Such an excellent review on the Zendure Superbase V4600 and very comprehensive. You covered all the bases. One of the best reviews I've seen. I lot of work goes into such reviews and I appreciate it.
Generally speaking, Power stations just don't make any sense above around 2 kWh of storage. You wind up paying a huge premium (more than double the price) for the storage. You get ease of use, but you also get a very expensive single point of failure and you are locked into the vendor for any expansion, repairs, and other things. Just going by storage... a discrete 48V (51.2V nominal), 5 kWh LiFePO4 battery such as an EG4 LL, is $1500, with no real limit on the number of batteries that can be paralleled. 10, 20, 30 kWh... 60 kWh... 100 kWh. Whatever you need in 5 kWh increments. Now, of course you don't get anything else with that... no solar input, no inverter, no USB ports, no portability, and those things do cost money, time, and a bit of expertise to safely throw together. Discrete solutions are definitely less convenient and take time and a bit of expertise (though not a lot) to throw together. But once you get into "large" systems, discrete solutions wind up being far less expensive, far more expandable, far more robust (no expensive single point of failure), redundancy (multiple batteries, multiple inverters, multiple charge controllers), and universally far more efficient intput-to-output. With a discrete system if you need more solar you just tack on another $100 charge controller. If you need another inverter you just add another inverter. If you need more storage you just buy another battery and put it in parallel. And if something breaks you replace just the one bit that broke. My strong recommendation is that people just don't spend the bucks on these super-big power stations, not past around 2 kWh (true portability... something that can actually be carried without wheels). If you need more than that, look into discrete solutions. -Matt
I am not impressed with this unit. I expected that it would run those appliances with power to spare. If they rate it at over 4kw output, why did it shut down at much less wattage output?
The inverter is rated for 3800 watts but yo can run continuously 2500 watts. At 3300 or even 3600 it can run continuously but not long to prevent battery damage. It's a measure placed by zendure to protect the battery. High discharge emits heat which can limit battery durability
That's a good point. It is a shame that they don't print the continuous running watts. People get duped by that all the time. New gas generators show both peak and running watts. These power stations need to do the same.
Very interested in the Y cable you mentioned. I heard of a Y cable before but that was connecting two Zendure units of their 240 volt output to get split phase, I had not heard of a Y cable hooking into two of the 120 volt, different phases, two get 240 volt split phase. Another good test would be the continuous power that the unit can put out, run for hours, and not shut down. Thanks
Looks pretty good value for money, and a lifesaver in a power cut. Will keep the fridge going for a bit, and be good for onsite working with basic power tools. I like that the solar input will take a decent amount of power. The motorized wheels were a fun gimmick, but could really do without them and save a couple of hundred dollars instead. I put 3kWh of scooter batteries and a 3-6kW inverter on my escooter. It'll go much faster, and maybe even able rescue an EV with a flat battery... 🙂
It does not seem to have much overload capacity. I heard that instead of the 3,800 watts it wants 2,500 continuous or less power draw. More important is that I heard the 240 volt in SINGLE phase not split phase -- you need two units for split phase -- this is a serious limitation for a transfer switch and powering your house.
Nice video! As always! quick question do you have the chance to keep all those batteries that the manufacturer sent you for testing? or do you have to send them back?
Thanks! I keep them but here soon since everyone wants to send one for videos, I am probly going to start giving them away to patreon members lol. Otherwise Ill run out of room🫠🤷♂️😆
At the end are you saying that the 240 VAC output does not have a neutral? That means I could not power a sub panel for the house. Thanks for your answer.
Good to know about the 240 volt one not being split phase. I am not sure why they would make it that way. I guess some things run off that, but I do not know of any.
I think the 240v outlet is more for running like a welder or a dryer or a EV charger. Stuff like that. I could probly run my 240v welder. Its a harborfright welder 🤷♂️
Hello cool video, thanks a lot. I was wondering if it is possible to charge in dc and discharge in ac simultaneously? If yes does it use always the battery storage to provide the requested ac power or is there a kind of bypass mechanism to only use battery just for the power not provided by the solar input? Same Question if we use the ac input together with ac output it works simultaneously as well? And with the same bypass mechanism ? Finally have you tried the 240v outlet : what is then the max power? And is the ups mode working with this outlet? Many thanks in advance for your replies. Best regards
Hi Joe! Thx for the video. If you have time could you possibly answer some questions regarding the solar charging setup? Following the manual, it says to wire 3 in series, or if you have more, to wire them in parallel. I have tried both and cannot get my system to charge. The company has not been any help as yet. I’m going to try charging it via shore power and see if it just needs a boost to be able to start the solar charge. At my wits end! Seems like a great unit but mine isn’t working and the company is stalling regarding a return/refund.
Sure Ill help if I can. Ill need to start at beginning. Can you check the voltage of the panels to make sure the voltage is in the correct range and of course to make sure the polarity is correct? Positive and negative going to correct port. Let me know voltage once you know.
Its good value for money but I am hesitant over that capacity shortcoming and their EU website seems to show the specs for the US version which isn't helpful!
Any update on the Y-cable? I'm suuuuper curious about this unit, it's currently the frontrunner in my shopping, but the lack of an L14-30 outlet is a big con. (And the type-2 inlet needs a type-1 adapter to use north american EVSEs, but that's no big deal.) I'm guessing you blew up your washer by mixing up L1/N with L1/L2 and instead of 120-0-120, you made a 240-0-0 cable.
Y cable they say is on its way. I am interested to see what the Y cable is as well. For the washer, on the 240v outlet when you measure a hot to ground it shows 120v. Same for the other hot to ground. So I assumed it might be split phase. Wired up an adapter, checked voltage on end of adapter and all seemed good, 120v on each leg. Its 100% my fault cause it didnt say 240v split phase anywhere. I was just seeing what I could do lol💥🤷♂️😆
So if I hook this bad boy up to my panel via the generator inlet box using the 30amp RV connection… will I toast my washer ??? 🤷🏻♂️. What’s up with that ??
OMG - powered wheels. I replayed the intro 3 times looking for the fishing line I was sure your wife was pulling on. This one is priced very well considering I paid like $1,600 for my Bluetti when these sort of things were new. This particular model would leave nothing to be desired for most people's needs.
is it possible to run a 4400 load, presume not with one unit, but with satellite battery or two v4600 units. I am hoping to connect it distribution panel (through transfer switch). For your 220 V, i was able to run my 220v split unit with it directly.
Is it a 120v or 240v load? I think its possible. What is the load btw? Length of time will come into play. Basically 1hr run time at full 4400w with a single. Yeah for the 240v, it will run 240v appliances. I was thinking it may have been split phase cause measuring the 2 hots to ground it shows 120v on each leg
The app I'm sure will be Cloud enabled. Then it'll get hacked, they'll steal your location data so they know where your power station is. Then the hacker will use the app and powered wheels to drive the power station out of your house and down the street to a waiting beat up old van that has "Free Solar" scrawled up the side of it in white paint, and you'll never see your power station alive again.
*Yeah there's a serious compromise and a BIG problem here - This system will only do 240 Volts AC at a puny 16 Amps ! What am I going to do with only 16 Amps ? This is simply an underpowered nightmare ! 30 Amps are the absolute rock bottom minimum for home backup. 50 Amps is better, and 100 Amps is nominal. Sorry, but I know of clothes dryers that pull at least 20 Amps ! This is just another system that's not good enough !*
I..... Don't know about the wheels, feels a bit gimmicky to me. If you want to target ease of mobility for older or injured people who may not be able to lift or move the UPS then sorry to say but, you will need to increase the size of the wheels for object roll over, other than that it does seem very usable.....
Please stop 🛑 using your saw . As a test of any battery unit , Pulling any trigger on any tool with no actual load on the tool itself means and proves nothing. .
Thanks for the review, but, no thanks. It still uses unreliable, outdated, low surge, high frequency, transformerless inverter technology with a shorter life expectancy than a much higher surge, longer lived, low frequency, transformer based inverter. No experienced, "true" off gridder would ever rely on a high frequency inverter for their power. You might be able to start and run some high surge loads that you demonstrated, when high this frequency inverters is new but every time you fire up or shut down that inductive load, you're shortening the life of the MOSFETs in your these inverters.
Lol that would be a LOT of charging! I do however have an old iphone that I leave plugged in 24/7 cause the battery is bad. I could see how long that last🤭
