BLUETTISolar Generator EB3A, 268Wh LiFePO4 Battery Backup w/ 2 600W (1200W Surge) AC Outlets, Recharge from 0-80% in 30 Min., LFP Backup for Outdoor Camping, Trip, Power Outage

The EB3A is a handy little machine with plenty of output power! 4.5/5 almost perfect but down .5 the buzzing fan sounds, even on silent charge mode.First let me start by saying that overall this is a great little machine. I admit I may have not bought this at the $299 retail price, but on sale is is most certainly worth it. I wanted a solar generator that had a greater than 300 watt inverter, LiFePo4 batteries, and in a small package. Most importantly be able to power the battery charger for my Stihl electric chainsaw, which draws 300-400 watts. If it could brew a coffee, that would be icing on the cake, but not expected.I did all those things with no issues. It powered the chainsaw charger at 400 watts. It ran my 1200 watt coffee maker at 315 watts using power lift mode taking 5 minutes to brew a cup. 21% of the battery was used brewing that cup. Others have done it more efficiently using different means of heating the water like a 600 watt kettle. I was just testing what I had on hand to make coffee.I didn’t test faster charging as I don’t see the need to put the batteries under that strain. If anything I prefer using the lower speed “silent” option. Which isn’t exactly silent. Some places online say the EB3A will do it silently, but even in the app it states that it will slow the fan and only reduce the noise. Nothing about eliminating it completely. In silent mode the fan will come on occasionally, depending on external temperatures. You can hear the fan controller buzzing noticeably as it slowly ramps up the speed to the fan. It’s not horrible, but certainly not “silent” either. I did reach out to Bluetti about this and they said it is normal. My hope is that they will be able to reduce this via a firmware update. I’d rather have the fan reach its set speed more rapidly, than have to listen to it struggle to move at the lower speed settings as it is ramps up. Still better than the fan being off or full speed only though!The power output meters seem to work reliably for as far as I can tell. Deviations were no more than a few watts from my Kill-A-Watt meter plugged into the grid vs plugged into the battery for the few items I tested. Not counting the coffee maker obviously. For example a 52 watt incandescent bulb registered as 52 watts on grid @ 120 volts using the meter. With the same bulb connected the meter registered 50 watts on the EB3A @ 120 volts, while EB3A registered 56 watts on it’s display. The USB readouts seemed to line up pretty nicely as well. A 4.4 watt load on my USB current meter showed up as 4 watts on the EB3A, a 10 watt load on the USB current meter showed up as 10 watts on the EB3A.There is also some parasitic load if you leave either of the power outputs on, but it does not register on the display. This would be the case if you left any inverter powered on, and not unique to this device. I have also found if you leave the app connected, the processor stays awake, and consumes some battery power. Best to power off from the app or close the app so it will go to sleep sooner. I was wondering why my EB3A was warm when unused at times, and I found the app was still connected each time that occurred. FYI, this isn’t a complaint, just letting you know of some quarks of the device so you don’t have to figure them out on your own.One thing I really like is I can easily boost the battery with some much cheaper LiFePo4 batteries I have laying around. I got 2 12.8V 42Ah batteries for around $80 each on AliExpress with around 1kWh of capacity total. Put in series they will charge the EB3A at about 199 watts, or about 99 watts in parallel. I figured this would work since it is supposed to charge off of a car from the DC input, not just solar, and was rated for enough voltage to put the batteries in series. FYI the batteries I used have an internal BMS for safety to prevent over-discharge and over-current and would recommend the same if you attempt to boost your EB3A with batteries directly. And if using lead acid batteries with no BMS, using a fuse would be a good idea.Also if you buy any 3rd party DC 8mm cables, make sure the plug is long enough to fit in snugly. I had one 3rd party cable where the plug was noticeably shorter than the other and it didn't fit securely into the EB3A. Please check attached pictures to see difference between the Bluetti MC4 cable and a 3rd party cable. I bought the 3rd party cable because it was heavier gauge wire, but that doesn't help if the plug won't stay in.It worked well on solar too getting around 70 watts input on my Dokio 110 watt folding solar panel. TBH I’ve never seen the Dokio put out much more than 70 watts with anything else so I’m not too concerned of any issues with the EB3A. The solar panel was another AliExpress buy. I’ll have to try charging with a better panel in the future.And while many others have done capacity tests I can say this will run a 75 watt incandescent bulb for about 3 hours, or 225Wh of output. Which given efficiency losses in the inverter is not too bad, but not amazing either. Again I didn’t buy this for huge capacity, my extra batteries + solar will keep it topped off.Overall I’m very happy and would recommend this to anybody who needs a small, powerful, versatile solar generator. But just don’t expect it to brew coffee all day (without some backup) just because it can do it a few times on its own. ;)

Summary statement – the EB3A has two applications that it is tailored too:1) It’s great for ‘wireless’ AC power around the house for those occasional power needs when running an extension chord is more burdensome or the chord is just not long enough. Things like a drill, box fan, light, radio or laptop.2) Also useful for portable DC low power needs, like when camping. USB lights, USB fan, 12V flood light, charging phone, etc.Actual recent use:* went out and used in tent for a two nights (3-days) for lighting, kept cool via USB fan and keeping phone charged with a folding solar panel and charged the EB3A around 120watts. Came back with the battery fuller than when I started!* used it when working outside house to power a ‘corded’ drill. Love having more torque that typical cordless drills.* ran a powered speaker with no buzz meaning the sine-wave power output is clean.My unit came standard IEC power chord. But I did reach Bluetti and also received free MC4 to 7909 (8mm).I like that everything is on one side except the spot light. Think the spot light would be better on the side, but that would effect the placement of the air vents and probably end up being a different larger shape instead. The shape is quite compact as-is.Having the ability to rapid charging the EB3A in under an hour is a nice option to have. This DOES require the phone app to change the “Working Mode” to ‘Turbo’. NOTE: this will age the cells a bit and is not recommended unless needed. It has two more modes ‘Standard’ and ‘Silent’, but the Silent mode slows down the fan. The fan in Standard mode didn’t catch my attention so apparently not annoying enough. Not really sure why Silent mode exists other than charges at a lower 100w (down from ~200w) .Also having the AC charging adapter integrated is something I wish more battery banks did.App Experience:I like that the Android app is not have as invasive as other apps (think competitors) . The only permission the app requires is ‘Location’ which too many other apps require when access the Bluetooth stack. Not sure why. The apparently optional ‘Camera’ permission I think is for scanning the bar code or something? Again, the only permission required is ‘Location’.The app does NOT require creation of an external account. The EB3A doesn’t have Wifi so it cannot communicate directly back ‘home’. Pretty sure the mobile app makes use of your mobile phone identity. A unique identifier, location and product model/serial is all they minimally collect.The EB3A firmware updates via Bluetooth through the phone which is a plus in my mind as competing products require directly connecting the product to Wifi for firmware updates and then make it difficult removing from a wireless network. Should never have issues connecting the Bluetti app to the EB3A out when camping and away from your home Wifi as the EB3A doesn’t use Wifi. I cannot state how this simplifies things, for those that don’t want certain things to be 24/7 connected to the internet! I mean how useful is a battery bank in a grid down scenario when it must be connected to the grid to operate?I did experience two quirks of which I’ve come to the conclusion that both were insignificant and apparently one-offs:Quirk #1:Initially charged up the unit (from Sun), then updated up the firmware via Android app. After the update, the State Of Charge (SOC) dropped down a bit. Figured that it needed to relearn the state of charge as most BMS’s take both voltage level and a current shunt meter into account. I cycled it once all the way up and down to 3% and back up, and the SOC seems to be re-calibrated.Quirk #2:The wireless charging was acting weird, but had similar experiences using my Samsung phone on another wireless charger (I almost exclusively use wired charging). Order an external wireless charging pad to USB C (adds wireless charging to any USB C device) for testing and it did indeed charge the phone just fine. Apparently my phone’s built-in wireless charging sometimes acts stupid.Hopefully this is a fairly complete overview of my experiences and opinions with the EB3A!