AC500 6 Months Later - The Good + Bad Before You Buy

[@strobaholic]

Bluetti tech support is atrocious. Don’t buy their products until they fix their tech support and customer service. I have 2 AC500 and 6 B300s batteries that don’t work when grid power goes down. Tech support has no clue why this happens or how to fix it. Pointless having a backup power system that doesn’t work when power goes out.

[@captainnutzlos3816]

Got the ep500pro for 4 jears, and 4,3 mw of power ran through it until a part got broken! Support was quick and got an replacement unit really quick 🙂 The time the unit was on its way, i bought me the ac500 with 2 batterys, the 5000 watt inverter is awesome!! I can charge my car with 2000 watts, use my electric heater and watch tv at the same time 😊. Well i overpaneled both pv inputs, so 3000 watts is not rare. But still didnt tryed to put solar on the b300s ...

[@Jasonoid]

Excellent pros and cons list, Todd! Glad to hear Bluetti support is improving... that's a big deal! I also use my AC500 daily to power multiple circuits in my home. My power has gone out 3 or 4 times since I got mine and this beast kept the lights on and the fridges cool without a sweat!

[@todd.parker]

Yeah, I had much better luck with support in this round, sow good to test ‘em, I’ve been having fun running parts of my house though I think the family is getting sick of the random mishaps that have been happening when I forget to keep an eye on things!

[@ARLGD]

That sounds amazing! It's great to hear about the AC500 keeping your lights on and fridges cool during power outages. If you're looking for a reliable backup power solution, I highly recommend checking out the Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series. It has a massive capacity, fast recharging, and even waterproof technology. Definitely worth considering for outdoor enthusiasts and RV lovers like us!

[@bradkaral1188]

"I received a reply within 32 hours". Wow, that's pretty pathetic. Imagine you're in a blackout and you have to wait 32 (business) hours to get an answer to an important question.

[@todd.parker]

We’re grading Bluetti on a curve, a few months ago, it would take a week (or never). Progress, but I agree that’s still not good enough

[@bradkaral1188]

@@todd.parker Yes, not even close. We're talking about an item that costs thousands of dollars.

[@SuperLooneyrooney]

I'm hoping that they have built up enough of a user base to perhaps outsource some of their technical support to a 3rd party. Let them take 60-70% of the "easier" inquiries and then bluetti in house take the more advanced questions

[@laynevines13]

Imagine you spend thousands of dollars on a item and not testing it before a blackout

[@bradkaral1188]

@@laynevines13 Just because you didn't test it, doesn't give the company the moral authority to ignore you. Specious argument.

[@markp87PR7]

Hi Todd, have you not had any SOC management issues? My EU model has a real problem managing battery balance. I have had all the firmware and software updates, carried out battery re-balancing and nothing is making things better. I'm seeing 14-16% variance between batts 1&2 on first charge cycle, which only gets worse on discharge.. 17-18% difference within 2-3 days, when I use 90% max SOC. Min SOC is not managed so battery can drop to 0% and the AC500 uses an average to manage Max SOC, so 97% Batt1 and 83% Batt2 is usual after a full charge. I am loathed to to invest in my planned PV array when I still have this fundamental instability. I am still talking to Bluetti but the customer service team appear to be sales people not technical people. At the moment I could not recommend the AC500 until Bluetti gets its act together.... Polished video by the way 🙂

[@todd.parker]

I’ve been surprised at how well they have stayed balanced. I’ve never done anything to calibrate them and they are usually within 4-5%. Just checked and they are 64/71% which is the most they’ve diverged but they’ve been working non-stop for months powering loads. That’s a bit more than I’d like to see but I’ve heard Ecoflow Delta Pros need a lot of fiddling to keep in sync so I figure it’s no too bad

[@markp87PR7]

@@todd.parker Thank you Todd, when I charge to SOC100% I see similar divergence to you on discharge. But set at 90% it goes haywire quickly. I'll keep on at Bluetti, just hope they can sort it out. Watch out for the minimum SOC setting it's still not working, drops to zero without stopping. Thanks again for your reply, I appreciate it.

[@todd.parker]

Ah, gotcha. I’ll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the heads up

[@theponyshow]

Thanks!!! Great video. I’m new. Great explanation

[@petenelson8136]

Thanks for the review. I bought an AC500 last year and finally got it installed in my new house (construction delays). After watching your video I checked to make sure it was set up for PV priority. I've also purchased the 420W portable solar panels, but still have to finish setting them up = just need to put connector ends on the wires outside the house and plug them in. I'll work on getting that finished this weekend. I've got the AC500 set up as a UPS for my critical loads (couple of freezers, couple of refrigerators, my furnace and Energy Recovery Ventilator). Had it wired so that when I go RVing I can take it with me in my 5th wheel and switch the circuits the Bluetti was working as a UPS on to grid power only. I also had the house set up for generator backup (my 240 volt option so I can power my well pump, and charge the Bluetti) and when RVing if the power goes off the generator can be used to power the house (our son live adjacent to our property so they could start the generator). Love the portability of the AC500, and I'm planning on setting up a permanent solar array to provide power but until then the portable one will have to do.

[@todd.parker]

Sounds like an awesome setup. I installed some rooftop panels feeding my AC500 and have things like my fridge running off grid. It’s great.

[@johnnysweekends]

Dude your editing skills are mad!! Wow. Great video Todd! I miss our chats. Hope to be back in a couple months 😂👍🏼

[@todd.parker]

Hey man! Been missing you on the ‘gram. When are we going to get you back?

[@johnnysweekends]

@@todd.parker it’s a process for sure but I think when accounts are fully closed like 140 days 😂 I doubt I’ll ever be able to get a FB again. After much reading many have never been successful

[@todd.parker]

Oh dang. We need another way to connect. Hit me up at my email here

[@johnnysweekends]

@@todd.parker funny I dont even see in your about section.. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@todd.parker]

@@johnnysweekends You can hit me up at [e-mail]

[@ianpogi5]

Thank you very much for this video! One question I have is what happens when solar harvest is more than 3000w?

[@todd.parker]

Once it's filled, it just ignores any additional solar input

[@boonskyler]

Glad you mention 220 output to feed house panel to replace gas generator.

[@vanvee88]

I think your videos are great, so well done. Does the AC500 allow you to stay plugged into the grid and only use when solar and batteries are unavailable? Solar first>Battery>grid? Thanks.

[@todd.parker]

You can’t directly power anything from solar because it’s so variable but you can connect a load like a fridge and run it in solar priority UPS mode which means it will only charge the batteries from solar unless they drop below x%, then it will pull from the wall which is pretty much what you’re asking for

[@kevinhenry177]

Todd another great video! If I was going to get a single power unit for van life which one should I buy and why? Yes I would want to use my induction single burner, for cooking and also a small Insta pot. Thanks for all the great videos so much useful information every time! I am definitely a fan of your videos.

[@todd.parker]

So glad my videos are helpful. For a van, unless you have a lot of space and need a lot of power, the AC500 might be a bit overkill. You could probably get away with an expandable 2kw unit like AC200MAX or Delta Max, or Anker 767.

[@jasonbroom7147]

Excellent video, with lots of good points covered. Knowing what you now know about this off-the-shelf, whole-house solution, would you go with this again or would you build a modular, component-based solution that address some of the shortcomings you mentioned in the video?

[@todd.parker]

Going with a server rack system with all-in-one inverter/charger would definitely be cheaper and more robust but I think this is very appealing because it’s plug and play and has lots of nice features like the solar priority UPS modes all in a tidy, modular package. If you’re comfortable with DIY and have a place to mount all that gear, that’s probably the way to go but this is more of a polished consumer ‘appliance’ with lots of safety features built in.

[@daveyd0071]

Let me just say this, if you're competent enough to wire your own solar/back-up battery BMS from scratch, it's very hard to justify purchasing a setup like this. You save up to 50%-75% in battery KW/hour storage cost by making your own lifepo battery at 48V 16S. Bluetti cannot compete with the ability of a competent DIY solar setup, no company can for that matter. So study how it's done and save yourselves some serious mula. I built my own 48V, 16S, 15 kilowatt hour battery from scratch for right around $3,200 USD. Whereas the AC500 with a 300S cost roughly $5K. Let's take a look at a single B300S battery, it only puts out 3,072 watt hours for $2,500. My $3,200 battery puts out 5X more watt hours. To get 15KW hours you need 5 Bluetti B300S and that comes out to be $12,500 in LFP batteries. Now wire your homemade 15Kw hour battery to the Bluetti AC200P via XT90 Y-cable direct from the internal battery to the mainboard. This is just one example of a great cost-saving measure.

[@daveyd0071]

Now if you don't know how to wire a lifepo4 battery BMS, go and buy four ECO-WORTHY 48V 50Ah LiFePO4 batteries already assembled for $2,500 right now and parallel them together, then link it internally to the AC200P as I described above. The output of them is equal to four Bluetti B300S batteries given that the B300s only lets you draw-down up to 80% of the battery's actual power output per unit. The eco-worthy you can draw it down to 100% discharge if you want to, which makes this battery a direct competitor to the Bluetti B300S minus the heating element of course. Congrats - I just saved you Five-Grand, USD.

[@todd.parker]

I agree that a DIY build is both pretty easy these days and a better value than a power station like this but for someone less comfortable with wiring, there is something nice about just stacking these up, connecting a single cable and knowing everything is safe so it's more of a consumer friendly product that doesn't require any know-how.

[@cscs237]

Great setup! Wondering tho - what happens when the batteries get run down? Do we need to replace the entire setup?

[@todd.parker]

The battery modules are separate so you can swap them out. Since they are LFP chemistry, you can cycle them from 0 to 100% every day for 8.2 years and still have 80% of the battery capacity left so they will last a very long time!

[@teuton6167]

Great video. I have a question on your hook up to your house electrical panel. It looked like you are not using the 30 amp output but instead are using one of the regular 20 amp ac outputs. Can you briefly explain how that works, and perhaps provide a link to what equipment you used for that? Thanks!

[@todd.parker]

I have a pair of Goal Zero transfer panels that have standard 20A plugs as inputs and 4 circuits so I can power 8 circuits total. I have some older videos on the setup if interested

[@teuton6167]

I found it and watched it-thank you.

[@1new-man]

Those big honker side cables are a turn off And thankfully becoming obsolete.

[@todd.parker]

I know, I hate all these inflexible cables sticking out

[@1new-man]

better believe it thanks 4 the fellowship! @@todd.parker

[@Noelshepherd]

Good job on the video! I have the AC300 with 4 expansion batteries. I live in Florida and on 2 recent occasions had no electricity for a week. I’m extremely happy with the AC 300 setup. I use it every day to power critical loads in the house. I did experience problems getting answers from the tech team when researching the product. Overall, I’m extremely happy with the purchase.

[@todd.parker]

Very cool!

[@ARLGD]

Thank you for sharing your experience with the AC300 and your positive feedback on the video! It's great to hear that it has been a reliable power source for you during those extended power outages. The Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series sounds like another excellent option for outdoor enthusiasts and RV lovers. With its massive capacity, fast recharging, and comprehensive protections, it seems like a solid choice for backup power. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@chefpaolo3190]

hi can someone tell me what is the best solar panel for ac500 and ac300 togheter ? thanks

[@todd.parker]

It depends on your installation but theses are designed for large arrays of residential solar panels like you’d have on your roof. You can use smaller ones but this is meant fur high power. Look for used panels.

[@chefpaolo3190]

@@todd.parker i need to use about 14 amp 110v equipment... a commercial fridge and some lights... maybe 10 hours a day... max... i was wondering if the original bluetti are good or go for something else

[@SuperLooneyrooney]

@@chefpaolo3190 i use the bluetti sp420 panels for my AC500 set up. this is at an off grid weekend cabin that i use maybe 4 days a month and even then I'm not using alot of power when i'm there so this is not a permanent set up and they are not designed to be a permanent install anyways . I didn't like the thought of leaving panels unattended 24/7 (hail storms damaged the neighbors panels on his roof last summer)

[@thudang5298]

Solid breakdown. Thank you. =)

[@todd.parker]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Flowing23]

Excellent review, thank you.

[@todd.parker]

Thanks for watching!

[@davemiller6155]

Great Video! I took notes.

[@todd.parker]

Glad it was helpful!

[@williameddy7217]

Good information! Thanks

[@todd.parker]

Glad it was helpful!

[@robertodulio817]

Made in China?

[@todd.parker]

Yep but every power station (and battery) is so...