This past winter we were given the pleasure of testing out the new and updated Ecoflow RIVER 2 Powerstation (with optional 110W portable solar array). This product has been a pleasure to have along on our trips the past few months for it’s ease of use, and stylish but muted appearance.
We’ve used it most of all at our climbing programs at Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles is one of the outdoor climbing gems here on the Central Coast of California. It is quite exposed (great for solar exposure), but also is a very rustic park with almost no facilities (i.e. – nowhere to plug in and charge devices), and also spotty cell reception – which wreaks havoc on phone batteries because, unless you put your phone into Airplane Mode, your battery gets drained by the phone constantly trying to acquire signal. So in a place where our climbing guides usually have to deal with dead phones at the end of the day, we had a perfect test scenario for the Ecoflow powerstation and solar panel products.
Pros:
-Extremely Lightweight
-Molded plastic handle makes it easy to carry.
-Stylish and non-obstrusive (modern/slim design and grey coloring keep it from sticking out and ruining the nature vibes).
-Very fast charging when plugged into AC power.
-Easy to use interface.
-Plug-and-play capability for both charging and device connection (no special/proprietary cables needed).
Cons:
-Charging via solar panels versus AC is extremely slow. On the sunniest of days we could get it to last all day. On days that were partially cloudy, just charging small devices like phones would zap the powerstation and the solar panels couldnt keep up to recharge.
-Short battery life (not a ton of juice in the powerstation as compared to similar products we’ve used).
All in all, we enjoyed using the product and plan to continue using it but only for very small, low-power device charging like cell phones and tablets. The battery in the powerstation is very shortlived and some other things you might plug in at a campsite that draw more current (like a coffee maker, lighting, fans, air pumps, etc) are going to pull too much to make it worthwhile.
