You may have browsed around and looked at pricing on the Ecoflow online store but you might be unsure about which product would best suit your needs. The article below aims to help you with this decision.
In the world of portable power stations, one name leads the way: Ecoflow.
I have previously written about how to size a portable power station but that post contains a lot of information that is irrelevant if you are already set on buying an Ecoflow unit. Hence this article.
Ecoflow was established in around 2016-2017 by a team of four founders: Hannah Sieber, Lei Wang, Fan Zheng, and Eli Harris. Ecoflow funded the production of their first products through successful crowdfunding campaigns.
Ecoflow has come a long way since the fist products. They have developed an entire ecosystem of products since then.
Before we look at the different models, there are some basic concepts that would be useful to know about before you pick a suitable model.
Typical portable power stations are composed of three key components: batteries, inverters, and charge controllers.
Batteries
Battery chemistry.
Ecoflow started out by utilizing a specific type of Lithium-ion battery known as Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NCM) in their product line. These kinds of battery cells were popular in portable power stations because of their high energy density. But with the second generation of Ecoflow models they now use a better kind of battery technology namely Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4 / LFP).
The main advantages of LiFePO4 over NCM are safety and cycle life:
LiFePO4 chemistry is inherently safer than the NCM cell chemistry. LiFePO4 batteries have better thermal stability, are less prone to thermal runaway. They have a lower risk of combustion or explosion even under extreme conditions.
LiFePO4 batteries also have a longer cycle life compared to NCM batteries. They can typically endure thousands of charge and discharge cycles without significant degradation in performance.
Apart from the Delta Pro which also has LiFePO4, the older models used the NCM cell chemistry and they were rated for 500 – 800 charge cycles to 80% of the original capacity.
All of the second generation models (2 in the name) do come with LiFePO4 batteries which are rated for 3000 charge cycles before the capacity drops to 80% of the original capacity. The Delta Pro is rated for 3500 cycles to 80% capacity.
Refer to the comparison sheets at the end of this article to check the rated charge cycles for each model.
Battery capacity.
Battery capacity refers to the amount of electrical energy that a battery can store and deliver. Battery capacity is typically measured in watt-hours (Wh).
A watt-hour (Wh) or Kilowatt hour (kWh) is a unit of energy that measures the amount of electrical energy consumed, produced, or stored over time. Note that the k in kWh means “kilo” and it represents a multiplication factor of 1000. 1kWh = 1000Wh.
Refer to the comparison sheets at the end of this article to see the capacity of each unit.
Inverters
An inverter is an electronic device that converts direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity, like the electricity from your wall plug. The primary function of an inverter is to allow electrical devices that require AC power to be used with DC power sources, such as batteries. Some Ecoflow models have a smaller, less powerful inverter inside, while others have larger more powerful inverters inside. The more powerful the inverter is, the more power it can supply to appliances. The Inverter is the part that is responsible for the AC output wattage.
Refer to the comparison sheets at the end of this article to see the AC Output Wattage of each Ecoflow unit.
Charge controllers
In a portable power station, a charge controller manages the charging process of the battery. Its primary function is to regulate and control the flow of electrical current from the power source such as a solar panel to the battery.
On most models, Ecoflow allows you to set either a slow charging speed or faster charging speed. Slower charging reduces heat, excess heat may cause the fans to spin faster as the unit regulates the heat inside of the Ecoflow unit.
When charging from solar it is important that you look for solar panels that will not exceed the The VOC/Open Circuit Voltage that the Ecoflow unit can support. You will find the voltage range in the specifications of your unit. If you exceed this voltage you may damage your Ecoflow unit.
Refer to the comparison sheets at the end of this article to see the Max AC charging speed and the Solar charging specifications.
Understand your needs. How much power? How long?
Now that you know some of the basics, the next step is to understand how much power you need and how long you would need it for. You may look at the wattage rating of your appliance to get some guidance but they generally list peak wattage and they do not always show running or average wattage.
A better way to find out how much power you need is to get a device that is commonly referred to as a digital watt meter or a Kill-a-watt meter.
This kind of meter shows the amount of power being consumed by the electrical device that you plug into it. You can buy a Kill a watt meter via the Geewiz.
How to use a Digital Watt Meter (Kill A Watt) in order to size you Ecoflow portable power station:
Plug it into your wall AC socket. Reset the meter reading by pressing the reset button with a pin. Plug your appliance into it and let it run for 1 hour (set a timer on your phone).
After one hour has elapsed, unplug your device from the watt meter, toggle the function button until you see the screen that shows you the total kWh. Make a note of this reading. You now know how much power your appliance used in that hour. You can use this to estimate how many watt hours you require. You may multiply this figure by the amount of hours that you would want your appliance to run from an Ecoflow unit.
Press the function button again until you see “Hi”. This is the peak amount of power that your appliance drew. Also make a note of this reading. You will need to make sure that this reading falls within the AC output wattage rating of the Ecoflow unit.
Note that some appliances like fridges, heaters or printers do not draw a constant amount of power, they will use more power when a certain component needs to work.
For a more accurate figure, you may let your watt meter run for the total amount of time that you require your device to run. E.g. 4 hours and then use that reading as guidance on the amount of watt-hours that you need. Try to simulate the real usage of the appliance when you do take these readings.
Overestimate your usage. There will be losses.
Inverters and batteries are not 100% efficient and there will be losses when you convert the DC power inside your battery into AC power for your appliances. Additionally, the EcoFlow power station houses other internal components that utilize a portion of the stored battery power to operate. Like the display, microprocessor, temperature sensors and Wi-Fi module.
Efficiency.
Say that you have a power station that is rated for 1000Wh (1kWh), you may find that you are only able to get 700Wh usable power from the power station. If you only get 700Wh from your 1000Wh there is an efficiency of 70%.
Generally power stations have an efficiency of between 70% and 90%. So, assume that you’ll get between 70% and 90% of the rated capacity in terms of real-world usage. Other factors, like how fast you discharge the unit and how many charge cycles it has been through can also have an effect on efficiency.
Here is an example calculation based on the assumption of 70% efficiency :
Lets say you are considering a Delta 2 which has a rated capacity of 1024Wh as seen in the comparison sheet at the end of this article. By using the digital watt meter, you have determined that you are using 200W per hour (200Wh) and you would like to use it for 4 hours. 200W x 4h = 800Wh . If you do your calculation based on an assumption that the efficiently would be 70% the math would look like this: 1024Wh x 0.7 = 716,8Wh which means it may fall slightly short of your requirement. We can also use the following formula to determine the capacity of the unit that we should look for: 800Wh / 0.7 = 1142.85Wh. So in this example we need to look for an Ecoflow unit with 1142Wh or more to be safe.
Also oversize the inverter. If the power station’s specification says that it can provide 500W of ac output wattage, it would be bad to constantly run it at the 500W limit for long periods of time because this will stress the inverter and it will probably shorten its life.
What is X-Boost and how does it work?
You will see that some models do support a feature called X-Boost. This allows you to use some higher wattage appliances with your Ecoflow portable power station. X-Boost lowers the voltage that it supplies to the appliance so that it does not overload the inverter on the Ecoflow portable power station. You may notice that your appliance runs slower than usually when it is using X-Boost, this is because it isn’t actually getting any more power (watts) from the Ecoflow, the X-Boost feature lowers the voltage in order to keep the appliance running. Ecoflow recommend using X-Boost when you try to power appliances like coffee machines or hair dryers. But they do not recommend using it when powering “precision power appliances”.
When using X-Boost, make sure that your appliance does not exceed the wattage that X-Boost can supply. Doing so may overload and damage your Ecoflow unit.
Here are some examples of how to size a Ecoflow portable power station by using a digital watt meter/ kill a watt.
Example 1: My TV.
I plugged my TV and streaming box into the Kill a watt meter and let it run for 1 hour, after 1 hour my kill a watt meter tells me that it used .072kWh. I then multiply this with 1000 to get Wh. 0.072kWh x 1000 = 72Wh. I can now multiply this by the amount of hours that I would like it to run for 72Wh x 4 Hours = 288Wh. If I assume that I would be getting a 70% efficiency I can use the same formula as previously: 288Wh / 0.7 = 411.43Wh meaning that I would look for a unit that has 411Wh or more of capacity to get me to 4 hours of usage. In this example the River Max (576Wh) or the River 2 Max (512Wh) would both be sufficient.
Example 2: My kettle.
In general, appliances with heating elements consume large amounts of power. A kettle is a example of such an appliance. I used my watt meter and determined that my kettle used 0.085 kWh (85Wh) to boil around 1 liter of water which took around 2.55 minutes. I also recorded a peak wattage of 1814W.
To check peak wattage, press the Function button on the watt meter until you see a screen that says “Hi”. Make sure that this rating does not exceed the wattage that your Ecoflow can supply.
If I want to be able to boil this amount of water for 5 times, we can work it out with a simple calculation: 5 x 85Wh = 425Wh. Assuming 70% efficiency, we can work out the required capacity as follows 425 / 0.7 = 607Wh. Now we also have to take the peak usage into consideration, which is 1814W. Because this is such a high peak wattage requirement, one would have to look at the Delta 2 with X-Boost, the Delta Max or the Delta Pro.
Ecoflow models comparison sheets.
Once you have established the capacity that you need (Wh) and the AC output wattage you need, it is time to pick one of the models that best matches your requirements.
Model comparison:
*click to open in new tab
| Model | River | River Max | River Pro | River 2 | River 2 Max | River 2 Pro |
| Capacity | 288Wh | 576Wh | 720Wh | 256Wh | 512Wh | 768Wh |
| AC Output Wattage | 600W | 600W | 600W | 300W | 500W | 800W |
| Weight | 5kg | 7.7kg | 7.6kg | 3.5kg | 6kg | 7.8kg |
| Rated charge cycles | 500 Cycles to 80%+ capacity | 500 Cycles to 80%+ capacity | 800 cycles to 80%+ capacity | 3000 cycles to 80%+ capacity | 3000 cycles to 80%+ capacity | 3000 cycles to 80%+ capacity |
| Max AC charging speed | 250W (1.6 Hours) | 500W (1.6 Hours) | 660W (1.6 Hours) | 360W (1 hour) | 660W (1 hour) | 940W (70 min) |
| Solar charging | 200W, 10-25V, 12A | 200W, 10-25V 12A | 200W, 10-25V, 12A | 110W, 11-30V, 8A | 220W, 11-50V, 13A | 220W, 11-50V, 13A |
| Extra battery support | Yes (up to 576Wh) | Yes but already included | Yes (up to 1440Wh) | No | No | No |
| App and firmware support | Yes (Wi-Fi) | Yes (Wi-Fi) | Yes (Wi-Fi) | Yes (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth) | Yes (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth) | Yes (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth) |
| Warranty | 2 years | 2 years | 2 years | 5 Years | 5 Years | 5 Years |
*click to open in new tab
| Model | Delta | Delta 2 | Delta Max 1600 | Delta Max 2000 | Delta 2 Max | Delta Pro |
| Capacity | 1260Wh | 1024Wh | 1612Wh | 2016Wh | 2048Wh | 3600Wh |
| AC Output Wattage | 1800W | 1800W | 2000W | 2400W | 2400W | 3600W |
| Weight | 14 Kg | 12 kg | 22 Kg | 22 Kg | 22KG | 45kg |
| Rated charge cycles | 800 Cycles to 80%+ capacity | 3000 cycles to 80+% capacity | 500 Cycles to 80%+ capacity | 800 cycles to 80%+ capacity | 3000 cycles to 80+% capacity | 3500 cycles to 80% capacity |
| Max AC charging speed | 1200W (1.6 Hours) | 1200W | 1600W (1.6 Hours) | 2000W (1.6 Hours) | 2300W (53 min to 80%) | 2900W (1.9 hrs) |
| Solar charging | 400W, 10-65V, 10A | 500W, 11-60V, 15A | 800W, 11-100V, 13A | 800W, 11-100V, 13A | 2x 500W, 11-60V, 15A (per port) | 1600W, 11-150V, 15A |
| Extra battery support | No | Yes (Max and Delta 2 extra battery) | Yes (Max extra battery) | Yes (Max extra battery) | Yes (2x Max and 2 Max extra batt) | Yes (DELTA Pro extra battery ) |
| App and firmware support | No | Yes (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth) | Yes (Wi-Fi) | Yes (Wi-Fi) | Yes (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth) | Yes (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth) |
| Warranty | 2 years | 5 years | 2 years | 2 years | 5 years | 5 years |
*Delta 2 Max will be available in April 2024.
Now that you know which one you would like, you can check pricing and order directly from Ecoflow South Africa via the following link: za.ecoflow.com (referral)
Please feel free to post comments or ask questions below.