Hello, I am totally new to power station and this world. We bought the Elite 300 with Charger 2, and considering to add an expandable battery. Which one will work for this setup?
Thank you!
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The Elite 300 does not feature a dedicated expansion port to directly interface with an expansion battery such as the B300. It was designed as a standalone unit with higher energy potential in a compact size. With that said I did purchase an Elite 300 myself and I use it in my truck camper to AC charge my Bluetti AC180, Elite 100 and AC70. I prefer AC for piggyback charging so I don’t have to stress the DC port constantly at 120W to heat warp/burn out the cigarette lighter port/wire. The stuff I have plugged into DC is fine since its occasional use or low power, but having to always recharge a power station at 120W DC not only takes forever, but is a slight fire risk. If I could get rid of the cigarette lighter port altogether and wire all my DC appliances to a fuse block which then connects to a secured XT60 or XT90 port on the unit I would. I’m aware the Elite 300 has a 12V/30A XT90 adapter which would accomplish part of that, however the problem is I have DC devices on both the passenger and driver side. For example I converted my EX4100 NAS, Asus MB249C 24" portable monitor, network switch and Dreo CF714S fan from AC to DC using a 12V to 19V step up adapter. Ignore the cable management mess, I’m working on a solution for that lol.
Hello Sealy1986, I appreciate all the information on your setup. I understand the Elite 300 is not expandable, and hoping the Charger 2 could be used to expand with B300K, and charges the Elite 300 when both car and solar are not running. I don’t have the B300K to test this out yet.
My idea is to use the Charger 2 to charge both the Elite 300 and B300K, leverage the Elite 300’s XT90 with a fuse block output for all the DC devices. The Elite 300 will pull power from B300K via the Charger 2 when it’s necessary. I’d hope this makes sense.
Thank you.
Yes, that should work the B300K will act as primary house battery and the DC hub acts as the head unit in the APEX 300 to charge the Elite 300.
For discharging B300K to charge the Elite 300…
[B300K BAT port] → [Charger 2 BAT input] → [DC Hub for Charger 2 output] → [Elite 300 DC/PV input]
For charging the B300K…
Vehicle alternator → Charger 2 vehicle input → Charger 2 BAT port → [B300K BAT port]
Charger 2 will negotiate charging based on load. In this case if Elite 300 is pulling a high load because its charging, then the load may be split. If you want to guarantee all charging power goes to topping off the B300K you would need to install some sort of DC cutoff switch.
Simple one liner - B300K → Charger 2 → DC Hub → Elite 300
Really appreciate this approach, which I didn’t think of. Thank you very much.