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paulz
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2025 07:53am - Edited by: paulz
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Ha, actually used it yesterday in earnest sort of. So I’m still playing around trying to get over the air TV at the cabin, which so far nothing due to either all the trees or the hills surrounding the valley I’m in. Yesterday I packed the test TV and antenna in the truck and drove a couple of miles to a nearby parking lot devoid of forest and nearby valley hills. The TV and antenna are both 110 AC but luckily I had the R2 along. Got 13 channels!
Tried it again back at the cabin, nothing. Still don’t know if it’s the trees or hills but at least the R2 worked perfectly!
So I can just plug the R2 in the cig lighter, truck off, to recharge?
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2025 08:45am
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Handy little rig aint it 
Yep on the cig-port, LA or LFP, or solar (with the right input cord, got mine off Amazon <$10) or 120vac wall.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 27 Jan 2025 10:55pm
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We finally had the way below normal temps get more seasonal, 39f high, lol. It had been a month almost to the day since last at the cabin, no snow cover to speak of, so we drove up and in.
I remembered to grab the R2 so we had easy plug in 120vac to run the ceiling fans while the 30k btu LP heater ran (the big bats are home). Inside temp started at 35f, more than I thought it would be but certainly cool enough.
In only 45min we went up by 20 and a 1.5hr were at 73. The 2 fans were nicely spinning along, mixing the air throughout.
It is soooo nice to have that little portable power pack as the main for a trip like this or as a backup if needed. The 2 hr total run time for the 2 fans only used 11% of the R2.
On the way home my wife says,"did you only buy ONE of those?" My regular system confuses her, the R2 is so plug&play she isn't intimidated by it.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2025 08:08am
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Good use of the R2. Mine still sits in its bag in the truck, hopefully I’ll remember if needed again. We returned to 30* weather at the cabin yesterday also.
Amazon does have a ‘buy it again’ button.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 12 Feb 2025 03:43pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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A Heads Up:
The EcoFlow River 2 Max 500 is on Amazon for $299 (25% off)
It goes 13.3# so its a nice upgrade in WH from mine reviewed at still a truly portable weight.
Were I buying now that is what Id order.
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paulz
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# Posted: 13 Feb 2025 08:42am
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Now you tell me. . I like the small one, fits right in a bowling ball bag, light and not much room in the truck for a quick AC job. Course if you’re running a tv or fan in the cabin..
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 13 Feb 2025 11:50am - Edited by: gcrank1
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These products are changing pretty quickly, I think Bluetti now has an LFP AC180, ~40#(not small) whereas most had Lith bats but not LFP. The non-LFP dont have near the use/recharge cycles.
They are likely responding to the market that is getting more informed and selective and typically wanting more energy dense units without the bulk and weight.
Cases in point....they pulled us in 
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paulz
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# Posted: 17 Feb 2025 09:38am
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Darn. My well shack, which sits at the bottom of the hill, flooded. So late yesterday I figured to pump it out with the AC sump pump, perfect job for the R2. Stuck the pump in the low spot, plugged it in, nothing. Display read 0%, even though it’s just been sitting in the bag behind the truck seat. Maybe left it on, but it should have turned off with no use.
Silver lining: The well pump generator is right there on the bench. I didn’t plan to use it as it’s 220 volt and the last thing I need is to screw that up and have no cabin water. Alas, glancing at it revealed it also has 110 plugs, so what the heck, started it up. I ran it for about 45 minutes. Left the 220 well pump going too since cabin tank was about half down.
Don’t know if the R2 would even power the sump pump, and if so for how long. That will be one of todays experiments, assuming it charges back up.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 17 Feb 2025 11:34am - Edited by: gcrank1
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Imo that would be a very short run for the R2's capacity.
I suspect you didn't turn the main power button off on R2, or quickly did and didn't verify shut down on the screen. I did that one time and it will drain the unit in its internal 'standby mode' 
Maybe ya gotta do it once so's ya knows?
Good thing is it will charge up quick; you could have plugged it into the gen and be topped back up while the pump ran.
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paulz
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# Posted: 17 Feb 2025 07:21pm
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You must be correct, need to turn it off longer, not just hit the button. Charged right back up today. Didn’t try it on the sump pump, since the other genny is right there, and again like you say even if it did power it, wouldn’t be for long.
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paulz
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2025 03:25pm
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So when the R2 was dead yesterday I plugged it into the cabin bank to charge. After a while I unplugged as my bank was a bit low from a few days use so I plugged it into the truck cig lighter. Some time later it completed. This morning I went to move the truck, only turned over a second, dead battery, wife and mutt on board! Luckily I keep a Li jumper under the seat, Vroom!
Fairly new truck battery, normally fires right up. So ironically, the R2 battery killed the truck battery. Too bad it didn’t come with jumpers..
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2025 04:25pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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Hmmm
Well, I only did car charging while we were driving. Your truck cig ltr socket has a fuse that is likely not over 15a, may be 12a; that would limit the max the truck can deliver or it would blow the fuse. But if you go by the fuse max X the hours..... If you left that much of a load on your truck bat from anything else would it have done that?
I know I left just the overhead map lights on in our car one night and was flat in the morning.
Btw, How did you connect to charge on your house bank?
Did you check the % of charge when you pulled it off?
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paulz
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2025 08:24pm
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I’m still getting used to the readouts on the R3, hours to charged, minutes, percent, watts… what I recall is it said 380 or so watts in when plugged into the truck lighter socket. Before that, it was on the cabin bank then through the AC 110 inverter. Don’t recall the watts. Switched to the truck at around 60%.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2025 09:18pm
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Isn't it an R2? which is pretty much a 20ah lfp with 17ah usable. I think the upper and lower limits are set for safety within the bms so we dont get the full 20ah.
So at worst 60% would be 12ah with 8ish ah to go, not a lot....not so much that Id expect it to suck your truck battery down that far???
My R2 recharges off 120vac in about an hour, think Id have just let it top up in the cabin, or whenever you run the gen or when you drive the truck (but at 12vdc it takes longer).
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paulz
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2025 10:03am
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Found this photo I took when first plugged into the cabin inverter. I guess the ‘recharge time’ is the minutes it will take to finish, not how long it’s been. And the 7% is the amount it’s charged, even though the circle around that is about half lit. 362 w going in, that I get. Was the same when plugged into the truck lighter.
I have plans to try it again today on a TV, more to follow..
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2025 10:21am - Edited by: gcrank1
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The circle is quick look charge level rather than a bar.
Yes, the min is time to go, it is close, not exact.
The 7% is charge level.
So lots of info right there for your pref of monitoring.
The 362w going in is what you will get off 120vac and that is why it recharges so fast on ac. When you cig-plug it that connection drops the amps load so you dont blow fuses/melt wires; so it charges lots lower and slower (iirc the cig-plug amps is in the manual).
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paulz
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2025 10:56am - Edited by: paulz
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Quoting: gcrank1 The circle is quick look charge level rather than a bar. Yes, the min is time to go, it is close, not exact. The 7% is charge level.
Ok thanks. So the green 40% part of the circle represents the 7% of current level of charge, even though the 7 is in yellow?
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2025 07:07pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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My memory aint what I remembered it being.....
The manual will know
I keep mine in the bag with it....now where is that bag?
When it says 100% Im happy.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 20 Feb 2025 09:39am
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I have the book too, and actually big enough writing to read, but not with me at the moment. Other things popped up yesterday, hope to get back to it soon.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 21 Feb 2025 02:30pm
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Haven’t dug up the book yet but I did plug it into the grid. Went up to 100 lights all white. I’ve read that leaving LFPs at 100% is not great, is this how you leave yours for long times?
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 21 Feb 2025 04:38pm
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Yep, I think the bms maybe gives some headroom???
!00% and dont leave it on the charger, good to go whenever you need
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