Charging a Rivian with an Ecoflow Delta Pro

[DannyC]

I spent a bit of time (and a lot of money) and was able to successfully get my Ecoflow Delta Pro to charge my Rivian at 30amps. Had to use a unique 30 amp 120v plug to the 50 amp plug. This is a special plug that has no neutral and only one pin is hot. A normal TT-30p plug that is common in RV parks has a ground and a hot/neutral pin. The first converter I purchased sent the single hot pin to both of the 50amp hot pins and the neutral to the neutral. On all the plugs the ground is always connected. The Rivian charger does not like seeing the 2 hot pins with the neutral, it confused the charging adapter and would not even light up. If I use the 120 15 amp plug even though the Ecoflow puts out 20amps the Rivian would only charge at 14 amps.

Also have to use a neutral to ground bonding plug on any generator or inverter to get it to work on any EV charger. The charger needs to see continuity between neutral and ground. You could just put a paperclip between neutral and ground but not as safe...

Here are Amazon links to the parts needed above and beyond the generator/battery inverter you already have.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G2MT4T6
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F4R7BDL

The bonding plug just needs to be plugged into any of the outlets

Was cold for a San Diego day. I don't know if 59 degrees affects charging much... This is when it was set to 24amps. I started at that per the plugs recommendation. Typically you want a 20% overhead for the rated amp on any plug so 24 amps is a good option for a long charge.

This is the Ecoflow app at the 24 amps

Now charging at 30 amps

Interestingly if I turn the Rivian up to 32 amps the wattage on the Ecoflow does not go up. So something is just refusing to give it more power. I think the inverter circuitry in the Ecoflow is pretty smart. DO NOT USE THE X BOOST feature of the Ecoflow. NOT good for EV charging. It lowers the volts and increases the amps.

Then when done for the night I charged the Ecoflow back up with the J1772 adapter from the home charger

I estimate with a fully charged Ecoflow Delta pro with a 3,600 watt hour battery the Rivian would get about 6 miles of range. Each extra battery pack (I do not have) for the Ecoflow should add about another 6 miles. Can have 2 more batteries per Ecoflow connected. The Ecoflow Delta pro is 100 pounds! A beast to carry. The extra battery packs are almost 90 pounds each. But if you were in a pinch and 6 or 12 miles is all you need to get to a charger. You can at least charge at 30 amps in that pinch. Get more than double the speed of a level 1 15amp charging. Plus with the adapter plug in an RV park you have the ability to use that plug. Slow but better than nothing.

Sponsored

 

[Cosmacelf]

Um, whats the use case for this?

 

[Thedude]

Um, whats the use case for this?

There isn’t one.

 

[Ralph]

Um, whats the use case for this?

I suspect there are an increasing number of people that already own these kind of products in areas where the grid is less than stable (earthquakes, rolling blackouts, hurricanes, ice storms, etc.). CA, TX, FL, LA immediately come to mind.

I doubt I'll ever be in the market, but I appreciate that the OP, who owns one went to the trouble to see how it might be used with a Rivian and post. It would seem to me that there are indeed use cases, even if there might be "better" solutions such as better planning.

- E.g., I was told of an R1T stranded by the side of the road on a nearby highway bypass. If someone (or a local service?) had one of these the Rivian could be fairly easily rescued.​

- On a trail?​

Which reminds me...I'd like to see Rivian prioritize V2V charging. Especially as the "vehicles delivered" go up. I think with V2V we could help each other and therefore relieve some range anxiety.

 

[mini2nut]

V2V charging would be great.

With only a little over a year of production we should see some great features down the pike. Competition will also force changes to be made.

 

[zefram47]

Carrying an extra 100-200 lbs to get another 2-4 miles is one of the dumbest things I've seen in awhile. Only way this even remotely starts to make sense is backcountry camping with a big solar panel collecting electrons while you're off having fun. But even then you're not going to capture enough to matter. At best it makes up for vampire draw assuming a good solar day. At worst it's added weight and reduced cargo capacity for practically zero benefit. You'd probably get more benefit out of a small generator taking up similar space.

 

[kanundrum]

Carrying an extra 100-200 lbs to get another 2-4 miles

Oof, *tosses the wife out* her kWh per mile rating is -.5 on a good day!

 

[kylealden]

This is neat in theory but a gas generator is the same thing except with an actual use case.

 

[DannyC]

More of an experiment. I do not plan to take my battery with me for the "spare power". But it is possible to do in an emergency. With that unit plus 2 extra batteries you could get up to 18 miles of range.

On the topic of a generator that is also a huge time suck and is not a very relevant option but if you have the time and gas cans then a better option than a battery.

I did the math a while back and with the Honda 7000 inverter generator that will put out 5,500 watts of power continuously at 240 volts. You can fully charge the Rivian in just under 24 hours with about 3 tanks of gas.

These are emergency situations. Having that plug for a 30 amp plug at an RV park might just be enough to get you home or get you charged some mostly overnight.

 

[DannyC]

I also want to add, I did not buy the Ecoflow for the purpose of charging my Rivian. That was just an experiment. I have it for emergency backup as well as dry camping for my travel trailer since Rivian decided not to put a 30 amp inverter on the truck. Even Ford has that option, would have been nice.

I have a Honda 3000 inverter generator, great generator and will likely outlive me. But its even heavier than this Ecoflow plus it idles all day long to provide just a trickle of power to our trailer when we really just need a battery system. Recently added the propane generator that Ecoflow makes that connects to the Ecoflow Delta Pro and will automatically turn on and off as needed to keep the battery topped off. Basically a hybrid solution and the propane tanks are already on my trailer. Can get approximately 20kwh from BBQ sized propane tank.

 

[Thedude]

I have a Honda 3000 inverter generator, great generator and will likely outlive me. But its even heavier than this Ecoflow plus it idles all day long to provide just a trickle of power to our trailer when we really just need a battery system. Recently added the propane generator that Ecoflow makes that connects to the Ecoflow Delta Pro and will automatically turn on and off as needed to keep the battery topped off. Basically a hybrid solution and the propane tanks are already on my trailer. Can get approximately 20kwh from BBQ sized propane tank.

The propane generators are inefficient though. An equivalent quantity of gasoline will generate more electricity. Obviously requires the carrying of another fuel type but I prefer that in some cases to preserve propane for heating the trailer.

 

[lostinthewoods]

Um, whats the use case for this?

Hello friend!

So I have a cabin out in the middle of nowhere that I power primarily with a couple Ecoflows and a few thousand watts of solar. I'm in the process of expanding my solar array out there in order to charge an electric vehicle when I'm out there. The closest charge station is roughly 30 miles from my cabin, so OP demonstrated that I can probably make it there in any circumstance with my current setup and a Rivian at 0% if I'm there for a weekend.

Of course ideally I'd like to be able to charge the truck fully over a weekend, and this gives me some good numbers to work with!

 

[Redmond Chad]

I know, it's an old thread. Plus, it will only matter to a very tiny number. But...

Like the OP, I didn't get my Ecoflow Delta Pro batteries to charge my Rivian. But it can be done. I've got two Delta Pros, each mated to two additional battery packs. So a total of just over 20kWh.

The OP did 30A at 120V. But with two Delta Pros, you can get 30A at 240V. I set my R1S to charge at 28A, and it's working great. With the cables I have I'm using a Tesla charger rather than my Rivian charger simply because I had the right adapter for the Tesla charger (L14-30 from the Delta Pros to 6-50 for the EVSE).

The Delta Pros can output 30A at 240V. I have the R1S set to charge at 28A (6.7kW). The Delta Pros are happy putting out around 6.7kW, and the car says it is receiving 6.3kW.

The Delta Pros have a L14-30 outlet (two Pros required, plus Ecoflow's "double voltage hub"). I have a 14-30 to 6-50 cable plugged in to that, then the Tesla EVSE is plugged in with a Tesla 6-50 adapter, then I've got a Tesla-to-J1772 converter plugged in to the car.

As I said, this is not something I plan to do regularly; I just had all the stuff and wanted to make sure it would work. It would have been cleaner if I had a L14-30 to 14-50 cable; then I could have used the Rivian charger and skipped the Tesla-to-J1772 converter. Even better if I Rivian offered an L14-30 adapter for their EVSE.

 

[Khaneric]

Just a heads up but the new bigger sized Anker batteries have an EV mode that bonds the neutral and ground on a 14-50 connection

 

[HaveBlue]

I know, it's an old thread. Plus, it will only matter to a very tiny number. But...

Like the OP, I didn't get my Ecoflow Delta Pro batteries to charge my Rivian. But it can be done. I've got two Delta Pros, each mated to two additional battery packs. So a total of just over 20kWh.

The OP did 30A at 120V. But with two Delta Pros, you can get 30A at 240V. I set my R1S to charge at 28A, and it's working great. With the cables I have I'm using a Tesla charger rather than my Rivian charger simply because I had the right adapter for the Tesla charger (L14-30 from the Delta Pros to 6-50 for the EVSE).

The Delta Pros can output 30A at 240V. I have the R1S set to charge at 28A (6.7kW). The Delta Pros are happy putting out around 6.7kW, and the car says it is receiving 6.3kW.

The Delta Pros have a L14-30 outlet (two Pros required, plus Ecoflow's "double voltage hub"). I have a 14-30 to 6-50 cable plugged in to that, then the Tesla EVSE is plugged in with a Tesla 6-50 adapter, then I've got a Tesla-to-J1772 converter plugged in to the car.

As I said, this is not something I plan to do regularly; I just had all the stuff and wanted to make sure it would work. It would have been cleaner if I had a L14-30 to 14-50 cable; then I could have used the Rivian charger and skipped the Tesla-to-J1772 converter. Even better if I Rivian offered an L14-30 adapter for their EVSE.

I could see using a bunch of ecoflows like that for a house back up if you are vulnerable to lots of outages. 20kw can get a car 50 miles as well but if you have an EV then just power the house off that I guess. California is trying hard to get rid of gas generators. Luckily lithium powered hand tools have gotten pretty competitive in performance with gas powered ones. Construction sites will have a tough time otherwise. RVs should survive with bigger battery banks. Ours is fine with 1kwh for a weekend. I hate gensets running in campgrounds so I won't miss that loss. Not sure what hospitals are going to do. Maybe power walls.

Sponsored