EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2 Max 500, 499Wh LiFePO4 Battery/ 1 Hour Fast Charging, Up To 1000W Output Solar Generator (Solar Panel Optional) for Outdoor Camping/RVs/Home Use

The media could not be loaded. I intentionally waited to write this review so I could test it in real life scenarios that I personally would want this solar generator for. It is a beast for it's size and for how quickly it can charge. In my video you can see that my street fighter 2: hyper fighting arcade cabinet will run for over 4 hours on 28% battery. I later on charged it to full and it gave me over 17 hours of run time. I even played games for 3 hours to make sure there was no shorts, cut offs etc, and it ran flawlessly. Next a ran a large tunnel fan. It ran it for about 2 hours without issues. I then moved on to my actual PC and monitor. I get a little over 2 hours of use with this generator at full which doesn't sound like alot but bare in mind that I got this for $200. My next big test was my Playstation 4 and projector. It handled it better than I thought at almost 3 hours!!Simply amazing. It takes about 57mins to charge it from the plug. I tested multiple solar panels for charging as well. I tried a 100w portable panel and an actual 100w panel. It does take about 5hours to charge solar with both and about 7 to 9 hours with 1. However, I was also charging a power bank with it while solar charging thanks to the pass thru! This is an absolute must have! If our grid ever goes down I will be watching movies, refrigerating food, playing arcade games, trying to live life and enjoy some of the luxuries as well! My kids will thank me for being a pepper! This will run all your lights and everything else in a camp site as well with total ease. Trust me, I wasn't paid in any way or receive anything for this receive anything in exchange. I wanted to write this so if someone is on the fence about it , they could rest assured these things are real and can save your life. The absolute ONLY drawback is that I couldn't afford a larger one. Even the 256wh version is a must have. The bigger you buy, the more stuff you can run longer. So if you can afford it, grab a nice big one!!! Thanks for reading. 10 out of 10!!!! Also. The display is nice and bright. Can see it in the summer sun.

EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station RIVER 2 Max 500 for Home Use, 499Wh LiFePO4 Battery/ 1 Hour Fast ChargingLightweight but powerful!Used this while dry camping in my rv in the Florida Keys this winter for 2.5 months. It worked really well for me. Charge lasts a long time! It charges in less than an hour.The only downside was I had to charge it while running my motorhome 7k generator and it drew a LOT of amps so I couldn't run anything else at the same time. Luckily, I have a friend on full hook ups so she charged it for me the times I had to recharge it.Daily I ran 2 fans, charged 2 phones and 1 tablet, made a few cups of coffee, ran a wifi speaker while streaming music from Sirius Xm, recharged a vacuum cleaner, recharged other items and the power station charge lasted 6 or more days never getting below 25% reserve.Never used the car charger or solar charger so can't comment on those. Very happy with this purchase.

I give the River Max an *initial* 5-star review because - without really having used it yet - it does everything I want. After I've actually needed it, I'll update this review!I live on the Gulf Coast, where we usually have at least one power outage a year from hurricanes or storms. I have a 5kW gasoline generator (along with a xfer panel so it can power the inside outlets of my house). But fussing with the generator (especially if the power is just out for a few hours) is a pain, ESPECIALLY when you haven't had your morning coffee. (My wife has pictures of me turning on the generator JUST to power the coffee maker.) Enter the River Max. I wanted something that would (1) run the coffee maker in the morning; (2) power a few lights; and (3) run a fan at night if the power is still out (because I'm not running the gas generator all night long).After some initial testing, it does all three! (1) My coffee maker is somewhere around 1000-1200 watts. If you plug it in to the River Max without the xBoost function on, it won't work; the display says it tries to draw around 1100 watts and then signals overload. With the xBoost function, the coffee maker does work. The display says the River Max is sourcing right around 600 watts to the coffee maker. But wait...it requires 1200 watts, right? What's going on?I don't have a multimeter to verify the River Max display data, but my guess is that xBoost mode simply limits current draw so that the inverter doesn't get overloaded. In other words, it sources all the power it can, and the coffee maker just has to live with it. I wouldn't want to run the coffee maker all the time that way, but I can tell you that it worked (though it seemed a touch slower than normal) and my coffee was plenty hot. That's a serious win. Making one cup of coffee depleted the River Max from 100% to 85%.(2) I plugged in a 10ish watt CFL into the AC outlet and River said it would run for about 30 some hours. That's fine. We have battery powered lanterns, so whatever.(3) An old lasko table fan (no idea what the specs are on it) also worked fine. At full speed, River said it would run for 5-6 hours. But remember that running fans and other motors is hard on batteries because of the induction. (Look up power factor for motors - they draw more than they say they do, basically.) Still, 6 hours of fan time isn't bad. However, I ordered a 12V DC fan to use overnight (I'll update the review with runtime specs when it gets here.) In general, DC devices will run much longer than AC ones because inverters are pretty inefficient.FINALLY - in response to another review: yes, the River Max connects to the internet, and the app is pretty cool. However, contrary to what someone else wrote, you do NOT need to be connected for the device to run or to use the app!!!! There's a button (IOT reset) on the device, and if you press it, it'll let you connect directly to the device, no router needed. Thus, you can turn xBoost on and off in the middle of a camping trip.This takes me to my only complaint: the app is nice and well-designed. Still, there should be a button for you to turn xBoost on and off on the device directly. I shouldn't have to use an app just to make coffee. Still, this is the only portable battery pack I've found at its price point that can run a coffee maker. (Goal Zero, etc. can't do this!) It also charges insanely fast. In real life, once I got my generator going, I'd just recharge River from it so that it's ready to go in the evening.One other positive: they're really generous with cables!!! The River Max comes with: AC charging cord; solar cell charging cord; car charging power cord (you know, those cigarette lighter things); AND a USB-C to USB-C cord (for charging your phone); a DC to DC 15mm plug (or whatever it is); AND a USB-A to, well, some kind of Mac cable. it's dual-headed. One of them is a lightning connector, I think, and so I assume the other is another kind of Mac plug. (Obviously I use a PC.) Just go read about other brands, like Goal Zero, and you'll see they don't come with nearly that kind of cabling. For the price, huge win. So, tentatively, five stars. After our next hurricane, I'll let you know more....