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Omni Off-grid (1500Wh, 100W USB-C, 1500W inverter)

maukka

New Member
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Jul 6, 2020
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Didn't find any discussion about the upcoming Omni Off-grid.

Someone has leaked the early bird IGG price, which at supposedly $1199 ($2099 retail) seems fine for the multitude of features. It launches on October 19th.

Here's hoping Will will get a review unit as soon as possible.

1500Wh battery (expandable, modular and user replaceable)
1500W inverter (4x AC outlets with dust covers)
4x 100W USB-C PD
4x USB-A (QC 3.0)
12V cigarette lighter output
DC output with adjustable voltage (not visible in the photos, but shows on the app? Maybe integrated to the 12V output)
XT60 input
Anderson input
Aviation input
Work light
MPPT solar charging circuit
Smartphone app
Lora Mesh networking (walkie talkies, gps locator, trackers etc.) *Likely an optional feature*

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Ecoflow sent out a survey a couple of months ago about a follow-up to the Delta. The Omni Off-Grid basically lines up with my replies in that survey (expandable storage, efficient AC inverter) so I'm tempted to sign up. Is anybody here familiar with them?
 
The Omni Off-grid campaign is live on Indiegogo

The aviation plug acts as an input and output (with adjustable voltage).
 
LoRA is a really interesting idea. Wish it has better waterproof design.

The company behind the campaign has good design in the past product but bad reputation on sub quality & capacity of internal battery.

Not sure if the internal battery is really user replaceable....
 
I just saw that they upgraded this unit to Lifepo4 cells and the inverter to 2kw. This thing seems pretty impressive with the 1.5kw expandable battery and the Lora feature.

Damn, I just received my AC200P yesterday!
 

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The updated technical specs seem decent compared to similar units and I like the expandability. It's also encouraging that they appear to be a legitimate company with a history of past campaigns, so it's unlikely to be a total scam. As noted by "Mutant", several commenters from their past campaigns have flagged problems with the products after receiving them.

The more I look at these IndieGogo campaigns, it's increasingly clear to me that backers are taking a HUGE risk. LEOCH, Monster X, ElecHive all appear to have various issues with missed dates, infrequent communication, and product reliability. Even the AC200 ran into issues. Yes, backers got a solid price, but many are still waiting for their product and became frustrated when the AC200P launched with better specs (albeit at a much higher price).

So it's possible you could save money but it seems like the odds are not in your favor. It's more likely you're going to find the product never arrives, is significantly delayed, or is a piece of crap. At the very least, you'll likely be disappointed in some way or another.

Crowdfunding is tempting but I'd prefer to stick to the standard retail channels and look out for trusted reviews/testing of a product before ordering.
 
As of yesterday the secret indiegogo perk link, as well as the password protected website link were still active for the $1199 price.

Not a bad price for 2000kWh LiFePO4 and 1500W inverter.

However looking at the comments section of their past 3 campaigns, quite a few people complaining that their devices are dead within a year or so. Others complaining that they never received their order.
 
So risk-tolerance emerges as a key factor in purchase decisions when I read over the posts in this thread. The low price for campaign backers is very tempting, but overall the old adage "you get what you pay for" seems more often true than false in the solar generator marketplace. It's not a bargain if it's broken in a short time or the build quality is sub par.
 
The updated specs are solid. For my use cases I would like it to be able to charge fast from AC like the Ecoflow Delta. EDIT: faster 600W charging is possible through the XT60/Anderson solar input. I can't tell if it's added/combined with the 300W "aviation port" charging input.
 
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I dug a bit into Omnicharge this evening and I’d recommend steering clear of this Indiegogo (IGG) campaign.

Totally agree that the updated specs and current backer price are promising. Their promo video is also very slick. However, it’s relatively easy to create those things with a modest marketing budget and much more difficult to actually follow through and deliver a reliable product. Side note: the video is sort of ridiculous and likely involves a non-functioning mock-up of the product. Camping, kayaking, fancy cooking, drones, photo shoot …. and horses?!?? Who actually lives like that?

The good news is if you back this product, you’ll likely receive something. Omnicharge has three previous Indiegogo campaigns and with each campaign, it appears most backers received a product. Also good is that actual delivery timing appears to have been consistent with their original schedule!

The bad news is Omnicharge appears to have product reliability issues. It also appears that they’ve significantly inflated their MSRP on Indiegogo and their eventual price on Amazon is not much higher than their perk pricing.

Let’s look at their two most recent campaigns/product launches:

#1: The Omni Ultimate launched on IGG in September 2018 and ended up with 5,553 total backers. The product appears to have shipped to backers between December 2018 and April 2019 which looks to be consistent with their schedule. The campaign now has over 2000 comments. I certainly didn’t read through them all but recent comments note communication problems (e.g. refunds not issued, product not received) and lots of issues with the product failing.

To be fair, from looking at IGG alone, it’s tough to tell how widespread issues are with any product. Commenters could be a vocal minority. Also, every electronic product has SOME reliability problems and many other IGG campaigns suffer from communication problems.

To get a more quantitative view of the product’s value and quality, I looked at the listing for the Omni Ultimate on Amazon. It was first available on Amazon on 7/15/19, just a few months after shipping to backers. The IGG backer price was $349 (with a stated MSRP of $599). On Amazon, for the past year, you could buy it for between $370 and $399. It even appears to have been $319.99 for Black Friday 2019, cheaper than the backer pricing! In other words, backers did not save a significant amount of money over retail purchasers. The Ultimate has 51 ratings, with 10% of the reviews awarding a 1 or 2 star rating.

#2: The Omni Mobile launched on IGG in January 2019 and ended up with 3,371 total backers. The product appears to have shipped to backers between April 2019 and May 2019 which again appears to be relatively on-time. The campaign now has over 819 comments, again many citing issues with the product. Two recent reviews note how the product began to smoke!

The 25600mah version of the product first became available on Amazon on 6/5/19. The IGG backer price for this model was $99 (with a stated MSRP of $149). On Amazon, for the past year, you could buy it for between $123 and $129. During 2019’s Black Friday season, it appears to been on sale for $104. The Mobile 25600mah has 178 ratings, with 13% of the reviews awarding a 1 or 2 star rating. Many of these reviews cite various product failures.

Compare Omnicharge's popularity and product ratings to other power banks on Amazon. For example, the Anker PowerCore Essential 20000mAh model has 22,403 ratings and only 2% 1 or 2 star ratings.

In other words, there appears to be little reason to back this product on IGG. You MAY save a little money but you run some significant risk of receiving a device with reliability issues. Based on their product history, since the retail price is unlikely to be significantly higher, it would seem the smarter move is to wait for the product to hit retail, review the final specs, wait for testing/reviews, and then make a purchasing decision.
 
I dug a bit into Omnicharge this evening and I’d recommend steering clear of this Indiegogo (IGG) campaign.

Totally agree that the updated specs and current backer price are promising. Their promo video is also very slick. However, it’s relatively easy to create those things with a modest marketing budget and much more difficult to actually follow through and deliver a reliable product. Side note: the video is sort of ridiculous and likely involves a non-functioning mock-up of the product. Camping, kayaking, fancy cooking, drones, photo shoot …. and horses?!?? Who actually lives like that?

The good news is if you back this product, you’ll likely receive something. Omnicharge has three previous Indiegogo campaigns and with each campaign, it appears most backers received a product. Also good is that actual delivery timing appears to have been consistent with their original schedule!

The bad news is Omnicharge appears to have product reliability issues. It also appears that they’ve significantly inflated their MSRP on Indiegogo and their eventual price on Amazon is not much higher than their perk pricing.

Let’s look at their two most recent campaigns/product launches:

#1: The Omni Ultimate launched on IGG in September 2018 and ended up with 5,553 total backers. The product appears to have shipped to backers between December 2018 and April 2019 which looks to be consistent with their schedule. The campaign now has over 2000 comments. I certainly didn’t read through them all but recent comments note communication problems (e.g. refunds not issued, product not received) and lots of issues with the product failing.

To be fair, from looking at IGG alone, it’s tough to tell how widespread issues are with any product. Commenters could be a vocal minority. Also, every electronic product has SOME reliability problems and many other IGG campaigns suffer from communication problems.

To get a more quantitative view of the product’s value and quality, I looked at the listing for the Omni Ultimate on Amazon. It was first available on Amazon on 7/15/19, just a few months after shipping to backers. The IGG backer price was $349 (with a stated MSRP of $599). On Amazon, for the past year, you could buy it for between $370 and $399. It even appears to have been $319.99 for Black Friday 2019, cheaper than the backer pricing! In other words, backers did not save a significant amount of money over retail purchasers. The Ultimate has 51 ratings, with 10% of the reviews awarding a 1 or 2 star rating.

#2: The Omni Mobile launched on IGG in January 2019 and ended up with 3,371 total backers. The product appears to have shipped to backers between April 2019 and May 2019 which again appears to be relatively on-time. The campaign now has over 819 comments, again many citing issues with the product. Two recent reviews note how the product began to smoke!

The 25600mah version of the product first became available on Amazon on 6/5/19. The IGG backer price for this model was $99 (with a stated MSRP of $149). On Amazon, for the past year, you could buy it for between $123 and $129. During 2019’s Black Friday season, it appears to been on sale for $104. The Mobile 25600mah has 178 ratings, with 13% of the reviews awarding a 1 or 2 star rating. Many of these reviews cite various product failures.

Compare Omnicharge's popularity and product ratings to other power banks on Amazon. For example, the Anker PowerCore Essential 20000mAh model has 22,403 ratings and only 2% 1 or 2 star ratings.

In other words, there appears to be little reason to back this product on IGG. You MAY save a little money but you run some significant risk of receiving a device with reliability issues. Based on their product history, since the retail price is unlikely to be significantly higher, it would seem the smarter move is to wait for the product to hit retail, review the final specs, wait for testing/reviews, and then make a purchasing decision.

The other thing I noticed, is that the number of backers keeps dropping with each successive product campaign. On the other hand Ecoflow campaigns are in the multi millions each time.
 
The other thing I noticed, is that the number of backers keeps dropping with each successive product campaign. On the other hand Ecoflow campaigns are in the multi millions each time.

That's partially true but also slightly misleading.

Both Omnicharge and Ecoflow have a roughly comparable number of backers. If you include Omnicharge's first campaign from 2016 with 26,186 backers, they have many more backers compared to Ecoflow. I think by "multi-millions" you're referring to total funds raised, not number of backers which is mixing metrics. Omnicharge also raised millions with their first two campaigns. Ecoflow definitely does not attract millions of backers.

It is true, per my original post, that Omnicharge's backers have dropped with each campaign. It's also true that Ecoflow has increased their backers with each campaign but by a VERY SMALL margin.

Here are the figures:

River (IGG): Created April 2017: 2,323 backers
DELTA (Kickstarter): Created October 2019: 2,662 backers
R600 (Kickstarter): Created May 2020: 3,019 backers

So that's an increase of 700 backers over 3 years? Not particularly impressive.

Ecoflow does seem to do a more honest job of stating their MSRP on their crowdfunding campaigns compared to Omnicharge. For the R600, their stated MSRP was about $350. The first 200 backers got it for $269 and successive backers got it for $299. On Amazon today, it is indeed $350, but an instant $50 coupon brings it down to $300. So that's the same price that most backers got it for.

Again, seems to be little point to jumping on many of these campaigns.
 
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