This Portable Power Station Just Set The Gold Standard For Me - And It's Priced Well

2 months ago

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

One of nan astir intuitive solutions I've seen to making an expandable powerfulness station
High-efficiency circuit for sub 100W devices massively boosts artillery runtime
The portion is built for illustration a vessel to return bangs and drops.

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Just erstwhile you deliberation that portable powerfulness stations person go arsenic bully arsenic they are going to get, a institution goes up and makes immoderate large changes that you conscionable didn't spot coming.

Regular readers will cognize that I'm a immense instrumentality of EcoFlow's RIVER bid of portable powerfulness stations. The River 2 Pro has been pinch maine connected galore an adventure, including connected a UFO hunt to Rendlesham Forest, nan location of Britain's ain Roswell UFO incident. It's besides been pinch maine successful my hammock connected galore cold, bedewed nights. It's been 1 of those Goldilocks powerfulness stations -- not nan smallest, and decidedly not nan biggest.

Also: The champion portable powerfulness stations to past done powerfulness outages

But it's clip for an upgrade. And what if this caller powerfulness position could beryllium smaller than nan RIVER 2 Pro, but besides go bigger

The River 2 Pro has fixed measurement to nan River 3 Plus. And this has a fewer tricks up its sleeve.

The RIVER 3 Plus is simply a portable powerfulness position pinch 286Wh of capacity that measures 9.2 × 9.1 × 5.8 inches and weighs 10.4 pounds. It has 3 AC outlets -- 1 connected nan front, 2 connected nan rear -- bully for 600W continuous load and a surge load of up to 1,200W. That powerfulness capacity is smaller than nan 768Wh of nan RIVER 2 Pro, but it's besides almost 7 pounds lighter.

The portion besides features a reliable yet comfortable grip connected nan backmost for easiness of moving.

Also: I tried an Android telephone pinch a 22,000mAh artillery - it made my iPhone 17 Pro Max look small

The batteries are automotive-grade LiFePO4 cells designed to past 3,000 recharge cycles -- which is astir 10 years of mundane usage -- earlier their capacity drops to 80%.

The cells are protected to IP54 standards (protected against a constricted magnitude of particulate and h2o splashes from immoderate direction), and nan ammunition of nan portion is made from a fire-retardant polymer designed to past a 3-foot/1.5-meter drop.

It's besides sewage 1 100W USB-C port, 2 24W USB-A ports, and a 12V car outlet.

Cool ray connected nan beforehand is very useful erstwhile camping aliases during powerfulness cuts.

One of nan features that I was peculiarly willing successful trying retired connected nan River 3 Plus was what EcoFlow calls X-GaNPower. This is simply a high-efficiency mode that kicks successful erstwhile nan portion is moving loads nether 100W, and it beautiful overmuch offers double nan runtime.

A mini 3W load that mightiness person different tally nan portion to zero successful astir 19 hours tin now tally for 35 hours. I've tested this declare and sewage results that align pinch EcoFlow's promises.

Also: The magnetic USB-C accessory I can't unrecorded without - and why you request 1 too

This is very impressive, and fixed that a batch of what group tally from their powerfulness stations falls into this category, users will spot a immense runtime boost.

There's an AC input larboard and an XT60 larboard for charging successful nan car aliases from a star panel. For those wanting to usage nan River 3 Plus arsenic an in-home uninterruptible powerfulness proviso (UPS), nan portion tin move from nan grid to artillery successful nether 10 milliseconds. There's besides a USB-B larboard to let it to pass pinch PCs aliases NAS devices and move them disconnected successful lawsuit of a prolonged powerfulness outage.

The ports connected nan rear are covered by a flap.

You get options erstwhile it comes to charging nan unit. Using nan grid, you tin spell from zero to 100% successful an hour, star utilizing nan XT60 tin beryllium arsenic speedy arsenic 90 minutes, and car charging tin return astir 3 and a half hours.

Also: Why I recreation pinch 3 different portable powerfulness stations (and can't get retired of nan habit)

But there's much to nan River 3 Plus. On nan underside, there's a larboard that allows it to beryllium attached to description batteries -- nan 286Wh capacity EB300 (currently 22% disconnected and only $209) aliases nan 572Wh capacity EB600 (currently pinch 24% disconnected and is yours for $418) -- and this is what allows nan River 3 Plus to go a bigger powerfulness station.

As good arsenic offering a monolithic power boost, nan description artillery has a 140W USB-C larboard that tin beryllium utilized to powerfulness devices and complaint nan description artillery (a process that takes 7 hours).

The description larboard connected nan bottommost of nan RIVER 2 Plus.

This is nan astir innovative solution to making expandable powerfulness stations I've encountered. No cables are needed. I emotion it!

The portion runs wholly silently astir of nan time, but erstwhile nan instrumentality kicks in, it's a quiet 30dB, which is improbable to characteristic connected astir people's radar, moreover if they're trying to sleep.

Also: This $12 USB-C accessory solved nan biggest rumor I had pinch my laptop's charger

On nan beforehand of nan River 3 Plus is simply a very cool ray -- cleanable for powerfulness cuts and camping -- and a snazzy show that lets you cognize everything that's going connected pinch nan powerfulness station, from input and output powerfulness to instrumentality status. And for those wanting an moreover deeper dive, location is, of course, app connectivity, which besides offers distant control.

The cooling instrumentality is ace quiet erstwhile it kicks in.

ZDNET's buying advice

I reappraisal a batch of powerfulness stations successful a year, but nan EcoFlow River 3 Plus is nan first this twelvemonth to make maine spell "oooooh" a fewer times. The creation is rather akin to nan different units successful nan RIVER line, but nan innovative description strategy and nan other runtime for low-power loads are surely very cool.

The portion itself is only $299, making it very competitively priced. If you're looking for a bully woody connected a mini powerfulness station, this is for you, doubly truthful if you deliberation you mightiness want to grow its capacity astatine immoderate point.