Review: Bluetti EB3A 600W Portable Power Station

Extreme weather events continue to prove the value in having a portable power station for your home. The downside? High capacity battery power stations with the ability to run large appliances like refrigerators for multiple days remain costly, they are heavy, and they take up space. However, when the electricity goes out, having even a modest battery backup can keep lights on, keep your phone charged, and run small appliances.

The Bluetti EB3A is an option that I’ve been testing over the past several months. It's relatively small and easy to carry, powered by 268.8Wh worth of LiFePO4 batteries (longer-lasting and safer than traditional Li-ion cells), equipped with a wide range of outputs including a pair of AC outlets and even a Qi wireless charging pad, and it's affordable with a $299 price tag.

Compact, light, and ideal for home use.

The Bluetti EB3A is a compact, gray plastic box with a folding handle on top. The handle feels a little on the flimsy side compared to a molded version but it gets the job done and gets out of the way after. The front is dominated by a variety of ports including a pair of AC outlets, along with a color LCD display and an LED light. The sides are ventilated and there are silicon feet on the bottom to keep the unit stable. On the top surface is a Qi wireless charge pad.

There's a folding handle and at 10lb, this portable power station is easy to carry.

There is pretty much every kind of power output you might need to charge your devices or run small household appliances. At just over 10 pounds, this unit truly is portable. It won't take up much room in your home and it would also be handy to grab to take camping.

There are a total of 9 power outputs. Note the color LCD display and integrated lED light.

The first thing I did was to plug in the cord to fully charge the battery. The BMS works to keep the battery cool during charging with an internal fan occasionally kicking in. According to my Apple Watch app, the fan noise never got above 48dB. Charging from zero takes roughly two hours.

Bluetti's BMS keeps the EB3A's batteries safe.

Bluetti has supplied a series of estimates in terms of what the EB3A's 268.8Wh battery offers. Among the ratings:

In addition, if you want to expand the system to become independent from the power grid, the EB3A supports charging using optional solar panels. Bluetti says its PV200 200W solar panel can fully charge this power station in as little as two hours.

Plenty of charge ports for your devices and even a Qi wireless charge pad on the top.

Don't forget lifespan. When you check the specs for most Li-ion battery stations, you’ll typically see they are rated for 500 charge cycles at 80% of original capacity. The EB3A uses LiFePO4 batteries. These have the advantage of being less volatile than Li-ion, but they also have a longer lifespan, with a rating of 2,500 charge cycles at 80% of original capacity. This means you’ll get a lot of use out of the power station before the batteries start to lose capacity and you need to replace it.

When I test portable power stations, I usually focus on the ability to run devices that could be critically important during a blackout: fans, air purifiers, refrigerators, and the like.

This time — based on my own experience as a parent — I wanted to highlight something else that can come into play. Boredom. Keeping kids entertained when the power goes out.

So I plugged in a 65-inch 4K TV and an Apple TV video streamer to the EB3A. To fully test this scenario, a home's internet gateway and Wi-Fi router would also need to be connected to the power station (impractical without long extension cords), but there is a workaround that many people would be able to fall back on: streaming to the TV from a smartphone connected to cellular service.

2.5 hours powering a 65-inch 4K TV and an Apple TV video streamer.

So, how long did the movies play? I didn't dim the TV or make any other adjustments that would conserve power and the power station kept the entertainment going for almost exactly 2.5 hours. Not too bad, especially when you consider that the test was done using a relatively large TV. A smaller screen would draw considerably less power.

During this scenario I did run into a hiccup, though. When I first plugged in the devices and powered them up, the power station's display showed an estimated 3.5 hours of run time. Everything was going smoothly until it showed 15% of battery remaining, then the power station suddenly shut down. The battery was at zero. That meant both the estimated run time and the charge percentage calculations were off.

Another time, charging the EB3A after it was drained showed that wonky battery capacity estimate at play once again. It took just over two hours to charge to 100%. However, for the first 30 minutes or so, the display insisted the battery remained at 0% capacity.

Other times, estimates seemed to be reasonably in the ballpark. The bottom line is that I would take the remaining charge percentage and remaining hours of use numbers displayed with a grain of salt.

It's not perfect, but for $299 the Bluetti EB3A is an excellent option for providing basic home ... [+] power backup during blackouts.

The occasional inaccuracy of the EB3A's battery charge tracking is unfortunate, but not what I would call a fatal flaw – especially in a $299 system. At this price point I would take that estimate as being just that and recognize that is not going to be 100% spot on.

To me it's more important that this power station is truly portable, it has outputs to power pretty much anything (within reason) during an emergency, its batteries will last through many more charging cycles than typical Li-ion solutions, and it is offered at a relatively affordable $299. These factors make the Bluetti EB3A well worth considering if your home lacks any protection from power grid outages.

If you’re looking for a more powerful battery backup solution – something that could keep a refrigerator running for days and power high-demand appliances like space heaters – Bluetti has multiple options. This includes the AC200 MAX expandable system (with an expandable 2048 Wh battery and 2200W continuous output) which I reviewed in 2021.

Disclosure: Bluetti provided a power station for evaluation purposes but had no input into this review.