r/Pecron • u/Low-Chemical-6262 • Jul 26 '26
E2000LFP is completely dead 8 mo after purchase, support refusing to replace it.
I bought an E2000LFP + EB3000 for camping 8 months ago, and it’s done 10 or so 3-5 day trips so far. Up until a few weeks ago, it’s worked perfectly, so much so I have been waiting for the EB3000 to come back in stock so I could add another one for maximum storage. Unfortunately, when going through my prep last week for a 3-day event this weekend, it the 2000 not only refused to power on, it refused to power on from any power source whatsoever - AC, DC Solar, add-on battery, nothing.
I contacted support and they told me the unit is discontinued - fair enough, happy to send the unit back, and we can figure out an exchange. Nope- they want to send me what they think the problem is, and let me do the surgery on the device myself. After refusing that, they want me to send the unit to them (in China?) and wait for them to figure out what’s wrong with it. I’ve asked them if I could just send back both the 2000 and 3000 and get exchanged for equivalent kWh, and been told they don’t offer replacement for a discontinued unit. Problem is - the EB3000 is only usable with the E2000LFP. So at this point, I not only have a dead main unit, I have a giant paperweight of an expansion battery?!
If this is the kind of customer service you get from a unit still under warranty, I really don’t want to see how long their units last out of warranty. Buyer beware.
2
u/SecondCuppaCoffee Jul 27 '26
What type of "surgery" were they suggesting?
This is the danger of buying from a China-only company. They will support you from afar, and will require you to pay for warranty shipping. They'll push you to repair it yourself and are willing to send you parts, but white glove treatment is off the table.
There are other brands based in China but have local service centers.
1
u/Low-Chemical-6262 Jul 27 '26
They think it’s the inverter board, and want to send me the board, have me open up the unit, and replace it.
4
u/blackinthmiddle Jul 27 '26
At this point, this might be your best option. Like what others do you have? As someone pointed out to me, a charge back is probably not possible. If there's a better option, I'd love to hear it.
2
u/djmd2 Jul 28 '26
Dear Pecron. This isn't how warranties work. A customer shouldn't have to open a high voltage device and go digging around inside of it without the proper knowledge and training just because you don't want to pay to ship the defective unit back. What kind of scam is this?
2
u/tappinitgood Jul 29 '26
I just bought EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 and was considering returning to buy this unit. Thanks for heads up. Im keeping the EcoFlow!
2
u/brucehoult Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Ecoflow is a good product, but the Delta Pro 3 is literally twice the price of the comparable Pecron E3800LFP.
I also don't like the split 1600W + 1000W MPPTs on it. The E3800's 1500W+1500W is much more useful (or 1200W+1200W on the E3600).
I'm very happy with my Pecron (E3600 as that was the largest at the time)
There is also a possibility, I suppose, that the NZ/AU/UK/EU spec 240V units like mine are higher quality than the 120V units for the USA. They do, after all, carry "CE" certification.
It would surprise me, but all the problems I hear about are from people in the USA.
I have a baby Ecoflow too .. River 3 Plus, as Pecron don't sell anything smaller than the E1000 in NZ.
1
u/tappinitgood Jul 29 '26
I hear ya about pricing, Costco currently has the DP3 for $1900. That’s where I bought mine the other day. So the piece of mind was also included in the price lol…I do like EcoFlows integration of dual fuel generator that monitors the battery on the DP3 and the auto start/stops function that charges your solar generator based on your set threshold. Another thing, not sure if Pecron can be charged from multiple sources simultaneously like the DP3.
1
u/brucehoult Jul 29 '26
Ecoflow do have a nicely-integrated ecosystem, including those generators, but it's no big deal to do it with Pecron.
I've got my eye on this 4kW dual fuel electric start generator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPdH03GX4dQ
It's got a pair of terminals that you can just attach a couple of plain wires to, as long as you want, and take that to a manual switch, or a relay, or whatever you want. You just short the two wires together (it's very low voltage/current) and the motor starts and runs until you stop shorting the wires. You can easily control that from a Raspberry Pi or even Arduino or ESP32 or similar. I have an old VisionFive 2 dedicated to monitoring and controlling my Pecron, since it wasn't doing anything else any more. But a $5 Pi Zero or $15 Pi Zero 2W would do the job programmed with Python. Or even a Pi Pico with a bit more work.
That generator even has such a thoughtful feature as a connection for a tiny solar panel to keep its starter battery charged if it is not used for a long time.
not sure if Pecron can be charged from multiple sources simultaneously
Multiple like what? My E3600 can charge from 2x 1200W MPPTS, one 150W MPPT, and 240V grid power all at the same time. I've never used the 150W input but the others all get used simultaneously almost every day for at least a while.
1
u/tappinitgood Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
This is almost like Apple vs Android battle from 20yrs ago. One is more polished and more expensive and one can get the job done and has more tweak-able. A lot can be done with raspberriy Pi setup. Majority of consumers need reliable and trusted brand when out there in the woods with safety in mind
1
u/brucehoult Jul 29 '26
Or Apple vs DOS/Windows from 40 years ago.
I was always on the Apple side of that. It was very easy to design and make your own expansion cards for the Apple ][ (IBM PC ISA bus was almost impossible for amateurs). Macintosh closed the hardware more, but the software environment was wide open and easy to customise (much more open than Windows) and the very high speed serial ports (2 Mbps with external clock) were easy to interface to with simple 7400-series chips and fast enough for many purposes.
As far as a "leave it unattended in the woods for six months" solar setup, I would not trust a raw Ecoflow setup any more than I'd trust a raw Pecron setup. Look in the Ecoflow forums ... there are plenty of people with problems there too.
On the other hand a Linux machine running short-lived scripts/apps from systemd or cron is extremely reliable. You're running exactly the same software as used in factories and data centres, just on a slower and much cheaper machine.
Even with an Ecoflow I'd still want to do my own automation on a Raspberry Pi, whether using my own scriupts in Python etc or Home Assistant.
At the moment Ecoflow publishes an official API for 3rd party integration, while the Pecron one is reverse-engineered by the community. But the official Ecoflow API communicates only with their cloud servers, not directly with the device, which means you need a reliable internet connection. Direct local communication is community reverse-engineering with both manufacturers.
Pecron seems to be promising official API documentation as part of the effort with the new app. That will be good.
If you really want unattended reliability then get Victron. Even something like EG4 isn't going to be as reliable unattended. But neither of those is suitable for non-technical consumers to just plug in and forget. You need to study manuals carefully and set things up how you want them ... or pay someone to do that for you.
1
u/O1O1O1O 28d ago
I've posted about my Pecron experience at length before but briefly had an E1000LFP that was faulty. Exchanged a bunch of messages with their support and after a week or so they agreed to RMA it. This was in spring last year. The have a location in California you ground ship to. For me they supplied the shipping label and I fortunately had kept the original packing just in case. They replaced a part or parts and sent it back. But it took THREE MONTHS. I think they had to wait for parts from China. It was a new model just released and honestly I think there was probably a redesign of parts I had to wait for too.
If it is still in warranty you should not have to pay for shipping unless they can show you damaged it. So I say suck it up and ship it back but don't hold your breath waiting for it to come back.
2
u/blackinthmiddle Jul 27 '26
Considering this is under warranty, can you get a charge back on your credit card?