Ecoflow Alternator Charger 800W

[kiteboardkid]

Thanks for that how long did delivery take?

You'll need to ask them that before you order.

 

[T6Lloyd]

Can you show a picture of how you earthed it please, as I presume like most of the ecoflow videos it not a good idea to use the negative battery terminal to fix the earth cable (black) once routed?

Routed from inside the van via the top of the passenger wheel arch breach in the fire wall. It comes out to the rear of the battery compartment. Red to battery, black to the head light bracket with a little scraping to ensure a good earth. Inside I routed the cable under the dash behind the glove box, the under the plastic centre console into the cable channel between the seats. 90 degree turn at the rear of the drivers seat and depending on where you want to mount it that’s pretty much as far as I took it.

 

[roadtripper]

Can you show a picture of how you earthed it please, as I presume like most of the ecoflow videos it not a good idea to use the negative battery terminal to fix the earth cable (black) once routed?

Never attach anything to the negative battery terminal. It will bypass the shunt and the van will not see the discharge so it will not recharge it. It's a surefire way to give yourself endless electrical issues and killing the starter battery.

 

[T6Lloyd]

Never attach anything to the negative battery terminal. It will bypass the shunt and the van will not see the discharge so it will not recharge it. It's a surefire way to give yourself endless electrical issues and killing the starter battery.

Thanks for the heads up

 

[Horsewhip]

Never attach anything to the negative battery terminal. It will bypass the shunt and the van will not see the discharge so it will not recharge it. It's a surefire way to give yourself endless electrical issues and killing the starter battery.

I never knew this, thanks for the heads up!

I'm surprised there's not a good negative point near the battery that won't bypass the shunt.

 

[kiteboardkid]

I never knew this, thanks for the heads up!

I'm surprised there's not a good negative point near the battery that won't bypass the shunt.

Like wise! Mine is attached to Batt Neg, will go and change it today.

Is there a good chassis ground in the battery compartment on a T6?

 

[T6Lloyd]

Thanks for the heads up

Thanks I have now connected the earth to the chassis as per my image

 

[T6Lloyd]

Can you show a picture of how you earthed it please, as I presume like most of the ecoflow videos it not a good idea to use the negative battery terminal to fix the earth cable (black) once routed?

Excellent thanks, that's fine connected now and working fine

 

[Badjamin]

This may be a 'too long, didn't read' post as is my way

Indecisive and annoying member advice please - Just starting out with my van to camper conversion and have it in mind (long term) to get a leisure battery system wired in.

For the short term I need to decide on a removable powered setup

- low budget from a bluetti EB3A - apparently a bit noisy and only one badly orientated plug socket - £160 on eBay with discount code
- top of my budget an ecoflow delta 2 - bells and whistles - £900 new or reduced £610 on amazon with damaged packaging

To start with it's literally to run a CPAP machine (google say the average power draw is 53 watts with a max draw of 104 watts.) and charge phones for one/two night stopovers so I think a bluetti would possibly work with driving charge up between sleeps but I know as things grow and trips get longer it will not do so well, where an ecoflow would be more appropriate long term especially for when I get a solar panel and wired electrics system.

We will be making occasional 1 night/2 night trips for the time being so yeah, do I buy a cheap bluetti or splurge on an ecoflow?
Should I get a bluetti for now and then when required buy an EF and sell the bluetti on?
Should I use the budget to just get a cheap leisure battery?
There is a battery that can power my CPAP but it's about £500...

 

[roadtripper]

- low budget from a bluetti EB3A - apparently a bit noisy and only one badly orientated plug socket - £160 on eBay with discount code

I have that model (it may be my review you read about the annoying plug) and it's not bad as a "handy to have around" thing for the days I use the Caravelle as an office.

They're not really noisy unless they are under heavy load (charge/discharge) and the fan is on.

Can your CPAP run directly from 12v or would it need the inverter on? Reason I ask is that model has quite a high idle loss, especially with the inverter on, so it's not ideal for long running lower power loads.

But if you can find one at a decent discount it's a nice rounded all in one with a useful enough runtime to try and see if the approach would work for you. If it doesn't you'll find a use for it as backup in a power cut or a big battery to recharge phones from. It also pairs very will with a 100w portable solar panel.

 

[tammo]

Hi

I'm looking to install the Ecoflow Alternator charger into my LHD SWB VWT6.1 Shuttle. What I was hoping to do is pre-install a battery cable run from my starter battery to under the driver seat (LHD in my case) and have a positive and negative busbar there so I can spur off the official 5m Ecoflow Alternator Charger cable to the Ecoflow Alternator Charger which in turn charges the Delta 2 Power Station. The reason is that I don't want to plumb in the 5m Ecoflow Alternator Charger cable directly to the starter battery so that I can remove the whole Ecoflow wiring easily as well as leave the battery cable run from the starter battery to under the driver seat ready for a future leisure battery setup.

My question is, will the additional length of the cable run from the starter battery including busbars cause any problems or loss in charging performance? See schematic below with inline fuses and circuit breaker..

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[roadtripper]

That's a long wiring run, it's going to be close to 5m, so your main issue is going to be voltage drop, your secondary issue is going to be protection at those high currents.

800w is going to be around 70A at 12v so I'd advise working to at least 100A to give yourself some margin.

I'd also advise getting quality cable (i.e. not from eBay or Amazon) and fuses - you're going to have the van partially dismantled and run a lot of power, this is not the time to save a few quid and find out you've got knock off copper coated aluminium cable.

I wouldn't bother with the circuit breaker, stick to fuses. The cheap ones don't trip well and fail, if you do want one get a marine rated one from someone like Blue Sea (you'll notice the difference in price!)

Personally I think it's wise to fuse both ends of the positive cable run, but the most important end is as close to the starter battery as possible. If you fuse both ends make sure the fuse under the seat is slightly smaller than the one next to the starter battery - you want that one to fail first in an overload as it's easier to replace.

Also consider if you need such a long negative run. There are many nearer official chassis ground points such as under the seat or near the rear lights clusters, if you're a VIP Member then the diagram of them is available in downloads.

 

[tammo]

That's a long wiring run, it's going to be close to 5m, so your main issue is going to be voltage drop, your secondary issue is going to be protection at those high currents.

800w is going to be around 70A at 12v so I'd advise working to at least 100A to give yourself some margin.

I'd also advise getting quality cable (i.e. not from eBay or Amazon) and fuses - you're going to have the van partially dismantled and run a lot of power, this is not the time to save a few quid and find out you've got knock off copper coated aluminium cable.

I wouldn't bother with the circuit breaker, stick to fuses. The cheap ones don't trip well and fail, if you do want one get a marine rated one from someone like Blue Sea (you'll notice the difference in price!)

Personally I think it's wise to fuse both ends of the positive cable run, but the most important end is as close to the starter battery as possible. If you fuse both ends make sure the fuse under the seat is slightly smaller than the one next to the starter battery - you want that one to fail first in an overload as it's easier to replace.

Also consider if you need such a long negative run. There are many nearer official chassis ground points such as under the seat or near the rear lights clusters, if you're a VIP Member then the diagram of them is available in downloads.

Very solid advice. Thank you so much. Since I wrote I was weighing up the option of grounding below the seat too, so thanks for the heads up. I will also research the draw rating on the engine alternator. I'm guessing that being a new 2024 T6.1 it will have a higher rating than some of the early models, but i'd have to check.

 

[roadtripper]

Very solid advice. Thank you so much. Since I wrote I was weighing up the option of grounding below the seat too, so thanks for the heads up. I will also research the draw rating on the engine alternator. I'm guessing that being a new 2024 T6.1 it will have a higher rating than some of the early models, but i'd have to check.

Will depend on your spec:



I've got the 250A monster in the Caravelle as it's electrically heavy with all the driver assistance stuff.

As a general rule keep the "house" load to about a third of the rated capacity - you need a lot for things like heated windows and fans and remember that at lower everyday revs it will not reach peak output. You should be absolutely fine on the 250, likely fine on the 180 (but maybe disconnect if you do short runs in winter) and I would be wary of you have the 140 (but likely fine if you only use it occasionally and connect when you know you will have good charging conditions)

 

[tammo]

Thanks again @roadtripper. I've got the 180A version in my EU-version Caravelle aka Shuttle in the UK. It's not that electrically heavy but i'll still be cautious to allow the 800W charge rate on the EcoFlow. I believe one can lower the charge rate on the app. In any case I anticipate to use the charger only on longish drives.