Unsealed 4x4 Australia's Dometic PLB-40 Review.

[Ridge Runner]

great, will pick one up to replace my old waeco 36amph agm job which finally died after years of good service. Very handy it was too, ran my shower, lights, recharged my tecta, and my media devices, and occasionally ran a fridge for a day trip or while I let my main source recharge without load.

Good Idea Dave, You won't believe how simple they make life and a 40Ah one is like having an 80/120 in a lead acid/AGM.

I got one of mine running the little Dometic at the moment, and even though they are quite small compared to the whopping big 120Ah we are use to If you have it hooked up to 120w panel then it will always be full and it only has to power the fridge during the night and it will be fully charge in under an hour.

Not having the sun hours they have made my life so easy, :Y:

 

[condor22]

Forgetting the special plugs (the little round ones for LED lights) I think the main difference with the 2 units (PLB40 - Rover 40) is;

The Anderson on the Rover is an output, which as I said, I have converted most of my devices to. Whereas it's the input on the PLB40, which given the charge load is a bit of an overkill. The mini Anderson input on the Rover is rated to 25 A and better thought out, in my opinion.

The great thing about Anderson or mini Anderson is that they can not be reverse polarity connected and are a shake proof positive connection, great for bouncing around the Ozi bush.

The rest of the outputs are pretty much identical. Not sure how much use I'll get out of the USB C type, non of my devices use that type of connector.

I put the power meter inline and turned everything on at noon today. Although I'll wait till the end of the test to report, I did note that the initial voltage of the Rover (no load) was 13.61 V. That's after charging to 100% last night and left to rest. Keeping in mind you don't need to let a LiFePo4 battery rest like an AGM.

Davent, I did note the Anaconda $559 price online, but that is if you have a member card, I don't. Otherwise it's $799.99 and Tentworld have it at $559 retail. Snowies is my closest store and they price match if you ask, which is why I bought there. You'll be a happy camper getting one.

 

[PabloP]

So what do you recommend for charging any small AC power devices from one of these devices?
I use a drink can-sized inverter from my vehicles, that I guess I would use.
My typical small AC use on the road is -
- The chargers for Stihl battery devices
- Likewise charging Bosch range of tool batteries
- Razor recharge
- Computer & or printer
- Small "Pie warmer"
Clearly, I will continue to charge from the vehicle dual battery systems, when one of them is close handy, but a battery pack could be used if/when remote such as doing work when travel to a site is in another vehicle.

Rob P

 

[PabloP]

I went looking at these Companion devices and came across the Companion Rover 70 as well.
The funny thing about the 70 is that it is 6.8kg, just .3kg more than the 40, yet the price is $1399.99 versus $559 for the 40.
So you could purchase 2 x 40's and still be way ahead in price and available AH, but almost double the weight of course.

Rob P

 

[Ridge Runner]

I went looking at these Companion devices and came across the Companion Rover 70 as well.
The funny thing about the 70 is that it is 6.8kg, just .3kg more than the 40, yet the price is $1399.99 versus $559 for the 40.
So you could purchase 2 x 40's and still be way ahead in price and available AH, but almost double the weight of course.

Rob P

Yeah thats why I bought 2 PLB-40's because a Lithium type Cars battery at the time was around 1399.00 so I bought the 2 PLB's which cost me 1191.00 and also because they came with all the wiring and charging stuff built In, Plus when one gose flat I can use the other while charging the first one, :Y:

You can run a 150w Inverter from them The MATHs on the PLB works out at a 192w inverter , Sure you can buy ones with 600w inverters in them but they cost a bit more, I bought the PLB's because I already have a 1500w and a 600w and a 300w inverter and Powering the Fridge was my main concern.

But a 150w will power most gadgets, :Y:

Another brand which is worth having is the PowerOak/Bluetti either the AC50s or the eb70 and there is a bigger 10 or 100 model as well.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Forgetting the special plugs (the little round ones for LED lights) I think the main difference with the 2 units (PLB40 - Rover 40) is;

The Anderson on the Rover is an output, which as I said, I have converted most of my devices to. Whereas it's the input on the PLB40, which given the charge load is a bit of an overkill. The mini Anderson input on the Rover is rated to 25 A and better thought out, in my opinion.

The great thing about Anderson or mini Anderson is that they can not be reverse polarity connected and are a shake proof positive connection, great for bouncing around the Ozi bush.

The rest of the outputs are pretty much identical. Not sure how much use I'll get out of the USB C type, non of my devices use that type of connector.

I put the power meter inline and turned everything on at noon today. Although I'll wait till the end of the test to report, I did note that the initial voltage of the Rover (no load) was 13.61 V. That's after charging to 100% last night and left to rest. Keeping in mind you don't need to let a LiFePo4 battery rest like an AGM.

Davent, I did note the Anaconda $559 price online, but that is if you have a member card, I don't. Otherwise it's $799.99 and Tentworld have it at $559 retail. Snowies is my closest store and they price match if you ask, which is why I bought there. You'll be a happy camper getting one.

Yep, well when travelling I use the Big Anderson to charge the PLB while using the 2 Pin to power the Fridge that way the power supply does not get interupted, Oh and I got one of those meters that I can put in line so I can measure the power draw from the DC supply to the PLB and see what happens when the fridge is running,

 

[PabloP]

Mmm, the Jackery 500 has about the same capacity, but is currently not available in Oz so no current price. Rather than using an external inverter, having one built-in would make it more suitable for my "mobile" type uses. So I will sit on the fence for a while and see what happens in the various ranges.

Rob P.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Mmm, the Jackery 500 has about the same capacity, but is currently not available in Oz so no current price. Rather than using an external inverter, having one built-in would make it more suitable for my "mobile" type uses. So I will sit on the fence for a while and see what happens in the various ranges.

Rob P.

Well check out PowerOak or they might have another name in Australia IE Bluetti they have all the Hi tech features and they make them from about 200w to Over 10,000w,

Their AC 50s even has one of those things where you just lay your Phone on top of it and it will charge your Phone, :inlove:

I want their PowerOak AC 100, :heart: :heart: :heart:

Here it is,

https://www.maxoak.org.uk/products/poweroak-ac100-1000wh-600w

 

[Davent]

I just can't get my head around watt hours etc, wish they would add amph to their blurbs

 

[Dignit]

Ive got a Companion Rover 40. Got it when the severe storms hit Vic and I was without power for 5 days. I bought an Inverter to go with it so I could run the home wireless router and nbn box. Also charged mobile phones and USB lantern. Worked a treat. I charged it from the car as I drove around during the days.
I also bought it with my Jayco Swift in mind, and have now added the Companion Solar Charger (blanket) to the kit, which looks good quality as well. Will be hooking up the blanket and battery tomorrow.

 

[Ridge Runner]

I just can't get my head around watt hours etc, wish they would add amph to their blurbs

Ok Dave I hope this helps,

IE:- 512Wh / "divided" by 12.8v = 40Ah.

So if you are dealing with DC power what ever the watt hours are divide that number by 12.8v and that will give you the Ah rating, Ok.

Part 2,, IF you know the Ah and want to know what the Wh equals you take batteries Amps and Times it by 12.8v and that will give you the Watt Hours.

OR a 100Ah Battery X 12.8v = 1280Wh or a 130Ah Battery X 12.8v = 1664Wh

Hope that helps,

 

[Ridge Runner]

Ive got a Companion Rover 40. Got it when the severe storms hit Vic and I was without power for 5 days. I bought an Inverter to go with it so I could run the home wireless router and nbn box. Also charged mobile phones and USB lantern. Worked a treat. I charged it from the car as I drove around during the days.
I also bought it with my Jayco Swift in mind, and have now added the Companion Solar Charger (blanket) to the kit, which looks good quality as well. Will be hooking up the blanket and battery tomorrow.

Cool well done, How many Watts is the Solar Blanket ??

Thats a perfect example of how useful these things are, :Y:

 

[Ridge Runner]

Dave there is a 3rd Maths solution which is to find out the Volts,

Take the Watt Hours 512 and Divide it by the Ah = 40 and that will give you the Volts,

So,, 512wh / 40Ah = 12.8v.

:Y:

 

[Dignit]

Ive got a Companion Rover 40. Got it when the severe storms hit Vic and I was without power for 5 days. I bought an Inverter to go with it so I could run the home wireless router and nbn box. Also charged mobile phones and USB lantern. Worked a treat. I charged it from the car as I drove around during the days.
I also bought it with my Jayco Swift in mind, and have now added the Companion Solar Charger (blanket) to the kit, which looks good quality as well. Will be hooking up the blanket and battery tomorrow.

Cool well done, How many Watts is the Solar Blanket ??

Thats a perfect example of how useful these things are, :Y:

120W

 

[condor22]

Pablo, To answer your first Q. A simple piece of inverter theory.

Inverters are not 100% efficient, therefore the rule of thumb is to divide the inverter max output Watts x 10 (not 12 volts) to give you the amp draw on a battery. i.e. I have 2 inverters, both 150W, = 15 amps roughly per hour of battery if I run one to maximum output. Divide that into the 40 AH and you might get about 2.5 hours before it goes flat. Best to do this when the engine is running.

Next thing, I have the following batteries or devices - GPX5000, SDC2300, SP01, Laptop, Wireless headphones and transmitter, mobile phones, torches, 10,000 milli AH power bank, UHF handheld, Android Tablet and probably more...

They all have 240 VAC charging options and either 12 VDC or 5VDC USB charging options as well. I charge every last one of them from my van or 4x4 12 VDC deep cycle batteries as it is always more efficient use of battery power than inverting.

I have 3 items that can not be charged/used directly from 12 VDC - An ultrasonic cleaner, Battery operated electric shaver and electric toothbrush. The cleaner is 240 VAC only and the other 2 only have a 240 VAC plug to charge them. However, individually they will all charge from my 150 W inverter.

The Ultrasonic might get 10 minutes use, the shaver charges for 1-2 hours and the toothbrush draws sod all power. But if I charge from the van battery, i do it when the solar is providing it or the 4x4 engine is running.

Anything and everything else gets the Honda 2kVA as my battery systems are not sized to support large or constant inverter use.

 

[condor22]

To the 70 AH Companion - It is not a LiFePo4 Lithium battery, it is NMC or Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides, usually stated as Li-NMC.

It is a different chemistry and this particular one gives a Lifecycle (LC) of 800 (or more), compared to the 2,000 (or more) of the Rover 40. Both give those LCs at 80% depth of cycle. The "or more" depends how deep you run them as RR shows in the above graph.

If you draw 32 AH (Rover at 80% over 2,000 cycles you have a total of 64,000 AH of power.
If you draw 56 AH (70 PB at 80% over 800 cycles you have a total of 44,800 AH of power.

Over their respective LC, you get a lot more bang for your buck with the Rover. Look at the difference in cost and without calculating, the Rover is a cheaper cost per AH of power than the 70 amp powerbank.

I would next suggest, that if you need 70 AH of battery, it is a cheaper prospect to buy a 100 AH LiFePo4 similar to what I did for around the same price as the 70 and buy a battery box.

You get 30 AH more and in the case of mine 4,000 LC. (Quick calc at 80% is 320,000 AH of power, or 14 times more for your $.

If you want convenience for a few days camping either the PLB or Rover will do the job. However, if you want some inverter use or long term power, a bigger set up is needed and will likely include a mix of recharging options, DC-DC and Solar.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Just stopped the Rover and put the BM on 240 VAC. I guess 2 test here, the fridge power use and the Rover supplying that power, lol;

The BM when compressor was running showed a load of 34 watts, which if the Rover was giving 12.8 V = 2.66 amps. Its total use from the Rover 40 over 24 hours was 34% of the 40 AH or 13.6 AH. When the BM compressor was not running, the Rover showed a load of 1 W, which is probably the BM display and LEDs.

The ambient was not extreme and the BM was in a darkish room out of the sun.

As I have a couple of power meters with Anderson plugs, I should have installed one inline, but didn't think to do that. I might charge the Rover and do the test again with one inline.

This will give me V, A & W max and min as well as totals Wh and Ah. That way I can see what the volts of the Rover are under load and no load. It will also give a 2nd opinion of the Rover digital display accuracy.

Will check how long the charger takes to recharge the Rover later tonight.

I'm also thinking that as the Specs of both the PLB and Rover show 2,000 cycles at 80%, going deeper in cycle may reduce their lifecycle and that number is not specified.
So gonna keep my Rover to no lower than 25% capacity to be sure.

So where yours was set to 3*c in an Ambient temp of 15 to 16*c I just finished a 24 hour test and heres what I got Running the little Dometic CDF-18L from the PLB-40.

Fridge temp 1.1 to 2*c with an ambient temp of 23.4 to 23.8*c

PLB dial reading = 64% SOC, 36% power used,
Actual power used 35.265% = 1.469% per hour
Ah per hour = 0.587Ah X 24hrs = 14.106Ah.

So at 80% / 1.469 = 54.458 Hours. OR 54hrs 27 minutes,

My Dometic does not have an Eco or a Boost mode, it's just switch on and Go so I would expect your BM to get a bit better mileage.

I then ran the PLB so the Dial was reading 62% SOC and now I have put it on charge via it's own AC power pack and I am timing it to see houw long it takes to get back up to 100% then I will post it here.

 

[Ridge Runner]

This is the Next one I want to buy because it has 716Wh of battery power and a 1000w Inverter, and it is their most powerful model that can be charged by Car, Their 1000Wh version only has a 600w inverter and can't be charged by the car,

https://poweroak.co.uk/it/powerbank...16wh-solar-ac-dc-generator-8719324080743.html

 

[Ridge Runner]

Well I charged it up from 62% SOC, To get it to match your 34% took 1h 58m 52s

From 62% SOC to 100% took 2h 08m 15s which means it is Charging at 17.777% per hour which means it is Charging at 7.111 Ah

So from 80% DOD it will take 4h 30m to fully charge.

It's these charge times which makes all these lithium packs game changers, Because In 10 hours over night powering the fridge it is going to use 14,693% = 5.8775Ah and to put back that power it's going to take 49m 36s From AC or DC or Solar,

I like many thought these things were a joke when they first came out but with these type of numbers these are the future for sure, :Y:

 

[Davent]

If you were at a camp, and ran your fridge all day while you were away from. Your camp, can you leave a solar panel hooked up to it and charge while it while it is being used?