29/01/2022
This is a long post, but it talks about my attempt at a backup heat source for power outages.
To all of those considering a solar generator be very careful of products from EcoFlow (EcoFlow Tech). I have had a bad experience with the EcoFlow Max, and EcoFlow has refused to publish my review. I find it extremely concerning that EcoFlow will not publish my review, nor will EcoFlow tell me how my review violates their website guidelines. They also will not give me another opportunity to write a review that will comply with their website guidelines. How can we (the consumer) make legitimate decisions if EcoFlow is hiding bad reviews? What kind of company hides bad reviews rather than working with the customer to make the situation right?
Here is the whole story.
We have already purchased a number of different birds for this spring. 25 chicks will arrive at the end of February, 10 ducklings and 15 goslings will arrive in the middle of April, and 20 turkey poults will arrive in the middle of May. We knew we did not have enough space to brood all of these birds in our house, so we planned on brooding them in the future duck/goose house (a 10 foot x 12 foot shed). This duck/goose house will not have power. We knew we would not be able to power heat lamps but thought we might be able to power brooding plates if we found the right solar generator and solar panels.
We had seen a couple of different manufacturers and models on different homesteading YouTube channels and began doing our research. Products from Bluetti, Jackery, and EcoFlow all seemed to be on the YouTube channels and have good reviews. One of our favorite YouTube channels used a product from EcoFlow. Now, let me be clear, this YouTube channel did not endorse, nor promote the EcoFlow product that they use, I also did not contact the YouTube channel to find out which solar generator that they used, but rather I paused one of their videos and was able to figure out that they were using an EcoFlow product.
I kept doing the research and there were a number of technology articles that spoke well of the EcoFlow Delta Max, the reviews on EcoFlow’s website were good, as were the reviews on Amazon. I really liked the idea of getting the EcoFlow Delta Max with (4) 110 watt panels to power the brooding plates, to have as a backup for our freezers (one filled with the first two pigs we have raised and butchered ourselves) during summer storms, and as a way to power the heat strips for my Ball Pythons in case of a power outage in the winter. I thought I was buying a great product that we could use this spring and would provide lots of peace of mind for the summer and winter.
Well, when the ice hit us January 15, we lost power in the early evening of January 16. Since the original four rooms of our house were built in the 1930s and all but the last addition were completed before 2000, our house is pretty leaky and lacks good insulation. After a couple of hours, the temperature began to noticeably drop. Fortunately I had charged the EcoFlow Delta Max on January 14 so that we would be ready for this.
I plugged the heat strips for the snakes into the EcoFlow Delta Max and it shut off. I was not able to turn it back on, nor was the reset button tripped. Fortunately, power came back on about another hour later. I was still unable to get the EcoFlow Delta Max to turn on, so I looked in the owner’s manual, but could not find my situation in there. So I decided to plug the EcoFlow Delta Max back into the wall to see if that would reset the unit.
As soon as I plugged the unit into the wall, there was a lout pop like a capacitor exploding, and smoke came out of the unit (which was right next to my head as I leaned down to plug it in). I was rather unsettled by the loud pop and smoke so close to my head. I consider myself lucky that it was not worse, and that I was not injured.
I immediately wrote an email to EcoFlow customer support (this was a Sunday night). I received a standard form letter reply back on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) telling me to ship it back and “not to use it if it smokes”. They did not follow up with me for more details about what had happened, or anything like that. Friday, my wife had to drive 50 minutes to the nearest FedEx hub to ship it back, since it was a battery and the normal FedEx locations would not take a battery.
I wrote my review that Friday night expressing my frustration and my concerns. Then on Sunday I received an email stating that my review had been moderated and, while they value my input and feedback, they would not be publishing my review because my review violated their website guidelines. There was a button to write another review, but when I clicked on it, the webpage said I could not write another review because I had already written a review. I forwarded the email about the review to customer support, asking what in my review violated their website guidelines, but never received a reply. I waited until 24 hours after the FedEx tracking number showed that my defective unit and the three wires it came with had been delivered to their plant, but EcoFlow never acknowledged receipt of them, so I called EcoFlow Thursday morning.
The customer support representative apologized for my experience, promised me I she would elevate my issue, and that I might even hear back later Thursday.
I have received no communication from EcoFlow. They still have not acknowledged that the device and wires were returned, they have not told me what the go forward plan is, they have not explained how my review violated their website guidelines, and they have not allowed me to write a new review. The longer this drags out, the more it looks like EcoFlow is a company that does not care about the safety, nor satisfaction of their customers, and as a company, that they lack integrity. I would be very cautious before purchasing any of their products. I will update this post if EcoFlow does anything to try to resolve the situation. Also, I have attached the email that notified me that my review violated EcoFlow’s website guidelines and my review.
Please share this with as many people as possible, as I do not want anyone else to experience this.
