The Ecoflow Delta Mini Review… Can you Game during load shedding?

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This is our take on the Delta Mini and why we had to get one.

We had the pleasure to play with one of these during Stage 4 and 6 load shedding over a weekend in September. On the condition we run some test including can it run a Microwave?

Yes it can but there is a but.

The Delta Mini is a 1400W 882Wh Power house of a battery. These EPS (Emergency Power Supply) and is not really a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

However this doesn’t mean you cant use it as a UPS entirely.  The Delta Mini has a millisecond (ms) delay of approx 30ms while Most UPS have between 0-5ms so right out of the box it is not meant for Servers or Workstations as this will trip the electronics that require constant amount of power.

This being said we thought you couldn’t run a PC on it yet alone a Desktop PC.

So what did we test first well the PC naturally. However lets take a quick look at the design and the Ports etc and what does it come with?

• The Delta Mini in the rear has inputs for XT60 connector as well as a Charger (kettle plug) with a switch for X-Stream (fast charge 900W) as well a overload protection at 20Amps.
• Outputs are 2X AC EU Plug points with a switch for activating or de-activating the AC Power.
• 12 Volt 2x DC (3 Amps Max) and 1X Cigar/Cigarette charger output.
• Front Panel has 1X USB-Type C PD 100W Charging output, 2X USB-Type A outputs as well as USB-Type A (3.X) Fast Charge. With a IOT Button for the Ecoflow App, Power On/Wake up Button and of course a Display Screen.

It weights 10 kilograms but with its two sided handles it is easy to carry around very compact in weight due to the battery and has rubberized bottom to grip nicely on the ground.

The Design is slick and well thought of as the top section of the unit is for the electrical components that has 4 fans (2 on each side sucking in and sucking out on the right side to keep the components cool. It may be a little bit of fan noise especially when you high the 200 Wattage draw including fast charging.

Whats in the box?

• Delta Mini
• EU to SA Lead Adapter (Eu to SA 3 Pin Double Sided)
• Kettle Plug for charging
• XT60 to MC4 Cable for Solar Panels
• Car Charging Cable
• DC Male to Male Cable
• Manual and Warranty Registration Card

Functionality wise its pretty basic and straightforward.

Power Button in front serves to switch on and off as well as wake the display up as to see what is happening. Now if Paired to your WiFi you can see this as well via the IOT button and the Ecoflow App on Android / iOS. Pairing it to the WiFi is very simple but only through the app as it doesn’t connect via WPS.
With the App you can rename your Ecoflow products to what you prefer. Can also do firmware upgrades which is at times recommended if an extra battery doesn’t connect to your device (Delta Mini does not support extra battery)

With the Application on your mobile device its easy to monitor this as long as the device is still connected to the Network your Ecoflow is on. It also gives a better reading on how much time you have VS the display on the physical product as the Digital screen only shows 2 digits if it is 1 hour and 35 minutes it will show 1 hour on the screen but 1h and 35minutes via the App.

Please note that the Delta (Delta1300) does not support the APP*

There is on the rear of the unit a AC Button to turn off the power going to the appliance/items connected to the Delta Mini this can also be done via the APP.
There is a switch as well for Fast Charging from a few hours recharge to 1.6 Hours recharge simply switch it on X-Stream. Regular charge pulls about 200 Watts +/- Depending what is currently active via the AC Charging meaning if you using 100 Watts of power it will draw 200 watts to match and recharge the device.
With X-Stream it will pull the max amount of 900 Watts for recharging.

Have notice that if i’m using 150 Watts of power (desktop PC plus Monitor and router) it will use 178 Watts of power via input obviously to keep the battery on standby as well as let power through for the 150 Watts needed.

Now on to the good stuff.

PC Tested on specifications are (two machines)

Ryzen 5 5500
Adata D40 – 16GB Ram DDr4 at 3200Mhz
Gigabyte RTX 3050 Eagle (non OC)
Powered by a 650W Gold Rated Full modular Power Supply
in a case with 2 Fans (at the time) and running a Stock CPU cooler.

This was connected to a LG 49″ 4K TV (UH770) as it turns out it handled very well we Ran Games on it and this is what the results were

Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmark Gave us an Estimated 1Hour of play on the battery.

Now given that this game is really intensive on the Graphics Card its a game that pushes PC’s quiet a bit.
However we tested the following Games and ran just fine for 2 to max 2.5Hours
Rocket League
Call of Duty Modern Warfare
Need for Speed Heat
All playing at 1440p resolutions and the PC ran the games just well but more importantly the Delta Mini Handled the Power draw with no issues.

This being the case you can game on this 882Wh powerhouse quiet fine under stage 2 and 3 load shedding. Now of course the 4 hours load shedding are bit of a challenge however believe throwing a Solar Panel at this would assist greatly.

IF you wondering if there is a difference with a bigger power supply on a PC.. no not that much difference
Tested on a
Ryzen 5 5600X
DDR4 16GB Ram
GTX 1080 Founders Edition
2 fans and a stock cooler
Except this machine has 2 Mechanical HDD’s and this is powered by a 750W Gold Full Modular Power Supply.

And the results were about the same on the games tested above

We tested it in the Kitchen

So we ran 3 Devices

Xiaomi Smart Kettle – Boiling Water
LG Neochef 1200W Microwave – Different settings as well as Cooking Rice
Phillips Air fryer (mmm choppies in this thing if no access to braai)

Xiaomi Smart Kettle.. Forget the smart bit as that might just be an extra watt or two just for the IOT to work via Bluetooth (not WiFi funny enough)
…btw Xiaomi is pronounced Show me fun fact.

Full kettle on 1.7 Liters of water takes approximately 2-3 Minutes to boil
This funny enough takes a power draw of 1400/1411 Watts of power to heat up and boil water. on 96% battery we had 37 Minutes of usage left on the Detla Mini.

It is an piece of appliance that we do NOT recommend using on a UPS/EPS device as these can draw a lot of power out and may drain most batteries out however the Delta Mini handled it very well but i would say by estimation that the River Series would not. This being said only for emergency or rather invest in a Gas stove as one, you saving on electricity and its unaffected during load shedding so you can make your coffee …or tea

NEXT!! Is the Microwave now if anyone has ever tried cooking rice in a microwave it can come out really nice. Using a Tupperware Rice/Pasta Cooker does the job well this is to each their own of course.
Now this one was a bit of a surprise if the microwave is on default settings and hit the 30sec it gave us a power Draw of 75-80 Watts of power and with 79% of the battery we had 6hours approx of usage time on the battery.
This is interesting as the microwave we using can go up to 1200W of power. However setting the power on the microwave didn’t do badly at all but suspect this is microwave dependent as some are not as Eco friendly as others such as the LG we are using (Neochef).
at Settings of 700Watts of power it drew a variable 77-160 Watts of power with also 6 hours on a the battery (as the power draw fluctuates)
At 1000Watts power settings gave us 80-178 Watts of power draw also variable giving us 6 hours approx as it is variable.
But on 1200Watts its full power (to cook rice for example) did an variable 1398-1401 Watts of power draw resulting from a 77% battery to last only 28 Minutes of power left on the battery.
So you can take a microwave camping and pair it with your Delta Mini would just not recommend it for cooking.This is microwave dependent of course each model and make is different so your microwave may or may not be as eco as ours so to speak.

NOW the Air fryer…
You know what yes a Air fryer is a great tool in the kitchen. as it can go up to 200 degrees C it takes a power draw of 1400+/- Wattage with a battery on 80% gave us 31 Minutes which isn’t a lot of time to cook in a air fryer to be honest (most things).

With kitchen appliance this can do the job if you really have to but not recommended as it may drain the battery from what we can tell pretty quickly.

This being said. Appliances such as a fridge wouldn’t do bad should it draw approximately 110 Watts of power. (Dependent on the fridge and weather)

Battery Cycles

According to Ecoflow they are 800 cycles on the battery Click here for the Brochure on the Delta Mini
800 Cycles to 80% battery capacity. Many people think it is low but if you work it out how many days you go off to use the Delta mini it may be on two 2 years all depending of course there are a lot of months there is no load shedding but months such as May 2022, July 2022 and September 2022 and our little prediction for January 2023 are the busiest load shedding times South Africa has faced.

Now there are other brands that claim to have higher cycles however price point wise they do cost a lot more so its cost vs cost on specs. Still so far Ecoflow is by far one of the best out there with their fast-Charging capabilities.

Recharging

Now this is where Ecoflow wins hands down. With a power draw of 900W to fast charge the Delta Mini it recharges in approx 1.6 Hours from the wall socket.
Can pair a Solar Panel to this where a 400W panel for example will charge it in 3-6 Hours charge. The neat thing is you can charge this in the car with 9.5 Hours approx depending on your cars charging point (cigarette lighter/Cigar Lighter)
So by the time its load shedding again your full charged and ready to go.

What happens if you are gaming and then power cuts?

Well, this is where it was a surprise even for me. Did not even notice it was load shedding if it wasn’t for the lounge light going off. yes the TV, Router and PC while playing Need for Speed Heat didn’t even flinch when it switched over to the Delta Mini battery. The only thing we heard was the DB Board switch and the Delta Mini’s fans kicked in briefly.

Which concludes that you can still do your work and or gaming with no hassle for the 2 or so hour duration. Now depending on the game played approx 1-3 Hours. if its workloads and basic documents well we hit 4 hours on the battery mainly causing it was a PC with its monitor, Fiber Router and the TV was on streaming amazon over and of course the printer was on standby. Even tested it on two PC’s with the same things running minus amazon as the one PC is connected to the TV playing games while the other PC was on just idling away. and no restarts from any delay. This may be causing the power supplies on the PC’s are Gold rated or it’s just not asking for too much power to draw immediately.

Conclusion

We enjoyed this so much that decided to get one for ourselves to fight against load shedding. Business in July was challenging as it was with power going off and the worse times of the day even had to get a more powerful Laptop to fight load shedding and using a cellphone as a model so it made more sense after testing this to get one as it can power up a desktop PC to carry on working with no interruptions as well as entertainment in the evenings even if it is only for 2 hours did find that load shedding in the evening was the worse as it takes your personal time away from you.
But with the Delta Mini it is now uninterrupted during load shedding. If it is just the TV, we got about 4-5 Hours off it so watching a full length movie was no issues no more Laptop 15.6″ screen during load shedding with barley 2 hours on the batter after a few years. Never mind the price of Cellular data compared to Fiber this in the end potentially saves money and hassle.  Using it during the day and night of load shedding and will never look back.

I’d say this is idea for twitch Streamers as well, have you ever had to tweet “Sorry no streams tonight load shedding in my area” well now you don’t have to worry with Ecoflow Delta Series and this is the same with Work for man people and businesses these are great must haves. Especially if it is for work reasons of any kind that utilises electricity.

Come get yours while stocks last

For the full range of Ecoflow Please click on link here for the brochure with the Run Times and charging of the River and Delta Series.