EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2 Pro & Waterproof Bag, 768Wh LiFePO4 Battery, 70 Min Fast Charging, 4X800W (X-Boost 1600W) AC Outlets, Solar Generator for Outdoor Camping/RVs/Home Use

This is a review of the Ecoflow River 2 Pro Portable Power Station and 160 Watt Portable Solar Panel package deal, purchased in 2024 for use in North AmericaImportant: The solar panel and Power station are shipped separately from different locations and will probably arrive on different days. I received an email informing me about this after placing my order. In my case the solar panel arrived about a week before the power station.The day the power station was supposed to arrive, I got a message that they were out of stock and it would be delayed by two weeks, and they offered me a link to cancel the order and get a refund if I didn't want to wait. Despite that message, the power station actually arrived the next morning.Two weeks later a third package arrived containing a cable to connect the solar panel to the power station. The solar panel package already included this cable, so now I have two.Solar Panel:When folded up and in the included carrying bag it is about 60cm by 60cm (2ft by 2ft) and weighs about 5kg (11 pounds). Unfolded it is about 60cm tall by 2m wide (2ft tall by 6ft wide). It has two built-in metal kickstands to hold it at the proper angle to the sun.The panel has built-in cables about 1m (3ft) long with standard male/female connectors. Another 2m (6ft) cable was included that has male/female connectors on one end and the plug that fits in the power bank on the other end. Using only the included cables, the power bank has to be within 3m (9ft) of the solar panel. I ordered a generic 6m (20 foot) cable from Amazon to extend that distance.The panel is light and will need to be secured if the weather conditions are windy. The panel has holes in the corners that you could thread some paracord loops through to help tie/stake it down.I tested it at Noon on a sunny day with a bit of haze in mid-December near 45 Degrees North latitude. Temperature was about -12C (10F). The panel is rated at 160 watts. The power bank reported it was charging at 140 watts from the panel, so it was pretty close to the rating, and better than I expected. When the shadow of a tree branch crossed the corner of one panel, the charging power dropped to 100 watts.In perfect conditions, this panel could charge the power bank from empty to full no faster than 4.8 hours (768 watt-hours / 160 watts = 4.8 hours). In real-life conditions a full charge on solar will take longer.I will probably not be using the panel often, but it will be nice to have the option available.Power Bank:The power bank is about 25cm wide by 25cm tall by 10cm thick (10in by 10in by 8in), weighs about 8kg (17 pounds) and has a convenient carrying handle. It has a flat top so you can stack things on top of it.The AC and Solar ports to charge it are on the back. The power outlets are on the front.The unit has three USB-A ports (12W max) and one USB-C (100W max)There are four AC outlets and a button that can turn the AC inverter on or off.It also has a 12-volt automotive socket, two 12 volt barrel sockets, and a button that can turn the 12 volt power on or off.A small LED screen shows info about the amount of charge, power in, power out, hours remaining, and other useful stuff.You need to install an app on your phone to configure all of the features of the power bank, and to load any firmware updates. The app connected to my device without any problems, and is pretty easy to use.When it arrived the charge was at 30 percent. I plugged it into an outlet (110volt mains power), and was it fully charged in less than an hour.Use:My primary intended use is to keep my internet access running during power outages. My neighborhood gets a couple of outages per year, usually less than a day long. I work from home and I need internet access for this.I set the power unit up as a UPS for my internet cable modem and Wi-Fi router. The unit is plugged in to an AC outlet and is providing AC power to my devices while keeping the battery charged. When I simulated a power outage by unplugging the power unit, it quickly switched to battery power and the internet and all my devices stayed connected. The unit reported that it could keep them running on battery power for about 28 hours.This device appears to have more than enough power to keep my internet running, and me employed, through a one-day power outage.I also tested a CPAP machine with a built-in humidifier running on one of the power unit's AC outlets. This CPAP drained it from 100% charge to 45% in one night.Overall I am pleased with the quality and usefulness of the device for my intended purpose.

Okay, I did not get it for this purpose and just found out about a week ago when I got it to play with it. I tried out different lights, fans, radios, etc. Still am going to try more things later. I bought an EFEcoflow Delta 2 Max with 2 solar panels last year and have used it a few times for various work related and music related purposes and it work perfectly. It is heavy (like 60 lbs) and I thought i would get a smaller ECOFLOW to run a few items on while the other is charging off the sun or otherwise. More than pleased with the Smaller ECOFLOW.This one is only 17 pounds. It will not run a frig or big TV for more than an hour maybe 2 and I couldn't use it for my job and career fairs where I run 5-6 devices for up to 8 hours. The Delta does this easily though.I am a musician, and my group of 4 play lots of indoor and outdoor gigs. I do have a Westinghouse inverter 2000W generator that I have used for the outdoor stuff and it has been great for about the last 5 years. Pretty quiet but the ECOFLOW is silent and no fumes so I can use it inside or outside. I have used the big delta a couple of time indoors - there were no inhouse plugs close by without running 100' or extension cord. It worked great but again it is heavy to haul around.Here we go.......Epiphany/Discovery Time! I can run my whole musical group setup from the smaller ECOFLOW! Easily! for 30 hours or more. I still can't believe it! I just kept plugging in my equipment one thing at a time and it all works for much longer than I will ever need it.So here's my setup - Behringer 1600W Amp/mixer combo - 2 big Peavey passive speakers (15 inch woofers and horn drivers for high end) - a smaller Behringer keyboard amp/mixer monitor - a full size Yamaha keyboard - and last but not least (and I really don't use this as part of my regular setup but I wanted to see how much this thing could handle) a Peavy Keyboard amp/speaker combo. Oh, I also had a large Harbinger, powered speaker, that I hauled out of the storeroom and plugged it in too. If you have lost count, that's 5 devices total. The ECOFLOW still only showed about 70W of output and that it would be able to run for 25-30 hours. Crazy! It will run about 4-5 light bulbs for maybe 4 hours but all this stuff for much, much longer than I will ever need it for. Who would have guessed?I play in a string group with 1 cello, 1 violin, 1 flute and 1 keyboard. All instruments have pickups and mics running into the big Behringer Amp including the keyboard. So, getting back to my actual performance setup, that's 4 instruments and 3 electronic devices to give sound to everything. It works! and not just for a few minutes or a few hours but would run it all for 30+ hours! That's nuts. I assume all of these electronics take very little input and then internally amp those inputs up to what it required. Sorry, I am not an engineer - I don't really care how it works - it just does, beautifully. What a great discovery!Update on 6-17-25A few days ago I setup this device with 4 instruments in my Garage. I have an upcoming Farmer's market and wanted to give it a realistic tryout before I actually go use it. Items plugged into it. Full size Yamaha Keyboard, Behringer piano monitor, and Behringer 1600 watt amp/mixer powering to large Peavy speakers. The Ecoflow was charged at about 96%. We played for about 1.5 hours. The device said it would go 9 hours to start with. At the end of the 1.5 hours it said about 8 hours. The Farmer's Market is by far our longest gig of the year at 5 hours. 9 hours is plenty of time. More after our first performance on 6-21-25.