The EcoFlow Delta 2 has four 1800W AC outlets, super fast 1200W mains charging, two 100W USB power delivery outputs, and a 1024 Wh long lasting LiFePO4 battery that is expandable up to 3040 Wh. It has a very useful app to control it remotely and is surprisingly portable considering its spec – I can carry it with one hand. It’s pretty good value too compared to similar units – you can check the current price down below.
These power stations are perfect for power cuts, camping, travel and festivals and around the house and out and about to charge all your tech. And the Delta 2 can charge at up to 500W off solar panels alone when mains isn’t available.
I’ll run through its capabilities and thoroughly test all its claims to help you decide if this is the right power station for you. And towards the end of the article I’ll compare it to other similar power stations I’ve tested. So let’s take a closer look.
Overview
Inside the box you get the power station itself, a mains charging cable, car charging cable and a DC5521 to DC5525 lead. There’s also a multilingual user manual.
There’s no solar charging cable and no protective cover. It’s disappointing that there’s no solar charging cable. Apart from the cost of purchasing an additional cable, it can also be a little confusing for new users to understand exactly what cable they need. I’ll cover this in more detail shortly.
The Delta 2 has a 1024Wh LFP or LiFePO4 battery and I was expecting it to be much heavier than it is. LFP batteries like this weigh more than equivalent standard Li-ion batteries that use NMC or Nickel Manganese Cobalt chemistry, but they support 3000 complete charge cycles compared to 500-1000 cycles for NMC batteries. The Delta 2 weighs 12 kg – only around 2 kg heavier than the Li-ion based Jackery Explorer 1000 which has a similar capacity battery and only 4 kg heavier than the 576 Wh EcoFlow River Max also based on Li-ion technology. It’s easy to move around with handles on either side, but it’s light enough to carry with just one handle. It’s a fairly compact unit measuring 211 x 400 x 281mm (W x D x H). A folding handle would have made it even more compact.
Like the EcoFlow River Max I reviewed a while back, the Delta 2 is well built, made of mostly hard plastic. It does feel a little more rugged than other power stations I’ve looked at with large slightly rubberised feet front and rear, that offer at least some protection as you move it around. There’s still no waterproof rating so you’ll need to be careful using it outside or invest in their optional waterproof bag.
The power station has a maximum output of 1800W and EcoFlow offers a few examples of what you could run and for how long on their website. Anything from a car fridge for up to 32 hours to an electric grill for just shy of one hour. I’ll have some real world examples shortly.
The Delta 2 doesn’t have the standard power station configuration. The display and ports are on the short ends of the unit. The front has the LCD display, 2 standard 12W USB ports and 2 blue 18W fast charging ports. Just below are two USB-C power delivery ports. Both these support a generous 100W of output simultaneously, which is a hugely useful configuration and not something I’ve seen before. So theoretically you could charge two of the latest 14” MacBook Pros at full speed at the same time. Even if you don’t have these requirements currently, this does offer future proofing for a significant purchase that you want to last for a long time. More and more devices use USB power delivery, which is slowly replacing cumbersome AC power bricks. Not just laptops, smartphones and tablets, but also drones and action cameras etc, and these ports are also useful for charging smaller portable power banks that often support high speed charging. Of course even higher power 140W USB-C ports that could replace a 16” MacBook Pro charger would be even better.
Around the back there’s the combined solar and car XT60 input, the mains charging port and the overload protection switch. With our oversized plugs, this UK unit has 4 pure sine wave AC sockets with 1800W of total output that can briefly surge to 2700W. The US version has 6 outlets. But even 4 is very useful and twice what you get on the much larger Bluetti AC200P I reviewed a few months ago.
Below the AC sockets are the DC outlets: the 12.6V 10A or 126W car outlet and the two DC5521 12.6V 3A or 38W outputs.
All these outputs have their own power switch. You need to turn the unit on first with a short press of the power button. A long press turns it off. Then you need to turn on the USB, AC or DC subsystem afterwards. That’s understandable for the AC subsystem, which will drain the battery even if nothing is plugged in as I’ll test shortly. But with USB devices I found it a minor inconvenience having to remember to press this USB button whenever I wanted to charge my smartphone. I’d prefer the USB sockets just came on with the unit. You can sort of get around this though with the app, which I’ll also discuss shortly.
Both sides of the unit have cooling vents with intake and exhaust fans on either side. Finally there’s the beefy extra battery port on one side of the unit to connect the optional additional battery to double the capacity. Or you can add the Delta Max’s extra battery to triple the capacity. The extra battery costs almost as much as the Delta 2 itself but does weigh around 2.5kg less without all the additional electronics. You can’t use the EcoFlow Power Kit batteries unfortunately, which have a different connector.
The top of the unit is flat with a curved lip around the edges. This is intended for stacking the extra battery on top but it’s also useful for charging smaller gadgets without them rolling off.
It would have been nice to see some wireless charging pads on top like on the AC200P. And the unit is also missing any sort of LED light. I do find the floodlight on the Anker 757 I reviewed surprisingly useful. There are plenty of ports to add a light and a wireless charging pad, but it’s nice having it built in.
Charging
You can charge the power station with the mains cable, from a car outlet with the supplied car socket plug to XT60 cable or via solar with optional solar panels.
And EcoFlow sells their Smart Generator that runs on petrol. This can be controlled by the smartphone app and will automatically turn on to charge the Delta 2 when the battery is low. You could of course use any petrol generator to do this manually.
The USB-C ports are only for output and you’re unable to charge via these ports unfortunately, like you can on the Allpowers unit I looked at.
One of the most impressive features of the Delta 2 is the charging speed. The Anker 757 I reviewed could charge its 1229Wh battery at 1000W with just the mains lead – no massive AC adapter. The Delta 2 has upped the ante and can charge at a whopping 1200W, again just using a standard IEC mains cable – often called a kettle lead in the UK. There is a velcro tie on the cable with a warning that you should only charge the unit with this cable. Any 10A mains cable should be ok, but you’ll immediately blow the fuse with anything less than 10A so make sure you check the rating.
EcoFlow claims the unit can charge its 1024Wh battery from completely flat to 80% in 50 minutes with a full charge taking 80 minutes. In my tests it reached almost 50% charge in 30 minutes from completely flat, 80% charge in just under 50 minutes and 100% charge in just under 80 minutes – pretty much exactly confirming EcoFlow’s claims and is very impressive. It does get very noisy charging at these high speeds.
With a sound level meter 1 metre from the unit I measured 58 dB with all the fans running at full speed. That was around 20 dB louder than background noise in my office. Fortunately you can use the excellent accompanying EcoFlow app to set the maximum charging speed. I found dropping this to a still pretty rapid 800W dropped the measurement by 10 dB. A drop of 10 dB equates roughly to a halving of the perceived noise, so a very noticeable reduction. And in general use when you don’t always need the super fast charging it’s probably a little better for the battery’s longevity. There only seems to be two fan speeds – even dropping the unit all the way down to 200W charging the noise levels are the same. I imagine it would be possible to have the fan speed vary more smoothly with charging speed with a firmware update and perhaps turn off completely at low charging speeds. You can hear how the Delta 2 sounds at full charging speed and at 200-800W charging speed in the accompanying video.
I did check the Delta 2’s temperatures when fast charging with a Flir thermal imaging camera and the design of the unit and the fans did a good job of keeping it cool as you can see.
The 2 colour 8cm LCD display on the Delta 2 is bright and clear, and shows information on remaining charge time when it’s charging and remaining run time when it’s powering your devices. This estimate is adjusted in real time depending on input or output power. There’s also the battery capacity displayed graphically and as a percentage and icons that illuminate to show which ports are in use. This information is also available in the app which can monitor the power station even away from home on a cellular connection if you connect to the device over WiFi.
There is also an option to connect directly to the power station over Bluetooth when there’s no WiFi – just tap on “use without Internet” when you’re asked to select your WiFi network. I’ve already covered adjusting AC charging speed under Settings in the app, and will mention other relevant options as I proceed through the review. But you can also turn off beeps and I’d recommend making sure the firmware is up to date. The display is very clear indoors but a little harder to see outdoors in bright sunlight.
The unit charges at around 100W with the supplied cable via a 12V car outlet. So a full charge would take over 10 hours. You also charge faster if your car has a 24V output, which I confirmed with my bench power supply charging the Delta 2 at 192W. You are limited to 8A as you can see even with the bench supply set at 10A – this is set in the app and can’t be increased, only lowered. I did increase the voltage all the way up to 60V and charged the unit at 480W – still limited to 8A. I tried charging by mains at the same time, but this isn’t possible – it switches across to mains charging. The same applies if you use solar panels via the DC input. So you can’t use the DC and AC input at the same time which is possible on the Bluetti AC200P, but then direct mains charging on this unit is way faster than the Bluetti so it’s not necessary.
The DC input automatically switches between car and solar charging – there’s no manual setting in the app like on the EcoFlow River Max. You should be able to use its full 15A maximum input charging via solar.
And like all the power stations I’ve tested the Delta 2 has a built-in MPPT controller for more efficient solar charging.
I tested solar charging with EcoFlow’s 220W Bifacial solar panel in series with their 160W standard panel. Ideally I’d have two identical panels in series for the highest output but I had only one of their newer 220W panels.
Connecting solar panels in series you add their voltages together, and in parallel you add the current for each panel – the voltage stays the same. Since these panels are around 20V the 11-60V input range provides plenty of headroom for a series connection, which is also easier to setup without any additional adapters.
It’s autumn here in the UK and the weather is already pretty grim, but I did have a brief sunny spell to test solar charging. I had to use the MC4 to XT60 cable that came with the EcoFlow River Max since nothing is provided with the Delta 2 or the 220W panel. Connecting two panels in series is easy – you connect a male and female connector together from each panel, and the remaining connectors to the adapter cable that plugs in the back of the Delta 2.
With the panels directed at the sun I got around 230W which isn’t bad considering it was later in the afternoon and the end of October.
I do find setting up EcoFlow’s panels fiddly compared to other solar panels I’ve used. And the 220W bifacial panel is also pretty heavy at 9.5kg. But it does have a trick up its sleeve.
As its name suggests this panel has solar panels on both sides. The front panel that should face the sun is 220W and the rear panel is 155W. The rear side can use ambient light to increase performance by between 5 and 25%. Ideally you’d have something reflective underneath, not soggy Dartmoor moorland. And with the sun already lower in the sky there wasn’t much ambient light to boost the performance. When the conditions are better I plan to do a group test of all the panels I’ve accumulated, so make sure you’re subscribed if you don’t want to miss it.
You don’t have to use EcoFlow’s panels – you can use whatever you have. And if you don’t need these portable foldable panels, far cheaper options are available. For example two of these 200W Renogy panels off Amazon in series would provide around 400W of output for about the same price as the EcoFlow 220W panel. These have standard MC4 connectors and you then just need the MC4 to XT60 adapter for the Delta 2.
In ideal conditions the Delta 2 can charge at up to 500W with its 11-60V 15A input – so that would be 2-3 hours for a full charge. With my setup, or even just the one 220W panel in better conditions, it’d take approximately 6-7 hours to charge the unit.
Note you can’t use the DC and AC input simultaneously – the AC input will take priority over car or solar charging. Although in the latest firmware there is a Lab option you can enable to “prioritise solar charging”. This is a great feature that will keep the unit topped up with solar using the DC input unless the battery drops below 20%. In that case AC will charge the unit up to 70% and then again let solar take over. This works with with any DC input attached to the XT60 port.
Performance
The Delta 2 has a substantial 1800W inverter built in and can power most household devices with its 4 AC outlets. This is quite an achievement considering the weight and size of the power station. I confirmed their pure sine wave output, which is important for sensitive electronics with a graphical multimeter. These outlets can surge briefly to 2700W and also support EcoFlow’s X-Boost technology which can power devices rated at up to 2400W continuously by lowering the voltage.
It’s easier to understand with an example with this 2200W toaster and an energy monitor. With X-Boost off the Delta 2 will run this toaster at full power for around a minute then shut off with its overload protection kicking in.
The voltage here in the UK is around 230V. With X-Boost on I can run this toaster for as long as I need, but you’ll notice the voltage drops to around 210V and the actual output drops to the Delta 2’s true 1800W maximum output. And the toaster obviously won’t toast as quickly.
By default X-Boost is on, but I’d recommend turning it off and only switching it on as needed. Some devices may be sensitive to their voltage requirements so I would only use it if you have to. For example to run heating element based products like toasters and hair dryers, when there isn’t another option. I could just switch this toaster to 2 slot mode which is well within the rated output of the Delta 2. At least you can switch X-Boost off – on the Anker 757 it also reduced the voltage with devices exceeding its maximum output, but there’s no way to turn this feature off.
For the remaining tests I left X-Boost turned off. Around the house as well as the toaster, I was able to run a 1550W hair dryer, a Nespresso coffee machine and even a 2kW heater which ran continuously at almost 1900W, above the Delta 2’s 1800W maximum output. With the Delta 2’s 1024 Wh battery you would only be able to run this heater at full power for around 30 minutes.
And running these higher power devices, fan noise is quite noticeable. At full output it’s as noisy as when charging at full speed at around 58dB. But these fans are quieter at lower output than when charging and turn off completely below around 100W, which is important if you’re sleeping nearby. This might depend on the ambient temperature of the unit – my room is around 20°C.
Out in the workshop I tried various handheld and stationary power tools. The initial start up draw of some of these machines was too much for the unit. But it had no trouble running a Bosch angle grinder and a Festool router and circular saw. And it ran my Bosch 1800W sliding mitre saw. It did run my Record BS350 14” bandsaw and Scheppach TS2000 table saw after a fashion. They started up but didn’t run at full speed.
My 3kW compressor overloaded the unit. The unit beeps and the AC subsystem turns off. Overload flashes in red on the display. You can immediately turn on AC again with its power button.
It’s important to turn off the AC subsystem when it’s not needed. You can set a timeout in the app, but even on the default 12 hour timeout, the unit dropped from 100% to 83% without anything plugged in. That’s around 1.4% per hour. The app lets you configure this time out from 30 minutes up to 24 hours or you can turn off the timeout completely, which is useful for running very low power devices, so long as you’re able to easily top up the battery.
I tested the DC outputs starting with the 12V car outlet which has up to 10A output at 12.6V or 126W, which I confirmed with a load tester. Ramping this up to 13A set off the current overload protection.
Using the same load tester I confirmed the 3A maximum output of the 12.6V DC5521 ports. I left this subsystem on for 12 hours with the battery at 100% and the battery remained at full capacity.
So if you have tech that can run directly off DC, it makes more sense to try and use these ports. You can set a timeout for this subsystem too in the app. All these DC outputs are regulated.
The 6 USB ports should cover most of your needs. There are two standard 12W 2.4A USB ports and two 18W fast charging ports that support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. I tested all these ports with a USB load tester and got over 2.5A at 12V or 30W out of the fast charging ports, before overcurrent protection kicked in so a fair bit better than spec’d.
The two USB-C ports both support a full 100W of USB power delivery output. This portable jump starter can charge at the full 100W. And I’m charging a Lenovo Chromebook with the other port which can charge at up to 45W over USB power delivery.
One nice feature of this power station is that if you can change the Unit Timeout in the app to Never the USB ports remain active even when supplying tiny amounts of power, just like a mains wall charger. Some power stations shut off their USB ports when a device is fully charged which is no good if you want to keep a device topped up and ready to go.
For example this Olight torch has a reassuring green light on the magnetic charger when it’s fully charged. If the USB outputs shut off you’d need to reinsert the charging lead to check if the torch is fully charged.
The Delta 2 also has a UPS or uninterruptible power supply function which is a very useful feature I’ve really come to rely upon. When the power station is charging off mains, any mains devices you plug in will bypass the power station and run directly off mains until there’s a power cut, when they’ll switch across to the power station’s battery. EcoFlow quotes a 30ms switchover which I found good enough for a desktop computer, but they warn against using this feature for data servers that might require 0ms switching.
All 13 ports support passthrough charging and can be used whilst the unit is charging.
Finally I measured the usable capacity of the 1024 Wh built-in battery. I ran a heater via an energy monitoring plug at around 1000W until the power station turned off. The heater ran for 59 minutes and 11 seconds and consumed 932 Wh. Power stations like this will always have conversion losses and anything over 80% is pretty good. The EcoFlow works out at 932 Wh /1024 Wh which is around 91% and an excellent result.
I did a similar test using the DC output with a 10A electronic load attached. I measured 870Wh which is still a very respectable 85% efficiency.
Conclusions
The EcoFlow Delta 2 is the best portable power station I’ve tested so far in its class. It’s great to see a long lasting LFP battery and reassuring that EcoFlow backs this up with a 5 year warranty. The modular battery system is a great idea – the 1024 Wh battery will probably be enough for most people and importantly keeps the weight and price down. This is far more portable than any other LFP power station I’ve tested and with all its features is pretty good value too. If you need extra capacity it’s easy to add another battery and it’s more convenient to move around two lighter batteries compared to one giant heavy battery.
There aren’t many features missing. It doesn’t have any wireless charging pads like the Bluetti AC200P, or a built-in light like many other units I’ve tested but more than makes up for it with the number of useful ports, the large 1800W inverter, the insanely fast 1200W charging and the genuinely useful smartphone app.
My only real criticism is the fan noise when charging at full speed and powering more demanding devices. But they do keep the unit cool and hopefully preserve the battery. I would have liked to have seen a MC4 to XT60 cable included too.
If you know you’re going to need more capacity, the Bluetti AC200P works out a little cheaper, already having a 2000 Wh battery and has a slightly larger 2000W inverter, even more flexible solar charging options and built-in wireless charging pads. But it’s over twice the weight, charges much slower with a bulky AC adapter and doesn’t have a smartphone app.
The Anker 757 costs a little more but has a slightly larger battery and a built-in light, but it’s considerably heavier and doesn’t have a smartphone app. The Jackery Explorer 1000 is about the same price as the Delta 2 with a similar sized battery. It has a standard Li-ion battery which won’t last as long, but that does make it the lightest option at around 10kg.
Jackery power stations are very user friendly and their solar panels are by far the easiest to set up and use – even though they do use a less standard 7.9mm adapter. But the Jackey is looking a little out of date compared to the others, with slow charging, a rather basic LCD screen and very limited USB-C outputs.
I have full reviews of the Anker, Bluetti and the smaller Jackery units – please take at the links down below.
Don’t forget to take a look at my YouTube video at the top of the page, and subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’m releasing videos every week on the latest technology and how to get the most out of it. If you tap the bell icon when you subscribe you’ll get a notification as soon as I release a video, and there’ll be a link to my site here for the written article. YouTube is also the best place to leave a comment. I read all of them and respond to as many as I can!
Buy direct from EcoFlow: https://uk.ecoflow.com/products/delta-2-portable-power-station
(Using the above link helps keep this website and my YouTube channel going – thank you!)
Amazon links:
EcoFlow Delta 2: https://amzn.to/3gTDkT6
EcoFlow 220W bifacial solar panel: https://amzn.to/3WbtUTe
Bluetti AC200P: https://amzn.to/3Wc9Z6I
Jackery Explorer 1000: https://amzn.to/3Dlr0mn
Renogy 200W solar panel: https://amzn.to/3NhIa8P
Anker 757 PowerHouse review: https://youtu.be/–AyZdp99EM
EcoFlow River Max review: https://youtu.be/pEqJK5Si-hs
Bluetti AC200S review: https://youtu.be/oyAA0GUFbLI
Jacker Explorer 500 vs Bluetti AC50S review: https://youtu.be/R6Tamw09vLk
One of the best and most detailed reviews I have read.
Thank you.