EcoFlow River 2 Max shines during unforeseen power outage

The EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max we’ve been using for the last few weeks really saved our bacon this time. As I penned in my earlier stories on the portable power station, I am no tech journalist by any means. But I am a South African who’d prefer to keep the lights on … just like anyone else. So, I believe there’s good value in reviewing an EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max for our power-starved audience.

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Ironically enough, since the device arrived at my house, we’ve had a stellar run of lights-on time from Eskom. Shhh, don’t jinx it! Nevertheless, fate, Murphy, whatever you want to call it, had other plans for me and my EcoFlow River 2 Max. Last week, on arguably the hottest night of 2024 in Cape Town, it happened …

ECOFLOW RIVER 2 MAX

I’ve got the air conditioners cranking on full … and boom; the lights, television and everything else goes dead. But wait, there’s no load-shedding scheduled!? In fact, I’ve just read a story on The South African saying it’s been suspended for the weekend, and here I am powerless. The worst kind of sinking feeling. Nope, it’s a substation blowout in our neighbourhood. The second in just six months by the way, City of Cape Town.

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With temperatures still well above 30 digress, the scorching sun was beginning to set to hopefully bring some relief. I firmly believe being powerless in energy-sapping heat is worse than the freezing cold. At least you can throw on a couple of jerseys to stay warm, but now there’s nothing to do and you’re sweaty.

PORTABLE POWER STATION

Well, I say that, but … after all the swearing and number-fifty-in-the-queue phone calls to City of Cape Town, I remember the EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max. I keep it fully charged at all times in the house for just this sort of emergency. Thankfully, that’s no hardship, because with its patented X-Stream technology it recharges from empty to full in just 60 minutes. So, keeping it topped up from nearly full takes literal minutes. EcoFlow says its products recharge five-times faster than the industry average thanks to its innovative LFP batteries.

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Now, the big challenge when you’re in this situation is deciding what to use your precious power on. Start the arguments. Keep in mind, we’d only reported the fault and had no idea how long the substation might be out for. Six-months ago we were down for more than 24 hours. Would this be as long, how much of the 500W EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max did we need to conserve?

FAN ALL THE WAY

My one and only priority was comfort from the heat. So, I hauled out the fan, plugged it in, and trained it on myself. At the same time, we had the television going as we waited for technicians to contact us. That’s it, we were running lean. EcoFlow says you can empty and recharge its batteries over 3000 times. That’s 10 years of use guaranteed. Hopefully one hot summer’s night wouldn’t be too taxing.

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Thankfully, the EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max can power multiple devices with all sorts of different types of ports simultaneously. EcoFlow says you can plug in nine devices in total – some with USB, two-prong and three-prong outlets. Although, to be honest, I wouldn’t know how to use some of the more exotic ports. In a perfect world I would probably prefer an extra two- or three-prong outlet on the 2 Max.

AFTERDARK

Minutes, then hours passed before we heard anything from the technicians. I watched as 500 watts of charge ebbed away. But I was impressed at how long the battery lasted. For the rest of the evening, we had a laptop, television, fan and cellphone plugged in. And we went to bed in the dark with the battery pack running the swivel fan in the bedroom (I’ll never take air-conditioning for granted again).

We were pleasantly surprised to awake the next morning with our substation repaired and power restored. Kudos to City of Cape Town and their technicians for working through the night, even if it did take some time to get a response initially. Next, kudos must go to the EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max, of course.

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Even after running the fan all night, it had three hours of battery reserves left. I genuinely don’t know what we would have done without it in this scenario. It saved our bacon and made a tough situation completely bearable. You can have that peace of mind, too.   

GET A DISCOUNT HERE

Since 2017, EcoFlow has sold more than 2.5-million units in 100 markets worldwide. The company currently has a deal on the RIVER 2 Max I’ve been telling you about. Go to the website HERE and pick up the 500W portable power station, with one-hour quick recharge, for just R7 999. That’s a R5 000 saving from the original asking price of R12 999.

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