I received my first Grecell 2,000 Watt Power Station (Model 2001A) in early January of 2023, and I now own a total of three. I’ve done quite a bit of testing since then, mostly regarding total AC output power, recharging time, and connecting to solar, and my overall impression so far is this is an outstanding product at a very competitive price.
Pros and things I like:
1. The packaging of the product is absolutely first class. Double, heavy duty corrugated boxes that fit perfectly inside one another, and the unit itself is completely surrounded by pliable foam.
2. As advertised, it’s a total off-grid energy package, including an MPPT Charge Controller and an adapter for standard solar (MC4) connectors. I believe this is not the case with some of the competition, probably because they want to steer you towards buying their own proprietary and more expensive panels. Be that as it may, I purchased a standard 425watt LG panel with MC4 connectors, which I had to locate almost 100’ from the house, but it works like a charm (using 10AWG wire). Delivers slightly over 425 watts in bright sunshine (according to the Grecell LCD readout), and I am so far very impressed with how well the system manages simultaneous “power in” and “power out”. I can run a full size refrigerator/freezer even on a partly cloudy day, and still increase the battery state of charge by at least 10 percent per hour on average.
3. I can also confirm “full recharge” time of less than two hours on AC wall power. After complete discharge, I’m able to fully recharge in just under one hour and forty-five minutes. Obviously a huge plus if grid goes down.
Each of my units are able to support the items I want them to power in such an event (fridges, freezers, furnace, etc.) for at least 12 to 14 hours - so worst case scenario would be having to run the generator for maybe a couple of hours a day for recharging. And if it’s a sunny day following a night without power, probably a whole lot less than that, if at all.
4. The cooling fans are extremely quiet, and seldom even run unless you’re re-charging with AC wall power.
5. With regard to total output power of roughly 2,000 watt hours: After some initial testing, I was at first somewhat skeptical of this “advertised” total power, or even 85 percent of that (1,700Wh), which as their “product information” explains is a more reasonable expectation. I ran several different loads until the battery was completely depleted, including - (i) A single full size refrigerator/Freezer, and (ii) a combination of multiple chest freezers along with my gas furnace – and based on using two different watt-meters from two different manufacturers, I was only able to get around 1,400 to 1,500 total watt hours delivered, over some 14 to 17 hours. Realizing, however, that the Grecell unit itself is burning some power just to operate, and the longer the run-time the greater the loss, which is not being seen by my meters, I decided to run a space heater pulling a steady 1,230 watts for only an hour and twenty minutes, and bingo! One meter registered total accumulated output watts of 1,710, and the other 1,752. So bottom line, as far as I can tell, all advertised specs that I've checked appear to be spot on.
There really aren’t any “cons” that I’ve found so far, and the only thing I don’t like, strictly based on my own application and where I needed to place these units, are the charging inputs and AC outlets being located on either side of the unit. These along with “flip up doors” to protect them, created an access/interference problem for me, and I had to modify quite a bit of my existing shelving and install “drawer slides” for each of the units. Certainly not a deal breaker, but a nuisance for me personally, and I would have much preferred all of these inlets and outlets being located on the face of the unit.
Something worthy to note in conclusion, is that it really pays to shop this product. I found various prices from different sellers over the course of just several days that varied as much as four hundred dollars. I wound up paying on average just a bit over $1,000 for each of my three units, and as far as I’m concerned, a tremendous value at any price even close to that based on pricing I’ve seen from some of the competition for units with similar power. Hopefully, all three of my units will continue to perform as well over time.
UPDATE September 2023: Some Bad News & Good News (Grecell Models 2001A & H2400)
The bad news:
After only eight or so months of ownership, and very limited usage, I tested all three of my units in early August (Model 2001A), and unfortunately found one of them defective (I typically test by draining the batteries to 90% or so and then re-charge to 100%).
This particular unit was providing power as it should, but after more than a couple of hours of running a full size refrigerator / freezer, the “Battery Level Indicator” was still reading 100%, which I knew couldn’t be reality. So then I tried to re-charge from AC wall power as well as Solar, thinking maybe the “Control Unit” was simply “stuck” and needed a re-set, but it wouldn’t go into charge mode because it apparently thought it was still fully charged.
Following several more discharge/recharge attempts to no avail, I contacted Grecell Customer Support, and after just a few exchanges of information, they agreed it was defective and offered to replace the unit, which I agreed. They sent me a prepaid UPS ticket (New York to California), and as soon as they received it back, they sent me a new one.
Unfortunately, the replacement unit they sent was also defective, and this one had pretty much the opposite problem of the one I returned. As I attempted to initially charge it (these typically come only partially charged), it charged right up to 99% in the usual amount of time, but after waiting for more than another hour after that, it simply wouldn’t reach 100% or stop trying to charge, and the cooling fans were blowing full speed. Obviously not functioning properly, and I once again contacted Grecell Support. They once again agreed it was defective, and offered me a refund along with pre-paid return freight, because they were no longer producing this particular model, and they had no remaining inventory.
The good news:
So I explained to Amy in Grecell Customer Support (she handled this warranty claim with me from start to finish) that I had purchased this unit at a very competitive price back in January, and with the present price of the new model (H2400) being considerably higher, a refund wasn’t all that appealing. She in turn responded by offering me a brand new H2400 instead of the refund, with Grecell once again paying all freight charges, and I was more than happy to accept.
While I was at first planning on reducing my overall rating from five stars to four based on having successive problems with two different units (model 2001A), I have instead decided to leave it at five for at least the time being. Reasoning… While I’m certainly not happy about one of my units failing after only eight months, these things do happen, and while the replacement unit was also defective, it may have been a return by someone else that the warehouse “stocked” as good inventory when it should have been either scrapped or repaired. I’m of course speculating, but it was a discontinued model and who knows what really happened.
The bottom line is, I couldn’t possibly be happier than I am with how well I was treated by Grecell Customer Support. Amy did absolutely everything she could to make things right, and they stood behind their product 100%. Unfortunately that kind of support seems to be very rare these days, and a warranty that actually means something, to me is priceless.
All of that being said, I am now in the process of testing out the new model H2400, and so far it seems to be functioning exactly as it should. Just a few noticeable differences versus model 2001A…
1. The AC Outlets are now located on the front of the unit, as is the Solar Input, which I really like.
2. They for some reason moved the AC Input to the rear of the unit, which I find puzzling, but it actually works out fine for me.
3. The cooling fans are noticeably louder and run a lot more often than those on the 2001A, but I would definitely still consider them to be on the quiet side, and certainly not loud enough to be anything close to annoying.
I’m only guessing here, but maybe they concluded this feature needed to be enhanced for better performance and overall reliability, because as I reported previously, the cooling fans on the 2001A are extremely quiet, and seldom run at all.
UPDATE - March 2024 - Thankfully, all three of my units continue to test properly each month, and just wanted to share that with those of you who might be researching this type of product FWIW.
UPDATE - July 2024 - All three units continue to test properly each month.
LiveWithTech
MaineLeo
Doug W