Bluetti Portable Power Station - Is This The Deal It Seems To Be?

[DeafPug]

Current Amazon price for the AC180 + 200 Watt solar panel is $799, so slightly better than what I got it June. That setup MIGHT allow you to recharge the battery for all uses without draining the EV battery, depends upon how much you use it. 200 Watts can easily do a full recharge on the AC180 in a single day.

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[Mojave]

The Bluetti AC180 is now 54% off, $459 instead of $999. https://a.co/d/bqum4Qe

I did an impulse purchase at $499. They are really cleaning out inventory on this.

It arrived, and I tested my use case it successfully. The picture shows it charging from the Rivian at 787W and powering the house heater at 541W.

The input drops to ~300W when there is no load (that is an app setting, I can also charge it at ~1000W, which the Rivian can also handle and there is a higher setting which I didn't try, no need to stress the battery) The output goes up to 800W, depending on the heater's need. Not sure why it fluctuates that much, it's just a fan.

I am confident I can also plug in the fridge, but haven't tested it yet.

If the Rivian is full, I get 20h out of this, typically it's at maybe 80% for maybe 15h. The Bluetti can run the heater for maybe two hours on it's own when full.

I had to install a transfer switch, and chose the EZ Generator Switch. The Rivian is very picky with ground. If you power grounded appliances and it instantly turns off the outlet, that's a probable reason. You would need to interrupt the ground between the Rivian and the appliance (this is discussed elsewhere, I think on this forum). This is not an issue for a fridge, or a power tool.

Also: The gassy elephant in the room: There are more economic and probably more reliable solutions to handle power outages. e.g. a Generlink behind your power meter and connect a 30A-ish generator to that when mains are down.

 

[KBabione]

The Bluetti AC180 is now 54% off, $459 instead of $999. https://a.co/d/bqum4Qe

Now I just need the price to drop to the $299 I told my wife I spent on it...

 

[wjhdrew]

Now I just need the price to drop to the $299 I told my wife I spent on it...

This guy. Don't do that man. Haha. Living under a roof made of lies.
I got one at $499. It's nice to have a secondary power source when camping.

 

[Mojave]

Update, after more test.

It will increase the input draw to match the output as you increase the output load.

Once it reaches about 1500W, the Rivian will stop powering it, and the Bluetti can then supply up to 1800W. When it drops below that, and the Rivian is back with power, it will charge again.

Unfortunately, this may swing back and forth quickly (every second or less) which I am not sure is good for the various electronics. You have to stay below 1500W if Rivian powered.

 

[KBabione]

Thanks for testing - My plan, when using devices that might exceed what the Rivian can deliver, is to use the Bluetti by itself (i.e. not plugged into the Rivian), for an hour or so (think meal prep), and then plug it back in to charge when I'm done. I'm still waiting on my Blackstone e-Griddle to arrive to do some testing myself. The 2700W "peak" that you can set from the app is interesting too...

 

[Jabbahop]

I just purchased the new Bluetti Elite 200 V2 which seems like the love child of the AC180 (small footprint) and the AC200L (2k wh) for our camping with our R1S dual max. Hope it will work with our iceco fridge freezer, a couple of Ignik heated blankets (off season camping), induction kettle, burner, and small microwave. I will first try with just refilling with Rivian outlet vs getting solar and see if that works. They have a great deal on amazon where it is basically 1/2 price (roughly $1K).

 

[KBabione]

I just purchased the new Bluetti Elite 200 V2 which seems like the love child of the AC180 (small footprint) and the AC200L (2k wh) for our camping with our R1S dual max. Hope it will work with our iceco fridge freezer, a couple of Ignik heated blankets (off season camping), induction kettle, burner, and small microwave. I will first try with just refilling with Rivian outlet vs getting solar and see if that works. They have a great deal on amazon where it is basically 1/2 price (roughly $1K).

Nice! I used mine for the first time tailgating at a football game two weekends ago and it was great. At first I had the AC180 plugged into the Rivian and when I preheated both sides of my Blackstone E-Griddle it pulled too many watts and the Rivian outlet shut off. I think that also caused the AC180 to shut off as well. I unplugged the AC180 from the Rivian and, watching the Bluetti app, waited until the draw on the AC180 was consistently less than 1,000 Watts and then plugged it back into the Rivian. That strategy worked well for me and it's fun to see what's going on with the app.

I'm happy I bought it and I know it will come in handy when we're camping too.

 

[Mojave]

Forgot to update: We did have a power outage a few weeks back and everything worked as plan. I even remembered to plug in the short term UPS for the networking cabinet into the Bluetti/Rivian.

Power came back after about 4h, so I didn't get to the fridge, though.

 

[KBabione]

A Bluetti AC180 update here...I had the inspiration to email their Tech Support and got a surprisingly quick and helpful response. I've attached the full email chain as a PDF if anyone cares, but here are the highlights:

• While you can use the app to limit the wattage pulled by the AC180 to charge (Turbo 1440W, Standard 1000W, Silent <1000W), when it's plugged into an AC outlet, the full draw placed on the AC180 is passed through to the AC outlet - turning the AC180 into an expensive power strip that will happily request more than 1500W from the Rivian.
• If plugged into 12VDC, the draw will be limited to 100W but the AC180 will be able to output up to 1800W

So - my modified plan is to keep the AC180 plugged into my 12VDC outlet when using it so I don't have to worry about the 1500W limit of the R1S inverter. It won't charge a lot, but should help. When I'm finished using it, I'll plug it into the AC outlet of the R1S to bring it back to a full charge.

 

[Tango45]

You can consider the SOUOP series power stations. They have many styles, ranging from 300wh to 5000wh. The key point is that they are a manufacturer with independent research and development and production, and they also use lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Those "BRAND" branded ones look pretty nice. Do they come with NACS adapters?

[Should have added that this is the edit after the mods removed this scammer's posts]: Mods hard at work keeping us safe on Christmas Morning. Merry Christmas @Administrator !!

 

[kong]

A Bluetti AC180 update here...I had the inspiration to email their Tech Support and got a surprisingly quick and helpful response. I've attached the full email chain as a PDF if anyone cares, but here are the highlights:

• While you can use the app to limit the wattage pulled by the AC180 to charge (Turbo 1440W, Standard 1000W, Silent <1000W), when it's plugged into an AC outlet, the full draw placed on the AC180 is passed through to the AC outlet - turning the AC180 into an expensive power strip that will happily request more than 1500W from the Rivian.
• If plugged into 12VDC, the draw will be limited to 100W but the AC180 will be able to output up to 1800W

So - my modified plan is to keep the AC180 plugged into my 12VDC outlet when using it so I don't have to worry about the 1500W limit of the R1S inverter. It won't charge a lot, but should help. When I'm finished using it, I'll plug it into the AC outlet of the R1S to bring it back to a full charge.

Same @Jabbahop - picked up the BLUETTI Elite v2 about a month ago, and it was a total workhorse during our winter camping trip. Good tip from BLUETTI - I charge it on Silent mode too, both at home and in the R1S. When I’m not using it, I keep it stored at around 60% charge.

 

[Jabbahop]

how was it’s performance in the cold?

 

[kong]

how was it’s performance in the cold?

Zero issues using it in the cold with heated blankets, kettle and griddle. I read somewhere that the minimum discharging temp is -4F. However, for charging, we always charged at cabin temp as these batteries don’t have internal heaters.

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