in my office and keep the computers running.

That is very concerning.

 

[mactech]

The darn thing didn't last but 6 hours before Overload appeared while powering a 150w load on AC UPS mode

Piece of junk doesn't do the exact thing I bought it for.

 

[Rabbit]

The darn thing didn't last but 6 hours before Overload appeared while powering a 150w load on AC UPS mode

Piece of junk doesn't do the exact thing I bought it for.

Mine failed consistently with a 40 watt load. For what it's worth, as I said above Bluetti offered me a refund and I turned it down on the basis of convincing them that I was sincere and not just after a "free" replacement product. (Also, after waking up with my health at least slightly damaged and seeing so many other negative reports on the EB3A I'd never again trust an identical replacement for this purpose anyway, so why not save myself the trouble of the return and keep what I've already got since it works just fine for everything else?) I remain very concerned that people are going to rely on the EB3A for backing up the power supply of a CPAP, a usage case which Bluetti specifically and actively advertises, and end up dead as a result. I'm absolutely stunned to still see these things un-fixed, un-recalled and still being actively marketed for use with medical devices while the underlying problems clearly remain unresolved. I'm not an investor, but if I were I'd seriously consider shorting Bluetti stock. I think there's a very real chance of this all blowing up into a mushroom cloud of high-dollar lawsuits on them.

 

[CChrisS]

Yep, nothing but problems with mine also. Soon after I got it, it decided to spontaneously discharge its battery bank with nothing plugged into it. Then, it wouldn't display accurate charge condition, so Bluetti told me to "train" the thing with charge/discharge cycles without any draw during charge. That helped for a minute but then it reverted to it's normal facocta condition. Then today "OVERLOAD" with only a single M1 Macbook Pro plugged into it. I'm done with Bluetti.

 

[mactech]

Yep, nothing but problems with mine also. Soon after I got it, it decided to spontaneously discharge its battery bank with nothing plugged into it. Then, it wouldn't display accurate charge condition, so Bluetti told me to "train" the thing with charge/discharge cycles without any draw during charge. That helped for a minute but then it reverted to it's normal facocta condition. Then today "OVERLOAD" with only a single M1 Macbook Pro plugged into it. I'm done with Bluetti.

Did you update your firmware recently? That fixed my issues.

 

[CChrisS]

Did you update your firmware recently? That fixed my issues.

Yes, I sure did. That was the first thing I did. I had so many issues with this thing they have just offered to replace it, so maybe a newer version will be without the inherent issues. I'm not surprised they discontinued the EB3A. I'm aghast that Newegg is selling "reconditioned" versions of this thing that has so many issues.

 

[mactech]

Yes, I sure did. That was the first thing I did. I had so many issues with this thing they have just offered to replace it, so maybe a newer version will be without the inherent issues. I'm not surprised they discontinued the EB3A. I'm aghast that Newegg is selling "reconditioned" versions of this thing that has so many issues.

That's too bad. I was disappointed in it, so much so I bought an Ecoflow Delta2 Max for my office UPS and not another Bluetti.

 

[Kremer]

The new little Bluetti, the AC2A, does not exhibit these issues in UPS mode and is pretty solid. They have learned.

 

[CChrisS]

That's too bad. I was disappointed in it, so much so I bought an Ecoflow Delta2 Max for my office UPS and not another Bluetti.

I've actually been looking at the Ecoflow River on amazon but Bluetti is sending me a new unit, so that'll have to wait.

 

[CChrisS]

The new little Bluetti, the AC2A, does not exhibit these issues in UPS mode and is pretty solid. They have learned.

Yeah, I'm hoping that's what they send me to replace my wonky EB3A.

 

[CChrisS]

Bluetti sent me a new EB3A to replace the wonky reconditioned one I got from Newegg and again, issues. It only charges to 84%. I contacted Bluetti and they want me to "perform SOC learning.":

First discharge the machine to 0, then fully charge it to 100. During discharging, it can carry equipment with a power of about 50-100w. Do not carry any equipment during charging. Doing SOC learning several more times may improve this problem.

I asked them why, if this is a requirement for a new EB3A, they don't indicate this stuff up front before people buy one.

 

[Kremer]

If it’s sat for a bit it may be out of pack balance. I’d just plug it in and leave it overnight until it stops taking power. Then discharge at low load, like 50-100W running a fan until it shuts off, plug back in overnight.

 

[Vigo]

The theory behind it makes sense, but it sucks that they didnt build in some kind of functionality that would prevent people having to either A. understand the issue on their own, or B. contact customer support for a procedure that's not mentioned in any of the documentation.

To me it seems like almost all of these balance issues could be addressed by just having a balance function that wasn't in the low single milliamps as most seem to be. These batteries can take a pretty high C-rate of charge, so it seems like most pack balancing could be accomplished pretty swiftly without requiring long time periods at top or bottom of SOC, if they just built in hardware that could handle higher balance current. Maybe that's oversimplistic..

 

[CChrisS]

If it’s sat for a bit it may be out of pack balance. I’d just plug it in and leave it overnight until it stops taking power. Then discharge at low load, like 50-100W running a fan until it shuts off, plug back in overnight.

I'm camping full time so plugging it in overnight isn't an option but I'll try that the next time I have access to AC overnight, thanks.

 

[CChrisS]

The theory behind it makes sense, but it sucks that they didnt build in some kind of functionality that would prevent people having to either A. understand the issue on their own, or B. contact customer support for a procedure that's not mentioned in any of the documentation.

To me it seems like almost all of these balance issues could be addressed by just having a balance function that wasn't in the low single milliamps as most seem to be. These batteries can take a pretty high C-rate of charge, so it seems like most pack balancing could be accomplished pretty swiftly without requiring long time periods at top or bottom of SOC, if they just built in hardware that could handle higher balance current. Maybe that's oversimplistic..

This has been an issue for both of the EB3A I have had recently. Is this common with other similar units not made by Bluetti? It seems very odd to me that a consumer would have to "train" the thing.