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Aug. 31, 2022 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
16:17
PrepWithMike - Mike reviews EcoFlow solar generators for survival during power grid blackouts
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Alright, welcome folks.
Mike Adams here, PrepWithMike.com, showing you the latest gear that can help you survive off-grid.
These are the EcoFlow units and I've got EcoFlow solar panels behind it and I've got an array of devices that I'm charging here just to show you some of the applications of these EcoFlow units.
Now, the power grid is not as reliable as it used to be and electricity prices are going up.
And when the grid is down, how are you going to enable your, let's say, mobile phone charging or batteries for your flashlights or emergency radios or your satellite text communications device, the bivy stick, or satellite phones, or even just power tools, for example?
What are you going to use to keep those things charged?
Well, this is the answer right here.
So this company, EcoFlow, makes many different sizes, including others that aren't shown here.
These are the river units over here on the left, and then these are the delta units on the right, which are much larger, much higher capacity.
They all have the same thing.
They basically have a charge controller They accept solar panel inputs, so you can use almost all the common solar panels.
They have these, you know, common inputs for solar panel cables like you see here.
You know, industry standard stuff.
Very simple.
And then they have lithium ion batteries, actually lithium ion phosphate or LIFPO4 as they're called.
And then in addition, they have inverters.
As well as DC output.
So as you see on this front panel right here, there's the DC output here where you can have USB devices, but then there's AC output.
On these other units, the AC outlets are either on the back or on the side like you see here.
See, those are the AC outlets for this smaller river unit.
But they all work basically the same way.
They have charge controllers.
They have energy storage.
Some of them have lights here on the front like that, as you can see.
And then they also have inverters to allow you to use AC electricity.
Now, so they all have that in common, but they just have different capacities.
For example, these two units here have about 600 watts output in alternating current.
So you can run laptops on it.
You could run maybe small blenders, things like that.
This unit right here has 2,400 watts of output, which is a lot of juice, a lot of capacity.
You could run like a Vitamix type of blender and more.
You could run a hair dryer on that.
And then this unit here has, I believe, 3,600 watts of output.
Now, be sure to check with EcoFlow and their retailers, such as the Satellite Phone Store, SAT123.com.
Be sure to check with them.
For the actual specifications because I may not be 100% correct about all the numbers and sometimes they upgrade them and they have more capacity.
So just double check what's current because I bought some of these a while ago.
But in addition to having more output wattage capacities, They have, of course, different amounts of storage.
So this unit here, I believe, has 288 watt hours.
This one here, which is called the River Max, has 576 watt hours.
This is called the Delta Max.
I recently took it on a trip.
Which is why it's kind of all dusty on top here and everything, but it worked great.
I mean, yeah, it's rugged.
It's not super clean, but that's okay.
It actually worked really well.
And this unit has, I believe, a little over two kilowatt hours.
And then this unit here, the EcoFlow Delta Pro...
It begins at 3.6 kWh, but by attaching additional units, you can have up to 25 kWh, which is just amazing, actually.
And it's got its own wheels.
I don't know if you can see in the back, it's got wheels, because this one's quite heavy.
You're going to need help lifting this one.
This one, you can lift it yourself if you're fairly strong.
And then these smaller river units, you can easily lift them.
Now, by the way, the screens on all these...
Let me turn this back on.
The screens tell you the status.
Like, see, 100%.
That's the current charge status.
Tells you how many watts input and how many watts output.
And this unit is currently charging a mobile phone.
And a radio that runs off of two 18650 batteries that you can see right there.
That's my choice in batteries, by the way.
And then over here on this unit, I'm actually running a battery charger To charge 18650 batteries, I standardize on those here.
This is my everyday carry flashlight, which is a Phoenix flashlight, and it uses the same battery that's right here.
And then this radio uses the same battery as well.
So I like to standardize on batteries, and the 18650 is the way to go, in my opinion.
So just put that flashlight right there to show you that.
This is another little portable power bank that you can use on the road to charge something like this bivy stick, which is a two-way satellite messaging device.
This is also available at the satellite phone store, by the way.
This, you can send texts to other people's cell phones or other bivy sticks or other satellite phones using nothing but satellites.
So even if the cell towers are down, you can use the bivy stick.
It's very small.
It's amazingly portable.
Very long standby time.
You don't have to charge it much at all.
Barely uses any electricity.
Anyway, this panel shows you what's going on, input and output.
There's no input or output right now.
We turn on the USB, then we're going to start to have a little bit of output, as you can see there.
Of course, all these can be charged by solar panels, or you can plug them into the wall.
This is like a regular, you know, wall outlet.
Like, here's one of the power cords that's charging this.
I've got it plugged into the wall.
Now, one of the reasons I talk about these units is being able to charge power tools.
This is a DeWalt battery that can drive, you know, a DeWalt drill or power tools, or even some of these power tools out there can be chainsaws and blowers and trimmers and things like that.
And the reason I think that's important It's because in an off-grid situation, you still need to be able to get some work done.
You might need to, I don't know, take a chainsaw to a tree that fell across your road or something.
You might need to do some drilling.
You might need to build something.
Maybe you need to build a shelter, repair a door.
You might need to run a sander, a grinder, a drill, something like that.
These units can collect power from the sun and then charge your batteries for your power tools.
And that can help you survive, because you don't want to have to do all that stuff by hand.
Have you ever run a hand drill, like where you use your hand in a circle and try to drill something?
That's no fun.
That takes forever.
It's great to have electricity, right?
So this keeps electricity at your command, and you can do all these things, obviously, with it.
You can charge different kinds of things.
Check this out.
I've got even a plasma torch lighter over here.
See this lighter?
When I press this button, It has a little plasma lighter.
You know, it'll set paper on fire.
So that's my little lighter.
And I just charge that right here through USB. And that way, I don't need lighter fluid.
I don't need flint or lighter wicks or butane or anything like that.
I can start fires using the power of the sun and this device.
This one right here is actually charging GoPro batteries for my GoPro that I have in my hand right now.
So I'm using batteries to charge batteries, and it totally works.
Again, radio, cell phone, 18650 batteries, flashlights, smaller power storage devices, satellite communications, satellite phone, power tools, and I can attach blenders.
I can charge, you know, GPS devices, rifle optics, you know, electro optic devices, anything.
Range finders, you name it, right?
So, this is a 160 watt solar panel back here from EcoFlow.
It folds out.
You can see the solar panels there.
Just plugs right in.
Gives you 160 watts of charging.
And this much larger solar panel in the background, I'm using that as a backdrop, is a 400 watt Solar panel.
They're very rugged.
I mean, it's just, you'd be amazed how rugged these are.
They're rigid.
I wouldn't call them bulletproof, but man, they are not easy to damage.
And you can fold them up, carry them with you, unfold them when you have sun, and charge all these devices.
So this is, for someone who can't go entirely off-grid with your whole house, which is incredibly expensive and also requires a lot more hardware, This is the next best thing.
This is a way to be off-grid in a limited fashion where you can run your laptop, you can run your phones, you can run emergency communications devices, you can charge batteries that run night vision optics for security, things like that.
Now, you're not going to be able to run your air conditioning of your home, probably.
Right?
It's just not enough capacity here.
That takes a lot more power.
You're not going to be able to run your clothes dryer on something like this because clothes dryers have, you know, they draw a tremendous amount of power.
You're not going to be able to run your home oven Your electric stove on this.
No, that's not what this is built for.
Although I should say the EcoFlow Pro here, this can drive a lot of household appliances when you expand it and combine it with a home control.
There's a power control unit.
You have to have an electrician install it and it supports, I think, 10 or 12 different circuits.
And you can add to this capacity with additional add-on units, additional batteries, and so on.
And you can have up to 25 kilowatt hours.
And you can actually have up to, I believe, 7.2 kilowatts of output through a couple of these units that are tied together.
At least that's the way I understand it.
But be sure to ask your retailer about how that works if you're interested in having a home augmentation unit.
Now, here's the other thing.
Why did I choose EcoFlow?
Well, I actually bought a lot of these units made by different companies, different brands.
Some of them out there are pretty cheap, like 100 bucks.
And I found that some of them, the tops just pop off.
Some of them don't work.
Some of them can't be used while they're charging at all.
Some of them just died.
There were a lot of different brands out there that I found online.
And I found that EcoFlow was the quality that was by far the most reliable.
And that was, I think, more than two years ago when I started buying EcoFlow devices, and I mentioned them in my podcast.
And then I found out just a few months ago that our sponsor, the Satellite Phone Store, is a major retailer for these devices in North America.
Well, that was great news to me because the Satellite Phone Store has been amazing for our customers, and they treat people right, and they They supply all these solutions.
They supply the baby sticks, and they used to have satellite phones, although they're out now, but they have all the solar panels and the backup power units, the so-called solar generators, power stations.
They've got so many of these in stock ready to ship.
And you know, in the first power outage that really hits North America, they're going to be just blown out in terms of inventory.
So these are something you need to get ahead of the, you know, kind of the mass panic, which will come, especially in Western Europe, come to think of it.
But the satellite phone store is a major retailer of these products.
And They support our podcast.
They support Brighteon.
So I'm returning the favor.
Go to sat123.com.
If you want to get these units, get them from the satellite phone store.
You know, why support other retailers, we'll say, with names that start with A. I mean, why?
Why not support companies that actually support America and that believe in your freedom of choice to get the products you want, to get the solutions that work for you?
Companies that offer A total package of solutions, including these other satellite comms.
That's the satellite phone store.
SAT123.com.
They'll set you right.
With all of this, you can determine what's right for you.
Obviously, the costs vary based on the size of these units.
You might want to start with a small one.
You might go with the Delta or the Delta Pro here if you want to power laptops and blenders and things like that.
Or, to have backup power for something bigger, you can have this in your home.
It's just going to require...
It's a lot heavier, so it's going to take really two people to lift it out of its box, although one person can roll it around thanks to the wheels, but this is a two-person lift because of the weight of it.
Now, it's heavy not because of the batteries, but because of the electronics and the control systems.
It's very capable.
All these units...
They are controllable via the EcoFlow app.
You can get the app, install it on your Android or your iPhone, and you can control these, you can set more parameters and features, you can monitor them using the app.
The batteries themselves, being that they're all lithium-ion phosphate, are not very heavy, really.
The electronics add a lot of weight to that because of the charge controlling and the inverter, especially.
So that's what makes these things actually have more weight.
Nevertheless, I wouldn't want to be stuck in this world today without one or more of these units.
Because they fulfill such a vital function.
You know, you can have your backup food supply and you should have a backup food supply.
You can have all your emergency medicine and your flashlights and your night vision and whatever else is part of your preparedness kit.
But you've got to have a source of power.
And even to charge your walkie-talkies.
I should have brought them over here, but you know, your local walkie-talkies or maybe you have a push-to-talk satellite walkie-talkie.
You've got to be able to charge those and this is the way to do that.
You collect power from the sun for free.
The government can't tax it.
They haven't figured out a way to do that, so it's free.
It's tax-free, basically income.
It's got value.
It goes into the batteries, and then you can use it for all these different things.
And you've got to be able to function off-grid.
This is the way to do it.
So check out the EcoFlow devices, all these different power stations at sat123.com.
And thank you for watching this video.
I appreciate your support, and I appreciate you supporting our sponsors as well.
These are very practical devices, and I just haven't found anything better out there in the marketplace.
And I've looked, and I've spent a lot of money trying to find something better.
I wish they would have a switch here where you could keep the panel on all the time.
Because I always like to see the panel no matter what.
But that's not a switch they have.
There's one little piece of feedback there.
Something maybe they could add later on.
Or maybe that's controllable through the app.
I'm not sure.
But I like to see what's going on.
And I'm always hitting these buttons to get the status.
I know it saves batteries to not show that panel all the time.
But I'd like to see it all the time.
That's just me.
Nevertheless, that's my take on it.
Thank you for watching.
Mike Adams here.
PrepwithMike.com Now I've got to put all this stuff back up.
Because this is all my stuff.
I've got to file all this stuff where it goes.
This is just part of my little preparedness set here.
Like, I use all this stuff.
These aren't just demo units just for display.
This is stuff I take with me when I travel.
This is stuff I use.
I have DeWalt tools and some other brands as well.
I use all these devices.
And they are very practical.
I wouldn't want to live without them.
Alright, thanks for watching.
God bless you all.
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