RV FEATURE
Back home, reading the manual( which is what I should have done in the first place), I realised my mistake. For the purposes of testing, I depleted the battery once again, this time to 22 per cent, hooked it up to the charger and it began immediately putting in a maximum of 490W – much better! In less than an hour, the Charger 1 had charged the AC70 up to 66 per cent, and half an hour later, it was at 100 per cent SOC. As it approached 100 per cent, the input reduced to under 300W and then shut itself off once the battery hit 100 per cent.
Think about that. Within 1.5 hours, I’ d recovered about 80 per cent charge into the battery. It has, in a sense, turned my car into a kind of generator, overcoming the issue of charging the battery when the sun isn’ t shining. I can just idle the engine for a while!
I can’ t help but compare these charge rates with what I have achieved in the past off a couple of 80W solar panels when charging a different battery( 140W in good sun), or when charging yet another lithium battery station from my vehicle’ s cigarette-style port( just over 100W). In that respect, the Charger 1 is a revelation.
Overall, this is a good, quiet unit. I am still working out where and how to mount it permanently, so I have it simply sitting in the back of the car for now, which is not ideal, but I’ ll get around to it.
I’ m still playing with both the AC70 and the Charger 1, and haven’ t used them enough to provide a longer-term assessment, but from what I can tell so far, and having spoken to a number of others who have used and abused Bluetti gear, I think these products will be good and faithful companions for my outdoor travels.
In particular, I like the Power Lifting mode of the AC70, giving me that little extra juice should I need it, while the simplicity of the Charger 1 can’ t be ignored. Literally, just plug it in, turn on your engine, and away you go. The app is intuitive and easy, too. I can’ t see any reason – so far – why I won’ t continue to use this gear for the foreseeable future. You just can’ t go wrong by adding a decent portable lithium power station and a DC-DC charger to your kit.
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