Ordered my Flexopower Lithium444

[BrianP]

The least they should do is send you a new one. So far my is working great I have only tested it at home so far but plan to take it out camping soon, once this summer heat in NW Florida finally breaks and we get some fall weather!

But have you tried to charge it with 12volts?

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Mine worked flawlessly for a week camping with solar and my fridge ( I did charge it once driving).....

Jim

Did it (your battery) need the charge or did the solar do it's job and not need assistance from your car generator ?

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

But have you tried to charge it with 12volts?

For clarity to your question, Do you mean has he tried to POWER the refer with a 12v system ?

 

[BrianP]

For clarity to your question, Do you mean has he tried to POWER the refer with a 12v system ?

To be clearer, did you charge the Flexopower battery unit off of your 12 volt car system? Mine will not charge off of my car battery.

Brian

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

To be clearer, did you charge the Flexopower battery unit off of your 12 volt car system? Mine will not charge off of my car battery.

Brian

My mistake, I was in the wrong conversation with that question, sorry, but you did clarify the question for me though..

 

[Jim SoG]

Did it (your battery) need the charge or did the solar do it's job and not need assistance from your car generator ?

Solar charged it, I just used the car one day on the trail to try it....

Jim

 

[Viking1204]

To be clearer, did you charge the Flexopower battery unit off of your 12 volt car system? Mine will not charge off of my car battery.

Brian

Not yet, I will need to run it down some since I just charged with A/C to D/C charging adapter that came with it. Question, when you tried charging it with your car was your car running? A 12V batter won't just charge off another 12V battery, the car would have to be running getting higher voltage than 12V coming from the alternator.

 

[BrianP]

Question, when you tried charging it with your car was your car running?

Ooo yeah, the engine was running and I was travelling for at least 6 hours...

 

[OutdoorsBen]

Call the number I dropped in the thread and explain it to them. I got much better service from South Africa.

 

[OutdoorsBen]

Just a follow up, new unit arrived today. Can't say enough good things about South African service. USA service sucked. Can't quite speak to the longevity of the product, my first one went dead in 5months so let's see how this one fairs. My .02 to anyone with a problem is to try and reach the USA service but if you don't get an answer contact the South African service as they are significantly more helpful.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Just a follow up, new unit arrived today. Can't say enough good things about South African service. USA service sucked. Can't quite speak to the longevity of the product, my first one went dead in 5months so let's see how this one fairs. My .02 to anyone with a problem is to try and reach the USA service but if you don't get an answer contact the South African service as they are significantly more helpful.

Sorry you had a problem you shouldn't have had. USA service seems to have gone down hill more than it should. Personally I'm tired of getting people on the phone that only thinks they speak English. Just my .02 cents.

 

[BrianP]

Just a follow up, new unit arrived today. Can't say enough good things about South African service. USA service sucked. Can't quite speak to the longevity of the product, my first one went dead in 5months so let's see how this one fairs. My .02 to anyone with a problem is to try and reach the USA service but if you don't get an answer contact the South African service as they are significantly more helpful.

Excellent!! I'll be calling them.

Brian

 

[OutdoorsBen]

I can tell you that immediately the LED lights are not accurate. My fridge has been going for 24hrs. Shows full bars, out a charge to it and it moved to charging the 3rd bar. Seems like no one who owns one will get away from the fault led lights. As long as it allows me to charge it I am ok with it though.

 

[Gustavo Amaral]

Taking advantage of this thread, do any of you know if the Jakery Portable Power 240 () is reliable and delivers what it promises? I'm looking for a middle-range portable power station. Any brand recommendation?

 

[Cool Feet]

I ordered the Flexopower unit last May and it's total junk. It stopped charging after 1 week on the road. I sent the unit back to Flexopower and had to pay postage for the return. They sent me another unit that will not power my Arb 60 liter fridge. It keeps the fridge on for about a half-day and stops working.

Flexopower has been unresponsive in resolving the issue.

 

[Viking1204]

I ordered the Flexopower unit last May and it's total junk. It stopped charging after 1 week on the road. I sent the unit back to Flexopower and had to pay postage for the return. They sent me another unit that will not power my Arb 60 liter fridge. It keeps the fridge on for about a half-day and stops working.

Flexopower has been unresponsive in resolving the issue.

Sorry to hear that, my Flexopower will power my Costway 53 qt. for almost two full days.

 

[Cool Feet]

Not sure what the issue is with the unit. I connected a 3-year-old Canadian Tire 70 ah AGM battery to my Arb this week and it lasted 2 full days. The battery is old and abused. I have a 4 year-old LifeLine AGM battery that I will test tonight. I contacted Flexopower in South Africa to see if they can help with the problem. They are closed until the Coronavirus issue calms down.

The quality of the Flexopower unit looks and feels good. It works great for charging cell phones. However, I bought it as a battery-backup for my AGM solar system.

 

[Cool Feet]

Where did you get this info? Not to be contentious, but AH rating is AH rating. Discharging a lithium battery too far can cause issues. Trust me, I design battery solutions for military and space. The battery should shut down to prevent discharging too far, since this can be dangerous, as in it may catch fire and explode when you recharge. That is why every battery pack carries an onboard computer that monitors the charge state and is supposed to shut down if it is charged too fast, overcharged too far or discharged too far.

I will look into these battery packs and get back with further "FACTS"

Back with facts... This unit will give you that number of AHs before protecting itself. 40AH is not that much capacity and is based upon the battery voltage, not 120V. So it will not give you 40 amps at 120v for an hour.

If you read the fine print, it is 444 watt hours. If your cooler pulls a constant 3 amps at 12 volts you should be able to run for approximately 444/(3x12)= 12.3 hours under ideal conditions. Now you have to figure in the duty cycle of the fridge, in other words how much of the time is it actually "on". If it is actually providing cooling one third of the time, then you should be able to run around 37 hours if running from the 12v outlet. If running from the 120v volt outlet, it will be less due to the losses in the conversion process. I would estimate the losses to be around 20% for a well designed inverter, with 90% being exceptional.

While it is a very nice, small, and handy unit, it is not the answer to everybody's needs. For what it costs, if you have the space, you could put an additional dual deep cycle battery setup in your rig and have several times more capacity, and add an inverter for the 120v.

I know this is an old post, but this really helps. I have a 60 liter Arb fridge freezer. We like to keep it cold for meat and cheese. The average power is supposed to be .5 amps per hour. I think it's more like 2 amps per hour as we keep it cold. According to your calculations, my fridge should stay on for 20 hours. I will give this a try tonight.

 

[Jim SoG]

I ordered the Flexopower unit last May and it's total junk. It stopped charging after 1 week on the road. I sent the unit back to Flexopower and had to pay postage for the return. They sent me another unit that will not power my Arb 60 liter fridge. It keeps the fridge on for about a half-day and stops working.

Flexopower has been unresponsive in resolving the issue.

I have 2 of them and love them and they work great for me and power my fridge/freezer for a few days.....

 

[Cool Feet]

My Flexopower worked for about 3 hours last night. I am not impressed.