EB3A is bad and now Amazon will not take it back within the 30 days

For what it might be worth, my experiences with using my EB3A as a UPS:

it is currently ‘hosting’ – acting as a UPS 2/for a Desktop PC power requirements are somewhere in the range of 75 to 80 wants (an AMD Ryzen 3600 Processor with 32 GB of RAM) ‘on average’ PEAKING at around 135 wants. ALL THIS is what computer NEEDS. Because of inverter losses, ON AVERAGE the draw shows up on both the display and the android app at around 100 W.

AS THINGS CURRENTLY STAND: my EB3A IS WORKING AS IT SHOULD as a UPS. I DID HAVE SOME PROBLEMS WITHIN THE FIRST WEEK AFTER I GOT IT trying to use it as a UPS. It seemed to run just fine for four or five days and then I woke up one morning and found that the computer had shut down overnight AND THE EB3A BATTERY WAS ‘100% FLAT’. AND I had a lot of problems trying to get it back up and running again… A LOT OF PROBLEMS. For a start, the unit would or at least was very reluctant to ACCEPT A RECHARGE. I left it plugged in seven or eight hours with no indication that it was recharging. (I recall wishing that there was some way to REBOOT the thing because I figured that would solve some problems…).

In the end, because I was/KNEW that there were a couple of firmer updates available WHICH I HAD NOT ATTEMPTED TO APPLY YET, I took a chance – even though I had some turns because the battery was ‘flat’ – that I might ‘brick’ the unit – I decided to install the updates using the app on my cell phone, ‘holding my breath’.

Well, the updates installed properly and the unit began to charge up FINALLY and VERY FAST, I MUST SAY – VERY IMPRESSIVE.

However, my problems did not completely go away – AT LEAST ‘INITIALLY’. I can’t remember what they ALL WERE at this time, though I had documented my experiences and had a number of back-and-forth communications with blue Eddie about the nature of the problems – but one of the weirdest problems seem to be that – while up and running as a UPS, IF – JUST FOR EXAMPLE – you touched/BRIEFLY PRESSED any of the other buttons to – say – turn DC outputs on or off OR EVEN TURN THE LIGHT ON THE UNIT ON, the EB3A WOULD SHUT DOWN! Causing the PC to shut down as well.

DUH! THAT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN, obviously.

Now I’m not sure what happened BUT that particular problem seems to have – and I must reiterate – SEEMS TO HAVE – extent self/gone away (though I haven’t tested it extensively but… More later…) And the unit has been functioning – as long as I’ve left alone and not attempted to do anything fancy with it yet in terms of dynamically turning things on and off and adding various loads to it – AS IT SHOULD AS A UPS.

After I had install the updates and got the unit recharged and managed to get it – apparently – which I confirmed – operating as a yes on this desktop PC in question, I ran a TEST by disconnecting the EB3A from 120 V AC ‘holding my breath’… AND NOTHING HAPPENED – which is exactly what should happen – the desktop PC in question stayed up and running.

‘As fate would have it’, at 3 AM the following morning we had a thunderstorm and I happened to be awake at the time (family dog/border collie climbing into bed with me because she is terrified of thunder!) and while I was awake, I noticed a brief power interruption – perhaps two or three seconds before the lights came back on – and I kind of wondered… If my PC had stayed up and running. The following morning when I checked, IT WAS (still up and running).

Since that time, we had a second power bump during a thunderstorm and again, the EB3A worked as one would expect it would/should.

SO, where do things currently stand with me/my EB3A?

Well, I have pretty much left alone AND NOT ATTEMPTED TO TINKER WITH IT for fear that turning the DC outputs on-and-off and/or the light on-and-off might trigger a shutdown… HOWEVER, I have done it – both – a few times and for whatever reason, this time around… (The only reason I have the DC outputs turned on his so that I can lay my cell phone down on top of it for inductive charging. However, I have turned the light on the EB3A on-and-off a few times AND the outputs on-and-off a couple of times also with no real effect. I am reluctant/have been reluctant to play around with it too much because if the unit shuts down, it takes the PC down that is hosting as well which is inconvenient; however when time permits, I will experiment around with it some more. As things currently stand, CURRENTLY STAND – IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING NORMALLY/as one should expect).

I WISH THERE WAS A WAY TO REBOOT THIS THING! I have a feeling a lot of these problems could be made to go away if one could just reboot it. I tried pressing and holding various available buttons simultaneously in different combinations and was able to get some interesting screens/displays pop-up but I don’t know what the heck they mean.

So again, for what it’s worth – those are my experiences. ALL IN ALL – I AM CURRENTLY SATISFIED ‘ENOUGH’ with the unit I purchased – while I did anticipate using it for more than simply a UPS, it’s UPS functionality (in combination with its overall features and capacity and fast charging and so on) WAS THE PRIMARY REASON I PURCHASED IT. In my opinion, assuming it can work as a UPS properly/should – it’s a ‘no-brainer’ for anyone looking for a decent capacity UPS: perhaps two hours of run time in the event of a power outage ON A DESKTOP PC, WONDERFULLY FAST CHARGING (when mine was flat, it went when I attempted to recharge it from 0% to 95% within an hour! And reached 100% within about an hour and 15 minutes) PLUS A BATTERY WHICH SHOULD NEVER, EVER HAVE TO BE REPLACED. EVER!

If only I hadn’t had the problems I encountered… However, we shall see – I originally intended to purchase two units but decided to purchase only one and perhaps a second before the special introductory price offer was over but decided to delay purchase of a second or possibly a third one, all to pretty much use as a UPS. (Another intended use as a UPS I have in mind is to use it to host a small 12 V DC COMPRESSOR REFRIGERATOR that I keep in my vehicle. That unit pulls only about 165 W hours every 24 hours and so one of these units should be capable of EASILY POWERING IT FOR A DAY AND ½ – or at least 24 hours. I could avoid inverter losses by using the DC operational mode of the refrigerator and that would be just wonderful… To have a 12 V refrigerator in your motor vehicle to keep drinks cold and stuff. Those things are really neat actually – from room temperature, they cool down inside to normal refrigerator temperatures in the mid 30°F range within about 15 minutes, AND they can even be set to operate as a FREEZER… Ice cream on picnics, anyone?

Again, if I don’t have any more problems with it and it operates as it should or at least as I think it should, I will definitely purchase a second and possibly a third (or even a fourth!) later this year. Probably around I would anticipate the Black Friday sales that occur in November these things will go on sale/there will be deals again…

In closing, for what it’s worth:

  • I am, as I mentioned – running the latest firmware.
  • My unit is configured as: Working Mode = SILENT, and ECO set to ‘Off’ (i.e., this is how it is configured to be used as a UPS and has been working properly for me).

In this mode, in which it must meet a power demand of roughly 100 W from the PC – the unit is normally completely silent except for ‘every few minutes’– say every three or four minutes, I haven’t tried to time it – the internal fan will ‘kick on’ and run for perhaps four or five seconds – not long at all – to do some cooling of the inverter I imagine. HOWEVER, the noise is not bothersome at all! I sleep in the same room with the unit and don’t even notice it/ever hear it turn on and off unless I am right at the computer AND my EB3A is sitting right on the corner of my desk – very convenient for inductive charging of my cell phone.

Hope my experiences help/provide encouragement/consolation to others who have been having problems. I would say “Hang in there”. I’m pretty sure Bluetti will fix the problems…

Wish list

  • I still wish that display would stay on/could stay on longer and/or we had more control over how long it stays on/could be configured to stay on. As far as I am aware, the only way to get it to turn on is to VERY BRIEFLY pressing release one of the three buttons on the front of the unit – to enable disable the AC outputs, DC outputs and/or turn on the light. That’s how I do it. I’m not sure why Bluetti does not provide more control – perhaps via the app – to enable the display to be more extensively configurable in terms of how long it should stay on – perhaps even continuously – AT LEAST WITH THE UNIT IS PLUGGED INTO A CHARGING SOURCE. Perhaps it’s a concern about how long the display would last if it was on? IT CAN’T BE DRAWING THAT MUCH POWER – IT’S GOT TO BE LED TECHNOLOGY THAT IS DRIVING IT. At least when the unit is plugged into the wall or – more generally – is plugged into a charging source – would be nice unless there is some good reason not to do it
  • I wish there was some way – as I’ve mentioned a couple of times – TO FORCE THE UNIT TO REBOOT – MANUALLY REBOOT IT – IN THE EVENT ONE MIGHT BE HAVING PROBLEMS. Based upon the symptoms, I think the problems are CLEARLY SOFTWARE RELATED, as they seem to have ultimately cleaned themselves up over time. (‘Memory leaks’ maybe?).

And finally just one thing I thought I would mention: I happen to have a ‘right angle’ computer power cord around that I swapped in and I’m using with my EB3A. There have been complaints about the fact that the AC charging ports – the 120 V one – is on the front of the unit. I ‘get it’…, And I agree. However there are right angle power supply cords available – you can buy them on Amazon for under $10 I think, and they definitely help. About the only problem that they might cause is the fact that want to be one of those individuals who would like to simultaneously charge the unit from solar, the right angle plug would get in the way… But heck you can have everything…

Ship it back brother , whats the problem?

You can’t even leave a message for customer service. The voicemail box has been full for days.