tl;dr — Great devices, good app experience, but high premature failure rate.
Continuing on from our Review of EcoFlow Solar Generators post, I wanted to share our experience with BLUETTI solar generators — specifically as it relates to using them as a UPS for computers and appliances.
Going with our same requirements outlined in our EcoFlow post, we decided to give BLUETTI a chance. They too are an established brand and have released units through the evolution of battery technology over the years.
Sticking with Smaller Units for Computer Battery Backup
I was already feeling a bit shy about investing money and time in another solar generator manufacturer, but I really do feel it’s important for our customers to have not just a UPS for PCs, but extended run-time batteries as we have stores in power outage-prone areas. We see the issues it triggers @ systems being down, the “come up” issues systems can have after a major and sudden electrical event (e.g. network issues, USB device connectivity issues, etc.) and preventing that is important.
We started with the BLUETTI AC2A and ordered a dozen of these. All seemed great! WiFi on these smaller units, better price than EcoFlow River 3 devices, but with more AC outlets and a bigger battery — ticking all the boxes and then some. I installed one here and just left it in a room — just powering a lamp. App connectivity was fine, however, only Bluetooth is available — no WiFi, so no remote monitoring. This wasn’t the end of the world for us, as it covers the core battery backup role and still has Bluetooth connectivity for owners for in-store viewing.
BLUETTI AC2A Failed Within 2 Weeks
After shipping the first dozen of these, we had our first failure. Yikes. Can I just say that in the 15 years we’ve been shipping CyberPower battery backups, we’ve never had one fail prematurely — ever. I understand these solar generators have more tech in them, but a BMS (battery management system) and an AC inverter are in all of these units.
While the BLUETTI devices are nice and have better specs than EcoFlow for the price, seeing 1 of 12 devices fail in a week doesn’t make for a good feeling. After coming from EcoFlow’s premature failures, I was starting to think each of these power station/solar generator manufacturers just sell, sell, sell, replace if they fail, sell them used on eBay.
This could just be an unfortunate series of events and BLUETTI might be great, but for now I cannot continue recommending them to our customers. Seeing two manufacturers of solar generators have premature failures isn’t a good look. They were very nice about this and understood our stance.
The other units are working fine thus far, so we have decided not to do a “recall” of them just yet. If any of them fail prematurely I will report back.
We then decided to give OUPES and pecron power stations a look, so continue reading our power station/solar generator journey if you’d like!
Dean
I am a Software Developer, System Administrator, and consignment software specialist. I currently manage hundreds of consignment workstations, point of sale systems, and database servers all across North America and I am the developer of Peeps' Software, Peeps2Go, and Peeps' Consignor Login for iOS and Android. I've been helping consignment & resale store-owners since 2003. I started The Computer Peeps in February of 2010. Peeps' Software launched in 2016 and is now on hundreds of systems all across North America. I have successfully converted hundreds of stores from all of the major consignment software systems. After 20+ years of working with consignment stores, I understand the unique challenges consignment & resale store-owners face. From electrical issues in old buildings or strip malls, to advocating for them when their old consignment software keeps crashing.