In this video, I test, teardown, and review a pair of economically priced off-grid power products sold through Amazon. A 200Ah LiFePO battery from Chins and a 1500W pure sine wave inverter from ALFFAA.
Fair Disclosure: Review samples were sent free of charge, but I didn’t receive any monetary compensation for the video.
Overall they appear to be fair value for the money, but not without a few drawbacks you’d expect at the lower end of the market price-wise. Below are my review pros and cons of both items.
Chins Battery and ALFFAA Inverter Review Video
Chins 200Ah Battery
Pros:
- Inexpensive compared to others on the market
- Good quality Ganfeng 100Ah cells
- Tested even higher than the rated 200Ah capacity
- Maybe it has low temps charging protection??
Cons:
- Cheap BMS board and only 100 amps
- Short one-year warranty
- No Bluetooth app
- Cheap internal construction, tape & glue
- Large Case Footprint
ALFFAA 1500W Inverter
Pros:
- Relatively Inexpensive for Pure Sine
- Can power a microwave
- Decent electronic build quality
- Temperature controlled fans
- Amp/Volts LED Readouts
Cons:
- I don’t like the plastic DC terminal nuts
- Loud fans
- No remote function
- Floating neutral AC output
- The aluminum case is primarily for looks
Products Mentioned Links:
- Chins 200Ah Battery
- ALFFAA 1500W Inverter
- Kooltron Battery Monitor
- Ampere Time 20A LIFePO battery charger
- Amazon Canada
UPDATE – This inverter has trouble starting with some lithium batteries, namely the Ampere Time 200Ah and BougeRV self-heating models
Link to Many More Boondocking-Related Videos in the LYRV Archive