EcoFlow’s battery-powered A/C and heater combo is too overblown

The EcoFlow Wave 2 is an air conditioner, heater, and fan that can uniquely be powered by a battery and solar panel. This portable heat pump packs a lot of cooling and heating for its size and could be a game changer for some or a disappointment for others. It all depends on whether you believe EcoFlow’s marketing.

A heat pump’s ability to transfer heat in and out of a room is what makes these increasingly popular appliances so efficient, but EcoFlow’s pitch for the diminutive Wave 2 is absurd and misleading. It shows people using it inside a spacious living room, a large RV, on the deck of a boat, and outside at a campsite. Some backpacker even carried it into the mountains to use with a tent.

After a year of testing, I can assure you that the Wave 2 will not cool or heat those spaces in any meaningful way as depicted. It certainly won’t raise or lower the temperature by 18 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) in just five minutes, as EcoFlow claims.

I’ve tested the $799 Wave 2 to both heat and cool a shipping-container-sized surf shack, and to cool both a campervan and a tiny bedroom in an old Portuguese farmhouse. The fastest temperature change I’ve seen is an 8F (4.6C) drop in 30 minutes, well below EcoFlow’s claim. But it also kept a room at 72F (22C) or below on a day that reached 99F (37C) outside. Its worst performance resulted in no temperature change at all.

Notably, in some climates, a 400W solar panel could conceivably keep the $1,199 Wave 2 with battery add-on running continuously without ever needing to plug it into a wall socket. The Wave 2 is certainly innovative and a very capable device in some limited scenarios — but it’s not the little miracle EcoFlow makes it seem.

EcoFlow’s Wave 2 is fitted with a compact compressor, condenser, and heat exchanger with air exhaust and intake pairs on both sides of the device that form two closed loops. The system works by moving heat from one loop to the other to either cool or heat the space you’re in. This ability to transfer heat instead of generating hot and cold air is what makes heat pumps so efficient. JerryRigEverything has a good Wave 2 teardown that also explains how everything works in more detail.