ECOFLOW DELTA

The EcoFlow DELTA 1300: The Most Badass Battery Ever*

In 2019 I backed a crowdfunded product called the EcoFlow DELTA. While it was promoted as a “battery powered generator”, the name was misleading: fundamentally a generator creates one form of power by consuming another, and this was a battery that stored and outputted electrical power. It’s a battery. A really, really big battery: 31 pounds and 1260 Wh of power to be exact. It has six AC outlets supporting up to 1800 watts of output, 3300 watts of surge protection, pure sine wave output, four USB-A ports (12 or 18 watts per port), two USB-C ports (60 watts per port), and it charges via AC power, solar (up to 400 watts input), or 12V car adaptor.

I backed the project for $799 after we had an 18 hour power outage at my home and I found it frustrating how many things wouldn’t function. I was looking for a specific solution to allow us to continue using our on-demand hot water heater, which uses natural gas but requires electricity to operate. When the power goes out it’s relatively easy to create light and bundle up if you’re cold, but the immediate lack of hot water is an uncomfortable problem for a family with two kids. I had a quote on a natural gas-powered generator, but the $6000 price tag was too high for the rarity of the outages. I’d need to lose power several times a year for 20+ hours each time to justify that expense.

The EcoFlow DELTA arrived in January 2020, and it exceeded all my expectations. I took a bunch of photos because I thought I’d write up a long, thoughtful review of it…and didn’t. That review never quite got written, but I had all these pictures and a few thoughts I wanted to share, so here’s a photo essay of sorts for anyone interested in the DELTA.

* This was the most badass battery that EcoFlow made in 2019, but in mid-2021 they release the monstrous DELTA Pro, a 99 pound battery with 3600Wh of power! 🤯 But it’s also $3599, so…🙃

The 1260 watt-hour battery charges directly from AC wall power, and it charges fast: pulling over 700 watts from the wall power, it will go from 0% to 80% charge in under an hour (often all the way to 100% in 60 minutes). It arrived mostly charged. An audible fan kicks on when it’s charging to keep the heat down.
First I connected it to my small hot water heater tank – it’s just a buffer for the on-demand hot water heater – and it could run it for 16 hours. Not bad. I’d be unlikely to leave the water tank connected to the battery in a power outage.
Next I connected it to my on-demand hot water heater, and turned on a tap. 43 hours of constant hot water. Nice! That means several days of showers and baths, even if I had to fill up the buffer hot water tank each time.
One of the more curious uses that I thought would be extremely rare is using this battery to charge my Tesla Model 3 SR+. I knew it would only be used in some kind of bizarre edge case scenario, but I wanted to see it work anyway. 😁 Unfortunately my first attempt resulted in the Tesla complaining about a non-grounded power source.
After some research and suggestions from the EcoFlow Facebook group, I found that combining this with this resulted in me creating a grounded connection that the Tesla was OK with. When the AC power side is turned on, there’s a fan on the DELTA that kicks in. It’s not loud, but it’s not very quiet either. Not something I’d want to have in a bedroom with me (though there are aways earplugs).
Look at that: a 30 pound battery recharging a 3551 pound one on wheels.
The charge started, the Tesla pulling 1418 watts.
The Tesla said it would get 5 miles per hour of charge and it was pulling 12 amps.
I left it to charge for a bit, and when I returned I realized it wouldn’t even last an hour — the Model 3 was slurping down power fast!
The end result? Three miles of power. If I happened to have a completely dead Tesla, which would require multiple days without power, and a lot of driving from us, I could drive to a public charger. There are several within a three mile radius, but I expect to never have to experience this scenario.
iPad Pro charging over USB-C? Works great, drawing 29 watts. Totally silent, no fans on for ports on this side of the DELTA.
The back of the DELTA showing the solar connection and the AC plug.
Six AC plugs! I’d be unlikely to ever use more than one at a time, but it’s good to have them.
Nothing on this side, but this is a good time for me to say the DELTA has top-tier materials and build quality. I’m talking Apple-esque level of quality. Dramatically better than I was expecting!
One of the scenarios I thought I might use the DELTA for — and in fact have, about four times — is connecting our slow cooker to the DELTA. Not for cooking, but for keeping things warm outside on a neighbour’s driveway at gathering. Six hours of keeping things warm on the “Low” setting is more than sufficient.
The DELTA has a unique pattern on the top that this removable label explains.

As luck would have it, we haven’t had a single extended power outage since I received this in early 2020. That’s a good thing of course, but I haven’t been able to fully utilize this product. So for the moment it’s more of a product with potential to save the day…someday. 😄

In mid 2021 I purchased a 110 watt EcoFlow solar panel set so in a worst-case scenario I could recharge the DELTA during the daytime in an extended power loss scenario. It worked fairly well; I was seeing 70-80 watts of power flowing into the DELTA. I guess this makes me a casual zombie apocalypse prepper. 😜

If you’re looking for something smaller/less expensive, EcoFlow has the RIVER for $349. EcoFlow products are fantastic and I recommend them highly.

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