Reviews ECOFLOW River Pro – So, portable power it’s on everyone’s mind right now. Especially, if you’ve been watching the news from the southern united states where there have been almost a million people without power. A lot of people have portable power on their minds right now for emergency preparedness.
Reviews ECOFLOW River Pro – Best Portable Power Station for 2021
The reason I got into portable power was to charge my devices. I got it into it for convenience for charging my drone batteries, my controllers, my cameras, like everything, while I’m out in the field and it’s really convenient. But, as I said, a lot of people are thinking about getting one of these right now.
So, I want to show you one of the newest ones from Ecoflow. It’s called the River Pro, and it is pretty awesome for what you get the money that you pay, and what you get this is one of the best banks for your buck. I want to show you everything that I have currently plugged into this. I’m going to go ahead and just power it on.
There’s the main power and then the AC powers on the side here. So, right now, I’m charging my sony 6600, my mini two batteries. All three of them the insta 360 1r camera. I got my mini 2 controllers. I’m charging my Mavic air 2 batteries. All three of those plugged into the ac over here, and then also I got my Mavic 2 pro battery.
I’m charging and the controller. There also plugged into the USB, I got this red USB cable, and that’s charging a camera behind my smoker there, and I can’t show you that camera right now. I can charge all of this stuff, and right now it’s only pulling 74 watts. So, pretty cool, what I want to do is, I want to see if I can charge all of this and at the same time, cook myself some dinner on my little Traeger ranger here.
Some of you may have seen this already, so I’m just going to go ahead and hit the ignite button, and there it is running, and now we’re pulling about 320 watts. So, not even half of what this thing, well half about half of what this thing is capable of doing. I could theoretically throw this in the back of my pickup, drive out to mil into the middle of nowhere. I could fly my drones, I could make a video use my cameras, charge everything while everything’s charging.
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I can cook myself some dinner with my little portable smoker here. So, what I want to do today is, I want to show you all the technical specs, and what comes in the box in the river pro. Don’t worry, I won’t spend too much time on that. I know that gets to be kind of boring sometimes then also I want to show you the solar charging abilities of the River pro.
Ecoflow also makes a 160-watt solar panel and I was fortunate enough to get that as well. It’s so awesome, so if you’re thinking about getting a portable power station, maybe this is one that you want to consider.
So, let’s head inside, and talk about the Ecoflow River Pro. I just decided I want to show you the solar part of this thing right away because the sunlight is just right. Today, so I just went ahead and set up this 160-watt solar panel from Ecoflow. The river pro can handle up to 200 watts of solar input, so having that 160 watts are pretty nice.
Reviews ECOFLOW River Pro – The disadvantage of having something like this, something this big is, it’s not as convenient to carry around. So, if you’re going to be hiking, you know any amount of distance, I wouldn’t want to carry this too far. But, if you’re parking alongside the road, and maybe hiking in a couple of hundred yards, or whatever you know, then I think it would be okay.
EcoFlow RIVER Pro Specifications
| Net Weight | 15.9lbs (7.2kg) |
| Dimension | 11.4 x 7.1 x 9.3 in (28.9 x 18.0 x 23.5 cm) |
| Charge Temperature | 32-113°F +/- 5°F (0-45°C +/- 3°C) |
| Discharge Temperature | -4-140°F +/- 5°F (-20-60°C +/- 3°C) |
| Color | Cyber Black |
| Warranty | 24 months |
| Charge Method | AC Wall Outlet, 12V Car Adaptor, Solar Panel |
| Full Recharge Time | 1.6 hours (AC) 6.5 Hours (12/24V Car Adaptor) 4.5-9 Hours (Using 2x110W Solar Panels in parallel with full sun) 7.5-15 Hours (Using 1x160W Solar Panel with full sun) |
Battery RIVER Pro Specifications
| Capacity | 720Wh (28.8V) |
| Cell Chemistry | Lithium-ion |
| Shelf Life | 1 year (after fully charged) |
| Cycle Life | 800 cycles to 80% capacity |
| Management Systems | BMS, Over Voltage Protection, Overload Protection, Over Temperature Protection, Short Circuit Protection Low-Temperature Protection, Low Voltage Protection, Overcurrent Protection |
| Testing and certification | UL Standard, CE, FCC, RoHS, RCM |
So, the river pro does come with the mc4 cables, mc4 to xd60 connector. That’s what most solar panels are, but you can also buy adapters if your solar panel is not an mc4 connection. It’s pretty simple. On the left-hand side, this is where the charging port is, the xt60, you just plug it right in, and it looks like right now, while I’m kind of blocking it.
The other convenient thing about this panel is the case, and you might see it here, and I’ll put a little b-roll up here. The storage case actually acts as a kind of a stand for the solar panel. You can just take it out and use these carabiner clips. Clip it on top and then you’re able to position it a little bit better.
It’s not the best design, I kind of wish this bottom flap was stiffer like I wish it wasn’t so flimsy. They could have made that side as stiff as this side. There’s like a plastic board inside here, I kind of wish, they would have done that with the bottom as well, and then that would allow you to adjust it a little bit more easily. But it works pretty well. It does get it at the right angle to the sun.
You can watch the video for further reviews.
Conclusion Reviews ECOFLOW River Pro
The River Pro can be controlled with your phone. Ecoflow has an app that allows you to monitor the input, the output, you can turn on the light, the AC, and the DC power, and then you can also use it to adjust your standby times, enable quiet charging, and update the firmware. As I mentioned, the app is also where you can enable and disable the x boost feature. There are many opportunities for improvement on the River Pro.
YES, the fan is a little bit loud, it does run especially high during output times. It’s not excessive, but it’s definitely noticeable. I don’t know if you can make it much quieter, and have it still cool appropriately. That is one thing that I noticed right off the bat now.
One other small thing that I’d like to see changed in future models is, for that charging port cover to be able to be pushed inside, when it’s open, I could see that easily being broken off.
Another suggestion that I have, that might be a little fun is to add some adjustable ambient light to it somewhere. That could serve as a fill light in a tent, or maybe a night light, like maybe some ambient light on the bottom or something. But, as far as functionality, I really don’t have any complaints or suggestions about the unit.
Now, concerning that 160-watt solar panel, my only wish is that the prop up stands functionality would be improved a little bit on the bag by adding some rigid stability to it. Otherwise, I think it’s great the river pro is a high-quality power station that will serve most of the needs of the average person now, whether you’re an outdoor, enthusiast a household hobbyist, or you just want to be prepared for power loss.
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