Bluetti AC200P vs AC200MAX

Bluetti AC200P vs AC200MAX – Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the Bluetti AC200P. Let me tell you, this thing’s a beast, and ever since this unit was announced, I really wanted to get my hands on it because it checks so many of the boxes that I think are important with a modern solar generator.

Bluetti AC200P vs AC200MAX

By the time I got it, there was already a new version this summer, Bluetti announced the AC300 which is an all-new design and the AC200 Max which is an upgraded version of the AC200p. The most exciting feature of these is that they’re chainable which means you can add multiple external batteries to dramatically increase the capacity, and the most exciting thing is apparently these batteries are backward compatible with the AC200P.

Bluetti AC200P vs AC200MAX

1. Introduction and ports

There’s also an all-new Bluetti app that lets you monitor and control these new units as well. As upgraded AC and USB outputs, we’ll cover these differences in the article, in a bit, the AC200P retails for $1799. However, you can usually find it on sale for at least 100 off if you look around. And the thing I like most about this unit is, this has a 2,000 watt-hour battery with advanced BMS. It has high and low-temperature cut-off, and most importantly, it’s using a lithium iron phosphate or LFP battery that gives you 3,500 cycles which is 7 times the cycle count of a traditional lithium-ion battery.

And this is a substantial unit, it weighs 60.6 pounds is 16.5 x 11 x 15 inches. So, it’s just a much larger unit, definitely optimized for home backup, and speaking of which, let’s talk about AC power. This is packing a really powerful 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter that’s capable of 2500 watts peak, and they claim an 88% efficiency which is pretty good. There are six AC outlets on the front of the unit, each one has its own rubber cover to keep dust and moisture out.

AC200P

1. Power button
2. 12V / 10A cigarette lighter port
3. Type-C charging port
4. Touchable interaction LCD display
5. USB output x 4pcs
6. US AC output x 6pcs (EU/UK AC output x 2 pcs)
7. 12V / 25A output
8. 12V / 3A output

2. USB and wireless charging tests

Bluetti AC200P vs AC200MAX – And the AC200 max upgrades the inverter to 2200 watts continuous 4800 watts. A piece on the DC side of things, there’s a lot of options. There are 3 different kinds of output:

1. First of all is your traditional cigarette lighter output, capable of 10 amps or 120 watts and I checked this with my meter, and it definitely is regulated at 13.5 volts which is pretty good.
2. Beneath that is a pair of barrel connectors for connecting things like laptops.
3. And finally, there’s a really interesting connector. It’s called an aviation plug, and it’s designed for high-powered DC applications and this port will provide 300 watts of power, for USB there are 60 watts USB-C, and then 2 pairs of pretty unremarkable USB-A’s capable of 3 amps or 15 watts of output.

AC200P	AC200 Max

To test the USB-C, I plugged in my MacBook Pro, and I was able to consistently get 55 to 60 watts over USB-C. And I just figured, I’d test all the other ones at the same time. So, I plugged in a bunch of USB-A, including my Sonos, no problem. There my iPad pro charged, I also charged this Anker power bank, and well another bigger one and everything charged fine.

But for such an expensive unit, I really think they should have launched with higher quality USB outputs. My Ecoflow River Pro has much better USB outputs. Luckily, the AC200 max will update the USB-C to 100 watts, and swap out two of the USB-A’s to 18 watts quick charge 3.

And there’s one other option for charging your mobile devices, on the top of the unit is a pair of 15 watts wireless charging pads, and these things work great. I was able to charge my iPhone 12 pro, my AirPods pro, and they work flawlessly. But keep in mind, that wireless charging is not the most efficient way to get electrons in your device, roughly half of the energy that goes through wireless chargers is turned into heat. Although I will say this battery is big enough, and it sure is nice to have the convenience of not needing a cable.

3. Design & comparison with other Bluetti units

So, overall impressions on the design of this thing are really positive. I really feel like Bluetti has stepped up their game with this product. The overall fit and finish are quite a bit nicer. I like these integrated handles, they’re really smooth, they are very grippable, and they have this really nice pattern in the plastic that really elevates it. there’s this wavy pattern on the front the sides, and the top, that really make this feel like a premium product in many ways.

This reminds me of the design of the AC50. However, it uses a kind of a cheaper feeling rubber, and you can see, the AC200P is massive compared to the AC50. But that’s only a 500 watt-hour unit. So, how does this compare to the EB150? Which is a 1500 watt unit. Well, they’re roughly the same height, but the AC200 is substantially thicker. So, here are some shots of how they look side by side.

So, you can get a sense of scale the AC200P is pretty substantial. but I think the design touches that they’ve added really make. This is a very attractive product and feels very solid. Looking around the sides, there is a pair of fans at the top to keep the airflow going through the unit, and keeping it cool.

The back is pretty simple, there’s just a flat panel with some specifications on it, and of those, the thing that’s most important to me is that this has some level of safety certification. And I really like that a larger company like Bluetti puts the time in to make sure their things are certified, and they’re safe.

4. Inputs and cables

On the left-hand side of the unit is an input panel. At the bottom, there are two different kinds of connectors, the left-hand aviation-style plug is for solar and car charging input. For solar, it can handle 35 to 150 volts and up to 700 watts of power. For car charging, it basically charges at 100 watts and is regulated to that. On the right-hand side is an 8 millimeters input for the wall charger.

So, let’s talk a little bit about accessories. So, first of all, it all comes in this nice bag to keep things organized which I appreciate. And the first and most important cable is the aviation 2 XT90 cable. So, that plugs in and the XT90 is used to connect to these other cables. There’s an XT90 to MC4 to connect pretty much any solar panel out there. And then, there’s also an XT90 to the 12-volts cigarette lighter, and I’ll say that I’m pretty impressed by the quality of these adapters, they include all these in the box.

So, let’s talk a little bit about how they connect to the unit, and what the experience is like? First of all, let’s talk about the aviation cable. This thing is beautiful, I have never had this on a solar generator before. But this thing is machined aluminum, it’s anodized, it has this really nice spring-loaded quick release. And all you have to do is just slide it onto the connector, it’ll lock into place with that locking ring, then essentially, you just take the other end of this cable which is the mail XT90, and you can plug that into either the solar or the car charger.  Very simple and very strong.

5. Wall charger

The other way to charge the AC200P is through the wall charger, and there’s an 8 millimeters plug on the back that can accept up to 500 watts of power. So, that’s what the plug looks like. It stays in fairly well, it could fall out if you’re not careful, and this is the included 500 watts power brick. It’s worth noting that if you multiply the voltage and amps. It’s actually 470 watts and that bears out in my testing.

There is a fan on both ends of the power brick, so they’re pushing and pulling air through it to keep it cool. And to set it up all, you have to do is plug in the included power cable, plug it into the wall, and then plug it into the unit. In my experience, the wall charger delivered about 460 watts of power which is really good for a unit of this size, which means a charge time of about 4.5 hours, which I think is reasonable.

I just want to do a quick comparison of the power brick for the EB150 versus the AC200P. You can see the AC200P is substantially larger, but they’re pretty much the same design. And I just wanted to show you, these are the four wall chargers that I had to gain up for my Goal Zero Yeti to get a measly 240 watts of power. So, I do appreciate it. These are much higher power chargers these days. But with high power, there comes a lot of heat, and unfortunately, because of the two fans on the power brick, it’s pretty darn loud. And to make matters worse, even when the unit is fully charged, or if it’s not even connected to the unit, the fans are always on. I really wish they would spin them down and make this thing quieter.

So, the only other thing that is included in the box is your warranty card. This has a two-year warranty which is I think pretty standard for this industry, and it also has a fairly well-done instruction manual. It’s written in good English, it has some clear diagrams. No complaints on the documentation.

6. Touchscreen UI

Bluetti AC200P vs AC200MAX – Moving on, let’s talk about the user interface. So, this has a really nice high-quality metal power button with a green ring around it, and when you press it, it initializes., because this thing’s basically a freaking computer. Everything is accessible through this touch screen on the home screen. At the bottom, there are buttons to turn on and off, the AC and DC output sections as well as a summary of the input from solar, or car, or the wall adapter, and the output on AC and DC.

There’s a settings area where you primarily are going to use this to switch between solar, and car charging. And whether or not, you want eco mode on or not to reduce the amount of battery draw. You could also set things like the date and time, and all sorts of good stuff in here. And then, there’s another area called data, and data gives you product information which just gives you the model number, and you know versions of things the inverter, and charger info.

This basically gives you a detailed breakdown of the numbers that you see on the home screen for the solar, wall charger, DC output, and AC output. So, this is really cool. It gives you a lot of detailed information. There’s also some information about the current state of the battery, and fault history, and basically, this lists out anything that has tripped a fault. And you have a bunch of fault codes, and you actually need to go over to the faults area and look up what the numbers mean.

I hate to be super critical here, but this seems kind of silly. The computer knows that error code 031 means that the inverter was overloaded, why not just tell me that, instead of telling me error 031. So, this is kind of a curious design, I suppose. But you know, maybe they can prove that down the road in a future software update. One little shortcut that I did appreciate is that you can tap on any of the information blocks on the home screen. Whether it’s the amount of solar input, or the certain kinds of DC or AC output, and it’ll drill you right down into the appropriate section in data.

Watch the video for AC Test, Home backup, Solar charging, and DC/Car charging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TCxVN8E6yA

Bluetti AC200P

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Price: $2,099.00 $1,799.00

The Bluetti AC200P portable solar generator is launching in Late 2020! As one of the biggest names in the portable, solar generator space, Bluetti appears to have done it again with one of the most anticipated solar generators of this year!

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