Tell me about Delta Ecoflow 1300 noise (and lack of support)

[jpek]

Hi, everyone. I'm an electrical neophyte (very, very minimal knowledge of anything electrical and not very handy) but something of a prepper. I've been looking at Will's materials for the best solar generator for me. At this point I'm trying to decide between the Bluetti and Ecoflow Delta 1300. My needs are, first and foremost, to be able to run my CPAP machine with humidifier in an extended power outage. I might also need to run an air purifier and it would be nice to run a fan some of the time. Everything else is optional. Secondary benefit is I'd like to go camping again, which I haven't been able to do because of the CPAP use.

As I understand, the Ecoflow is recommended for that usage profile. I like that it recharges quickly with solar, because the CPAP is an electricity hog and the air purifier can be also. I can probably run the CPAP alone for about 3 nights with the Ecoflow, but if I add the air filter I'll probably have to recharge every day.

But two things about the Ecoflow concern me. One is that I've read in various reviews that it's really noisy when it's charging or operating at high capacity. How noisy is it? Is it possible to mitigate the noise somehow? I particularly don't want a lot of noise if I'm camping -- kind of defeats the purpose of being out in nature. But also sleeping at home to a loud hum is disruptive and bad for hearing!

Also, I understand that Ecoflow provides terrible, or possibly non-existent support, so what's plan B if I'm having trouble with my unit or questions about it? As I said, I'm not very handy and not a DIYer in general, as far as projects around the house are concerned. I'm not your person to take a unit apart, fix it and put it back together. So, for us plebes, is it basically inadvisable to go with Ecoflow or are there places to get support from users or other resources? Is it worth the risk?

Thanks in advance for answers and help.

 

[Thunderstorm2011]

Personally I would never buy a pre-made one, usually the amount of recharges is not worth what you spend on the system. Build-it-yourself it's not very hard. Those don't usually have enough amp hours to keep running. Depends on if you want to be portable or a stationary.

 

[jpek]

I have at least two reasons for wanting to go with a plug and play generator. One is that I looked at the sample blueprints on this site, and a comparable DIY generator costs considerably more to build. I'm low income and on a limited budget. Two, I need the generator to be somewhat portable as I plan to take it camping sometimes. These ones that just live in a box that's not even enclosed seem like they would mostly need to stay in one place. Plus, the two generators I'm considering are both recommended by Will on this site.

 

[elewis33]

Also, I understand that Ecoflow provides terrible, or possibly non-existent support, so what's plan B if I'm having trouble with my unit or questions about it? As I said, I'm not very handy and not a DIYer in general, as far as projects around the house are concerned. I'm not your person to take a unit apart, fix it and put it back together. So, for us plebes, is it basically inadvisable to go with Ecoflow or are there places to get support from users or other resources? Is it worth the risk?

If their support is really that bad then why would you want to buy it in the first place? Frankly, none of these pre-built units are going to perform very well for high power consumption needs. They're mostly built for short term low demand applications.

If you simply do the math on the output of the Delta 1300, it's a 1260 watt hour unit. Divide that 1260 watts hours by 60 watts as an example (a single bright light bulb). That's going to give you about 21 hours of power, for a single 60 watt light bulb.

You should get all the power usage specs for your devices and do the math on them compared to the Delta watt hour rating, so you can get an idea of how long your going to be able to run things. Now the good news is that for most things that require power, we don't actually run them hour after hour for days on end, so give a fair assessment of how many hours you're going to run each load/item.

If you have some basic spreadsheet skills that's a good way of seeing all of this laid out in a very straight forward way. Something like this (wattage numbers are hypothetical):

Device	Watts	Use (hours)	Watt hours (watts x hours)
CPAP	40	8	320
Fan	15	4	60
Humidifier	80	4	320
Total			700 watt hours

Now if you increase those hours then the total usage goes up:

Device	Watts	Use (hours)	Watt hours (watts x hours)
CPAP	40	8	320
Fan	15	10	150
Humidifier	80	8	640
Total			1310 watt hours

The second table shows you'd be out of power in a day.

 

[Thunderstorm2011]

Dont forget about the recharge time, get a epever charge controller a good solar panel and 2 good batterys makevthe system 24 volts, you choose inverter for your needs

 

[jpek]

@Thunderstorm2011, @elewis33, I'm going to assume that you are trying to help, but I would really like it if you answered my questions (assuming you have experience with these units) and didn't derail my question onto your own discussion. Or at least show some curiosity for why I came to my conclusion and am seeking the information I'm seeking.

I've been doing my research (to the best of my ability). I do have specs for the gadgets I want to run off my generator. The watt hours that the Ecoflow and Blueti provide is enough for me more or less. Still trying to figure out my air filter needs and options, but otherwise, I could run my CPAP for three days without recharging. Both the Ecoflow and Blueti were recommended by Will. So, I'm just trying to figure out which one makes the most sense and how the folks that get the Ecoflow manage the noise and support aspects.

As I said above, the only way I'd be willing to build my own generator is if there was an option to spend the same amount, or, hopefully, less money for the same capacity and also for it to be somewhat portable.

 

[elewis33]

Fair enough, no I don't have experience with them (although I considered buying one at one time) and I have no idea how noisy it is. And it highly unlikely you're going to get support from someone other than the company that sells it. Best of luck.

 

[Thunderstorm2011]

I have no experience with that company. Like elewis33 said only that company can help. But consider what happens when there no sun to recharge that unit? It just a paper weight. I'm going on 3 day of mostly cloudy and rain. Under those circumstances there is no way for you to charge that unit. I live in new England area in the USA where you can go up to a week without power after a bad storm.

Another thing you'll have to look at is how many recharge cycles does a battery have?

How much time does it need to recharge the battery and the maximum solar input.

I personally would not buy a pre-made solar generator. And I use that term loosely because it's just a battery Bank.

Whatever Direction you decide to go in I wish you the best of luck

 

[elewis33]

You might want to look into this Bluetti. Will Prowse gave it a big thumbs up, which he doesn't do very often.

Bluetti AC200 - Most Versatile Solar Power Station

2000W/1700Wh Capacity/LG EV-grade Cell/700W Solar/Cycle Time 2500+/Surge 4800W/Charge Tesla & E-Bike | Check out 'Bluetti AC200 - Most Versatile Solar Power Station' on Indiegogo.

www.indiegogo.com

 

[Cass]

Will's test pulled only 950 watts from the Ecoflow Delta. That is a low efficiency rate (I have a post about my tests in the forum and my watts are even lower).

The recharge from the wall is as fast as they claim. Have not tested solar. Noise is not that loud - like a white noise fan. But if you are very noise sensitive it might be a problem.

One note: after you shut the Ecoflow off, you might need a few hours cool down before you can recharge. Again this is only wall charging testing and may not be a problem with solar. I waited 1 hr after draining the battery and started charging - it only charged at 600 watts an hour. I waited another 30 minutes and started it again and it was up to the rated 1000 watt speed. So if you need a fast turnaround, take that into account.

I opted to get an external battery for my CPAP - the cost was around $270 for a 188 watt battery. In my first test, I turned off nothing and it used the entire battery in 6 hrs. My second test (still underway) went much better - no humidifier, heated tube and no cell connection and I was able to pull 8hrs with only 1/4 of the battery used. But as always the devil is in the details so my second night test will be soon. If you are camping for only 2-3 days without access to any power, the CPAP battery is a good option. Personally, I'd grab a small $500 inverter generator (dual fuel gas and propane) and use that and the CPAP on camping trips. Use the inverter to recharge the CPAP and run a few other things.

 

[ColaLola]

I bought a Delta (based on Will's cool review) and really, really regret it. After a pretty good trial run during a weekend camp trip, I took the Delta on the road in my camper to power my water pump, Dometic, and a few electronics. It failed the first night --- it went from a full charge to empty with only the Dometic plugged in, and in only a couple hours. Fans were roaring the entire time. I recharged it and tried again, testing a number of different loads across the USB, DC and AC ports. The display went wild, and each time the battery level dropped precipitously -- you could watch the percentage reading drop every 20 seconds or so. EcoFlow claims it is just a display problem and that the battery level is fine, but once it goes to "zero" no load can be drawn from any of the ports. And yes, the fan is crazy loud.

I'm on the road and pretty upset about getting a defective device. I had to install a couple AGMs from Napa Auto just to get my water pump working, and I can't yet recharge them with my solar panel because (stupidly) thought I'd use the Delta for my solar charger. I'm trying to get a solar charger and AC charger for the batteries, but it is really hard to do camping out in rural areas and isolated. I feel like I'm having to spend my whole trip time dealing with this debacle instead of enjoying my camper, which I had just finished...although, with only a partial electrical system and a Dometic that is about to run out of juice, I suppose it isn't really "finished." I also have to lug the Delta around plus the new batteries for the next five weeks before I can get home and return it.

I'm attaching a pic that shows with a couple USB devices plugged in (38W) and a nearly full charge, the Delta had only 3-hours remaining. Even if the battery has more watt-hours remaining, it shuts down when the percentage gets to zero. Either way, it means (a defective) Delta effectively only has a very small fraction of the power it is supposed to have. You should not rely on it.



tl;dr reliability is a major issue and you should not trust the Delta to actually work, let alone all of the other issues people mention above.

 

[Cass]

My problem was a bit different but after 5 tests, each time giving up only 490-690 watts, Ecoflow Support informed me that my Delta was not defective. Even accounting for DC-AC inefficiencies (Will said around 75% conversion leaves you with 945 useable watts) and a possible 20 watt per hour operation (they will not confirm this) the numbers don't quite add up.

One of the tests was using a contionurnis 67 watt pull (lamps/fans) vs an intermittent pull of 80 watts (freezer), but in the end not much improved.

 

[ColaLola]

Support asked me to run the following tests:
1. Whether the other output/input ports work? Yes.
2. Please discharge Delta to 0% battery, then charge delta to full battery. Done.
3. Please connect the device above 500W through AC output. Please provide a video that shows the screen reading status as well. Done.

After I sent them the video, they were pretty quick to reply and offer me a replacement. However, I'm already on the road and had to replace the entire system to get power to my water pump and Dometic. It's been hard; I know next to nothing about electricity, which is why I was willing to pay a premium for a plug and play system. I also messed up by buying a Renogy briefcase 100W without the solar charge controller because (lol) the Delta had one built-in. I'm now scrambling around looking for a charge controller and trying to figure out how to hook it up to the two marine batteries I bought.

I will say that the AC recharging time was amazing. That had been a big selling point for me. I just wish it hadn't been defective. I wouldn't have minded lower Wh because of this, although your tests are pretty disappointing.

 

[Njrankin]

I bought the Ecoflow Delta on Mar 14 and it was delivered today Mar 17. No delivery issues for me unlike Will. Once I start using it, I will update the decibel level of the fans, charging efficiency, depth of discharge. My wife and I have a 2016 32' motorhome (30 amp service). The motorhome came with a 1000 watt inverter which won't run much. I'm hoping to power the entire rig minus A/C, furnace, toaster oven, kettle, microwave. I may try to run my 1300 watt coffee maker, 1500 watt kettle and toaster oven occasionally to assess depth of discharge. I've been using my onboard 4000 watt Onan gasoline generator for everything when we don't have shore power. The generator is great except it's noisy. It will easyily charge my 100 amp hour AGM house battery even after running the furnace all night. I run it for about 30 minutes during breakfast and the same at dinner. I also bought 2- 100 watt solar panels from Renogy. The kit came with the Rover 20 amp MPPT charge controller. I will update this Forum on recharging the Delta using 200 watts of solar.

FYI, I read an article (link) that says if you limit the discharge to about 70-80% rather than letting it drain to almost 0% you will get many more cycles.
Here is a quote from the article:
"Using only 20% or 30% of the battery capacity before recharging will extend cycle life considerably. As a general rule, 5 to 10 shallow discharge cycles are equal to one full discharge cycle. Although partial-discharge cycles can number in the thousands, keeping the battery in a fully charged state also shortens battery life. Full discharge cycles (down to 2.5 V or 3 V, depending on chemistry) should be avoided if possible."

 

[Njrankin]

As promised here is my Eco Flow Delta update. In a word: Wow! This power station is incredible! Here is a list of things I have tested:

Test 1. Wall out let charge (120 V) from 30% to 100%: The unit was down to 30% state of charge when I unboxed it. I plugged it in and was at 100% 70 minutes later.

Test 2. 1200 Watt Microwave test: My wife and I have oatmeal for breakfast. Using the Delta it cooked 1 cup of oatmeal and water in 5 minutes. State of Charge Before and after cooking: 100% and 91%

Test 3. 1500 Watt kettle test: Boiled almost 4 cups of water in 4 minutes. State of Charge Before and after: 91% and 86%.

Test 4. 1800 Watt toaster oven test: Toasted 4 thick slices of bread in 4.5 minutes. State of Charge Before and after 86% and 75%.

Test 5. Solar panel charging test. Plugged in 200 Watt (100 Watt x 2) solar panels (series connection). Time of day 11 am, 10 C/50F, partly cloudy sky). The solar panels output was about 30 watts so I added 120V charging as well. The Delta was at 100% state of charge 35 minutes later.

Test 6. Decibel test: The Delta fans came on using all of the above tests. Using my decibel app the loudest the fans got was 40 dB. This is significantly quieter than our gasoline generator (Onan 4000 Watt) which is about 50+ dB.

At some point I will test some DC equipment like my Macbook Pro. I don't have any cigarette lighter equipment but I may buy a 12V fan.

I'm thinking I will use my Delta to power the high wattage appliances mentioned above when we are boon docking and use my AGM 100 amp hour house battery for water pump, lights, tv and furnace.

 

[grannygeek]

I have 3 Delta 1300's and 4 of their portable panels. I have used one in the bedroom, and it makes a low hum - not at all objectionable for us, anyway. I don't have any decibel testing equiptment. And I'm a solar newbie. I had an issue getting the 4 panels connected in parallel for full wattage and support sent a thumb drive with the bios upgrade that fixed it.