It is a test product. For informational purposes only.
EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2 Max 500, 499Wh LiFePO4 Battery/ 1 Hour Fast Charging, Up To 1000W Output Solar Generator (Solar Panel Optional) for Outdoor Camping/RVs/Home Use – For Sale – Price
Original price was: $399.00.$398.80Current price is: $398.80.
Description
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
iLLUMiNATiON BEATS –
THIS IS EPIC!!
I intentionally waited to write this review so I could test it in real life scenarios that I personally would want this solar generator for. It is a beast for it’s size and for how quickly it can charge. In my video you can see that my street fighter 2: hyper fighting arcade cabinet will run for over 4 hours on 28% battery. I later on charged it to full and it gave me over 17 hours of run time. I even played games for 3 hours to make sure there was no shorts, cut offs etc, and it ran flawlessly. Next a ran a large tunnel fan. It ran it for about 2 hours without issues. I then moved on to my actual PC and monitor. I get a little over 2 hours of use with this generator at full which doesn’t sound like alot but bare in mind that I got this for $200. My next big test was my Playstation 4 and projector. It handled it better than I thought at almost 3 hours!!
Simply amazing. It takes about 57mins to charge it from the plug. I tested multiple solar panels for charging as well. I tried a 100w portable panel and an actual 100w panel. It does take about 5hours to charge solar with both and about 7 to 9 hours with 1. However, I was also charging a power bank with it while solar charging thanks to the pass thru! This is an absolute must have! If our grid ever goes down I will be watching movies, refrigerating food, playing arcade games, trying to live life and enjoy some of the luxuries as well! My kids will thank me for being a pepper! This will run all your lights and everything else in a camp site as well with total ease. Trust me, I wasn’t paid in any way or receive anything for this receive anything in exchange. I wanted to write this so if someone is on the fence about it , they could rest assured these things are real and can save your life. The absolute ONLY drawback is that I couldn’t afford a larger one. Even the 256wh version is a must have. The bigger you buy, the more stuff you can run longer. So if you can afford it, grab a nice big one!!! Thanks for reading. 10 out of 10!!!! Also. The display is nice and bright. Can see it in the summer sun.
Wes –
Easy to use
Love this thing so far! Bought this mainly to run my fan on my woodstove insert when we lose power. We lost power and it ran my woodstove fan and a table lamp for 8+ hours. No issues as of yet. Charges quickly from a wall outlet and holds its charge while being stored. Liked it so much I bought a River 3 on sale. Used it to power my router. Worked great. Love the app so I can monitor live data while using.
Chris Dodsworth –
Does what it says*
I give the River Max an *initial* 5-star review because – without really having used it yet – it does everything I want. After I’ve actually needed it, I’ll update this review!
I live on the Gulf Coast, where we usually have at least one power outage a year from hurricanes or storms. I have a 5kW gasoline generator (along with a xfer panel so it can power the inside outlets of my house). But fussing with the generator (especially if the power is just out for a few hours) is a pain, ESPECIALLY when you haven’t had your morning coffee. (My wife has pictures of me turning on the generator JUST to power the coffee maker.) Enter the River Max. I wanted something that would (1) run the coffee maker in the morning; (2) power a few lights; and (3) run a fan at night if the power is still out (because I’m not running the gas generator all night long).
After some initial testing, it does all three! (1) My coffee maker is somewhere around 1000-1200 watts. If you plug it in to the River Max without the xBoost function on, it won’t work; the display says it tries to draw around 1100 watts and then signals overload. With the xBoost function, the coffee maker does work. The display says the River Max is sourcing right around 600 watts to the coffee maker. But wait…it requires 1200 watts, right? What’s going on?
I don’t have a multimeter to verify the River Max display data, but my guess is that xBoost mode simply limits current draw so that the inverter doesn’t get overloaded. In other words, it sources all the power it can, and the coffee maker just has to live with it. I wouldn’t want to run the coffee maker all the time that way, but I can tell you that it worked (though it seemed a touch slower than normal) and my coffee was plenty hot. That’s a serious win. Making one cup of coffee depleted the River Max from 100% to 85%.
(2) I plugged in a 10ish watt CFL into the AC outlet and River said it would run for about 30 some hours. That’s fine. We have battery powered lanterns, so whatever.
(3) An old lasko table fan (no idea what the specs are on it) also worked fine. At full speed, River said it would run for 5-6 hours. But remember that running fans and other motors is hard on batteries because of the induction. (Look up power factor for motors – they draw more than they say they do, basically.) Still, 6 hours of fan time isn’t bad. However, I ordered a 12V DC fan to use overnight (I’ll update the review with runtime specs when it gets here.) In general, DC devices will run much longer than AC ones because inverters are pretty inefficient.
FINALLY – in response to another review: yes, the River Max connects to the internet, and the app is pretty cool. However, contrary to what someone else wrote, you do NOT need to be connected for the device to run or to use the app!!!! There’s a button (IOT reset) on the device, and if you press it, it’ll let you connect directly to the device, no router needed. Thus, you can turn xBoost on and off in the middle of a camping trip.
This takes me to my only complaint: the app is nice and well-designed. Still, there should be a button for you to turn xBoost on and off on the device directly. I shouldn’t have to use an app just to make coffee. Still, this is the only portable battery pack I’ve found at its price point that can run a coffee maker. (Goal Zero, etc. can’t do this!) It also charges insanely fast. In real life, once I got my generator going, I’d just recharge River from it so that it’s ready to go in the evening.
One other positive: they’re really generous with cables!!! The River Max comes with: AC charging cord; solar cell charging cord; car charging power cord (you know, those cigarette lighter things); AND a USB-C to USB-C cord (for charging your phone); a DC to DC 15mm plug (or whatever it is); AND a USB-A to, well, some kind of Mac cable. it’s dual-headed. One of them is a lightning connector, I think, and so I assume the other is another kind of Mac plug. (Obviously I use a PC.) Just go read about other brands, like Goal Zero, and you’ll see they don’t come with nearly that kind of cabling. For the price, huge win. So, tentatively, five stars. After our next hurricane, I’ll let you know more….
Kindle Customer –
Para ir de dÃa de campo y conectar pocos dispositivos está bien, yo lo compre para utilizar como medio alterno de energÃa eléctrica en casa pero la app no funciona como dice y tengo muchas intermitencias, si lo conectas a la energÃa eléctrica te hace un puente y si está falla también te falla tu conexión, no es como un no break, lo compre para starlink y no me funcionó, tuve que meter un no break y a veces también por las variaciones de voltaje me falla. No hay reembolso o cambio, me mandaron una guÃa pero no pude regresarla ya que vivo lejos de paqueterÃa pero no me dieron guÃa de recolección. Desde mi punto de vista no pudieron resolverme. Cuidado con eso.
Giri –
The EcoFlow River 2 Power Station is a compact, lightweight, and reliable portable power source. Its fast charging (0-100% in an hour) and multiple output options make it perfect for powering devices on the go. With enough capacity for short trips and home backup during outages, it’s versatile and eco-friendly, especially with solar panel compatibility. Ideal for travelers and outdoor enthusiasts, this power station is a great investment in portable energy solutions.
Build quality of the product is top notch and the cutomer support is great. I got a really detailed demo by Mayur from Ecoflow and It helped me to understand the product under its utilisation better. Thank you..
GA –
UPDATE 2: I’m happy to report that the unit performed perfectly during a seven hour long night of astrophotography using both types of DC outputs (cigarette lighter and DC5521 port) to run both the telescope mount and wireless control unit, including dew heaters. The gear used up 40% of the capacity, consistent with the reported output wattage. In addition, EcoFlow has followed through on sorting out the refund on the original unit as promised. So, again, very impressed with their customer service and definitely can recommend dealing with them!
UPDATE 1: I am updating my review based on a couple of weeks of interaction with EcoFlow’s customer service. After being quickly contacted by them and walked through some troubleshooting, I was asked to return the original unit for a replacement. This proceeded relatively smoothly and a new unit eventually arrived on my doorstep the other day.
I am very happy to say that the DC outputs on this unit work as expected; where the original unit showed OVERLOAD and shut down, this one powers my astrophotography gear properly with no such issues. I will put it through some overnight imaging testing within the next week or so but I have every reason to expect that the unit will perform as advertised and expected. I am looking forward to using it for many years to come!
A BIG shout out to EcoFlow’s customer service – they were unfailingly polite, responded rapidly, and “made things right” as they worked to resolve the issues I was experiencing. Once the remaining charges on my card are resolved (and I have properly night-tested the unit), I anticipate updating my rating to 5 stars to reflect their helpfulness and the products’ capabilities.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
This unit was purchased after a fair bit of research and comparison to similar units by other manufacturers. It came well packaged, charged VERY quickly, is surprisingly compact and portable and has an extensive feature list including an app which connects to the unit & monitors/controls it. It was purchased with the intent of using it to run an astrophotography setup from the DC outputs. I’ve used other brands’ smaller capacity units to do this without problem and looked forward to the larger capacity and extra features this unit advertised.
This is where the issues arose. Immediately I ran into OVERLOAD messages & disconnects when using either of the DC outputs. These should be capable of up to 3A at 12V, but despite my device(s) drawing only 25 W the unit would consistently shut down with the OVERLOAD message. Thinking that my heaters were potentially causing current spikes beyond the 3A limit, I used the cigarette lighter output (which supports 8A) but again, same issue. The unit SHOULD be able to handle 100W+ on the DC outputs but I could not get my 20-35 W to function. I was able to use an AC adapter from the AC outputs to run one of the devices without problem, but that requires using the adapter (rather than just a DC cable) and the inefficiency of converting the battery to AC and then back to DC again; run time was less impressive as a result.
I don’t know if this is typical or if I have a defective unit, so further investigation is warranted. I DID update the firmware to the current version but it did NOT help with this issue.
Amazon Customer –
It’s amazing product.
Fast charging
Long lasting battery backup
Multi device charging support
Compact and portable.
Increadible performance.
In short, Value for Money.
I called it POWER HOUSE ð¥°
anita –
Bought this item as i am camping this spring in a cabin with no electricity, and i use a CPAP machine.
I was hopeful that i would get at least a night of power from it. Well, i tried it out, and was able to get 3 nights of running the CPAP. Impressed! Also charged quickly afterward, about an hour. Also appreciated that it has various charging ports- USB, USB -C, and normal plugins, with 2 and 3 prongs openings. Seems sturdy, well made, comes with 3 cords to plug it in (wall outlet, vehicle and ? [single small prong on each end]). Very happy with the purchase. Recommend product.