ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2, 256Wh LiFeP04 Battery/ 1 Hour Fast Charging, Up To 600W Output, Solar Generator (Panel Not Inc.) for Outdoor Camping/RVs

Product Information

Despite the smaller size of the unit, I did appreciate the Type-C charging when pairing the RIVER 2 with the Ugreen Nexode GaN 140 W wall charger. Indeed, it's a weird cycle whereby you could use the two in different charge/discharge cycles easily to power the RIVER 2, take them both along for a weekend trip, then charge your phone/laptop/any other Type-C device easily. There is enough juice from the power station, especially with the boost mode allowing the max output to go from 300 W to 360 W when needed, to be a decent camping partner. It's otherwise not going to compete favorably with larger power stations and is far more restricted as a home device. RIVER 2 Pro is powered by a premium LFP battery (LiFePO 4 battery) with a huge 3000+ life cycles, this is 6 times longer compared to the industry’s average of 500 life cycles. If used once a day, RIVER 2 Pro can be used for ten years. The advanced BMS protection keeps everything safe, monitoring, voltage, current, and temperature. Suppose you’re on a budget and don’t like the idea of paying for more electricity generation capacity that you need. In that case, you’re better off purchasing a 110W EcoFlow solar panel to match your RIVER 2’s solar input capacity. But a maximum operating AC output of 300W severely limits the kind of appliances you can run with RIVER 2. Essentially, anything with an operating wattage above 300W — or a starting wattage requirement of 600W+ — simply won’t work.

However, EcoFlow portable power stations don’t support 0ms switching. For most electronics, a 30-ms interruption in power is negligible. You may not even notice it. However, there IS an interruption — unlike with a UPS. It definitely enables day trips away, either for picnics (cool box), powering lights, or (my personal fave) powering a mobile office. You can take your campervan away for the day and easily run a pre-charged 45W laptop for 6-7 hours. Very nice. It’s essential to keep in mind, though, that a solar panel rarely produces its rated power output in the real world. This is due to numerous factors outlined in the posts linked above. A good rule of thumb for estimating average electricity output is to assume your panel will produce 75% of its rated power during peak sunlight hours.

What's in the box

To figure this out, you’ll need to divide the storage capacity of the RIVER 2, which is 256Wh, by the wattage of the appliances you want to charge. If you need more power, consider upgrading to other RIVER 2 series devices, such as the RIVER 2 Pro or RIVER 2 Max — each of which offers greater AC output. RIVER 2 Pro offers 800W running watts and up to 1600W starting watts (surge power) using X-Boost. the installed gross capacity of the photovoltaic system does not exceed or will not exceed 30 kilowatts (peak), according to the Marktstammdatenregister. You can trust RIVER 2 with even your most sensitive electronic devices (like laptops and external hard drives). How Long Does RIVER 2 Take to Fully Charge Using the DC Car (Cigarette Lighter) Input?

Any EcoFlow PPS can serve as an emergency power source (EPS) with a 30-millisecond switch time when using power from an AC wall outlet.

It’s the perfect PPS for portability and charging your essential personal devices. But if you want to operate even relatively low-wattage camping appliances on extended trips (more than a day or two), RIVER 2 Pro or DELTA 2 is likely a better option.