Sorry guys, it seems nobody is talking about an issue I had with TWO different EB3A. First one, bought November last year, charged whenever was sunny (that is: winter time, kinda never), managed to fully charge once, used a few hours, charged next sunny day, turned off by itself and died. Opened ticket thru app, never to be followed. Great service.
Ultimately, email customer service showed up, book for a pickup of defective item (let a few weeks to go and several email back and forth).
February arrived second unit. Sunny day, yahoo! Charged at 97% first day. Out an abundance of precaution, via Bluetti software I chose to turn it off to preserve battery - never know when sun comes back on February.
Bad choice, it died. Again.
Pictures, video, email back and forth. Asked for return and refund, they kindly preferred to send me a third unit. Honestly, I grew a zero-faith expectation at the third shot BUT since everyone seems to be happy with their own EB3A, I wonder:
AM I THE ONLY ONE ENDED UP WITH TWO (2! Not one!) DEFECTIVE UNITS ONE AFTER ANOTHER? First died by itself, second by āturn offā (and, apparently: never come back) app function
Sincerely, when new device will come, Iāll have very hard time to attempt a full charge. Will it work? Will it die?
Sounds like you are letting the battery get so low that it cannot recover and after shutting down at 0% state of charge, it is a matter of time until the unit will no longer be able to charge again due to the battery voltage being too low to initiate the BMS system and charge. If you fully turn the unit off when you do not use it this issue will not occur.
Right, thatās the most obvious conclusion. With only difference that both occurrence happened with batteries above 90% charge, and device dead a couple of days later (with nothing attached to it, and tried uselessly to charge by 220V power and 20V solar panel).
Turn out two devices really defective. To Bluetti credit, they sent me THIRD device even before to return second defective. Nice touch toward a very frustrated customer.
Today first day test, received at 66% charge. Solar powered up to 74% (then sun ended :) and 10x times tested software shutdown. So far itās holding up right.
One solve would be a firmware adjustable lowest state of charge that could be set to cut off at 20% to maintain a reserve over a longer period of time.
Itās possible to be what the device already do. To be honest, I have quite some skepticism NOT being able to physically disconnect the battery from the onboard electronics. That is: a simple ON/OFF physical switch to reset the logic when goes fuzzy.
Accepting for the moment that such a main switch is not present, both faulty units were not discharged at time of fault. The way around: close to full charge. Unless onboard electronic shows a state of charge that doesnāt reflect the real state of the battery. THAT would be, for as trivial as it might be, a REAL issue.
Anyway, Iām testing third unit and see what brings in the next few days.
A new unit needs to set the battery level to 100%. By using solar and never reaching 100%, the EB3a never gets to the maximum charge. Try using AC first, not solar. I have two EB3a units for about a year and they work fine. On solar, I need 1 amp and about 15 volts to get the unit charging. I had to sent two different units back to Bluetti because the UPS would shut off, but now it is working fine.
Hi there!
I also have two EB3A.
My experience is: Donāt Trust the Display!!!
My Solution to really every (similar) problem is and was: Fully charge the Power Station for at least 12 hours using BOTH INPUTS at the same time!
I use one connection to grid and a second 12V charging unit!
Once done the System recovers and it will work perfectly since months!
This advice I already posted lot of times here in the discussions! Just search for answers instead of blaming the company!
I bet this will also be a Solution to your Problem!!!
Regards
Dietmar
Dietmar, I appreciate your point but I certainly dislike that exclamation āJust search for answers instead of blaming the companyā.
Thereās a display. Thereās an information. Iām a normal user and not supposed to debug devices (I do enough at work). I do what the average Joe would do: charge, read 100, think thatās fully charged, go camping.
If āI read 100 but I should remember that it might not means that much, rather the oppositeā - I believe the most natural action would be to return the item and blame the company for faulty products.
I donāt encourage others to follow my path, but I have returned the item twice, and I wouldnāt mind to return a third one, asking for full refund this turn.
Perhaps, a software glitch as you duly noted might be the cause. But itās getting costly, and delivery man quite annoyed to see the same parcels back and forth.
Update: THIRD device died after a day of regular use, some charge (max 80W) and some discharge (max 110W) and software power off thru official app, latest version. Latest shown charge 32%, if display (un?) reliable (but thatās the only way Iāve got to know).
Set on charge using 220V after third fault; so far 10 hours running and still device doesnāt turn on.
Think about the one constant hereā¦Three different machines, one user, same problemā¦hmmm I wonder what the issue is. If you leave a unit on it will ādieā when the battery is exhausted when any load exceeds the incoming charging until the battery is exhausted.
Precisely! But as a former software developer, I would say there are ātwoā constants: myself, and the firmware.
Fact is for the very reason NOT to let be battery die, I switched off DC/AC and shut off via software. Last read 32% at evening, unresponsive in the morning. Let the unit in charge whole night and day, no result.
It would be interesting to see if the issue exists when shutting off with the physical switch as well. Sounds like the unit is not actually powering off.
I would LOVE to have the darn physical switch!
So far, 220V plugged in continuously for about 20h. Solar since the morning.
No change. Dead.
And rightfully at third attempt, Bluetti customer service is highly dubious of my attitude although I did absolutely nothing other than ānormal useā (and turn off at night). I called for a technical inspection of my two previous returned devices, (no field of customer service, generally) letās see if and how they come up.
So far, more than disappointed by the device, Iām very frustrated. Seems Iām the only one unable to plug a power cord in a stupid device!
I have two EB3a units and have never had a unit go dead. I have been unable to charge a couple of times due to over temps, never a dead dish player a dead unit
Good catch, yes Europe and brilliant question. Room temperature stay within the liveable range, at this time of the year reasonably within 10 Ā°C (around 40F). According to a comment provided under a YouTube video with same issue, customer ended up to leave device to itself for a few days, then plug it in and āmiraculouslyā recover from death. Iāll give it a go for a few days then plug it in as well and keep you guys posted for common knowledge.