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Power stations have been around for over 15 years now. It’s been really cool to see how the technology has improved over the years.
Power stations are now more portable, user-friendly, and reliable than ever. They’ve also gotten much cheaper, so buying a power station for disaster preparedness or off-grid living is within reach.
Bluetti is a newer brand of power stations, formed in 2019 as part of a crowdfunding project. They immediately got attention as one of the first brands to use LiFePo4 battery technology and MPPT solar charge controllers.
I was lucky enough that Bluetti sent me one of their power stations and solar panel sets to try out. Here’s my full review and verdict.
The Bluetti EB70 is great because it is completely idiot-proof. Even if you have zero experience with power stations or solar panels, you will be able to figure out how to use it.
The real value, though, is in the LiFePO4 battery technology that Bluetti uses: it has a much longer life cycle than the Li-ion batteries used by most other brands. This makes the EB70 a great value, and you can count on it to perform well for decades.
Bottom Line Upfront
The EB70 power station + PV120 solar panel setup is great for disaster preparedness. Just don’t count on it to power energy-hungry appliances like refrigerators, fans or heaters.
Also read:
Note: These are the specs for the US version (EB70S) power station. I have the European EB70, which only has two AC outlets. The EB70 has a peak wattage of 1000W, whereas the EB70S has 800W.
The EB70S power station has 11 outlets (my European EB70 version has 9) plus wireless charging. This allows you to charge pretty much any small device or appliance.
Most of my devices are charged by USB, so I’m using those two outlets the most. But it’s also nice that there are DC outlets, two PD USB-C outlets (great for laptops that use them), and standard AC wall outlets.
The EB70S has a battery capacity of 716Wh. This is pretty large for a portable power station, so you can run small devices off of it for a very long time. This makes the EB70S great for phones, USB lights, emergency radios, and other devices you might need during a power outage.
Let’s take an example: A typical cell phone battery is approximately 2500mah. Operating at 5V, this equals 12 watt-hours of energy. Even when factoring in some power loss, you should still be able to recharge your phone 45-50 times.
The EB70S has a max power output of 800W. This means you can charge multiple devices simultaneously if they don’t exceed 800W.
Let me start by saying that no portable power station is great for running power-hungry appliances like refrigerators, heaters, stoves, or electric kettles. The EB70S is no exception. The 716Wh capacity would drain quickly when connected to anything with a big power draw.
For example, a 500W space heater would only run for a little more than an hour on the EB70S.
To figure out how long a device will run on the EB70S, use this formula:
716Wh × 90% × 90% ÷ Wattage of appliance ≈ Run time
Then there is the issue of the 1400W max surge power of the EB70S. Even some low-wattage devices have a very high power draw when being started up. If you exceed this 1400W surge, the EB70S will automatically shut off, and an alarm will sound.
For an 800W power station, a 1400W surge is relatively low. The Ecoflow River 2, for example, is also 800W but has a peak surge of 1600W. The Jackery Explorer 1000W has a peak surge of 2000W.
This low surge level honestly doesn’t bother me. I don’t plan on ever running a power-hungry device on the Bluetti (I have a gas-powered stove, heater, and RV fridge for emergencies). But, if you want to run a refrigerator, well pump, etc., on the Bluetti EB70S, you may need to size up.
A nice feature of the EB70S is the wireless charging. Just put your device on top of the power station, and it will charge. You can only charge one device at a time. I don’t have any devices that use wireless charging (my phone is old!), so I haven’t tested this.
The Bluetti EB70S has a built-in pure sine wave inverter. Pure sine is much better than modified sine inverters, thus making the EB70S good for powering sensitive devices. It also helps these devices work more efficiently.
Bluetti also uses MPPT charger controllers, which optimize the solar energy input to the battery. In short, the technology is much better than the competition.
Note: The built-in inverter will consume some energy when running or charging devices with the AC power outlets. For best efficiency, run devices off of DC power whenever possible. For example, many CPAP machines come with DC and AC plugs.
The Bluetti EB70 comes with three charging cables. This allows you to charge the power station in multiple ways:
Use the power brick and connector to charge the EB70 from a standard wall outlet. It takes about 4 hours to fill the power station completely. You can also use this adapter to recharge the EB70 from a generator, meaning you don’t have to worry about running the generator near your home and potentially getting CO poisoning.
While this option is stupidly easy to figure out, note that the power brick is massive. It weighs approximately 2 lbs!
The power brick also gets hot while charging, which is why there is a built-in fan. There is also a fan in the actual power station. With both fans going, the noise can be loud (more on that later).
You can charge the power station from anything which uses a cigarette lighter-type port. The obvious one is that you’d be able to charge the power station from your car.
However, there are some other power sources that have DC outputs. For example, a lot of pedal generators have DC ports. While I haven’t tried this, you could charge the EB70 with a pedal generator just by using the included cable – an excellent solution for disaster preparedness when solar charging isn’t an option.
At 12V, the power station will take approximately 7.5-8 hours to recharge. At 24V, it will take 4-4.5 hours.
I got the PV120 with my EB70 power station. It has a zippered storage area in the back with a lengthy cable in it. Use the adapter that comes with the EB70S power station to hook it up.
Compared to the older SP solar panels by Bluetti, the PV solar panels work better in partial shade: only the shaded part of the panels will lose power. If half the solar panel is shaded, it will charge 50%. By contrast, the SP solar panels would lose a lot more power across the entire unit.
If you have any experience with solar panels, you know not to expect the advertised wattage. So, I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the PV120 panels performed.
The day I took these photos was a partially-cloudy spring day. Despite the sun not being intense, I was getting an average of 100W of power. It even got up to 117W at one point.
Be realistic though: even if you could get a full 120W from the solar panels, it would still take 8 hours to recharge the EB70S.
With the 200W solar panels, it would be 4 hours. But, again, that’s assuming you have full sun and regularly re-position the panels for optimal light exposure.
*You can use other solar panels to charge the EB70 power station. They must be open circuit voltage and between 12-28V. If your panels use an Anderson connector, you’ll need to buy an Anderson-to-MC4 cable.
The Bluetti PV solar panels have built-in kickstands in the back. While these are a cool feature, I found them fairly useless in practice. While trying to set up one kickstand, the others topple over (it would be even more difficult with the large 200W panels).
They also easily toppled over in the wind. Oh, and adjusting the angle of the solar panels is impossible.
Bottom line: Don’t rely on the kickstands. Bring something to prop up the solar panels!
For me, being able to charge and discharge simultaneously is a really important feature of the EB70 power station. Most good power stations have this capability (but not all!).
I love the size of the EB70 power station. It is compact and doesn’t take up much storage space. I particularly love that the handle folds down into the unit. By contrast, the Jackery Explorer has an annoying molded handle on top, so you can’t even stack anything on top of it.
What I don’t like is the weight of the unit. It weighs nearly 22 lbs, and even more if you calculate in the AC charging brick. For disaster preparedness at home, the weight probably isn’t an issue. But I wouldn’t want to lug this to a walk-in camp.
The PV120 solar panel is even less portable. It weighs nearly 13 lbs and folds down to a massive 21×18.5 inches. The carrying handle does help, but be realistic about how annoying it would be to carry this anywhere.
One of the main things that set Bluetti apart from the competition is that they use lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) technology for their batteries instead of Lithium-ion. Aside from being safer and withstanding high temperatures better, LiFePO4 batteries have a MUCH longer lifespan.
Because of the LiFePO4 technology, the Bluetti EB70 power station can go through 2,500+ cycles and retain 80% of its capacity. By contrast, Jackery power stations can only go through 500 cycles. In the long run, LiFePO4 power stations are a much better value.
The downside? LiFePO4 batteries are heavier than lithium-ion. They also take longer to charge and discharge. However, I’d choose longevity since power stations are so damn expensive.
Buying Options
The EB70 power station + PV120 solar panel setup is great for disaster preparedness. Just don’t count on it to power energy-hungry appliances like refrigerators, fans or heaters.
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