Has anyone put Ecoflow Delta 2 to the test? How long can it power 3 P1S…?
The biggest power hog is the heated bed, so to a first order approximation the answer would depend on how hot the heated beds are, assuming they’re heated at all.
If the answer really matters to you, then plug your printers into a kill-a-watt meter and take a measurement. On the other hand, if you just want a general ballpark idea, then the answer would be about 1 hour, because when I took a measurement on my X1C it was drawing no more than 350 watts. Three times that is about 1kW, and you’re stating in your OP that the capacity is about 1kWh. I’m giving you a round number, because how efficient the inverter is will also figure into the answer. If the inverter is highly inefficient, then you won’t get even 1 hour out of it.
From this example, now you know how the math works,
1 Like
Thanks, I’m gonna grab one from their eBay store which has some refurbished ones with 2 years warranty.
If the printer draws 350W on average, and the UPS has a 1KWh capacity, it can power the printer for 1000/350 = 2.85 hours = 171.5 minutes.
For this UPS to run a P1S for 8 hours, the P1S can only be drawing 125W on average.
Note this is assuming the battery capacity can be fully consumed. That’s not always the case. It might have a 1000Wh battery but the system won’t let it be fully discharged because that causes the battery to wear out faster. A 1000Wh battery might only be good for 800Wh of usable energy.
I note from their webpage, EcoFlow says this about the battery:
So this appears to be the case. The system is really only good for about 800Wh.
This isn’t a UPS. You plug it in to the wall, that charges the battery. What you plug in to the front is being powered by the battery through an AC Inverter. To use this as a UPS (like for your whole house, which is one of their primary use cases), you need an external device called a “transfer switch” that cuts-out the AC mains and cuts-in the battery backup when power is lost.
I don’t see any reason it can’t charge and supply AC at the same time, but I don’t think that’s the way they expect it to be used. You might want to reach out to their customer support and ask if it’s OK to have it powering a device continually while also connected to AC power for charging.
1 Like
I think newer Ecoflow models have that switch built in, I’m not sure about the older model like Delta. Be sure to get the 2nd gen ones like Delta 2 instead of Delta. 2nd gen uses LiFePO4 battery which is a safer with much longer lifespan.
I’m pretty sure the UPS function is the reason why Bambu Lab is selling Ecoflow bundle, otherwise what’s the point? Maybe some people like to 3D print while camping 
Just an FYI for anyone thinking of getting into these solar generators. YOU CAN’T GET CHEAP SOLAR PANELS FOR THEM; THEY MAKE YOU BUY THEIR INSANELY EXPENSIVE PANELS.
So, with all of these companies, they want to lock you into their ecosystem so the input VOC and DC for these units is bad. You will be very hard pressed to find cheap panels to max your solar input.
Look on any solar forum talking about the Anker, or Ecoflow or whatever portable solar generator and it’s the same. You will be paying 5x more for solar panels then you should. Or you will get close with some large residential panels that aren’t even close to being portable.
Learn how to make your own, I got the Anker 767 and saw how bad the input spec were and made 2 systems for the same price. It takes some time and tools but like everything in life, it will be better than the units you buy.
As far as run time goes, if you have the sun, you should be fine, but again you need to pay like $2k to get their panels. I run my P1P and A1 off solar and it’s not too energy hungry once the print is going. Startup takes some watts though. With 4x 100Ah batteries I have no issues with power, but you might need to adjust use on cloudy weeks.
I think this is just an impulse buy for people “interested” in sola which is a crazy impulse buy. If you had been looking into these then you know its a rip off with the panels. This is kind of slimy but idk if Bambu Labs knows how hard it is to get cheap panels for these.
I would advise against this package.
I really don’t know what Bambu was thinking with bundling the Delta. I think Ecoflow is dumping their old stock with partnerships like this but why did Bambu think this was the bee’s knees?
Even with a Delta 2 you can only get 500w input, which isn’t a lot for what you’re paying. Also, 60v,15amps solar charging is a really constrictive spec to find panels for. But that’s because they want you to buy their $800 400w panel and not a “normal” one for like $300. And that is the really painful and shady gotchya with solar generators. But they look slick huh?
These aren’t made for whole house use either, but maybe back up for power outages for a radio and fridge or for a shed or garage. These would last like 2 min powering your house. Ecoflow has a line for whole hose solar and they are very, very expensive.
These are like the van conversion content creator battery solutions. Even RV folks stay away and build their own for a fraction of the price. Thes look cool but are super restrictive. Although, you do get a good amount of battery for the price, so that’s a plus.
I would say a hard maybe, but getting solar into these is super expensive. I rambled on above about it, but they want you to buy their crazy expensive panels. I mean, they are outrageously expensive compared to what is on the market, but the input is very limited so you can’t really get the max solar input with cheaper panels. Good MPPT’s on the market can do 100v @30amps ($180) where these do 60v @15 amps. The batteries are where the real cost is and you get a good size from EcoFlow but no way to charge it cheaply, other than shore power.
So, at start with my P1P(S conversion) I draw 300-350watts but only for a few min while things heat up. Then for most of the print I’m at 118w. So, with this Delta2 you CAN power 3x P1S’ but getting solar into it will be so expensive it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Look at some solar forums where people are trying to max the solar input on these without EcoFlow’s $400 panels. It’s all to keep you buying their solar panels. That’s the issue with all these slick solar generators from any brand.
The price on new LifePO4 batteries had fallen dramatically over the last couple of years. So, this sale could be a reflection of that.
Or, there is another possibility: batteries self-discharge. If the battery voltage isn’t maintained above a certain threshold, then it will go bad. Now imagine that you are Eccoflow and you’ve got washhouses full of powerbanks whose battery has dropped to very near its minimal threshold. What do you do? Do you open up each box, recharge it, and then re-package it? That would be very manpower expensive. No, instead of that, you have a sale and eliminate the problem that way.
This same sort of thing happens with power tool battery packs. If you have the luxury of timing your purchase, you can sometimes score a good deal during a blowout event.
1 Like
There’s nothing preventing you from using whatever solar panels you want, provided you don’t exceed the 60v input voltage limit… No doubt you can save a lot of money if you want to use generic glass-aluminum panels. The panels that eccoflow sells are meant to be portable, and conveniently so. Therefore, it’s not a true apples-to-apples comparison if that’s something you might care about.
You raise a good point. How fast can this eccoflow charge its batteries from AC? If it’s slower than the maximum allowed power draw through the inverter, then in that scenario if it’s not a true UPS, you could eventually run out of juice if the attached load is both continuous and and above the maximum charging rate…
Edit: I just checked, and maximum AC charging rate appears to be 1200w. So… unlikely to be a problem in this scenario, because as someone here pointed out, once the heatbed gets heated up, the power draw goes down. There should be plenty of headroom left over for running the 3 printers that the OP wants to run.
If it turns out to not be a true UPS, then there is one possible niggle to be aware of: since you’d be powered off the inverter even when there is available AC power, you’ll get the cooling fan noise that comes along with it. On a lot of cheap powerbanks, that fan noise can be pretty loud. I know this for sure because I have a powerbank which works that way. Retrofitting it with a transfer switch, as suggested by RocketSled, would be an interesting idea. What I don’t know is whether it could handle a sudden load being dropped on it within a short enough time that the switchover would be invisible to an attached bambulab printer.
What prevents you from using whatever panels you want is the low amp input. You can run like a 2p2s with these and can’t really add that 3rd panel or string. You want to over panel your systems but these you can’t even get close to their 1000w solar input unless you spend $2/w and not the standard $1/w which most panels cost. Even the Renogy 200w portable panels are $200 and not $400.
The panels from EcoFlow are meant to make EcoFlow money.
Wait, am I looking at the wrong specs? The specs on their website say a maximum solar input of 500w. It says 1100w DC input (it doesn’t say the voltage). So… I guess this is one of those powerbanks that is charged via an external powerbrick. Were you wanting to charge it through that pathway? It may not be common, but I presume you could do it if you’re willing to use an external MPPT controller (admittedly, extra cost) in whatever overpanneling configuration you want, since in that case you would be picking the MPPT controller and not limited by eccoflow in that regard. Right? It may well still come out cheaper than buying their high priced solar panels, and you’d have a more flexible build.
My purpose of getting an Ecoflow is to use it as an UPS as I’ve discovered Power Loss Recovery doesn’t really work if outage is longer than a few minutes.
Computer UPS can save the day ONLY if power outage lasts a few minutes, longer than that you can kiss the print job goodbye. Plus Computer UPS battery needs to be replaced every 3 years or so, my 4 years old 1500W UPS can’t charge pass 10% now and replacement battery costs $200.
Ecoflow’s MSRP is a marketing gimmick. Delta 2 for example, MSRP is $1000 but true price is $650 with “coupon”.
I didn’t plan on using solar panels, but Ecoflow eBay store offers refurbished Delta 2 + 220W panel for $719 was too good to pass on lol. Plus I live in Southern California where 90% of year are sunny days, I figure why not. We’ll see how it goes. 
1 Like
A quick follow up, Delta 2 can be used as an UPS. Its nanosecond switch doesn’t interrupt the printers at all. AC (wall outlet) input to Delta 2 gets pass on to its AC outlet (powers printers in my case) when Delta 2 is fully charged at 100%.
Is it worth the money? For me, time is money.
Its the 60V 15 amp that is hard to match but I didn’t realize it was only 500w max. My Anker 767, practically the same unit, has 1000w max but still 60v 20 amp max solar. It is super hard to get panels that can reach 1000w in that range. They make their panels really expensive that do work with their generators, so I think that’s the money grab.
But if you aren’t using it for the solar and UPS batteries are just as expensive this seems like a good deal.
1 Like
Update 2024-10-17
Learn from my mistake. I should have done my homework before purchasing EchFlow products. It has a F rating in BBB, Ecoflow Tech Ltd | Better Business Bureau® Profile
It’s selling thousands of refurbished units on eBay, considering their products are only a couple of years old. Something isn’t right.
I’ve been communicating daily with EcoFlow support for over a week, and getting nothing but excuses and runarounds. They claim three P Series printers to one Delta 2 is too much, then stop communicating when I told them same issue occurred with just one printer connected to Delta 2.
Original post
After 6 months of ownership, EcoFlow Delta 2 doesn’t reliably function as a UPS for 3D printers. During a recent 6-hour period with several brownouts, it struggled to maintain operation.
While three printers were running, the switch from AC to battery mode happened so quickly that I didn’t notice it happening ( I happened to be watching printers at that time), but two of the printers just stopped printing. Their tool heads, nozzles, and beds temperature froze, and I couldn’t resume printing with the pause button. Restarting the printers resolved the issue, but the tool heads had been on the print for too long, causing significant print defects.
One printer was not interrupted as if nothing happened, so I let the third printer continue, but it experienced a similar problem during a later brownout. My guess is the nanosecond of AC-to-battery switch sometimes causes the printer to crash, which can ruin prints. Given these issues and the price of the EcoFlow Delta 2, it’s not worth the investment. This could explain why Bambu stopped offering the EcoFlow combo.
I’ve been using a Delta Pro with my X1C and would have had a pile of failed prints without it. We’re just coming out of our big lightning/storm season and would have had to end a bunch of prints early without it. I had a lightning hit years ago and got home to erupted chips on my modem (that’s how long ago). I shut down and unplug for lightning.
But with the Ecoflow, the printer just keeps going.
Mine is now 3 years ol and not a single problem. It’s for emergencies but very handy for printing. Highly recommended! (Whatever type you get.)
IIRC, the Ecoflows had a 20ms switchover time. I think maybe (?) it was the ATX standard for PC power supplies that is how the <10ms standard for switchover time was arrived at. I don’t know that there’s anything equivalent for 3D printers, since they don’t typically run off an ATX power supply. Therefore, the most conservative would be a double conversion UPS, so that you’d have zero switchover time. That would be guaranteed not to fail, no matter what you plugged into it as long as its total load wasn’t exceeded. And since it’s essentially always “on”, you would know well in advance of a power failure if you had exceeded the load. But don’t take it from me: that’s also what the guy from Dave’s Garage recommends.
That said, I just today received the latest Anker UPS, the Solix C300, which claims to have a 10ms switchover time. Over labor day it was just $190. Now that I have more than one printer spread around the house, I’ll be trying it on my X1C and moving my double conversion UPS to support a bigger printer.
2 Likes