Hi,
By reading around on this forum, i just learned that the Charger1 is not a DC-DC charger, not even a real charger ? it’s more like a DC-DC converter, it is not managing current. Why do they advertise it as a DC-DC charger ?
here is a quote from @Mandp “the simple description of the C1 is a variable voltage, controlled output load power supply.
It is not a battery charger per se. It will push in 10A constantly at the voltage you set even when the battery should float.”
It is just a glorified buck/boost converter
Why do they advertise it as a DC-DC charger ?
Marketing. They also advertise these power stations are a UPS in the traditional light, but they are nothing more than a glorified standby UPS and not a TRUE UPS. Marketing needs a swift kick in the butt. They need to stop with over exaggerating the truth or these over the top outlandish adverts/videos that don’t depict real life scenarios. Like the Elite 100 V2 video. Nobody is backpack camping and lugging around a 25lb power station I’m sorry. Another problem I have with marketing is the sales price vs list price. Your items are advertised as 50% off but if you look at Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) to gather historical pricing, the average price of a unit is never above or below a certain threshold. So if you list a new item at $500 today, a year later you raise it to $900 and then slash it 50% off to make it $450. You didn’t save 50%. You saved 10%. Not singling out Bluetti, everyone else does it, but I would prefer transparency if I had a choice. At the end of the day when we are window shopping, we are comparing similar units from other brands and often just look at the dollar and cents anyways. Raising it 200% then slashing it 50% off to make it 100% doesn’t save you if the competitor is more cost effective and friendly.
For the Charger1, it is not about a feature that is not really working, i mean, on the box, on the manual, it is only written Bluetti Charger1 DC-DC Charger, it is not about a feature that is exagerated/glorified, the device in itself is nothing lijke a DC-DC Charger, it’s missing 50% of it, the current management. It is really false advertising, it’s like they were selling the AC cable of your power station as a charger, because without it, you cannot really charge from AC.
Absolutely not. While the Charger 1 is still a buck/boost converter “technically”, it still functions as a charging source from your starter battery to your power station. The proper terminology in my opinion would be “misleading”. Another example is the Burger King lawsuit exaggerating how big and juicy their burgers are. False advertising would be Dannon yogurt for example. They made an unsubstantiated claim that their product improved digestive health but it did not. So “our burger is 25% bigger” = misleading, but saying our patties are all beef, but instead contain nothing but pork= FALSE advertising.
Copied from the Bluetti sales web page for the Charger 1; It is called an Alternator Charger.
Efficient to charge your power station on the road.
Now you can fully charge a 1kWh power station in just 2.5 hours
I could find no reference on their sales information, that states that it will charge a standalone battery of any chemistry. It only refers to charging “your power station”
That is not false advertising. The term DC-DC refers to taking a DC source and converting it to a different output.
The Charger 1 does that. It then provides that altered power to a power station, which has an inbuilt DC battery charger. It does that as stated. There are many instances in the public domain, that state it will charge other Brands of “power stations” and if within their input range, it will. There’s nothing false about that.
Does it state the term DC-DC Charger, yes it does, near the bottom of the web page “What’s in the box”.
Is it a DC-DC charger for a power station, absolutely, it states that. I’ve used from the alternator and another standalone LFP battery as a power source.
Anyway, any serious company is using the correct naming for their devices, eg. Victron, would have named this device a non-isolated DC-DC converter, not a DC-DC charger.
You know as well as I know “DC to DC converter” wouldn’t sell, but DC-to-DC charger would. The average consumer I don’t think cares about the technicality of the device, but simply rather they can use the alternator in their car to charge their power station. Welcome to the non-perfect world of solar.