Power Battery banks ?

colyboy

colyboy

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What does everybody think about the recent sales pitch and reviews of the Battery Banks . One that seems to be getting a lot airing on You Tube etc is the Bluetti AC50S by Power Oak. Are they worth the money and you use one?

colyboy
 
No, no, expensive for what they are the type of Lithium batteries used in them are not LiFePO4 so not as safe. I don't see the need for them in a Motorhome, OK for a tent camper but a lot of money for a bit of power. The one you mention is only 100 Watt.
Also no good without a means of charging them, very misleading calling them Solar Power Banks.
 
I have an EcoFlow Delta which is really good. The reason I went for that one was it only takes one and half hours to charge from flat as the others can take between 6 and 8 hours.
They are not cheap but are really handy if you haven't got an inverter and want to use a hairdryer, straightners or any 240v stuff.
In France some Aires have ehu on the borne you can use for an hour ,and with the EcoFlow it would near on fully charge it. You can also hook them up to a portable solar panel or even your Motorhome one to top them up.
There will always be people who will not like them, but everyone is different.
 
Lenny HB said:
No, no, expensive for what they are the type of Lithium batteries used in them are not LiFePO4 so not as safe. I don't see the need for them in a Motorhome, OK for a tent camper but a lot of money for a bit of power. The one you mention is only 100 Watt.
Also no good without a means of charging them, very misleading calling them Solar Power Banks.
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The Bluetti AC200P shows as having a LiFePO4 battery at 2000wh so credit to them for a better spec than most, don't know what the spec of the inverter is but if its PSW then I can see it suiting some people and the price at £2k while it's a lot of money it wouldn't be out of the way for decent kit, I guess a problem in the future might be with everything being integrated on failure could render the whole lot scrap.

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funflair said:
The Bluetti AC200P shows as having a LiFePO4 battery at 2000wh so credit to them for a better spec than most, don't know what the spec of the inverter is but if its PSW then I can see it suiting some people and the price at £2k while it's a lot of money it wouldn't be out of the way for decent kit, I guess a problem in the future might be with everything being integrated on failure could render the whole lot scrap.
Click to expand...
The YouTube video I saw a pic of the unit said 200W peak?
 
Like most new kit there are those who are strongly against these things however we have one and find it very useful but agree they are expensive. However if you compare it to say a set up that includes a pure sine wave inverter, additional batteries then the wiring to either solar panel or camper engine and installation there isn't that much extra costs so depending upon the size of battery bank they can be competitive so worth considering. The added benefit is that you can easily move it from camper to home in case of power cut or down in the shed when drilling or cutting the hedge etc. You can easily transfer it from camper to camper if you change vans. We charge ours using the 12 volt cigar lighter socket while we are travelling so don't need to use EHU. Out of interest the 12 volt charger takes roughly the same time as using 240 volts. In our case it means the solar panels charge the leisure batteries and we aren't draining them by using the inverter. Its horses for courses and clearly won't suit everyone but for those with limited space they could be a bonus. We went for the Allpower monster X as it was on special offer from Amazon (I think Bluetti also have special offers on) We have 2000W pure sine inverter with a surge current of 3300W with a decent size lithium battery so we can make coffee on the move, toaster in the morning, hair drier and charge up kindles and phones etc.. One thing that persuaded my to go for the Monster X was that you can hide it anywhere and use your smartphone to turn it on or off and allocate which power source you wish to use and you can monitor remaining power. So far we find that driving for around 4 or 5 hours the unit will recharge to 100% from around 40/50%. Out of interest in the USA they are taking off big time.
 
wouldn’t purchase one due to their marketing of the product via YouTube . “ This Jackory power pack is fantastic “
They would say that , they got it for free ! 😂
 
They do look good although spendy!

I wonder if I could build one cheaper b2b chargers Motorsport battery and inverter all in a plastic toolbox? Just a thought.

Or you could use one of those lipo car starters which if wired into your house battery would act as a buffer and stop the house battery being discharged too much.

Cheers James

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Vennwood said:
Like most new kit there are those who are strongly against these things however we have one and find it very useful but agree they are expensive. However if you compare it to say a set up that includes a pure sine wave inverter, additional batteries then the wiring to either solar panel or camper engine and installation there isn't that much extra costs so depending upon the size of battery bank they can be competitive so worth considering. The added benefit is that you can easily move it from camper to home in case of power cut or down in the shed when drilling or cutting the hedge etc. You can easily transfer it from camper to camper if you change vans. We charge ours using the 12 volt cigar lighter socket while we are travelling so don't need to use EHU. Out of interest the 12 volt charger takes roughly the same time as using 240 volts. In our case it means the solar panels charge the leisure batteries and we aren't draining them by using the inverter. Its horses for courses and clearly won't suit everyone but for those with limited space they could be a bonus. We went for the Allpower monster X as it was on special offer from Amazon (I think Bluetti also have special offers on) We have 2000W pure sine inverter with a surge current of 3300W with a decent size lithium battery so we can make coffee on the move, toaster in the morning, hair drier and charge up kindles and phones etc.. One thing that persuaded my to go for the Monster X was that you can hide it anywhere and use your smartphone to turn it on or off and allocate which power source you wish to use and you can monitor remaining power. So far we find that driving for around 4 or 5 hours the unit will recharge to 100% from around 40/50%. Out of interest in the USA they are taking off big time.
Click to expand...
So do you hook the 240 output up to the van’s 240 inlet and switch battery charger off?
 
Lenny HB said:
The YouTube video I saw a pic of the unit said 200W peak?
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From the Bluetti spec,
6*AC Outlets(Pure Sine Wave) For Most Household Appliance Under 2000W Such As Blender,Vacuums,Refrigerator, Household Dryer, Steam Mops.1*DC12V/10A Constant 12V For Car Powered Devices.
 
Chipster said:
So do you hook the 240 output up to the van’s 240 inlet and switch battery charger off?
Click to expand...


Yes you can. We had 8 days at a THS a few weeks ago and there was hardly any power coming from our solar power because of the dark over cast weather. So we just plugged in the EcoFlow and all was good when we needed the batteries topping up.

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colyboy said:
What does everybody think about the recent sales pitch and reviews of the Battery Banks . One that seems to be getting a lot airing on You Tube etc is the Bluetti AC50S by Power Oak. Are they worth the money and you use one?

colyboy
Click to expand...
Great for a nights fishing or a Summer weekend away in a Bell tent

Pretty pointless in a motorhome
 
This is part of a review on the EcoFlow site a £1300 lump of battery

We have only used the Delta 1300 for 1 trip but its an amazing bit of kit. Powered my hairdryer, straighteners and toaster and hardly dropped power. Gives much more freedom for where we stop in our Motorhome. When travelling we will book a site with electric every few days, but there is no need for that now. Love the fact we can recharge while driving.
Click to expand...

I just don't get it, we power all those items and charge as we drive.

I suppose if you have a new van with a 75AH battery no inverter, no solar, it might come in handy

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For the price of the larger Bluetti, you could get a Lithium battery of the same capacity, an invertor and a B2B charger installed in the van. Then not have the faff of remembering to charge it or needing to dig it out of the garage because you need to use your hair straighteners.

The smaller Bluetti doesn't really do anything a normal lead-acid setup would do. A 300w invertor is low power enough that you could just plug it into a 12v socket.

Unless you also do a lot of tenting or you have a VW that's just a day van, I don't see the point.
 
Chipster said:
So do you hook the 240 output up to the van’s 240 inlet and switch battery charger off?
Click to expand...
No I keep it all separate and use an extension lead. In my case the problem would be if I plugged it into the EHU it would then start to charge the leisure battery (I would need to fit an isolator switch and I suspect quickly drain the Battery Bank. Really we only need to for specific items like coffee machine, toaster or charging phones etc. so wouldn't want it to supply the fridge for exampl.
 
Figaro said:
Can I ask what you plug it into when driving to charge it ?
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I bought a £5.99 cigarette lighter extension lead from Amazon. I simply plug it into the ciggie charger and the other end into the battery bank - job done.
 
Figaro said:
Can I ask what you plug it into when driving to charge it ?
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I would guess the cigarette socket. Cigarette sockets are rated at 10amp anymore than that they melt, so a 2000w unit charged at 120watts would take 16.66 hours driving to charge up.

As many others have said in a motorhome you may as well have a decent on road charger and an extra battery, better still a lithium cell

I have just upgraded my 160 amp B2B for a 225 amp jobby

So one hours driving for me ;)

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colyboy said:
What does everybody think about the recent sales pitch and reviews of the Battery Banks . One that seems to be getting a lot airing on You Tube etc is the Bluetti AC50S by Power Oak. Are they worth the money and you use one?

colyboy
Click to expand...
As you can see folks are either for or against them. All I would say is just work out what you need 240 volt for and the max wattage (including surge start up) then price it up and compare it with what it would cost to fit an inverter and how to charge it. In my case I didn't have any room to fit extra battery(s) and the inverter would have to be around 6 or 7 foot away from where the batteries are. I also thought it could be complicated re-wiring into the exisitng 240 volt circuit to take in to account the battery charger/fridge etc. and in my case we have 6 240 v sockets. Also in the Hymer manual it specifically says "fitting an inverter would invalidate the warranty". Finally I can take it out and use it for other things in a flash.
 
eddievanbitz said:
I would guess the cigarette socket. Cigarette sockets are rated at 10amp anymore than that they melt, so a 2000w unit charged at 120watts would take 16.66 hours driving to charge up.

As many others have said in a motorhome you may as well have a decent on road charger and an extra battery, better still a lithium cell

I have just upgraded my 160 amp B2B for a 225 amp jobby

So one hours driving for me ;)
Click to expand...
I don't know what trickery these manufacturers use but many say they charge from pretty much flat in much less time than that. In my own case I can fully charge from 50% in less than 5 hours using a standard 12 volt ciggie lighter socket
 
Vennwood said:
I don't know what trickery these manufacturers use but many say they charge from pretty much flat in much less time than that. In my own case I can fully charge from 50% in less than 5 hours using a standard 12 volt ciggie lighter socket
Click to expand...
Your dash mounted giggy socket is rated at 120w so just keep an eye on it (y)
 
Vennwood said:
As you can see folks are either for or against them. All I would say is just work out what you need 240 volt for and the max wattage (including surge start up) then price it up and compare it with what it would cost to fit an inverter and how to charge it. In my case I didn't have any room to fit extra battery(s) and the inverter would have to be around 6 or 7 foot away from where the batteries are. I also thought it could be complicated re-wiring into the exisitng 240 volt circuit to take in to account the battery charger/fridge etc. and in my case we have 6 240 v sockets. Also in the Hymer manual it specifically says "fitting an inverter would invalidate the warranty". Finally I can take it out and use it for other things in a flash.
Click to expand...
To be fair its the claims that they make and all of the photos! One shows a bearded Pony tailed "Hipster" sat gazing out to Sea, casually leaning on his "buddy" the Delta 1300

Who would lug a 30 Kg battery out into the middle of nowhere LOL

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