Finally bought my first Bluetti (AC200P)!

[erik.calco]

This splurge started when I bought another 10,000 mAh power bank, than a 20,000 one, than a 63,000 one (which I love, but that deserves another thread), all to power a laptop all day outside. I just couldn't stop. Then I saw the refurbished Bluetti AC200P being sold by Bluetti itself, with 2000 wh of LiFePO4 for only $800, including shipping, I tried as hard as I could to not hit the ebay BUY NOW button for as long as I could, but 10 minutes just flew by. Those of us who have watched Will's channel since his RV days know that I don't even have to check the specs for a temp sensor. IIRC, I've watched Will hack his Tesla to charge one up off it lol. Still the best Tesla hack I've seen to-date.

Can't review it, yet, as I won't receive it until Monday. Tracking shows it is about 30 minute drive away. I'd try to find a way to pick it up from UPS today, but it is cloudy lol.

My primary justification is that I have 2x320W solar panels lying around not being used, and should be able to just plug those in, as the Bluetti comes with MC4 hookup. On a good day, I can charge the Bluetti up from 0% to to 100% in 4 hours.

@Will Prowse Is Bluetti still your favorite?

 

[bmsim]

How are you liking the AC200P? My experience is that if you use it for what it is designed for, portable solar power, it is awesome, but if you try to use it to do anything in-house it can be a bit problematic. Bluetti advertises that you can expand with batteries, but the expansion doesn't quite work like you'd imagine. The batteries actually connect via the PV input, and essentially rid you of a solar input. You then can buy a "charge enhancer" to connect solar to the charge port, but you're limited to I think 60v or 500w, instead of the 150v 700w it can accept via the dedicated PV port. The AC200P then won't charge the expansion battery until the main is at 100%. Now, you can buy another charge enhancer ($200) and PV directly into the expansion battery as well, but that's also a bit unwieldy. IMO, there needs to be a dedicated battery expansion port so that PV input is unaffected. I will say with the non-expanded AC200P and a $200 charge enhancer, you can put 150v plus 60v at 700w plus 500w (1200w) into the unit, which is some decent input during the day.

 

[M.Damon]

Thanks for sharing.
Compared to AC200P, I am more interested in the latest product model of the AC200 series from BLUETTI, the AC200L! It no longer requires a charging brick and is much more convenient. It supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.
I am particularly interested in during Black Friday.

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

IMHO, "solar generators" are basically the mythological "sirens" of the industry ... very few can initially resist their call.

The things are sleek, small, sexy ... lots of ports and flashing lights, etc. What you can't see is that very small, low-capacity battery hiding behind the multi-thousand dollar curtain. I don't mind spending thousands, but it didn't take much research to pull back the curtain and determine that the battery in that thing is its achille's heel.

Which is why, when I heard the siren's call, my "research first" charm/ward hanging around my neck helped me resist the call long enough to find the flaw(s) in their sales strategy for these things, and just build a DIY hand-truck solar generator. Yielded a whole lot more capacity, for a whole lot less bucks ...

Still no flashing lights, and very few sexy ports to plug into ... but, a lot more capacity.

Resist the call ...