'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
EcoFlow Delta Max portable power station: 3000W output and standby time of a year
EcoFlow Delta Max portable power station
pros and cons
- Battery standby time up to one year
- 3000W output
- Multiple ways to charge, including solar
- No wireless charging
The EcoFlow Delta Max portable power station is a magnificent portable power station that will keep your electric items working if you suffer a power outage or want to go off-grid for any reason.
Weighing 48 pounds (22kg) with dimensions of 19.6 x 9.5 x 12 inches, this is a solid power station with a large capacity battery of 2016Wh.
The Delta Max can be charged from your mains power wall socket, or an optional solar panel is also available from EcoFlow. The Delta Max can accept up to an 800W input charge. You can also charge it using a 12V or 24V car battery when you are in the car.
It can cope with outputs up to 3000W with surge capacity up to 4600W, so your hairdryer, CPAP machine and full-size fridge, amongst others, can keep going.
In the box, there is the Delta Max unit, an AC charging cable, a car charging cable and a solar charging cable. There is also a DC5521 to DC5525 cable too.
The Delta Max power station is impressive to look at. You can stack these power stations together with two large fans at the rear and two extra battery ports. You will need to buy Delta Max smart extra batteries if you want to increase the power station's capacity.
There are six 120V (50/60Hz) output ports (240V if you buy the European version) and a plethora of USB ports. There are two USB Type-A ports delivering 12W maximum per port.
Top ZDNET Reviews
There are also two USB Type-A fast-charge ports delivering up to 18W per port and two USB Type-C ports delivering up to 100W max per port.
There is also a car charger socket delivering up to 126W and two DC 6=5521 ports at up to 3A per port.
Once charged, the NCM (Nickel, Cobalt and Manganese) battery life is impressive. The shelf life of the batteries will last for up to one year after a full charge so that this power bank can sit in the background, ready for any eventualities.
The battery can be recharged around 800 times before the battery capacity goes below 80%.
When the main power button is switched on, the LCD screen displays everything you need to see when using it. It clearly shows the remaining hours until the battery is fully discharged and the battery level indicator in percent.
If you are using the power station, you can see the output power in Watts, and if it is being charged, how many Watts are is going into the power station. This is really useful when you are charging the Delta Max power station with solar panels.
There is a clear overload warning underneath the power indicators and other indicators to indicate the state of charge, the AC, USB or 12V DC output. Another indicator shows the Wi-Fi status.
The only thing that I think is missing is the ability to do wireless charging. The top of the Delta Max is large enough to hold 12 drinks cans, yet, it does not have wireless charging.
I think that EcoFlow has missed a trick here as this feature would be really useful -- and the power station is certainly the right size to do this.
You can connect to the power station remotely by using an app linked to at http://ecoflow.com/ecoflow-app. I tried to access this URL several times, but each time I was redirected back to the UK version of EcoFlow's website.
Setting the country location to the US still bounced me back to the UK. I was not permitted to access anything relevant to the US site, which is incredibly frustrating. I could, however, download the EcoFlow app directly from the app store.
After installing the app, I had to scroll through the privacy policy for around 30 seconds before I could confirm acceptance of the terms. I then had to create an account using my email address and input the validation code sent to the address before connecting to the app.
To use the app with Wi-Fi, hold the IoT reset button down until the Wi-Fi icon on the screen starts to flash. Connect to the Ecoflow Wi-Fi point and connect to a 2.4GHz node in your Wi-Fi network.
Enter the Wi-Fi password and wait for connection. The app would not connect to any of my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi repeaters -- but would only connect to the main router in my house.
However, once I had done this, I could see the information about the power station in the app, how much output and input the Delta Max was processing.
I do not think that the app is necessary to use the Delta Max, but the ability to update the firmware and set limits is useful, but an optional extra.
Turning on and off the AC or DC switches in the app is useful, but you still need to be physically at the power station to connect the cables to the device. However, the app is well written and has a range of functions that are useful to you.
Since I received the Delta Max, I have charged every mobile device and small appliance, powering it from the EcoFlow Delta Max, and as you can see, I still have a third of its battery capacity to use before I need to recharge it.
The EcoFlow Delta Max is costly at just under $2099 but for your peace of mind during a power outage and a battery standby time of up to a year, you can rest assured that when you really need power, the EcoFlow Delta Max will be there for you to keep you going.