diy solar

diy solar

EcoFlow R600

Let me know what you guys think

Very cool about the valence batteries gazoo

Hi Will, After watching your second update review, your remarks related to the letter you received from the CEO, and the back and forth with EcoFlo, it is clear why you made the remarks you did in your first video. I greatly appreciate your transparency with the second video. Unless a miracle happens with the R600 Pro, I am going to stay away from EcoFlo period. I know you recommend waiting until the product is actually out to see other reviews, and I know better too but the $100.00 savings is attractive. However I am now leaning more towards a DIY which has the biggest advantage of knowing exactly what one has.

The 2 Valence batteries I have are hooked in parallel. This was my first DIY of this type. Very simple. I have a 10 amp charger and a 300 watt sine wave inverter. I like the cheap Chinese meters too and am using a 100 amp Juntek. Similar to the Drok but it's wireless. The batteries are set in a Newport Vessels battery box. Btw I noticed as you did when I put more load on the Valence batteries I achieved more capacity. Definitely better then 90% capacity between the two. One has a bit more capacity than the other one. The only thing I don't like about them is their relatively high self discharge rate. But they are awesome.

Anyways I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all you do. I have a very good picture of your frustrations with EcoFlo. Shame because as you said it's exactly what we want. Very curious why the one R600 died. I guess R&D didn't think to add a "reset" button to the units?
 
I'm willing to forgive EcoFlow and give them a second chance as long as they make things right with their product and customers. That said, the jury is still out for me on the usable battery capacity issue alone.

I'd like to see the R600 series succeed. I think it offers a lot of versatility to customers. For my 3-4 day camping trips the R600 Pro would do nicely. I could erect a couple of 100w flex panels (I know, Will hates flex panels) at my campsite and power my portable fridge and few other items and still charge in a decent amount of time. The R600 Pro with 768w LiFePo, MPPT controller, and 600w+ inverter is plenty enough to fit my camping or day use needs at a seemingly reasonable price. Ok, my .02 cents are over!
 
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I'm willing to forgive EcoFlow and give them a second chance as long as they make things right with their product and customers. That said, the jury is still out for me on the usable battery capacity issue alone.

I'd like to see the R600 series succeed. I think it offers a lot of versatility to customers. For my 3-4 day camping trips the R600 Pro would do nicely. I could erect a couple of 100w flex panels (I know, Will hates flex panels) at my campsite and power my portable fridge and few other items and still charge in a decent amount of time. The R600 Pro with 768w LiFePo, MPPT controller, and 600w+ inverter is plenty enough to fit my camping or day use needs at a seemingly reasonable price. Ok, my .02 cents are over!

I am with you all the way except the next chance will actually be their 3rd. chance. I really would like having a portable UPS with the fast recharge time. I have no where to put solar panels as I live in an apartment that doesn't get much sun but that could change later. I am not interested at all in hooking two of these together. I am interested in the add on that allows for more capacity. As I said I love innovation and hope EcoFlo can live up to it's promises. As far as useable capacity for the Pro I am thinking it might be better but who knows for sure? Looking forward to a rewiew.
 
I am with you all the way except the next chance will actually be their 3rd. chance. I really would like having a portable UPS with the fast recharge time. I have no where to put solar panels as I live in an apartment that doesn't get much sun but that could change later. I am not interested at all in hooking two of these together. I am interested in the add on that allows for more capacity. As I said I love innovation and hope EcoFlo can live up to it's promises. As far as useable capacity for the Pro I am thinking it might be better but who knows for sure? Looking forward to a rewiew.
If they finally get that thing squared away I might be sorry I didn't wait for a 600 Pro with 1500w battery. Right now I have a Bluetti 150 with a pretty good useable battery capacity and a 1000w inverter that works.
 
Bluetti makes good stuff. I have been wondering if EcoFlo is limiting charge/discharge cutoffs to extend battery life. That may account for the lower capacity than expected in Will's video and the EcoFlo Delta. I have read about other manufacturers doing the same with lithium batteries and then people complain they are not getting full capacity. I don't know if they are doing this with LifePo4 as well. But all of the manufacturers need to start being honest about the actual useable capacity. More people are getting smart to it.
 
Bluetti makes good stuff. I have been wondering if EcoFlo is limiting charge/discharge cutoffs to extend battery life. That may account for the lower capacity than expected in Will's video and the EcoFlo Delta. I have read about other manufacturers doing the same with lithium batteries and then people complain they are not getting full capacity. I don't know if they are doing this with LifePo4 as well. But all of the manufacturers need to start being honest about the actual useable capacity. More people are getting smart to it.
More people are getting smart to it thanks to people like Will. I would have known nothing about usable capacity or inverter loss and to look for 12v regulated if not for watching Will's videos.
 
For sure would like to test with the Valence batteries. They still have amazing capacity for their age. Especially the second one I ordered from Ebay. The label on that one was missing and the led indicator light on the battery was dead. The voltage was only 3.7 volts. I thought I got a dud. But I hooked up a cheap wall wart power supply to it and the led indicator light alternated between green and red and a few seconds later was blinking yellow. At this point the voltage jumped to 11.6 volts. When I removed the power supply the voltage dropped to 7.6 volts but the indicator led kept blinking yellow. So I hooked up my 10 amp charger and shortly the indicator led started blinking green. What surprised me is the capacity of the battery is almost as if it was new...close to 40ah.

The green light was blinking on the first battery I ordered but I don't remember what the initial voltage was on it. Between the two batteries I am getting better than 950wh out of them. Since my inverter is only 300 watts I can't run a big load. But between the two batteries I can run my LG 55" OLED TV for at least 9 hours and on the last test I pulled 1000wh. Almost the full capacity of the batteries. I cut it off at 11 volts. Thing is though the TV's power draw varies considerably. If watching Dolby Vision it draws a considerable amount of power compared to watching standard content.

There are so many things to think about as far as alternatives to the 600 Pro. Regardless if I decide to get it or not I plan on building a new battery pack. And if I get it I will have to build a 24 volt pack.
 
If my calculations are correct this thing is only getting about 75-76% capacity from the battery through the inverter. Not very good! I get at least 85% from my Bluetti. At the end the guy says it should be noted that it's a prototype. That doesn't give me a warm and cozy feeling even at $499. with a 3 year warranty. From what I've seen, EcoFlow doesn't have the best record when it comes to useable battery capacity. What say you?

 
If my calculations are correct this thing is only getting about 75-76% capacity from the battery through the inverter. Not very good! I get at least 85% from my Bluetti. At the end the guy says it should be noted that it's a prototype. That doesn't give me a warm and cozy feeling even at $499. with a 3 year warranty. From what I've seen, EcoFlow doesn't have the best record when it comes to useable battery capacity. What say you?

You said it yourself. it's a prototype and the capacity has been restricted. To me, that makes the entire test pointless but it is what it is. Their previous product, the Delta, gets around 80% and this newer battery chemistry and BMS aren't going to perform worse. I'll be getting a Max to beta test today and will be definitely checking the round-trip efficiency.
 
You said it yourself. it's a prototype and the capacity has been restricted. To me, that makes the entire test pointless but it is what it is. Their previous product, the Delta, gets around 80% and this newer battery chemistry and BMS aren't going to perform worse. I'll be getting a Max to beta test today and will be definitely checking the round-trip efficiency.
I'll be interested to see what you find.
 
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Has anyone seen any 3rd party reviews / tests of the R600 Pro?
I'm eagerly awaiting mine... I won't be using it full time as I have a decent solar/lithium setup in the car, but will be great as a standby for power outages, and as a 2nd power source when camping.
One wish would be that the 12DC output 5521 ports were Anderson Powerpole, but I can live with it - 5A is enough for my 40L SnoMaster fridge if I decide to take it out of the car.
 
I'm quite excited by the prospects of the R600 Pro + EF-1500. As I joined the campaign at the last moment and ordered the PRO Kit, mine wont ship until November.

I've been studying the youtube videos of Will, Ecoflow and Jehugarcia and their recommended resources of the DIY lithium battery book, and Will's page.



Looking in particular at :
Will's Battleborn LiFePO4 teardown

Jehugarcia's Delta Teardown

Ecoflow's BMS video

Will's Renogy LiFePO4 teardown

It is clear that these batteries all share similar construction and parts.

Whilst Will links to numerous raw cell vendors on Aliexpress and Amazon, they're all Chinese made cells (some A grade, some B grade, some used) that need bus bars, temperature sensors, BMSs, soldering of terminals, tape, wiring and an enclosure. DIY won't give you a lengthy warranty nor UL certification.

The Renogy smart 100Ah and Battle born 100Ah batteries look ideal drop in Lead/AGM replacements with outstanding build quality and manufacturer's warranty, at $900 and $950 respectively.

From Jehugarcia's Delta teardown the build quality and materials look comarable to a Battle born, and Will's Renogy teardown looks comparable to Ecoflow's BMS video.

Ecoflow on kickstarter have explained the R600 and EF-1500 battery configuration

EcoFlowCreator
about 1 month ago
Hi Adherent,

R600 PRO: 3.2*8*1*30 = 768Wh. 3.2 is the platform voltage of lithium iron phosphate, 8 is the number of cells in series, 1 is the number of cells in parallel, and 30 is the number of cells in Ah.

The EF-1500 external battery is as follows: 3.2*8*2*30 = 1536Wh

R600: 3.6*8*5*2 = 288Wh, 3.6 is the platform voltage of the ternary cell, 8 is the number of cells in series, 5 is the number of cells in parallel, and 2 is the number of cells in Ah.

R600 Max: 288*2 = 576wh.


This is clearly demonstrated here

The R600 contains modules of 2 LiFoPO4 cells, one cell on each side of a plastic frame, stacked with 8 cells in the R600 Pro and 16 cells in the EF-1500.

Now I could order these type of cells from Aliexpress for around $30-35 each, cheaper in bulk.

But there would be no BMS, no enclosure, no terminals, no charge controller and a so-so warranty.

There are DIY kits for cylindrical cells, but not for flat LiFePO4 cells https://jag35.com/collections/pcb-based-products/products/hi-power-7s-battery-module-kit

I could not buy the raw cells + parts to build a fully enclosed 1536Wh LiFePO4 battery bank for $599.

I can't think of any down sides, the Ecoflow inverters seem to be only 80% efficient, but this can be overcome with a 24V inverter.
The EF-1500 can't be charged via your own MPPT to its battery terminals, but charges via XT60 and the R600.

The EF-1500 has a 3 year carefree warranty, has DC output (car/USB), battery indicator LEDs, a solar input charge controller, and 24V output terminals.

Seeing the Delta teardown, I expect the R600 Pro/EF-1500 build quality to be on par with the $900 Renogy 100Ah smart battery. The PRO Kit is expensive, but 1/3 the price of Goalzero Yeti Link Module.

There are risks with crowdfunding that the delivered product might not match the renders, features, or contain glitches (like Will's R600 beta - but at least the R600 Pro has another 2-3 months development time and it has updateable firmware) but Ecoflow have successfully delivered on their 3 earlier indiegogo/kickstarter campaigns and they are honoured my warranty for a Delta1300.
 
The EF-1500 is an interesting piece of equipment - Built-in 200W MPPT controller so can be directly connected to solar, and 24v output via terminals - that's pretty decent, and could be run stand-alone - just no visibility of capacity etc. For the price, that's pretty good.
I have the R600 Pro which will hopefully be with me soon-ish. I seriously thought about getting a couple of the EF-1500s as well, (think of them as electric jerry cans), but couldn't justify them to myself right now.
 
According to the Ecoflow replies on kickstarter, the EF-1500 has LED lights indicating the battery charge.

As the EF-1500 only has XT60 and R600 inputs, in an RV setup maybe you would need to split your panels onto banks of 2*100w parallel, rather than say 4*100w panels in series.

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Perhaps the A123 complete battery is a nice alternative, but Bigbattery only list a 30 day return window, and no mention of the cells' expected number of cycles.
 
I've thought long & hard about that for my own use-case, which is mainly for camping (I guess the cool kids call it overlanding now), or emergency use at home.
In my car I have a 100w panel on the roof, 2x50AH Lithium batteries, and a dual-input 25A DC-DC charger (Redarc BCDC1225) which according to my Victron battery monitor gives me between 300 & 350W output (when the engine is running). I could add the 2 portable Ecoflow panels that I ordered with the R600 Pro all in parallel, and charge the house batteries and the R600 all at the same time, considering the R600 will only accept 200W through the XT60 port. I could also pull 200W straight from the alternator into the R600/EF1500 bypassing the DC-DC... It's easy when the engine is running :cool: Of course the R600 will take 500w AC input...
Basically the charging possibilities are pretty much endless if you put your mind to it :)
 
The EF-1500 is an interesting piece of equipment - Built-in 200W MPPT controller so can be directly connected to solar, and 24v output via terminals - that's pretty decent, and could be run stand-alone - just no visibility of capacity etc. For the price, that's pretty good.
I have the R600 Pro which will hopefully be with me soon-ish. I seriously thought about getting a couple of the EF-1500s as well, (think of them as electric jerry cans), but couldn't justify them to myself right now.

The electric jerry cans are an interesting idea and I'm wondering if you were thinking about just hooking up the 24v output of one straight into the xt60 MPPT of the other or of the R600?
 
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