EcoFlow Portable Jerry Can. Does this make sense?

[Deleted member 9368]

Risk adverse and not overly pleased with range. Looking at options. Curious what Mach-e folks think of this as a reserve "gas can"?


https://ecoflow.com/products/delta-pro-portable-power-station

NOTE: Read comments on the fake drive/charging. There are others out there considering: Jackery, BlueTTI ... What are you using?

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[RickMachE]

There have been several threads about devices like this.

My opinion - you shouldn't own a Mach-E if you think you need a device like this for $3,600... Seriously. There are plenty of level 2 chargers around that you should never need something like this. It's 63 pounds. You're going to need to tie it down in the trunk. Or put it in the frunk.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/not-quite-the-electrical-gas-can-but-interesting.6784/

 

[AKgrampy]

Agree! I do not drive around with a spare gas can in any of my cars. Now as a rescue device it may come in handy to help someone who has run out of electrons on the road. I do see the need for something like this in the future as more and more EV’S hit the road but more as a portable, emergency, charging solution that a emergency road service might use.

 

[Kevin P]

If you really think you need this, you would be better off selling the car and buying an ICE or hybrid. Now, for a home backup setup, thats a different story.

 

[dtbaker61]

Risk adverse and not overly pleased with range. Looking at options. Curious what Mach-e folks think of this as a reserve "gas can"?


https://ecoflow.com/products/delta-pro-portable-power-station

NOTE: Read comments on the fake drive/charging. There are others out there considering: Jackery, BlueTTI ... What are you using?

this would add weight which will HURT your range, be a total waste of space, money, and give you only a mile or possibly two of emergency range. You will be much better off learning what kind of range you have in different terrain, speed, elevation change and temperature.... and PLAN YOUR CHARGE STOPS if you are travelling more than 100-150 miles.

so, don't stress... but do plan trips

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

If you buy one, you can only use 120v AC, which means you'll get no more than about 3 miles per hour of charging (and a total charge increase of no more than about 3.7%).

To use the 240V AC, you need two of the devices plus their coupling hub. That's ~$7400 total. And you need space for two of the devices. And that will still give you no more than 30 Amps maximum. Which means you'll still be charging at no more than 24 Amps, or about 6 miles per hour and you'll still only get about 7.4% total charge boost.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather save the money and time and pay someone to tow my vehicle home where I can charge it on my 48 A EVSE.

With $7500 you can install a solar system that will provide you with an offset to your electric bill.

 

[Logal727]

There have been several threads about devices like this.

My opinion - you shouldn't own a Mach-E if you think you need a device like this for $3,600... Seriously. There are plenty of level 2 chargers around that you should never need something like this. It's 63 pounds. You're going to need to tie it down in the trunk. Or put it in the frunk.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/not-quite-the-electrical-gas-can-but-interesting.6784/

Also the weight of it kind of makes it moot on any sort of energy savings, which could be better handled by doing actual planning

 

[OON7]

This thing looks really cool for just about any situation except for what you are asking about. I cannot imagine driving around with a battery like this because of range anxiety in the car. It weighs 100 pounds so it's almost like driving another person around, at least a small adult or kid.

For home backup, and the fact you can charge via an EV charger for tailgating etc, that does seem really cool.

 

[dtbaker61]

This thing looks really cool for just about any situation except for what you are asking about. I cannot imagine driving around with a battery like this because of range anxiety in the car. It weighs 100 pounds so it's almost like driving another person around, at least a small adult or kid.

For home backup, and the fact you can charge via an EV charger for tailgating etc, that does seem really cool.

you don't need this for tailgating.... all you need is jumper cables and an inverter ($300-350) to extract energy from the 12v connection points

 

[kltye]

It would be nice if it didn't need a stupid inverter to convert from DC-AC, and then back to DC by the car's onboard charger - the output should just be a CCS connector! I don't know if the CCS standard allows it to specify a very slow charge rate (maybe 3kW?), but that would remove the massive inefficiencies - plus it'd charge a whole lot faster.

 

[dtbaker61]

It would be nice if it didn't need a stupid inverter to convert from DC-AC, and then back to DC by the car's onboard charger - the output should just be a CCS connector! I don't know if the CCS standard allows it to specify a very slow charge rate (maybe 3kW?), but that would remove the massive inefficiencies - plus it'd charge a whole lot faster.

you are missing the point....

the battery inside the 'Jerry can', or Yeti, or any of the portable battery generators only have about 1 kWhr of Energy in them. Regardless of the speed of charge, it will only get you a mile or two range; AND the extra weight will likely hurt your range 99.9% of the time you aren't using it.

 

[OON7]

you don't need this for tailgating.... all you need is jumper cables and an inverter ($300-350) to extract energy from the 12v connection points

I'm not that brave.... yet lol. I did read through some of those threads and looks really interesting.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

It would be nice if it didn't need a stupid inverter to convert from DC-AC, and then back to DC by the car's onboard charger - the output should just be a CCS connector! I don't know if the CCS standard allows it to specify a very slow charge rate (maybe 3kW?), but that would remove the massive inefficiencies - plus it'd charge a whole lot faster.

But it would have to be a 450-480 Volt battery, which is probably about 10x its current internal voltage of 48 Volts. So, its Ah rating would drop from about 7.5 kAh to about 0.75 kAh. Which means you might be able to charge faster (you wouldn't***), but you still wouldn't get more total energy into your car.

The website says the bank has 3.6kWh maximum energy. You can't get more out of it than some 85% or so of that, regardless of how fast you can pull that energy out.

***One of the reasons the amperage is limited is because the size of the conductors coming from the battery bank is just not enough to provide higher amperage flow. Also the batteries don't like to be discharged faster than a certain rate.

 

[1969Camaro]

If you really think you need this, you would be better off selling the car and buying an ICE or hybrid. Now, for a home backup setup, thats a different story.

Agree. RAV4 Prime is probably a better option

 

[kltye]

you are missing the point....

the battery inside the 'Jerry can', or Yeti, or any of the portable battery generators only have about 1 kWhr of Energy in them. Regardless of the speed of charge, it will only get you a mile or two range; AND the extra weight will likely hurt your range 99.9% of the time you aren't using it.

Yes, I'm not disagreeing that it isn't the best idea 99% of the time for 99% of people. But, why waste the already limited amount of energy with two lossy conversions?

But it would have to be a 450-480 Volt battery, which is probably about 10x its current internal voltage of 48 Volts. So, its Ah rating would drop from about 7.5 kAh to about 0.75 kAh. Which means you might be able to charge faster (you wouldn't***), but you still wouldn't get more total energy into your car.

Or, we could use a DC-DC boost converter to get the required voltage. Yes, that's also lossy, plus the conversion efficiency probably goes down the greater the voltage differential, but still...

The website says the bank has 3.6kWh maximum energy. You can't get more out of it than some 85% or so of that, regardless of how fast you can pull that energy out.

I'm not talking about getting more energy by pulling it out from the battery faster- I'm talking about not waiting around forever to charge, and also to reduce conversion losses between AC and DC.

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