Comments Re Elite 100 v2 Review & Test

Please use this thread to make comments re the Elite 100 v2 Review. Here is a return link to the Review:
REVIEW

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Extensive and throughout review. Great work my friend. Have you tested any compressor driven devices like an A/C or dehumidifier on the E100V2. The only issue I ran into while testing my pre-production E30V2 was it failed to run my compressor driven dehumidifier reliably. I noticed the issue translated to my AC70 as well, so I am curious if the inverter in E100V2 is different. For my applications I ran them under 3 conditions: A) Stable grid power from home B) Pre-production unit C) Old Bluetti unit (in my cases an AC180 and EB3A).

Hi, @sealy1986, Thank you for the “pat on the back”.
Re compressor use on the E1v2, My home air cons are both hard wired and although I now have a generator transfer switch installed, other loads prevent me from using the E1v2. Also, they are big units, the main one is a 7kw output, currently set to heating as it’s winter here. It is currently using near 1kW. (I can check on my “solar web” App for the on roof solar what the house is using.)

The one aircon I am keen to try is my caravan. Again is would be set to heat due to current season. From memory, it draws around 1.5kW running. However, this is one of my upcoming remote trip tests, along with other 240VAC appliances in the caravan.

The 240VAC items include, camping kettle, toaster, sandwich press, microwave and the aircon. I’ll be taking a 100Ah Pylontech deep cycle battery to increase the E1v2’s capacity. That said, a Victron 15A - 240VAC smart charger is also being packed. I intend to use it to charge the 100Ah battery and can do this from the E1v2, a small petrol generator and maybe the 375W inverter in the 4x4.

My 2 x 100Ah RV house battery charge draws around 550W, so I’ll try that from the E12v as well. I know this charger works from the 800W genny. So, I will check that compressor run up on the E1v2. I have tested it on my house fridge compressor, which is an inverter compressor and it works fine, as do all of my AC180s. The exception is my small drink fridge, it fails and as noted, methinks it is the fridge, not the power station.

Mike

I’ve just looked at the A/C specs for home. The 7kW large unit, can run upwards of 1.98kW, until the thermostat hits the set temp. This exceeds the AC180 & E1v2 inverter. It would also likely exceed the E1v2 surge of 3.6kW.
The smaller bedroom A/C is 2.5kW, it’s max power draw is only 630W.
However, I can not test either, they are hard wired. The Gen Trfr Sw is only wired to the GPO’s of the house, I left the A/Cs, E/Oven and lighting out of the transfer. Primarily, to maximise battery capacity. It’s then easy to go around the house and turn any unwanted GPOs off. I have around 1/2 dozen plug in LED lamps to deploy at night, a couple of Ryobi lanterns, headlight and torches for a grid outage. As mentioned near the end of my review, leaving a home light switched on when the grid is out, won’t give me light, but it will signal me when the grid comes back up.

I have noticed that power outlets in some parts of the world are just plug in with no switch. Here in AU, all household GPOs are switched.
AU GPO
There is a green bar at the top of the switch, which notes the ON position.

There is “method in my madness”, lol.

@Tezzabee Thanks for the like, Tez

I should also note: Even if the E1v@ runs my caravan A/C I wouldn’t use it to do so. I would be lucky to get a 40 minute run time from the 1024Wh battery.

As an aside, I have a Honda EU2000i generator it is a 2kVA model. 2kVA with a 0.8 power factor is a 1,600W continuous output. It does run my caravan A/C and has a much lower surge rating than the E1v2. But, I won’t know until I try, lol.

Found my answer. Looks like the answer is no. Hobotech did a review of the Elite 100 V2 on a 5000 BTU unit and it failed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1cL36-x41U&t=441s

I actually watched Hobo’s review last night. His A/C looks like an older model and may not be an inverter compressor, not sure on that.
I’m not familiar with U.S. A/Cs, are they 120V or 240V (2 phase)? Our AU grid is 240VAC single phase, so there’s a difference, even before the frequency difference AU 50Hz to US 60Hz.
We don’t need to use 2 phases to get 240V, our standard house GPO is rated to 240VAC @ 10A for 2,400W each and throughout the house. Pretty well everything in a standard house works from one single phase input.
The only time that varies is in some larger houses (rich people, lol) they have 3 phases to the property. Each phase to Neutral is 240VAC, but in the instance of 3 phase motors in larger A/Cs it’s 415VAC 3Ph. Others use 3 phase for high current devices such as large machinery, arc welders etc. i.e. Farms, small business and industry.

Most common household outlets are 120V, but we have fuse breakers that support 240V appliances namely washers/dryers/AC units. The “Bluetti” ones are 120V here in US.

I believe a possible solution may be to install a “soft starter”, though some are not compatible like this one. I’m thinking a “plug-n-play” device would not work. A real soft start has to be wired to the capacitors and other lines on the Bluetti unit itself. If so this a big bummer. I will be holding onto my AC180 like its my first born child because I need my dehumidifier.

Lol, sounds like your family has a + one.

The later A/Cs especially like the split systems I have, are inverter and soft start. I seem to recall the technician that replaced my large A/C external unit under Warranty that this is done by allowing the compressor to spin up, gradually increasing the gas pressure to normal run kPa.

Re that repair, it’s a Hitachi, was less than 2 years old. The compressor crapped out, making un-natural noises. They agreed to repair it under Warranty, but after around a week, found there were no spare compressors anywhere in Australia. We were still in the grip of Covid, so they replaced the entire unit with a new one, as soon as one was freighted from half way across the country.

I can’t complain about that for service. Plus, it was fortunately during Autumn, so neither too hot or too cold outside.

Am I correct in saying in the U.S. that your 120V outlets are not switched at the socket? I stated this based on the many Youtube Vids I see.

My upcoming trip is not for a bit over 2 weeks. In the past I have taken an AC180 & AC70 only, to give me off grid 240V. This trip, I am taking the E1v2, AC70 & a 100 Ah LFP with the Charger 1. The AC180 is staying home.

So, just for you; it’s too late today and tomorrow morning we have an appointment. Looking at the weather forecast, tomorrow afternoon will be ok. I’ll take the E1v2 and the AC180 to the caravan (it’s in a storage lockup a 5 min drive away).

The RV has a 240VAC cable hardwired that is pulled out as required from a small hatch in the side of the caravan. It has a 15A plug, which will not fit into a 10A socket. However, I have a legal converter box, with a 10A lead to the box which contains a 15A socket and a 10A circuit breaker. Like my house, the A/C is hardwired (no plug), which will require me to turn the battery charger and microwave off. (they are the only 2 fixtures that use shore power)

I think I’ve tried the 180, but can’t remember, so I’ll try again. Then the E1v2. I’ll post the results here, for you in a little over 24 hours time, excepting unforeseen circumstances, lol. Including specs and actual loads.

Keep in mind, it’s winter here, so it will be on reverse cycle heating mode.

Correct. Most outlets will supply continuous power unless you flip the switch at the breaker. I lived in one/two/three bedroom apartments for most of my life and they are either in the kitchen area or laundry room. The common theme you will see for “switched” applications is a wall mounted switch, which can cut power to “some” outlets, generally a lamp. We are behind the times a bit. I come to find out the world does not revolve around “us” go figure! lol When I first saw a Type C prong I assumed it was an alien device or something. I am so used to Type B. But go figure, your plug (type I) is mostly only in Australia so other plugs are somewhat foreign to you, but because you are close to EU, its likely more familiar and easier to convert since you run 220-240V. If I wanted to take my appliance overseas I would need a voltage converter.

Another weird one is our slow adoption to requiring chip-based encryption on payment terminals. For the longest time we just had mag swipe which can be cloned very easily. UNENCRYPTED. We just started forcing adoption in 2024. In the U.S we have a compliance law called PCI-DSS which protects cardholder data, and while legitimate transactions are indeed encrypted at the terminal before they are stored at the “machine” level, this doesn’t prevent a criminal from simply intercepting the signal at the endpoint and skimming the card. This absolves the company of liability and places the burden on the end user. Some skimmers are clever and fit INSIDE a terminal so there’s no witness marks or anything loose on the outside like old school ones.

Interesting, I’ve watched a number of U.S. Youtubers, doing AU comparisons, many are amazed at us and this continent. Saying similar to you “revolve around us”, lol. One in particular, that Aussies are largely responsible for things like; The aircraft “Blackbox” (actually bright orange in colour), WiFi, yup that’s a fact, Penicillin and a few others.

Re switched plug sockets, I find the biggest plus here is this; In my house I have 15 double outlets, 3 single outlets and outside 3 weatherproof outlets. They are spread out to 4 RCDO circuit breakers (Earth leakage protection).
All GPO’s are switchable, so, if a device has a fault (short) it will only trip that RCDO’s breaker, not the whole house. If there is an issue with one device in the house, it’s then a matter of turning off the GPOs on that circuit, resetting the RCDO and switching each power point on, one at a time. i.e. if the kitchen electric kettle was the fault, when I get to it, turn on and power is cut, I know the fault without needing a multi meter, lol. (I used that as an example, as it has actually happened.)

I’ll take a piccy of my breaker box for your enjoyment, lol. later today.

We’ve had chipped base Cards since 2001 and Polymer bank notes since 1988, another AU invention…

I tested both the AC180 & Elite 100 v2 on each of the caravan A/Con & M/Wave. Here are their specs;

  1. A/C - Cooling & Heating Capacity 2,400W - Power draw at 240VAC = Cooling 950W, Heating 850W.
  2. M/Wave - 20lt - Output 700W - Poser draw at 240VAC = 1200W.
    I first tested the M/Wave, it worked well from both power stations, AC180 showed 1,371W load on the display. The Elite 100 v2 showed 1,256W on its display. This tells me the Elite has a much more efficient inverter conversion.
    Then I tried the A/C, first from the AC180, it spun up, fan worked, compressor seemed to work, but was only drawing 423W. The A/C was set to 30C heat, but not much hot air. I next set it to cool at 16C, it seemed to cool but made some whirring noises, so quickly got shut down. The AC180 is ok no damage and the display seemed stable.
    Next the Elite 100 v2, it spun the fan up at around 34W load. I had checked the A/C user manual where it stated "up to 3 minutes may delay to protect the compressor. A short time later (2-3min) I heard the compressor kick in then start “thumping” around once a second. I had my finger over the E1v2’s AC button and around the 3rd or 4th thump turned AC off. At that point I stopped, concluding not to risk either the A/C or Elite.
    CONCLUSION - Neither power station would operate the A/C, both will successfully power the M/Wave.
    Go figure, the M/W is a 50% higher load at around 2/3 of inverter capacity. The A/C is around 1/2 the inverter load and NO GO.
    As an aside my Honda EU20i is rated at 2kVA, (power factor of 0.8) which equates to a 1,600W constant load, 200W less than either Bluetti and I do know it will seamlessly run the A/C.
    This is of no concern to me, here’s why; I use the power bank/s to run the M/W for 6-10 minutes most days = 5+ days without a recharge from their batteries. As well as, other small kitchen appliances and device rechargers. Running the A/C would last a fraction over 1.5 hours, which is hardly worth switching on. I have a Sirocco Fan for warmer weather that draws around 15-30W, speed dependent. For heating I have a diesel heater that draws around 20W once the glo pin cuts out. Both a far more economical use of battery capacity and both @ 12VDC from the RV house batteries.
    I feel for you, re your dehumidifier. :)

There is obviously something sensitive in the Bluetti’s that don’t like something else in A/Cs. What? I don’t know, it’s well above my pay grade, lol.

Apologies for the lengthy reply. :grin:

One in particular, that Aussies are largely responsible for things like; The aircraft “Blackbox” (actually bright orange in colour), WiFi, yup that’s a fact, Penicillin and a few others.

While we are on the topic of compressors, don’t forget the refrigerator. Well, he was really Scotish, but Scotish-Australian. Half point for me. :slight_smile:

Fair enough, lol. Here’s a little more Aussie humour…
Some Americans, may think Australia is behind the times, or even backward, but I can prove that we are in front of the U.S. all of the time.
When it’s 0930 in the morning where I am, it’s 2000 (8pm) in New York.
But, the day before !!! We’re always in front , lol. :joy:

Re the fridge, my home inverter fridge works perfectly off the AC70, AC180, AC200P. I haven’t checked it with the Elite 100 yet, sound like another test, back in 5.

@BLUETTI @sealy1986 Well, that’s a surprise. From the AC180 it draws approx 133W and works fine.
Connected the E1V2, it started clicking like a relay on/off about 5 times and settled at 76W. I turned it off real quick.
For the time being, I would call that a fail. I’m not game to use a 520lt fridge as a “Guinea Pig”.
Re grid outage backup, I will, for now, not be using the Elite 100 V2 on the house circuits. I’ll tag Bluetti Admin to get this post to refer it up to Tech Support. Perhaps you do the same with your Dehumidifier issue.

Update to this post
Following a DSP update, I retested my home fridge from the E1v2. It now works as it should and provides similar Watts to my other power stations and the Grid. For further information re these DSP updates and the issues resolved check this link; Review Part 2

Given that I have a 90lt Fridge that won’t work on any of my power stations, but will from grid power and now my caravan Air Con and house fridge not working from the E1V2, plus your issues. Something has changed in inverter output.
I have Victron and Projecta inverters, plus 2 PSW inverter generators, that have absolutely no issue running anything I have tried within their output limits, so what’s changed?