There are many challenges in living full-time on the road. One of the most important challenges is how to fully charge everything. From drone batteries to refrigerators, this is how I manage them.

Many times, I cannot enter cafes or public places to charge all my batteries during the trip. For nearly 6 months, I have been using Bluetti/MaxOak AC50S, which is a very practical 500WH battery, the price is less than 400 US dollars. I recently purchased Blueetti AC200P, which has four times the capacity of 2000WH, but the price is much higher, at US$1,700. They have many overlapping functions, but serve different purposes depending on the functions you may need, so I want to review my experience with them. 

As always completely transparent, this is not a paid review, but I got AC200P in exchange for reviewing. The AC50S, 120W and 200W solar panels you will see in this review were purchased by me. All the content in the comment is my opinion, it will not be reviewed by Bluetti before it is published, and it is my 100% honest comment. With this, let's get started.

AC50S interface and physical buttons

As I said above, this is a 500WH battery, for most people, this is what you really need. I have owned this unit for almost 6 months and it is absolutely top-notch. Not just to reiterate the statistical table, the important factors for me are:

AC50S 45W USB-C interface

There are many options, but none of them has a USB-C power port in the price range. I can charge almost all the devices I use via USB-C, such as my Apple Macbook Air, Fujifilm X-T4, GoPro and many other devices. 

One of the main purposes of the battery is to keep my refrigerator running 24/7. I can run it for nearly 30 hours according to the conditions without any charging. Speaking of charging, it is very practical to keep the AC50S running. You can charge it through a 12V socket in the car or a single 120W solar panel. You can also charge through a wall charger, but this is obviously not something I use often.

The advantage is that the solar panel and the car charger are plugged into the same interface, so in daily use, I only need to unplug the car charger and insert the solar panel when setting it to capture solar energy. One thing to note is that the car charging cable is very short, which is a problem I recently had to solve by getting an extender for my new setup-not a big problem, but you might want to think about it. 

Whenever you use a battery generator, you want to avoid using AC power outlets as much as possible. This is because the battery is powered by DC and only requires simple voltage modulation when charging via the USB-C port, USB port, or any DC port you may use. When using the AC port, you will lose a lot of energy through the DC to AC inverter. This is why having a USB-C port is so important to me, because it means I don’t have to use wall tiles to charge my laptop and waste energy. In addition, just plug in a USB-C cable to charge any device I throw at it. The practicality is very convenient. This is the beauty of USB-C charging.

I did use an AC power outlet to charge my Canon R5 battery and my Mavic 2 Pro, and its 300 watt inverter was able to do that. If you need to power more high-power AC equipment, then the next step may be for you.

AC200P is installed in the small room I built

AC200P is a more complex battery system, it inherits many functions of AC50S, so you can apply a lot of what I said above to this unit. I think this unit is basically 4 times the completion of its younger brother. The main features for me are:

The LifePO4 battery is an important factor in my living in the car. Without being too technical, these batteries have a longer service life, hardly degrade due to temperature changes, and are generally safer to use for a long time in different environments. The cost is that their wattage density is lower, so they take up more space than equivalent lithium-ion batteries. 

AC200P has 6 AC power sockets

The 2000W inverter means that you can basically power any household items. When modifying my SUV, it even allows the use of power tools to cut wood and sand finishes off-grid. This luxury also allows me to use an electric kettle to boil water, which may sound a bit silly, but I don’t have to light anything to make coffee or tea, which is a big deal in your car. Most importantly, it also allows me to choose to use the electric heater when winter comes.

AC200P touch interface main screen.

The interface of AC200P is also more advanced, and has many intelligent reporting functions and built-in fault protection functions. It uses a touch interface that I don't particularly like, not to say that it is bad. It's great to be able to see statistics, input power, and errors, but I prefer tactical buttons, such as turning on the DC power supply instead of a touch interface. Secondly, there is no way to turn off the screen! If you want to save power, it will always appear a bit inefficient, but for people sleeping next to the battery, this is mainly a huge inconvenience. I may be the only one who does this, but it doesn't make sense to me that the screen doesn't turn off when not in use. 

The AC200P has the same charging options as its smaller sibling, but it does require more solar input. You need at least 35V to charge through solar energy, which means about 300W, but it depends on the panel you have. One trouble with charging the device is that whenever you switch the input through the interface, you have to switch the input from solar to car. This is necessary because, unlike its smaller brother, the AC200P can accept up to 700W of solar energy. Personally, I don’t have enough space to carry so many panels, but that’s why you have to specify the type of charging you provide. 

I haven't used the AC200P device for a long time, but so far, it has done everything I asked it to do, including running power tools and a 1700W teapot.

120W and 200W Bluetti solar panels

I want to briefly mention that you can use a lot of solar panels, especially solar panels that use MC4 connectors. I personally insist on using the brand and purchased the Blueetti 120W and 200W panels. They have worked well for me so far. They fold very compactly to sit behind my seat and are easy to manage. 

For most of you, unless you need extra capacity or power things like microwave ovens. AC50S is a more affordable and practical choice. Both units can do everything you want them to do according to your needs. They are more affordable than some competitors and even provide some conveniences, such as the USB-C port, which is very important to me. They have their own quirks, but overall, so far, there have not been any deal breakers. If you are looking for a power supply solution, be sure to consider these

Alex Armitage traveled the world, photographing and photographing some of the most beautiful places it has to offer. No matter where you are, it is always the goal to perfectly present to those who are not present; I hope to transform the feeling of being there into a visual medium.

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Thank you for recognizing the freebies you got in the comments. It looks like a good system, but it's too much for me! !