EcoFlow Delta PRO deep-dive review

The GOOD

• The design of the LCD and the information it presents is clear and simple.
  
  
• The integrated dual purpose AC inverter that can charge the battery from external AC power is a great design as you don’t have to lug around an external power brick and thick cables.
  
  
• The form factor of the DeltaPRO is very compact, elegant and intuitively functional.
  
  
• The wheels and telescopic handle is a brilliant design that allows anyone to move the DeltaPRO effortlessly as long as you don’t have to lift it off the ground.
  
  
• The addition of well placed double handles to lift the DeltaPRO when you need to lift it off the ground. It makes it easy to lift and handle the unit when taking into account it’s weight.
  
  
• The inclusion of generous USB ports and especially a couple of USB-C 100W make it future proof and very versatile.
  
  
• The ability to hook up two additional extra batteries to the DeltaPRO for a combined total capacity of 10.800W.
  
  
• The ability to hook a DC (can also do AC) gas generator to the DeltaPRO and be able to remotely start/stop it & program it with the app.
  
  
• The ability to plug the DeltaPRO to the Smart Home Panel for a truly integrated and centrally managed solution that could deliver up to 25KW of storage capacity.
  
  
• Nice well done clean app that allows you to control your DeltaPRO from all around the world. The app interaction speed over 4G has been recently improved thanks to new backend servers.
  
  
• Tons of AC output to power the most demanding loads with 3.6KW sustained and a surge of up to 7.2KW.
  
  
• Ability to do super fast recharge of up to 2.9KW while on AC.
  
  
• Ability to quickly charge from EV Charging stations up to 3.4KW for those on the go.
  
  
• Can be charged via solar (mppt) and AC at the same time to further increased charging speed.
  
  
• Ability to control the DeltaPRO with a physical remote control device that is a replica of the DeltaPRO’s LCD panel. It’s nice that it can be connected via ethernet cable for long distances.

The BAD

• Sub-par 1.6KW MPPT controller (FW .68/.71) that doesn’t want to go past 1.285W, most of the time, with a residential grade 3.2KW PV no matter the combinations I’ve tried.
  I conclude that it is a software bug that hopefully gets fixed asap as 1.6KW is critical for the correct functioning of this project.
  
  
• Broken MPPT behavior once battery reaches 100% and there’s an increase in AC load; it tries to pull an impossible amount of amps from the PV array which collapses it to a very low 20V that makes the MPPT controller start all over again, slowly climbing to optimal voltage while draining the battery. Once enough spare Watts are available it will charge the battery to 100% and the cycle repeats itself non stop.
  
  
• I think the bare minimum for solar charger should have been 2KW as 1.6KW is a little on the low side and quite below it’s competition.
  
  
• Completely broken fan management logic that makes this unit extremely noisy even for the lightest loads when you run it inside the house/room. Inconsistent logic where the fans will be off for a load < 100W (< 1A) with AC inverter temperature reaching 78c+ while other times the fans would be stuck at max speed even when the load gets lowered to <40W & inverter temp to 22C which seems to indicate fan management is quite buggy and not temperature based but instead amp based.
  
  
• The BMS‘s state of charge tracking code needs improvement as it ends up under-reporting useable capacity which forces the user to do a manual recalibration from time to time to use full capacity.
  
  
• The “output watts” reporting is incorrect. The farther you are from an ideal PF=1 load, the bigger the under-reporting.
  
  
• The DeltaPRO does not report it’s own internal power consumption. I think it would be better to report it in some way for the sake of transparency; maybe in some setting in the app(?).
  
  
• Has average to low power efficiency for small AC loads (<100Wh) that need to be powered 24/7 as the unit will consume around 50/60Wh to power it’s internal electronics on top of the AC load.
  
  
• The LCD remote has a bug where it will never stay lit for more than a minute when powered via usb/ethernet; battery is 10 seconds (which makes total sense).

The Wishlist

• For the DeltaPRO to automatically turn back on AC Inverter if turned off because of depleted battery.
  Let’s say I’m out of the house on a very long weekend somewhere without reception and the DeltaPRO’s battery gets depleted to a point where it will disconnect the AC inverter. My ATS will automatically switch over to power company. Next morning the DeltaPRO will charge to 100% via my PV array but the ATS will never switch back to the DeltaPRO because the AC Inverter will remain off until I switch it on.
  A toggle or option in the app would be nice to have so you can choose your preferred behavior; if AC inverter turned off because of depleted battery, when battery reaches (ex) 20%+ turn back on AC inverter.
  
  
• For the DeltaPRO to keep powering the house via mppt (DC->AC) without charging the battery.
  Let’s imagine you want to limit the battery to 80% maximum charge, you are currently charging via PV (Solar) and powering the house via AC inverter. Once the battery reaches 80%, the mppt controller will turn off (so no more charging battery… hurrrraaaay!!!) but as it is now TOTALLY OFF, it will not pass energy to the AC inverter which in turn will start draining from the battery (waaaaa!?!?!? noooo!!!!).
  The proper/logical behavior would be to stop charging at 80% battery capacity but keep powering your loads directly from mppt exactly like it happens when battery reaches 100% and stops charging.
  
  
• For the ability to manually toggle ON/OFF the MPPT controller (DC solar) via the app.
  Let’s imagine it’s sun up/sun down and you are away from the house. You want to avoid the dreaded “clicking noise” that happens at that time because the mppt controller is trying to latch on to the solar panels but there’s not enough power.
  It would be nice to have an mppt toggle, just like with AC to turn it on/off remotely via the app.
  
  
• For the ability to define specific values of your PV array(s) like best voltage/amps/solar characteristics to help the mppt controller algorithms get the most out of your personal setup.
  It could be done in the app but I think it would take more work as some of mppt’s FW internal variables would have to be exposed to the outside world/app and some extra logic/code added.
  
  
• For the ability to have the DeltaPRO toggle AC IN programmatically.
  It would be nice to be able to program the DeltaPRO via the app to turn on the AC IN during off-peak time (say at 2am) to charge the battery for a set amount of time or until it reaches 100% and then turn off to feed the loads from DeltaPRO.
  Something similar (simpler of course) to what you could theoretically do with an Ecoflow Smart Home Panel.
  I personally have the DeltaPRO hooked to a smart-plug so I can program or toggle it anytime and from anywhere but it would reflect better on the brand image if it was integrated within the DeltaPRO.