EF ECOFLOW RIVER 288Wh Portable Power Station,3 x 600W(Peak 1200W) AC Outlets & LED Flashlight, Fast Charging Silent Solar Generator (Solar Panel Optional) for Emergencies Home Outdoor Camping RV

This is my pal for sure. It's been a few years and ive used this almost everyday. Still working great. Extremely handy when the electric goes out. There's usb light bulbs that can be bought for this and fishtank lights are bright and will take up less power. Still the light bulb would light up a few whole nights on a single charge. This is great for charging my S10+. very fast charging. App friendly. Durable and aesthetically pleasing. Easy to carry.

The unit I received was manufactured just a few months ago. It works exactly as described and is a great quality product. I used it one day and then charged it up and put it away. When I went to use it again it was still fully charged and hadn't lost any power at all in two months. There are a lot of different outputs which is handy. It also comes with a nice variety of cables. If you want the power to last longer try to use DC appliances, but the AC works great as well. It just uses power more quickly. This station powers my coffee pot, btw, but brewing one pot used up 30% of the battery capacity in 5 minutes. But if you really want a hot pot of coffee during an outage, who cares? The batteries deliver 288 watt-hours of power total. Not much, really. Enough to charge up your phones, earbuds, tablets, and keep a light or two powered for around a day. That's what I wanted it to do, so I am very pleased. I payed just under $200 for mine during Amazon Deal Days. For around double that you could get a power station that has more capacity. I might think about upgrading in a year or two. For now, this station does exactly what I need it to do! I am very pleased with my purchase.

For the astrophotographers out there, I bought this to run my astrophotography setup through the night. The math SAYS it can run my:HEQ-5ASIAIR PLUS2600MC PROASI 120MMand 2 dew heater straps for 10 hours.However, it's power is dramatically reduced due to temperature. I recently tried using it on a cold, mid 20's°F night and even after deciding to run the dew heaters separately off a different power station, this unit only gave me an estimated 8 hours at best. The unit can only factor in it's power usage, not the effect of the ambient temperature so MY estimate is probably closer to 6.5-7 hrs while only drawing around 20w.I bought it on sale for $250. 10 days later it dropped to $189. I contacted them and they reimbursed me the difference without any hassle.I couldn't be happier with their customer service.In conclusion, it's a nice little unit but I didn't factor in the effects of the cold and should have went bigger. So if you plan on using this remotely in cold temperatures, keep in mind that your WH will be affected. Which I assume to be true of any power station and not a defect of the unit itself. So size accordingly

I do a of mobile vending. 99% of the time, I do not have electric access, but all my stuff needs power - the phone (for POS app), the display lights, the credit card reader, ect. For long 8+ hour shows, batteries run low or out, and I have to scramble to swap devices or replace. This is EXACTLY what I needed!It's small and sharp looking. Last show, I hid it behind a tabletop display and plugged everything in about halfway through. No one customer noticed or complained, and I didn't run out of power (yay! for still being able to take card payments). It's light enough that my 5.5 YO can carry it (no problems carrying all the way to the car at night during a giant show, either, to recharge it overnight) and pretty intuitive to use.As far as longevity and durability, I have no opinions now, but it's small enough to tuck into a wooden display crate for transport. I'm sure the battery will fail over time (just like any battery), but I plan on working this little power box hard until then.

Update: 2-10-24 (I bought the next size up with a Bluetti model AC180 to replace what now is just a glorified Ecoflow power bank with crap software.)The River now charges when it feels like it. Connected all day with full sun it will initially start charging at random and charge until full. Biggest difference since the trashware they installed on my device, if you're charging battery packs or running lights...etc, it used to charge while doing pass-through to the AC and DC output ports. I use the USBs more than anything. So it would reach 100% battery charge and stop charging on solar, drop to 99% and solar picks back up to charge the battery since its no longer full. This way, you have power all the time you need it and your batteries don't drop to nothin during full sun. Now? Post .23 firmware not only does it only begin charging when it wants to, after the first charge to full it does not Recharge at all allowing the battery to go back to zero, while the solar panels have been plugged in the whole time in full sun. Who is buying a solar generator that tells you when its needed?-----Update: 2-2-24:-The solar charges when it wants to now. And it doesn't like to very much. If at all.-Wall-plug/AC charging used to charge at 345W and be done in about an hour. Now? Nope..starts from 0% at 26-30W builds to 60W and no longer tops out at 345W, now just 125-145W. Charging this thing or charging things with this EF River is it's only use case, and its only issue.-It seems the ppl at EcoFlow are afraid of letting the unit power itself properly for its only use case...charging and discharging when needed.If I leave it plugged in all day from sun up, to sun down to charge it no longer will pick up charging from PV(solar) when there is light on the panels. I used to get 12W with barely light in the sky charging from sun up to sun down. After the firmware updated this "generator" doesn't begin charging at all anymore. Wish EcoFlow would have explained the new "logic". I still cannot find what logic was updated to the charge other than..."don't". If this was my only power-source in an emergency I'd die if I needed this device. It worked SO WELL!! For months! One firmware update and its now useless as a solar charger. If I wanted to take it camping I'd have to babysit the device to know its charging if I needed lights or if out "glamping" our projector which eats all 100% of this battery at only 40watts in just over 2 hours (reduces options for movie selection) And when its dead its DEAD until its hit 1% charge on the display. I've never owned a device that the manufacturer so blatantly broke the use of their own product without an option to opt out or a description that would let you know what you're installing and why. This is a game changer for us that were so pleased with this River unit that we were going to go bigger with EcoFlow.. Nope. Not anymore....not when I'm a firmware update away from losing thousands of dollars of equipment to updates EcoFlow DOES NOT SUPPORT after they break your device with them.-----Update - 2/1/24: Since the firmware update to .23, this solar generator is useless in an emergency. It charges on solar when it wants to. I cannot find a pattern or trigger. I can plug and unplug the power from the solar charge socket, power cycle the River with "Off" (don't think it ever turns off, wifi communicates constantly with this device)I honestly wish I could downgrade the firmware so this solar generator was useful again. As is...I lose a TON of functionality since the firmware update to .23. Its junk now as a generator. I'm buying a different brand, this is absolutely unacceptable for the product to be rendered useless for its only purpose. On the Ecoflow app, the update "Details" does not tell you anything it is blank other than the summary it already gave you. "Charge logic update for the longevity of the device"...they broke it so I can't warranty it when it breaks on their dime. Nice. Screw Ecoflow...awesome hardware, junk company. SO glad I did not buy the Delta I was looking at...The Reddit threads about their firmware updates on the EcoFlow Delta are even worse. Majority of the issues are about the firmware too.-----Update - 1/29/24 - This device has served me well everyday up until yesterday and today. I could not get the device to charge on solar. AC yes, solar its like no signal. I've spent every morning connecting the panels to the unit and charging throughout the day without any issues. Yesterday first sign of trouble, I connect the app to look for reset options, anything. Find there's a firmware update available in the app after connecting. Its very recently released in 2024, mentions update to protect longevity of the batteries by update to charge logic. Update completed successfully and within a few minutes.After the update, still no charging on solar. Advise online to re-calibrate is drain and recharge to full and drain again. Did this. Connected solar panel to the River and nothing...does not seem to see voltage from the panels. I've checked all my wiring and all is good except into the River. Its dark, I disconnect for the night letting the power banks I use drain out the River battery for calibration. This morning I wake up at right about dawn and connect the panels, still nothing where before the firmware update any sunlight in the sky would see 5-12 watts early AM. I go back to sleep and wake up to 100% charged River. I'm like wha? Nothing was connected to outputs so within its usual timeframe it charged back to full. Battery packs reconnected and charging fine. Battery hit 99% and as usual the solar begins to charge the River as it charges the packs. Normal. Come back to check after a while and the battery is at 87% and no solar on input anymore in full sunlight. Should be pegged at 200W this time of day. Nothing. Disconnected, reconnected, turned off and on again...No recharge via Solar. AC still fine. This seems like planned obsolescence as the unit was working fine and all other features work normal/ok, it will even charge via Solar but seems like only one time and then no longer afterwards. I'm still messing with it trying to figure out if its defective or the firmware update caused the issue. No failure in update process. Smooth. Will see what Ecoflow says.------**Initial Review** I've had this River for a few months now, and use it very frequently as a solar charge controller to charge all the power banks we use around the patio, greenhouse and for our phones/devices.Its been great, there are many things this can do. It will run an outdoor fan (mine ran 40-50w) on the AC just...not for very long. Can run a 40-50w laptop on AC, just not for very long. There are also some down sides. All the features you read about except Xboost work pretty much as they are described in the advertising. Xboost is spotty for compatibility, and does not ever hit 1600w, let alone 1200w. The battery life is one of the biggest limitations of the device and severely limits the usefulness of the River for even camping use. You'd want the Max kit (hard to find and runs about $299) which is just another battery attachment to bump the 278Wh to 556Wh. Hard to find though, just about anywhere.I can run a 1080p projector, and a basic bluray player than together consume about 45W for about 2hours 20minutes. Not impressive. Cannot finish a movie depending on the movie.I charge my electric scooter (HiboyS2Pro), on this in about 3-4 hours while also charging several other power banks at the same time. This generator works well but with USB-C becoming more common I've had to get a DC to DC cable, and a 100W USB-C hub to charge more devices on. This only has one built in C port. There is a USB3 fast charge port using a USB-A connector that will easily push 18W. Main USB-C port says 100W but on devices that use 30W charge it only supplies about 27W. Get full amount using the AC port and a charger rated at 30W. Interesting.Overall its great for intro to solar. Has helped me answer a bunch of questions about what I need and do not need. How much I might need with solar to use it like wall-plug from the power company on our patio during summer. But also helped me realize the battery life makes this unit a disappointment even in a pinch.Also Solar charging is maxing out at only 200W input. So will not be able to keep up with a larger output demand while pass-through charging is happening. Will have to lower your expectations while using in emergency or camping situation.I want to get another one for more power storage, or get the add-on battery for the River...but not worth the cost. I paid $209 for this, the battery will cost $300 everywhere I can find it. And there are few. For $500 you could just about buy the Delta next size up for a lot lot more battery storage. Would blow the River away. Not sure but feels like the river is Niche at best but we do get a lot of utility out of it to charge power banks and devices free from paying the power company. I charge 2x 24000Mah battery banks, 1x 70000mAh, 1x 28600mAh, and 1x 40,000mAh power bank everyday, that we use to charge things or power grow lights for indoor and greenhouse plants over winter. Our phones, tablets, and laptops as well. Can run the Laptops off the AC with good enough efficiency.Would NOT recommend this for solar charging (200W max - Firmware v*.23 ruined the charger) but bear in mind this is no longer sold by Ecoflow and is a dead product. The River 2 replaces it but trades off specs in places that do matter like getting upgraded LifePo4 batteries, but less overall power storage. Weight it out for yourself being very honest about needs before buying.