Ecoflo, is this a good buy. (23 Viewers)

[starquake]

Is Costco not plus VAT or are you quoting the final price ?

FInal price, you won't see price on website unless you a member with active membership, so I'll screenshot it.

 

[starquake]

Ie, if you not already a costco member, become one, it's about 20 quid a year, you'll save that in a single fill of their dieel in a motorhome (diesel is very cheap as a member if they have a fuel station - not ALL do) in all likelihood (you may need to produce an "invoice" showing you are self-employed if you not retired/or work in a eligable profession such as insurance or banking... about 5 mins work to knock up an invoice in word to a friend to show at the desk). Costco membership is something I reccomend to all, as you'll probably find more than just Delta2's cheap in their vast warehouses. (I can reccomend the 2.5 kilo packs of Chicken thighs for about £4 (yes, about the same price that Lidl charge for about 4 thighs). We buy these and freeze alongside other meat products to make our food considerably cheaper over the year.

Put it this way our "nearest" costco is 120 miles away. Thats how far we willing to drive (we have an EV so the fuel cost is near 0 though), but we also take the motorhome in whenever we pass for the fuel. Taking the motorhome is great as we have WAY more storage for purchases than in the car.

OOI A TV my Dad was looking to buy last week at John lewis at £1500 (OLED one) was £800 in costco. So it's not just Delta2's that are cheap, and like John lewis you get a 5 year warranty as standard.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

It's always there to use for something else though isn't it , using power tools down the field for 1.

I suppose if you require a portable power station away from a mains source like you'd fields then this would be really useful to you. Would you use it to recharge a battery tool or run a mains tool from it?

 

[DangerMousy]

Is Costco not plus VAT or are you quoting the final price ?

That's the full price - the advert is in post #10

If they have them in the warehouse it might be even cheaper - where they sell items online and in the warehouse usually the online prices are slightly higher. No idea if they actually have these in the warehouse though, we didn't look in that section the last time we went. When we bought ours last year the online price was good, but the warehouse price was just over £20 cheaper (after VAT).


Edited: Just checked the warehouse deals.....its also available in store, but sadly the same price as online. Still, its nice to be able to have a look at something before buying it.

 

[Jabstatt]

I think they are amazing! So much so that I built my own a while ago. Very proud of it. I found it in the garage the other day, never used it for anything!

I think its like a lot of things. If you fancy one, get one! Enjoy it or put it in a cupboard and forget it.

At least with Lithium, it probably WONT be flat when you need it!

Great acquisition!

Tony

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[The Wino]

That's the full price - the advert is in post #10

If they have them in the warehouse it might be even cheaper - where they sell items online and in the warehouse usually the online prices are slightly higher. No idea if they actually have these in the warehouse though, we didn't look in that section the last time we went. When we bought ours last year the online price was good, but the warehouse price was just over £20 cheaper (after VAT).


Edited: Just checked the warehouse deals.....its also available in store, but sadly the same price as online. Still, its nice to be able to have a look at something before buying it.

View attachment 917993

What is 1024 wh in terms of an amp hour rating like a 12 v battery? Is it 84ah ?

 

[starquake]

What is 1024 wh in terms of an amp hour rating like a 12 v battery? Is it 84ah ?

As it's lithium, it's all usable, so it's more like 100AH of usable capacity, or equivlent of 200AH of lead acid.
But of course as it's lithium you can use microwave and other high draw appliances safely, unlike the lead acid option (where this may damage the leisure batterys due to the draw).

The inbuilt MPPT controller in these is decent too, and as a useful point, it's better than Victron MPPT in one way -> it can join to my van hotspot so I can check both charging rate AND the battery current charge percentage from anywhere on my phone).

 

[DangerMousy]

What is 1024 wh in terms of an amp hour rating like a 12 v battery? Is it 84ah ?

Based on the usual formula, I'd say probably? But we don't really use ours for much 12v stuff so its not something that I've bothered researching in detail. We mostly use the built in inverter to either charge the bike batteries, run the Starlink, use the Tassimo, or very occasionally a hairdryer.

We have the slightly larger original Delta which is1260Wh, and based on my observations to charge the bike battery to 20% (48v system) takes 10% of the Delta. 1 Tassimo latte uses 2%, and a hair drying session 5%. Its a bit rough and ready, but its enough for me to be able to manage our usage.

 

[JJ]

Please advise...

What is the difference between an Eco Flo thingy and a battery in a smart looking box? (NOT counting the price).


JJ

 

[Dolmen]

Please advise...

What is the difference between an Eco Flo thingy and a battery in a smart looking box? (NOT counting the price).


JJ

That's exactly what it is, a battery in a box, however, to make it useable, they have added an inverter, usb and 240v sockets and a battery charger and a control panel to monitor activity, plus an app to bring it all up to date, then put it in a user friendly package (box). The end result is you get something usable without connecting and disconnecting accessories to the battery terminals

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[starquake]

That's exactly what it is, a battery in a box, however, to make it useable, they have added an inverter, usb and 240v sockets and a battery charger and a control panel to monitor activity, plus an app to bring it all up to date, then put it in a user friendly package (box). The end result is you get something usable without connecting and disconnecting accessories to the battery terminals

Also worth noting the charger is considerably faster than ANY B2B you can buy, it can fully charge the unit in 1 hour 10 mins (so equivalent of a 120A charger). That also adds to value as if you can plugin, even for an hour at say an EV charger, you can fully recharge the thing, unlike "most" leisure batteries + chargers.

(yes, I know Victron do gear that can do this, but it also costs more than the ecoflow).

 

[ontheroadagain]

hat's exactly what it is, a battery in a box, however, to make it useable, they have added an inverter, usb and 240v sockets and a battery charger and a control panel to monitor activity, plus an app to bring it all up to date

Plus most of them also have a built in solar controller which allows you to connect a solar panel.
The small Bluetti AC/70 that I have can take 500W of solar.
They can be charged via solar, 12V, or 240V.

 

[DangerMousy]

Please advise...

What is the difference between an Eco Flo thingy and a battery in a smart looking box? (NOT counting the price).


JJ

For us it's the addition of the inverter that makes it so useful: yes you can run many things off 12v, but not everything. With the inverter being 1800W it'll power the Tassimo, and because its PSW I'm happy its not going to damage our bike chargers.

 

[Graydo]

For us it's the addition of the inverter that makes it so useful: yes you can run many things off 12v, but not everything. With the inverter being 1800W it'll power the Tassimo, and because its PSW I'm happy its not going to damage our bike chargers.

Plus it looks cool!

Graydo

 

[BikerGraham]

Ie, if you not already a costco member, become one, it's about 20 quid a year, you'll save that in a single fill of their dieel in a motorhome (diesel is very cheap as a member if they have a fuel station - not ALL do) in all likelihood (you may need to produce an "invoice" showing you are self-employed if you not retired/or work in a eligable profession such as insurance or banking... about 5 mins work to knock up an invoice in word to a friend to show at the desk). Costco membership is something I reccomend to all, as you'll probably find more than just Delta2's cheap in their vast warehouses. (I can reccomend the 2.5 kilo packs of Chicken thighs for about £4 (yes, about the same price that Lidl charge for about 4 thighs). We buy these and freeze alongside other meat products to make our food considerably cheaper over the year.

Put it this way our "nearest" costco is 120 miles away. Thats how far we willing to drive (we have an EV so the fuel cost is near 0 though), but we also take the motorhome in whenever we pass for the fuel. Taking the motorhome is great as we have WAY more storage for purchases than in the car.

OOI A TV my Dad was looking to buy last week at John lewis at £1500 (OLED one) was £800 in costco. So it's not just Delta2's that are cheap, and like John lewis you get a 5 year warranty as standard.

been meaning to join this for a while and never got around to it. thanks for the heads up. As I have my own business, joining as a trade memeber was straight forward. I will also pop in tomorrow to get the membership card for fuel. My local branch is Gateshead which is about 12 miles away.

I have been looking at the River 2 pro which is on offer for £549. But the delta 2 at £599 is a much beter deal.

so one just been ordered.

will make a mental note to fill up the van when next passing.

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[Graydo]

I just re-joined after reading this post too, was a member years ago but had no idea that they also sold fuel now.
Looks like I'll be filling here for the next trip

Graydo

 

[chaser]

been meaning to join this for a while and never got around to it. thanks for the heads up. As I have my own business, joining as a trade memeber was straight forward. I will also pop in tomorrow to get the membership card for fuel. My local branch is Gateshead which is about 12 miles away.

I have been looking at the River 2 pro which is on offer for £549. But the delta 2 at £599 is a much beter deal.

so one just been ordered.

will make a mental note to fill up the van when next passing.

Nearly pressed the button on the Amazon refurbished one at £609 but then someone (sorry can't find the post now) said they would have new ones on offer in 15 days so waiting for that now if it comes off.

 

[BikerGraham]

Nearly pressed the button on the Amazon refurbished one at £609 but then someone (sorry can't find the post now) said they would have new ones on offer in 15 days so waiting for that now if it comes off.

yep, this is £599 for the new one, not refurbished. Think its at £799 on Ecoflow website at the moment, in their sales

 

[starquake]

I just re-joined after reading this post too, was a member years ago but had no idea that they also sold fuel now.
Looks like I'll be filling here for the next trip

Graydo

Last fill up was Stevanage for us, premium disel was £1.35 then, when locally premium diesel was nearer £1.58! (non premium was £1.50). Its usually at least 8p cheaper per litre, but up to 20p has happened too!

 

[starquake]

been meaning to join this for a while and never got around to it. thanks for the heads up. As I have my own business, joining as a trade memeber was straight forward. I will also pop in tomorrow to get the membership card for fuel. My local branch is Gateshead which is about 12 miles away.

Should only warn you our family rule is any visit into a costco warehouse costs about £200. YOu always end up buying stuff you need for stock, tins of tomatos etc.

The stuff the family favours at moment are the Meat (get there at opening or may be sold out of some items), but in terms of regular purchases we only make at Costco, it's loo roll, dishwasher tablers (years supply is about £10-15), washing tablets... (all of these we'll buy near every trip except the dish tabs as we only get them once a year).

But worth inspecting the alcohol aisles - there are some very good boxed wine and spirit deals to be had too, things like Kraken they sell 1l for the same price Tesco sell 70cl, so you get 30% more for same price.

If you do need a modern upgrade to a computer, their Mac prices are excellent too, usually a better spec than Apple for less money.

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[Graydo]

Last fill up was Stevanage for us, premium disel was £1.35 then, when locally premium diesel was nearer £1.58! (non premium was £1.50). Its usually at least 8p cheaper per litre, but up to 20p has happened too!

Glasgow costco shows £1.41 for premium diesel, around £1.45 for regular here atm.

Thanks,
Will keep an eye on prices.

Graydo

 

[bigtwin]

As it's lithium, it's all usable, so it's more like 100AH of usable capacity,

Erm, it can’t give you more (100Ah) capacity than its actual (84Ah) capacity.

The end result is you get something usable without connecting and disconnecting accessories to the battery terminals

Yes, but with all that gubbins in it the compromise is usually that they have relatively small battery capacities (unless, of course, you go for one of the bigger boxes that then becomes difficult to find somewhere to place it when you want to use it and also when you wish to store it away when moving on.

Folks seem to like them though and if it works for your use case then all good and well.

Ian

 

[BikerGraham]

has anyone connected one of thes delta 2's into the EHU inlet socket to provide power to the vans 240 sockets and inbuilt microwave. Obviously switching off the battery charger unless needed too. I imagine then the van's batteries would still be charged from the solar system ?

 

[starquake]

has anyone connected one of thes delta 2's into the EHU inlet socket to provide power to the vans 240 sockets and inbuilt microwave. Obviously switching off the battery charger unless needed too. I imagine then the van's batteries would still be charged from the solar system ?

Yes, we have done this -> we need to build a "shorter" hookup cable as running a 25m hookup cable makes little sense. For moment we have a 5 metre extension cable ot run the 240v to anything that can't reach from where we put the Delta2 (we run it out of window to run stuff outside).

If we needed to run a microwave we would proabbly use the 25m hookup until we can make a shorter one, given the socket for the microware is a pain to get to.

 

[chaser]

Yes, we have done this -> we need to build a "shorter" hookup cable as running a 25m hookup cable makes little sense. For moment we have a 5 metre extension cable ot run the 240v to anything that can't reach from where we put the Delta2 (we run it out of window to run stuff outside).

If we needed to run a microwave we would proabbly use the 25m hookup until we can make a shorter one, given the socket for the microware is a pain to get to.

It's nice to see people coming out and saying they use these things ,up to very recently as soon as they were mentioned they were condemned as a battery in a box so there hasn't been much discussion on them.
As soon as anyone mentioned them all you got was you need more solar and a lithium battery and inverter but that just isn't the case , I have plenty electric now, more than enough in fact , I'm just trying to finding a way of using the surplus not making more.

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[BikerGraham]

It's nice to see people coming out and saying they use these things ,up to very recently as soon as they were mentioned they were condemned as a battery in a box so there hasn't been much discussion on them.
As soon as anyone mentioned them all you got was you need more solar and a lithium battery and inverter but that just isn't the case , I have plenty electric now, more than enough in fact , I'm just trying to finding a way of using the surplus not making more.

It's a bit like anything relatively new I suppose. It takes time for some to adapt and see how it can best be used and solve the issues they may have.

in my case, i have 2 x 105ah wet batteries and a 100W solar panel. More or less standard with the van. It generally does what we want it to do. Its back to the old hairdryer and toaster thing.

Often when in France if we use ACSI, it comes with EHU are part of the price. So its not that often we need to have something alternative. Going to change the mains charger to be compatible for lithium and then putting lithium batteries in plus additional solar. Seems expensive and a bit of agro. For the little benefit we would achieve. But for others its of significantly more benefit so worth it to them.

thats the beauty of our hobby. We are all different and use our vans in different ways.


I suppose for you Chas, the benefit could be that you could use your excess generated power to charge up the portable units and maybe that could be of some use elswhere for you ??

 

[DangerMousy]

It's nice to see people coming out and saying they use these things ,up to very recently as soon as they were mentioned they were condemned as a battery in a box so there hasn't been much discussion on them.
As soon as anyone mentioned them all you got was you need more solar and a lithium battery and inverter but that just isn't the case , I have plenty electric now, more than enough in fact , I'm just trying to finding a way of using the surplus not making more.

Yep they seem to be a bit marmite on here. But I think most of the people who don't like them either don't use much 240v, or already have MH systems with inverters and decent batteries.

I can't deny that for "most" people upgrading their MH's system is probably the "best" way of doing it.....and if I had deeper pockets then that's what I'd do too. But I can't justify the cost right now and a power bank gives me a workaround for those specific occasions we need 240v power off grid. For some people (like you) the portability is an important feature. We all have different needs, and luckily there's lots of different solutions out there

 

[chaser]

It's a bit like anything relatively new I suppose. It takes time for some to adapt and see how it can best be used and solve the issues they may have.

in my case, i have 2 x 105ah wet batteries and a 100W solar panel. More or less stadnard with the van. It generally does what we want it to do. Its back to the old hairdryer and toaster thing.

Often when in France if we use ACSI, it comes with EHU are part of the price. So its not that often we need to have something alternative. Going to change the mains charger to be compatible for lithium and then putting lithium baterries in plus additional solar. Seems expensive and a bit of agro. For the little benefit we would achieve. But for others its of significantly more benefit so worth it to them.

thats the beauty of our hobby. We are all differnt and use our vans in diferent ways.


I suppose for you Chas, the benefit could be that you could use your excess generated power to charge up the portable units and maybe that could be of some use elswhere for you ??

Yeah I have the same as you but 2 solar panels, we have a condenser fridge which I think is the finest thing we have added, and the setup we have runs that and everything else we have in the van without any need for hookup unless we have had to pay for it.

 

[starquake]

As soon as anyone mentioned them all you got was you need more solar and a lithium battery and inverter but that just isn't the case , I have plenty electric now, more than enough in fact , I'm just trying to finding a way of using the surplus not making more.

I think people miss the uses for them when not using the motorhome given they are so portable. It's the major reason we opted for this over upgrading the van.

We have very dodgy power at home, with upwards of 45 power cuts a year on average (most are short in duration, but we usually have 4 minimum 4hour cuts a year).. Our home internet already has a UPS backing it up (works for 6 hours) because of this (as we mostly use laptops when the power is out via it). However we realised the ecoflow is quite a good way of actually watching TV when we do get a 6 hour outage. If we had a longer outage, I'd imagine using it to save food in the freezer would be a priority too (given solar would top it up in most cases too).

Put it this way it's a bad year when I don't get the payment from the local distrubution network operator to pay for the interruptions in service.

The ecoflow allows us to work around these interruptions && have 240v when we use the van. Ideally I'd have 2 units, but the delta2 is cheaper than a decent UPS too ... and runs stuff for longer.

 

[bigtwin]

I think people miss the uses for them when not using the motorhome given they are so portable. It's the major reason we opted for this over upgrading the van.

We have very dodgy power at home, with upwards of 45 power cuts a year on average (most are short in duration, but we usually have 4 minimum 4hour cuts a year).. Our home internet already has a UPS backing it up (works for 6 hours) because of this (as we mostly use laptops when the power is out via it). However we realised the ecoflow is quite a good way of actually watching TV when we do get a 6 hour outage. If we had a longer outage, I'd imagine using it to save food in the freezer would be a priority too (given solar would top it up in most cases too).

Put it this way it's a bad year when I don't get the payment from the local distrubution network operator to pay for the interruptions in service.

The ecoflow allows us to work around these interruptions && have 240v when we use the van. Ideally I'd have 2 units, but the delta2 is cheaper than a decent UPS too ... and runs stuff for longer.

A perfect use case that plays to its strengths, although, I guess, most folks aren’t unlucky enough to have such an unreliable electricity supply.

Ian

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