Hi Todd. I have found a way to transfer power from one yeti to another without as much power loss. Plug the new yeti lithium 12v regulator cable into the 12v output of any lithium yeti 1000 or up. Plug the yeti 12v car charger into the female outlet. Plug the 8mm output into any lithium yeti. You do get some loss but not as much as just using a regular yeti 60 watt charger. The regulator increases the voltage which allows this to work. I am so proud of myself !! Not bad for a Polack from New Jersey.
Hi Gregory, thanks for testing that. Makes sense since the step up converter should be pretty efficient going DC to DC. The step up converter I bought off Amazon claimed "up to 96% efficiency". Going from DC > AC > DC is definitely much more lossy though I don't know what % that would be. Where you able to quantify the power losses at all? If you had two Yetis with the 1000 style display, you could at least see how many kWh was output and how many % that moved the target Yeti (wish it told you the input in kWh)
But how are the other external batteries recharged, because you have not connected this one in a circuit with the Yeti zero? That would be the ultimate hack for all power stations to perform an alternative capacity expansion?
I explain how this works in the video but the external battery is charged via an Victron battery charger. It recharges the power station by connecting via the cigarette adapter so it’s like it’s being charged in a car. It’s not fully integrated like a real expansion battery so you need to manually charge it.
I have found your yeti videos extremely informative. I purchased a yeti 1000 not too long ago and am blown away by the concept shown here. I was considering getting the link, but now I definitely feel comfortable getting the MPPT instead as you can only have one or the other in your system. Quick question though, I thought the reason you need that adapter is that they found they couldn't get a constant charge off of different cars 12v output. With a high quality lithium like you mentioned, would you even need the car charger adapter at that point? Would the quality of charge be enough to simple plug straight into the yeti? Granted for $40 it's a small price to pay to ensure healthy equipment. Thanks!
stonechitlin1 the Yeti lithiums need at least 14 volts to start charging via the inputs. That’s why you need the car charger to step up the voltage from 12v to 16v. It’s not really a matter of quality, just voltage. If you hooked a high quality 12v lithium battery up to the yeti, it wouldn’t charge because the voltage is too low to register.
@@todd.parker This is just charging one lithium battery with another though, the car link has the ability to connect to the car's alternator and charge the lithium battery from 0 to 100% in about 2 hours. You can ideally run another battery inbetween the yeti and the car's battery to double the capacity in parallel ideally which would result in less draw on each of the battery individually. Correct me if im wrong Todd. Its just a theory of mine. I have no experience.
@@yoluckycharmz Inside the case of a Goal Zero lithum battery (or Battleborn or pretty much any Lithium battery) is a BMS; Battery Management System, that monitors the charge state but more importantly accomplishes cell balancing. Between two battery packs there is no communication of SOC (State of Charge) so it is really not so simple to just parallel lithium batteries as it is with lead acid (AGM, gel cells, flooded cells). So while you could conceivably parallel lithium batteries it seems risky to me. They have very low internal resistance and if the state of charge of one was higher than the other, a very high current could flow from one to the other.
Is the GZ 12v Adapter you use in this video one direction only? Meaning it could be used to charge the Yeti from a 12V source (battery) but you couldn't feed power back to the 12V source FROM the Yeti using this adapter?
I’ve tried plugging the 12v into the yeti’s 12v output and the light on the unit is red so that doesn’t seem to work. Maybe the Yeti doesn’t supply enough voltage?
@@todd.parker Yea maybe, I plan on getting one of those adapters once GZ has them back in stock to do some testing. Worst case I would be able to charge an external battery using the AC inverter but it would be more efficient to do it from the 12V output side.
Duf Agreed. The inverter uses a fair amount of power and if you’re leaving it on the whole time, it will add up fast. Seems there are lots of 12v chargers for batteries out there, just a matter of finding one that works for your battery and doesn’t pull more amps than the Yeti wants to output.
Hey Todd, ya know since 100ah lithium batteries are $950+ why wouldn’t someone just buy a second yeti 1000 which gives you all the additional features for the same price? JS. This is one of the reason I bought the yeti 1000 to begin with. The other being overall weight. I’m hoping lithium prices begin to fall soon
Stream Rolling I keep having the same thought. People complain Goal Zero is expensive but you can get a Yeti 1000 for $715 refurbished which is less than the battery alone! www.goalzero.com/shop/open-box-product/goal-zero-yeti-1000-lithium-portable-power-station-open-box/
Todd Parker waiting for future videos on Goal zero products,can you make a video in the future of how to transfer the power store on a battleborn to a yeti 1000, I dont know how to install and set up the victron battery protect and also how do I install a battery percentage indicator and like 2 car chargers so I can transfer the energy from the battleborn to the yeti faster
Hi Todd. I just got off the phone with GZ. my concern with tank and link was not being able to deplete the agm battery past 50%. They tell me that is the beauty and true value of the link. The electronics in the link allow you to drain the lead acid battery down to zero and do absolutely no damage to anything and can be charged back up again with no problem! This is a game changer and now it makes sense to me. With this capability explained to me, I now plan to get link and 4 tanks as soon as they are available. Quick math tells me $2000 = over 4,000 kwh _all useable!
Do the tanks actually have a battery in them, or are they just a case that allows you to add your own lead acid battery to them? Annoying that you can't use both the Link and MPPT at the same time...
That sounds both amazing and impossible. It’s like saying they figured out how to get a gas engine that gets 200mph. Did they explain how they are making lead acid not get damaged with that low a depth of discharge? Details are so limited right now I so guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they say spec-wise when it comes out.
Gregory I just chatted with GZ support and they said the Tank is basically a 1250 battery in a simpler case (no inverter, etc) and they wouldn't say that there was some magic in how it charges to prevent stress on the battery if you deep cycle. The person I spoke to said you can cycle down to 0% and it will be "fine" but you will get longer life out of your battery if you stay with a shallower DoD so it sounds like it's the same as the 1250 or any AGM battery. Maybe my tech wasn't as enthusiastic as yours :)
Hi Todd. First I would like to say that I have a lot of respect for you and the work that you do on RUclips. I do not have the knowledge or understanding that you command on this topic and I am trying to learn as much as possible. If I can not cycle down add on AGM batteries without damage, I guess that I am back to sticking with lithium only. My question is - how far can I drain the lithium? Would 90% or95% be ok?
Can you chain two batteries on the jeti 2500 by using the connector in the back of the jeti and using a YETI 12V CAR CHARGING CABLE in the front at the same time?
Excellent, thanks for that info. I believe this setup works since your external battery is lithium and remains at a high enough voltage to keep the car charger on. Charging my Yeti 1000 with 12 to 19v converter on a deep cycle lead acid battery quickly stopped working due to low battery voltage (11.8) before converter under load. I was under the impression my converter produces a steady 19v even if source falls below 12v I will re test with meter on output side of converter to see what it says. Perhaps a Victron 12/24-Volt 20 amp DC-DC Converter would be a better solution
Do you know whether or not Yeti 1250’s old acid battery can be replaced with the lithium phosphate battery? Also what company makes lithium battery that is compatible with Yeti?
Theoretically, you could chain several goal zeros together all sizes by just using your preferred cable. For example. Input solar into first GZ (largest) then chain from out to input of the next and so on. Then you can use all output ports on any of your units. Your thoughts?
Hi Steam Rolling. You could chain them that way but it seems best to mostly use the car adapter as a way to connect a plain old battery to the yeti as a charging source. If you already have energy stored in a yeti, it’s probably more efficient to use the outputs on that directly to power something instead of moving it to another yeti. Guessing losses are the enemy here. I do like how you can combine any combination of solar, wall, car, or external battery (via the car charger) into the Yeti. The K2 only lets you choose a single thing to input at a time.
Hello and great video and information. Thank you for making this. I have a 1500x, 3000x and 6000x to use in remote cabin locations in alaska. However in research I’m finding the maximum charge limit for the 6000 to be 600watts aka the ac charger. Plugging in anything else does nothign as the controller regulates to a max of 600watts. If you have external batteries of 1.2 kw each chained together and they in turn are ONLY charging the core of the yeti, your output draw in the yeti can outrun your charge rate quite easily. Am I wrong here.
I’m not as familiar with the newer X series and external batteries but in general, that seems about right. GZ units tend to have pretty limited charging rates compared to Ecoflow where you can hit 1,800w easily and scale it down if your power source can’t handle it.
I am trying to figure out how I could have the external battery wired into the Yeti full time for extra reserve yet also have the Yeti refueling the external battery via the inverter or 12V output? Will that actually work? I have the MPPT controller in my 1000 and during the day it produces enough to fully charge the Yeti but it would be nice to have extra reserve.
My understanding is that, yes, that would work fine. The only missing piece is the battery charger. You can use this cable to connect the battery to the Yet’s input and connect the battery charger to the 12v or AC output to keep the external battery charged. I think the link/tank is similar setup under the covers. In my car, I’m using a simple 12v battery charger but there are lots of options. Let me know how it goes!
@@todd.parker Ok it looks like I have some experimentation to do. I was thinking about throwing a SLA battery onto the Yeti. The only thing that I would need to worry about is (well maybe there are other things), is how to control how far the SLA is allowed to discharge into the Yeti as they can only go down to about 50%. More reading to do. I wish I just would have gotten the Yeti 1400 though as it would have been big enough to carry the load through the night.
@@todd.parker Check out these two NOCO products, I think this combo might work for charging the external battery out the 12V port on the Yeti, I'm going to try it. amzn.to/2Zs6VG9 amzn.to/2XAkbXp All I need is to grab a SLA battery and see how it works.
OMG! This is exactly what I’m looking for my Winnebago View RV. I bought the Yeti 3000 and the link expansion module and the female EC8 to ring terminal cord. My car has a chassis battery and 2 house battery. The 2 house battery is charged by shore power or car alternator or/and 500W solar. I have a question, can I leave the solar charger controller connected to the house battery? Or I have to convert it to 8mm and plug it in the Yeti 3000? Your system is like dream come true for RV boon docking. You really should do more marketing in the RV market.
Could you use a ring terminal to Anderson power pole to the same effect? Or does the car charger have a type of regulator that the cable wouldn’t have?
I've tried connecting my 90ah deep cycle lead acid battery with 285 watt 19vdc boost converter to both the Yeti PWM and MPPT anderson inputs. As long as a charger was connected to the deep cycle battery I was able to charge the Yeti via PWM input. As soon as the charger was disconnected the charge gradually dropped to zero, and the battery voltage plummeted below 12v under load . Results with MPPT were concerning: input watts soared and wire heated up, so I disconnected. My conclusion is to only charge from an external battery that is being charged. It remains to be seen whether your Victron in lithium charger mode connected to the Yeti EC8 would work- proceed with caution and keep an eye on input wattage.
nice work! Question, The factory battery on my 2018 Promaster City is a group 46 and is rated a 120 minutes reserve capacity. I have been deep cycling it a lot so it's not going to last very long... I'd like to (explore) upgrading to Lithium Ion (somehow). Any affordable drop in options that won't void my warranty or hurt the van in any way? How does Reserve Capacity translate in the world of a Lithium Ion?
The GZ car charger is designed to shut off if your car is off but you can charge it directly from a 12v battery. I just started a test tonight. I discharged the yeti to 50% then connected the Yeti lithium car charger to my 100ah LiFePO4 battery and it’s been steadily charging for 3 hours at 118w on the 10a setting (12%/hr). I can do a full test by running this down to 0% and seeing if this battery can fully recharge the yeti 1000 (it’s 1280wh so it should). I might get a second to see if I can charge at 240w in my car...
Following up on this test. I was able to charge the yeti from 5% to 100% using a goal zero car charging cable directly attached to an external LiFePO4 100ah battery. The battery seemed unable to charge the yeti further, probably because the voltage started to drop but it totally works
My goal zero yeti 1400 lithium power station STOP taking charge (keeps beeping and display turns On/Off) from the wall and car 5A/10A charger. Has anyone try adding another external 100ah lithium lifepo4 battery link chain to make it work again? If so, any recommendation methods on how to make connections?
I did it last night and it completely recharged the yeti 1000 from 5% to 100%. After that the LiFePO4 battery wasn’t putting out enough voltage to charge it extra so 100ah filled the 1000 pretty much exactly. It should have 1,280wh so that’s a bit short but I dunno if that was conversion losses or if the battery still had capacity but the voltage was too low. Anyway, it worked great. I just ordered a second car charger to do some testing with both attached to the battery and charging from my car. I’ll do a video on that eventually,
Hi Todd, Thank you for the video! I have goal zero 1000 and trying to do the same thing and your video is the only thing I found and it's very informative! I was thinking of getting goal zero bank (which is acid battery) so your video really help me get into a better solution. However, do you know if Battle born lithium battery compatible with goal zero? I checked with Battle born but they didn't seem to know. Thanks again!
Hi there. The only official way to expand your Yeti 1000 is to get the link module with a lead acid tank (boo). I bought a LiFePO4 battery like a Battleborn and have using the Yeti car charging cable to trickle charge the Yeti from that, and using a charger to top off the battery when drained. Not exactly chained but works great. Working on a video now on that setup
Todd, what do you think thinks of this setup versus the yeti tank vs me buying a used yeti 1000 to increase my capacity. I currently have a yeti 1000 and 5 solar panels for my tiny house. I have a 25 amp grid connection but want to become more off grid
@@todd.parker thanks. Looks like I can buy an additional yeti 1000 for about the same cost as a tank. I think I will try to connect them together to charge the primary as an option otherwise split them on the fuse box to power different items. Will give redundancy with the inverter as well by going that route
The simplest way is to plug your battery charger into the AC output of the Yeti if you have solar or a generator running. Even better use a DC to DC charger to avoid AC losses
Hi Todd. Another great video! As always, you make me think about how to make better use of my system. In order to have a longer continuous use of my yeti 3000, I plan to connect the car chargers to my lithium 400"s and then to my 3000. One to PMW and one to MPPT. Both at 10 amp setting. This way I can recharge my 3000 while using it to run a small a/c unit.When the 400's are down to zero, I can recharge them. My car has two 12V outlets. What do you think? Would the other new attachment for constant electric flow help me at all or should I just plug directly into yeti 400 to yeti 3000.
Hi Gregory, all good questions. Seems you could definitely use the 400’s to charge up your 3000. A pair of those should output realistically around 700wh into the bigger Yeti but you’d gain the beefier “front end” of the 3000 - bigger inverter, etc. Each time you move power, there will be losses so if there are smaller appliances you could directly power with the 400’s, that would be a bit more efficient. It depends on what you need to power. The AC definitely needs the 3,000 watts peak inverter! For your car, check to see the fuse situation for each in the manual. Some support up to 15a, some much less depending on how it’s wired. My Mazda CX-9 seemed ok with running one at 10a, I couldn’t test a second one in parallel but I’d bet it would be ok if the car is running.
Hi Todd . I am embarrassed to say that this will not work. The regulator has an Anderson input and the 400 does not have an Anderson output. However it will work with 1000, 1400 and the 3000. I can still transfer power out from the 120a a/c outlets using 4- 60watt chargers from my 2- 400 into my 3000. I know about the power loss ,but what can you do? I am still learning all about this and having lots of fun ,Thanks!! I have two 120 - 10amp outlets in my car so I can charge both with no problem.
gregory howard oh, I thought you were connecting the car adapters into the 12v cigarette outlet on the 400’s to charge the 300. Does that not work? It would keep you in DC-land.
Hi Todd. No. You can not use the 12 volt cigarette outlet with the car charger to transfer power from the 400 to another yeti. The voltage is too low. You need to connect regulator to charger to another yeti but the 400 does not have an Anderson output. However you can do this with any yeti lithium 1000 or up.
gregory howard Interesting so by regulator do you mean this cable? www.goalzero.com/shop/cords-adapters/yeti-lithium-12v-regulated-cable/ It’s becoming clear that this 12v charger doesn’t have a step up converter even thought I measured a higher voltage on the output side. So odd. Seems my DIY step up might be more relevant...
EXCELLENT!!! I’m waiting on my lithium 12v car charger now. So if I understood correctly I should be able to plug in solar to both pwm and mppt controllers on the yeti while using either the 12v lithium cable to charge the external battery and/or while charging with a 110 battery charger plugged into the yet as well? So 2 sources of input to the external battery? Todd can you plug your 110 charger into the yeti and connect it to charge your battery so I can see how many watts it takes when charging the external battery vs how many watts it uses to use GZ new 12 car charger? And also in combination. I know it’s a lot to ask but I think it will give good info.
Stream Rolling One thing to keep in mind is the car charger is only useful as a way to charge a yeti FROM a car or 12v battery, you can’t use it to charge a battery FROM the Yeti. You could plug a battery charger like the NOCO I showed to charge the battery by plugging it into the AC output of the Yeti. That would be useful if, for example, you used a 12v battery to fortify your Yeti overnight, then when the sun is shining you could recharge both the Yeti and external 12v battery from solar panels. Happy to test anything you need me to do, just let me know...
Great video thank you. I want to use a yeti 1400 to power a fiamma hot water tank. Only power I want is hot water and my laptop. i live in Ireland. Can you wire the yeti to regular wiring or only attach plug in devices? Many thanks, Anne
Is the hot water a plug in or hardwired? If it’s less than 1500 watts and a plug, it will work, if hardwired, you’d need the integration kit to wire it to your panel.
I have my lifepo4 battery connected via the car charger and usually trickle charge the yeti at 5a (60w) from it. I have a charger plugged into the yeti outlet to recharge that battery so it’s not truly chained but doubles my capacity
@@leftofone The NOCO one turns out to be super slow so when I got the LIPO4 12v battery, I bought this one Battleborn recommends and it works great. battlebornbatteries.com/product/blue-smart-ip65-charger-12-15/
Hey Todd, great video! So just to make this clear. You could charge an external lithium battery as well as the yeti through the yeti itself (from solar connected to the yeti) ?
Yes, though it’s sort of a quasi-chaining. I’ve used a 100ah lithium battery that is connected to a charger that is plugged into the Yeti’s AC output (a DC charger would be better) to recharge the external battery. This battery has the GZ 12v auto charger connected to the Yeti’s charging input to trickle charge it at 5-10amps. So the batteries aren’t really aware of each other but they can keep each other charged. Hoping the next gen Yetis support true chaining with lithium - current are only lead acid and the link module takes the expansion slot
@@todd.parker Does stepping up a battleborn or any 12v battery to 19vdc at an acceptable wattage to charge the Yeti 1000 via the PWM or MPPT work? If not, why?
leftofone it should work, yes. I’ve been using the yeti lithium car charger connected to my external lithium battery as a way to ensure the yeti is happy. Oddly, GZ says that adapter isn’t a step up and instead just regulates the current to keep the yeti from pulling too much. They also say the yeti needs 16v or more to kick kin the charger. When I tested the output, I swear I saw 16v and showed that in my video.
@@todd.parker initial testing using a 19 volt, 15 amp, 285 watt dc to dc boost converter powered by 18 ah lead acid works! Puzzled why Yeti 1000 lithium screen only shows 125 watts input, tho
@@todd.parker Hi Todd - your GoalZero videos are absolutely great! This video in particular got me thinking how I can charge my Yeti 1000 while I drive - without having to buy the proprietary Yeti Link. I bought the Victron Orion 12/24-15 Isolated DC to DC Charger, connected it directly to my Sprinter van battery terminals. No need for a fuse since this particular Orion unit has a built-in fuse. I used 8 awg wire from the starter battery to the Orion, then 10 awg wire from the Orion to a stacked APP connector which then plugs in directly into the PWM APP input port. From there I used the VictronConnect android app, and configured it such that the output voltage is 21.0V (staying within the 15V-22V Yeti limits). Since the Sprinter van has a smart alternator, I can configure the Victron to turn on when the voltage is greater than 13.4V, and turns off automatically when the van is off and the voltage is therefore below 13.2V. This setup is absolutely awesome! While the engine is on, the Yeti screen shows roughly 320W input. No need for solar if you drive a lot like I do in between campsites or cities. You'd get tons of views on a follow up video if you did one with this kind of setup. You could also go a step further and use the Orion on a house battery connected to Yeti so it acts like a storage tank. You'd just have to configure the Orion appropriately. No need for the Victron Battery Protect device either, since the Orion can be configured to turn off automatically once the voltage goes below 12.05V (AGM 50% State of Charge level). You can then charge it back up using any battery charger - connected to shore power or even via the Yeti (disconnect the Orion at that point if used as a tank). Hope this helps all of you with a GoalZero Yeti. This definitely works well! Cheaper than the Yeti link. Click my RUclips channel and my website details it under the GoalZero tab.
Chris they are rated at 500 full cycles (to 0%) before battery has lost 20% capacity. You can keep using it to 2,000 cycles but it will progressively lose capacity. I think this is the same as the K2 but each company rates them differently. Going to make a video on this topic because it’s unclear comparing. Inergy only lets you cycle to 20% on the K2 so the true available watt hours is 20% less than a Yeti.
Todd Parker that’s exactly what I’ve been wondering. I watch your videos over and over And wonder why doesn’t goal zero put out videos like this. You should get paid for your time anyway so glad I started reading the comments thank you so much for your service
Thank you for this informative video! Well done. I have a Yeti 1,000 lithium and an extra battery from another Yeti 1,000 lithium (no case, just a battery). I’m looking to make use of it. Do you have advice on how I may connect the two together? Thank you!
I am thinking about using the 12v charging cable with the 12v regulator from goal zero to do this, otherwise got to use the inverter and power cord from one yeti to the other
"From reading up, a MPPT controller keeps testing the source by increasing the power until it hits a wall." Not quite. MPPT periodically opens the circuit to measure the open circuit voltage of the solar panel as well as try out different transformation ratios. It isn't a function of the MPPT to "increase power". What it does is change the DC to DC transformation ratio in different ways seeking the optimum combination of volts and amps. But that assumes you have enough extra voltage to play around with input voltage in the first place. What charges the battery is amps. Not volts, not watts. AMPS. Volts are there only to push amps. Now if you have a surplus of volts at a given amps, you can transform this to less voltage and more amps; a thing trivially easy with alternating current but not so easy with direct current. For instance: Going from 120 volts AC at 1 amp will give you 12 volts AC at 10 amps; the power is still 120 watts on each side but 10 amps is a lot more battery charging than 1 amp. Solar panels typically have surplus volts, various charging devices do not. Since the MPPT itself requires power to operate, unless you are using solar panels, using the MPPT is probably detrimental but only slightly so. I get about 15 percent more charging power using MPPT but *only* with solar panels and then only in sunshine when those extra volts exist.
Love the videos, hope you make more. Just ordered a 1000 pretty much based upon the info here on your channel. Was looking at the apex but their forcing us to use their panels sunk the deal for me. Was wondering if you could combine multiple car chargers like you did with the power bricks? Couldn’t you leverage your roof panels in a grid down situation via some charge controller to keep your yeti up?
Hi Todd. As you know I am a big fan, but I feel that I should make it clear that you are not chaining you are only transferring power. There is a big difference!!
I was pretty much just showing that you can use an external battery to charge the Yeti in this video. I agree that true “chaining” is a bit different because the external battery is treated as an extension of the primary battery (as opposed to a charging source), that additional capacity should be reflected in the power meters, and it auto-charges the external battery. I cover this is a charger style setup and that you need to use an external charger so I hope this video doesn’t overstate what I was doing. I used the name in the title so it’s more easily found I searching.
HI Todd. Great explanation! After my last talk with GZ, I have come to realize that the new tank and link will not be true chaining either. The tanks will just be extra storage for the yeti. I think it will be a case of over promise and under deliver. I pre-ordered the new Kodiak Apex. With discounts and shipping it came to $1365.00. The promise of chaining an external lithium ion external battery (to be announced) is promising . I hope that it is not just more of the same. Love your video's. Keep them coming.
Todd Parker Hi,question how can i charge the battleborn using the yeti 1000 and later using the energy store in the battle born back to the yeti.If you have one can you make a video about it,is confusing all the battery voltage and circuit and all of that.Thank you again Todd for always answering
Hi Gabriel. Goal Zero brought out their much anticipated Link and Tank today. It is all very easy to understand and to use. With 4 tanks you can double the capacity of your yeti 3000. There are both good and bad points to this system but you should check it out.
Nice video! Has anyone tried chaining a lithium battery to a yeti 400? Can you mix lead acid batteries with lithium to get the best of both worlds? What kind of connector is the chaining port called? I want to get a connector with rings (for the additional battery) on one end that can plug into the chaining port on the other. Thanks!
You could "chain" this to a Yeti 400 since they are treated as separate systems. You're basically just using the battery + car charger cable to charge it. To recharge the battery, you'd need to use a 12v battery charger plugged into AC power.
@@chriscarpenter5160 Yeah, that's not right. Even drawing down to a 50% DoD, that should give you about 450 watt hours (12v x 75ah x 0.5) and you only got 60wH. I have a AGM battery from the video that dies pretty quickly like that but I've assumed it was because the battery is 4-5 years old and near the end of it's life. I'd like two buy a new lithium battery and see if I get the rated output in this setup.
@@chriscarpenter5160 Just spoke to Goal Zero support and the 12v car adapter will shut off when the external battery hits around 12.2v. A lead acid battery voltage sags quickly so that's probably our problem. A lithium battery has a higher voltage that is steady. He checked with their engineers and they said this setup should work so I'll give it a go
Hi Gabriel seems Texas Tramper found a 5,000btu unit that works, here’s her video on it: ruclips.net/video/I7Vgr1rAnII/видео.html and a deep link to the Frigidaire unit: www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FFRE0533S1-Window-Mounted-Mini-Compact-Full-Function/dp/B01B4XUUDI
Hi Gabriel. I run a 10 amp GE portable a/c with my 3000 and it works great but uses about 700 watts. I recharge the 300 by transferring power from my other yeti lithium in order to extend runtime. Hope that this helps. A/C uses a lot of power and it is a challenge to replace the watts being used quickly.
Todd Parker thank you for always replying back.With the new car charger and the 12volt regulator goal zero have for the yeti lithium do you think I’ll be able to link a yeti 1000 to a 3000 using the 12v from the 1000 to the 8mm input in the 3000? If yes do you think it will run on the 5a or 10a
Hey Todd sorry I’m always asking you but I always like all your videos since I will like to expand my yeti 3000 with lithium batteries,can you explain how to do this using lithium for expansion
Hi Gabriel I'm hoping this video gives you a high-level idea of how to do that. I'd recommend getting a high quality Lithium (LiFePO4) 12v battery like the Battle Born or Renogy that has a good BMS and safety features built in. Will Prowse has a good buyer's guide here: ruclips.net/video/gOqQp2Xjr6U/видео.html. For even more power, you could connect multiple lithium batteries in parallel to stay at 12v but increase the amp hours of the bank. Lithium batteries can handle pushing out power quickly and can cycle deeply all the way to 0% so they will work well for this application. Since a single Goal Zero car charger can only output 120 watts, you'd probably want to attach more than one to keep the 3000 charged if you have heavy output loads. You could sum 3 car chargers (8mm outputs) into the Anderson input for a total of 360 watts (10a). If you had a large enough battery bank, you could scale this up to 6 car chargers with 360 watts going into both the MPPT and PWM Anderson inputs for a total of 720 watts of additional power going into your Yeti. Be sure to protect your batteries from being cycled too deeply and make sure everything has fuses. I hope that makes sense and would love to hear if that works for you...
Todd Parker Thank you for your answer.I hope you make more videos soon.Btw the yeti fast charger are available over the phone,I ordered 2 for my yeti 3000 and they are great they charge my 3000 from 20-100% in 7h and they are only 149 with a fan built in.You should check it out.
Yeah, it’s steep! The 100 can be had for $715 refurbished which I think is the best value out there, even compared to DIY. www.goalzero.com/shop/open-box-product/
I just bought the Yeti 3000 from REI using a 20% voucher - yep they took $600 off the price and free freight to the local REI store so no shipping cost (estimated at $105) - my net price $2399. That is way cheaper than buying all the components
Hi Todd. I have found a way to transfer power from one yeti to another without as much power loss. Plug the new yeti lithium 12v regulator cable into the 12v output of any lithium yeti 1000 or up. Plug the yeti 12v car charger into the female outlet. Plug the 8mm output into any lithium yeti. You do get some loss but not as much as just using a regular yeti 60 watt charger. The regulator increases the voltage which allows this to work. I am so proud of myself !! Not bad for a Polack from New Jersey.
Hi Gregory, thanks for testing that. Makes sense since the step up converter should be pretty efficient going DC to DC. The step up converter I bought off Amazon claimed "up to 96% efficiency". Going from DC > AC > DC is definitely much more lossy though I don't know what % that would be. Where you able to quantify the power losses at all? If you had two Yetis with the 1000 style display, you could at least see how many kWh was output and how many % that moved the target Yeti (wish it told you the input in kWh)
Sir I really appreciate this video here because I own a yeti 1400 and was looking to expand the capacity without going with another goal zero product.
You could also take apart the lead acid expansion tanks and then put in a battleborn battery and have it run at 400-600 watts instead of 60 watts.
Great thinking Todd! Thanks.
Thanks todd. Great video. And great ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for all your great videos!
Thanks Dan, I appreciate it.
But how are the other external batteries recharged, because you have not connected this one in a circuit with the Yeti zero? That would be the ultimate hack for all power stations to perform an alternative capacity expansion?
I explain how this works in the video but the external battery is charged via an Victron battery charger. It recharges the power station by connecting via the cigarette adapter so it’s like it’s being charged in a car. It’s not fully integrated like a real expansion battery so you need to manually charge it.
I have found your yeti videos extremely informative. I purchased a yeti 1000 not too long ago and am blown away by the concept shown here. I was considering getting the link, but now I definitely feel comfortable getting the MPPT instead as you can only have one or the other in your system.
Quick question though, I thought the reason you need that adapter is that they found they couldn't get a constant charge off of different cars 12v output. With a high quality lithium like you mentioned, would you even need the car charger adapter at that point? Would the quality of charge be enough to simple plug straight into the yeti? Granted for $40 it's a small price to pay to ensure healthy equipment.
Thanks!
stonechitlin1 the Yeti lithiums need at least 14 volts to start charging via the inputs. That’s why you need the car charger to step up the voltage from 12v to 16v. It’s not really a matter of quality, just voltage. If you hooked a high quality 12v lithium battery up to the yeti, it wouldn’t charge because the voltage is too low to register.
@@todd.parker This is just charging one lithium battery with another though, the car link has the ability to connect to the car's alternator and charge the lithium battery from 0 to 100% in about 2 hours. You can ideally run another battery inbetween the yeti and the car's battery to double the capacity in parallel ideally which would result in less draw on each of the battery individually. Correct me if im wrong Todd. Its just a theory of mine. I have no experience.
@@yoluckycharmz Inside the case of a Goal Zero lithum battery (or Battleborn or pretty much any Lithium battery) is a BMS; Battery Management System, that monitors the charge state but more importantly accomplishes cell balancing. Between two battery packs there is no communication of SOC (State of Charge) so it is really not so simple to just parallel lithium batteries as it is with lead acid (AGM, gel cells, flooded cells).
So while you could conceivably parallel lithium batteries it seems risky to me. They have very low internal resistance and if the state of charge of one was higher than the other, a very high current could flow from one to the other.
Is the GZ 12v Adapter you use in this video one direction only? Meaning it could be used to charge the Yeti from a 12V source (battery) but you couldn't feed power back to the 12V source FROM the Yeti using this adapter?
I’ve tried plugging the 12v into the yeti’s 12v output and the light on the unit is red so that doesn’t seem to work. Maybe the Yeti doesn’t supply enough voltage?
@@todd.parker Yea maybe, I plan on getting one of those adapters once GZ has them back in stock to do some testing. Worst case I would be able to charge an external battery using the AC inverter but it would be more efficient to do it from the 12V output side.
Duf Agreed. The inverter uses a fair amount of power and if you’re leaving it on the whole time, it will add up fast. Seems there are lots of 12v chargers for batteries out there, just a matter of finding one that works for your battery and doesn’t pull more amps than the Yeti wants to output.
Hey Todd, ya know since 100ah lithium batteries are $950+ why wouldn’t someone just buy a second yeti 1000 which gives you all the additional features for the same price? JS. This is one of the reason I bought the yeti 1000 to begin with. The other being overall weight. I’m hoping lithium prices begin to fall soon
Stream Rolling I keep having the same thought. People complain Goal Zero is expensive but you can get a Yeti 1000 for $715 refurbished which is less than the battery alone! www.goalzero.com/shop/open-box-product/goal-zero-yeti-1000-lithium-portable-power-station-open-box/
@@todd.parker exactly... I was trying to tell another youtuber this. That price is ridiculous. We think alike.
Robert P Yeah, I think the refurbished 1000’s are a steal.
Todd Parker waiting for future videos on Goal zero products,can you make a video in the future of how to transfer the power store on a battleborn to a yeti 1000, I dont know how to install and set up the victron battery protect and also how do I install a battery percentage indicator and like 2 car chargers so I can transfer the energy from the battleborn to the yeti faster
Hi Todd. I just got off the phone with GZ. my concern with tank and link was not being able to deplete the agm battery past 50%. They tell me that is the beauty and true value of the link. The electronics in the link allow you to drain the lead acid battery down to zero and do absolutely no damage to anything and can be charged back up again with no problem! This is a game changer and now it makes sense to me. With this capability explained to me, I now plan to get link and 4 tanks as soon as they are available. Quick math tells me $2000 = over 4,000 kwh _all useable!
Do the tanks actually have a battery in them, or are they just a case that allows you to add your own lead acid battery to them? Annoying that you can't use both the Link and MPPT at the same time...
That sounds both amazing and impossible. It’s like saying they figured out how to get a gas engine that gets 200mph. Did they explain how they are making lead acid not get damaged with that low a depth of discharge? Details are so limited right now I so guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they say spec-wise when it comes out.
Afaik, the Tanks have batteries in them, yes. And I agree that I’m not willing to give up my MPPT module for expansion.
Gregory I just chatted with GZ support and they said the Tank is basically a 1250 battery in a simpler case (no inverter, etc) and they wouldn't say that there was some magic in how it charges to prevent stress on the battery if you deep cycle. The person I spoke to said you can cycle down to 0% and it will be "fine" but you will get longer life out of your battery if you stay with a shallower DoD so it sounds like it's the same as the 1250 or any AGM battery. Maybe my tech wasn't as enthusiastic as yours :)
Hi Todd. First I would like to say that I have a lot of respect for you and the work that you do on RUclips. I do not have the knowledge or understanding that you command on this topic and I am trying to learn as much as possible. If I can not cycle down add on AGM batteries without damage, I guess that I am back to sticking with lithium only. My question is - how far can I drain the lithium? Would 90% or95% be ok?
Can you chain two batteries on the jeti 2500 by using the connector in the back of the jeti and using a YETI 12V CAR CHARGING CABLE in the front at the same time?
Thanks Todd, excellent as usual!
Excellent, thanks for that info.
I believe this setup works since your external battery is lithium and remains at a high enough voltage to keep the car charger on.
Charging my Yeti 1000 with 12 to 19v converter on a deep cycle lead acid battery quickly stopped working due to low battery voltage (11.8) before converter under load.
I was under the impression my converter produces a steady 19v even if source falls below 12v
I will re test with meter on output side of converter to see what it says.
Perhaps a Victron 12/24-Volt 20 amp DC-DC Converter would be a better solution
I agree, this didn’t work nearly as long with my lead acid battery. That Victron looks like a good option
Do you know whether or not Yeti 1250’s old acid battery can be replaced with the lithium phosphate battery? Also what company makes lithium battery that is compatible with Yeti?
I don't think it's a simple job but you might find tutorials out there in the world on this
Theoretically, you could chain several goal zeros together all sizes by just using your preferred cable. For example. Input solar into first GZ (largest) then chain from out to input of the next and so on. Then you can use all output ports on any of your units. Your thoughts?
Hi Steam Rolling. You could chain them that way but it seems best to mostly use the car adapter as a way to connect a plain old battery to the yeti as a charging source. If you already have energy stored in a yeti, it’s probably more efficient to use the outputs on that directly to power something instead of moving it to another yeti. Guessing losses are the enemy here. I do like how you can combine any combination of solar, wall, car, or external battery (via the car charger) into the Yeti. The K2 only lets you choose a single thing to input at a time.
Hi Stream Rolling. I have done this exact thing. Problem is you lose power with each transfer. It is easier to just charge each yeti separately.
Hello and great video and information. Thank you for making this. I have a 1500x, 3000x and 6000x to use in remote cabin locations in alaska. However in research I’m finding the maximum charge limit for the 6000 to be 600watts aka the ac charger. Plugging in anything else does nothign as the controller regulates to a max of 600watts. If you have external batteries of 1.2 kw each chained together and they in turn are ONLY charging the core of the yeti, your output draw in the yeti can outrun your charge rate quite easily. Am I wrong here.
I’m not as familiar with the newer X series and external batteries but in general, that seems about right. GZ units tend to have pretty limited charging rates compared to Ecoflow where you can hit 1,800w easily and scale it down if your power source can’t handle it.
I am trying to figure out how I could have the external battery wired into the Yeti full time for extra reserve yet also have the Yeti refueling the external battery via the inverter or 12V output? Will that actually work? I have the MPPT controller in my 1000 and during the day it produces enough to fully charge the Yeti but it would be nice to have extra reserve.
My understanding is that, yes, that would work fine. The only missing piece is the battery charger. You can use this cable to connect the battery to the Yet’s input and connect the battery charger to the 12v or AC output to keep the external battery charged. I think the link/tank is similar setup under the covers. In my car, I’m using a simple 12v battery charger but there are lots of options. Let me know how it goes!
@@todd.parker Ok it looks like I have some experimentation to do. I was thinking about throwing a SLA battery onto the Yeti. The only thing that I would need to worry about is (well maybe there are other things), is how to control how far the SLA is allowed to discharge into the Yeti as they can only go down to about 50%. More reading to do. I wish I just would have gotten the Yeti 1400 though as it would have been big enough to carry the load through the night.
@@todd.parker Check out these two NOCO products, I think this combo might work for charging the external battery out the 12V port on the Yeti, I'm going to try it. amzn.to/2Zs6VG9 amzn.to/2XAkbXp All I need is to grab a SLA battery and see how it works.
OMG! This is exactly what I’m looking for my Winnebago View RV. I bought the Yeti 3000 and the link expansion module and the female EC8 to ring terminal cord. My car has a chassis battery and 2 house battery. The 2 house battery is charged by shore power or car alternator or/and 500W solar. I have a question, can I leave the solar charger controller connected to the house battery? Or I have to convert it to 8mm and plug it in the Yeti 3000? Your system is like dream come true for RV boon docking. You really should do more marketing in the RV market.
Could you use a ring terminal to Anderson power pole to the same effect? Or does the car charger have a type of regulator that the cable wouldn’t have?
I tried that and it doesn’t seem to charge so the electronics in this adapter help to steady/boost the voltage so the Yeti charges
I've tried connecting my 90ah deep cycle lead acid battery with 285 watt 19vdc boost converter to both the Yeti PWM and MPPT anderson inputs.
As long as a charger was connected to the deep cycle battery I was able to charge the Yeti via PWM input.
As soon as the charger was disconnected the charge gradually dropped to zero, and the battery voltage plummeted below 12v under load .
Results with MPPT were concerning: input watts soared and wire heated up, so I disconnected.
My conclusion is to only charge from an external battery that is being charged. It remains to be seen whether your Victron in lithium charger mode connected to the Yeti EC8 would work- proceed with caution and keep an eye on input wattage.
Yeah, I’d avoid the MPPT because it keeps hunting for more energy. I’ve used the car charger connected to my battery to charge the yeti at 10a safely
nice work!
Question, The factory battery on my 2018 Promaster City is a group 46 and is rated a 120 minutes reserve capacity. I have been deep cycling it a lot so it's not going to last very long... I'd like to (explore) upgrading to Lithium Ion (somehow). Any affordable drop in options that won't void my warranty or hurt the van in any way? How does Reserve Capacity translate in the world of a Lithium Ion?
You should check out the Battleborn lithium batteries, they are designed as drop in lead acid replacements.
Were you able to charge your Yeti in this fashion without the engine/alternator running and charging the battery?
Yes. I should do a test tonight to see how much power my lithium battery can output this way...
The GZ car charger is designed to shut off if your car is off but you can charge it directly from a 12v battery. I just started a test tonight. I discharged the yeti to 50% then connected the Yeti lithium car charger to my 100ah LiFePO4 battery and it’s been steadily charging for 3 hours at 118w on the 10a setting (12%/hr). I can do a full test by running this down to 0% and seeing if this battery can fully recharge the yeti 1000 (it’s 1280wh so it should). I might get a second to see if I can charge at 240w in my car...
Following up on this test. I was able to charge the yeti from 5% to 100% using a goal zero car charging cable directly attached to an external LiFePO4 100ah battery. The battery seemed unable to charge the yeti further, probably because the voltage started to drop but it totally works
Thank you Todd,
I just Subscribed because this video.
My goal zero yeti 1400 lithium power station STOP taking charge (keeps beeping and display turns On/Off) from the wall and car 5A/10A charger. Has anyone try adding another external 100ah lithium lifepo4 battery link chain to make it work again? If so, any recommendation methods on how to make connections?
I'd be interested in your full test results when charging an empty Yeti with a full Battleborn
I did it last night and it completely recharged the yeti 1000 from 5% to 100%. After that the LiFePO4 battery wasn’t putting out enough voltage to charge it extra so 100ah filled the 1000 pretty much exactly. It should have 1,280wh so that’s a bit short but I dunno if that was conversion losses or if the battery still had capacity but the voltage was too low. Anyway, it worked great. I just ordered a second car charger to do some testing with both attached to the battery and charging from my car. I’ll do a video on that eventually,
@@todd.parker Great- I'd love to see a video running this gear. Thanks
@@leftofone working on one now!
Hi Todd, Thank you for the video! I have goal zero 1000 and trying to do the same thing and your video is the only thing I found and it's very informative! I was thinking of getting goal zero bank (which is acid battery) so your video really help me get into a better solution. However, do you know if Battle born lithium battery compatible with goal zero? I checked with Battle born but they didn't seem to know. Thanks again!
Hi there. The only official way to expand your Yeti 1000 is to get the link module with a lead acid tank (boo). I bought a LiFePO4 battery like a Battleborn and have using the Yeti car charging cable to trickle charge the Yeti from that, and using a charger to top off the battery when drained. Not exactly chained but works great. Working on a video now on that setup
@@todd.parker Thanks Todd for the quick reply! I'm looking forward to your new video.
Todd, what do you think thinks of this setup versus the yeti tank vs me buying a used yeti 1000 to increase my capacity. I currently have a yeti 1000 and 5 solar panels for my tiny house. I have a 25 amp grid connection but want to become more off grid
For off grid living, a link/tank setup to s probably better. This is a bit of a hack.
@@todd.parker thanks. Looks like I can buy an additional yeti 1000 for about the same cost as a tank. I think I will try to connect them together to charge the primary as an option otherwise split them on the fuse box to power different items. Will give redundancy with the inverter as well by going that route
cant wait till you review the the link, im betting it can connect to solar panels and bypas current limmits on the mppt
We'll see if I can get my hands on one to test...
Has anyone built a diy lithium yeti charger using a 15 amp, 12v to 19v step up converter connected to a battleborn ?
That's what I'd like to do if I can save up for the battle born
@@todd.parker I'd love to hear about it - have you tried it yet?
And how would you charge the aux battle born lithium batteries?
The simplest way is to plug your battery charger into the AC output of the Yeti if you have solar or a generator running. Even better use a DC to DC charger to avoid AC losses
Hi Todd. Another great video! As always, you make me think about how to make better use of my system. In order to have a longer continuous use of my yeti 3000, I plan to connect the car chargers to my lithium 400"s and then to my 3000. One to PMW and one to MPPT. Both at 10 amp setting. This way I can recharge my 3000 while using it to run a small a/c unit.When the 400's are down to zero, I can recharge them. My car has two 12V outlets. What do you think? Would the other new attachment for constant electric flow help me at all or should I just plug directly into yeti 400 to yeti 3000.
Hi Gregory, all good questions. Seems you could definitely use the 400’s to charge up your 3000. A pair of those should output realistically around 700wh into the bigger Yeti but you’d gain the beefier “front end” of the 3000 - bigger inverter, etc. Each time you move power, there will be losses so if there are smaller appliances you could directly power with the 400’s, that would be a bit more efficient. It depends on what you need to power. The AC definitely needs the 3,000 watts peak inverter! For your car, check to see the fuse situation for each in the manual. Some support up to 15a, some much less depending on how it’s wired. My Mazda CX-9 seemed ok with running one at 10a, I couldn’t test a second one in parallel but I’d bet it would be ok if the car is running.
Hi Todd . I am embarrassed to say that this will not work. The regulator has an Anderson input and the 400 does not have an Anderson output. However it will work with 1000, 1400 and the 3000. I can still transfer power out from the 120a a/c outlets using 4- 60watt chargers from my 2- 400 into my 3000. I know about the power loss ,but what can you do? I am still learning all about this and having lots of fun ,Thanks!! I have two 120 - 10amp outlets in my car so I can charge both with no problem.
gregory howard oh, I thought you were connecting the car adapters into the 12v cigarette outlet on the 400’s to charge the 300. Does that not work? It would keep you in DC-land.
Hi Todd. No. You can not use the 12 volt cigarette outlet with the car charger to transfer power from the 400 to another yeti. The voltage is too low. You need to connect regulator to charger to another yeti but the 400 does not have an Anderson output. However you can do this with any yeti lithium 1000 or up.
gregory howard Interesting so by regulator do you mean this cable? www.goalzero.com/shop/cords-adapters/yeti-lithium-12v-regulated-cable/
It’s becoming clear that this 12v charger doesn’t have a step up converter even thought I measured a higher voltage on the output side. So odd. Seems my DIY step up might be more relevant...
EXCELLENT!!! I’m waiting on my lithium 12v car charger now. So if I understood correctly I should be able to plug in solar to both pwm and mppt controllers on the yeti while using either the 12v lithium cable to charge the external battery and/or while charging with a 110 battery charger plugged into the yet as well? So 2 sources of input to the external battery? Todd can you plug your 110 charger into the yeti and connect it to charge your battery so I can see how many watts it takes when charging the external battery vs how many watts it uses to use GZ new 12 car charger? And also in combination. I know it’s a lot to ask but I think it will give good info.
Stream Rolling One thing to keep in mind is the car charger is only useful as a way to charge a yeti FROM a car or 12v battery, you can’t use it to charge a battery FROM the Yeti. You could plug a battery charger like the NOCO I showed to charge the battery by plugging it into the AC output of the Yeti. That would be useful if, for example, you used a 12v battery to fortify your Yeti overnight, then when the sun is shining you could recharge both the Yeti and external 12v battery from solar panels. Happy to test anything you need me to do, just let me know...
Interesting. I have a 12 volt port wired to a Renogy AGM. I plugged my GZ cable into this port, got a green light, no charge. Pretty frustrating
That’s odd. I’d the renogy battery fully charged? If it’s too low, the output voltage may be too low for the Yeti?
Great video thank you. I want to use a yeti 1400 to power a fiamma hot water tank. Only power I want is hot water and my laptop. i live in Ireland. Can you wire the yeti to regular wiring or only attach plug in devices? Many thanks, Anne
Is the hot water a plug in or hardwired? If it’s less than 1500 watts and a plug, it will work, if hardwired, you’d need the integration kit to wire it to your panel.
@@todd.parker Cheers Todd Parker- haven't worked dat bit out yet - but now I know - thank you!
Did You finally connected LIFEPO4 with Your GoalZero or just lead acid one?
I have my lifepo4 battery connected via the car charger and usually trickle charge the yeti at 5a (60w) from it. I have a charger plugged into the yeti outlet to recharge that battery so it’s not truly chained but doubles my capacity
@@todd.parker Do you have a dc to dc charger in mind you would prefer over your ac charger? I'm looking into Renogy's 20 amp dc-dc charger
@@leftofone I don't have a DC charger yet but should look into one to avoid the inverter loss. Let me know what you end up with...
@@todd.parker Will do. Are you still using the Noco 1100 charger in your previous video? I see they have a brand new line of chargers out now
@@leftofone The NOCO one turns out to be super slow so when I got the LIPO4 12v battery, I bought this one Battleborn recommends and it works great. battlebornbatteries.com/product/blue-smart-ip65-charger-12-15/
Hey Todd, great video! So just to make this clear. You could charge an external lithium battery as well as the yeti through the yeti itself (from solar connected to the yeti) ?
Yes, though it’s sort of a quasi-chaining. I’ve used a 100ah lithium battery that is connected to a charger that is plugged into the Yeti’s AC output (a DC charger would be better) to recharge the external battery. This battery has the GZ 12v auto charger connected to the Yeti’s charging input to trickle charge it at 5-10amps. So the batteries aren’t really aware of each other but they can keep each other charged. Hoping the next gen Yetis support true chaining with lithium - current are only lead acid and the link module takes the expansion slot
@@todd.parker Does stepping up a battleborn or any 12v battery to 19vdc at an acceptable wattage to charge the Yeti 1000 via the PWM or MPPT work? If not, why?
leftofone it should work, yes. I’ve been using the yeti lithium car charger connected to my external lithium battery as a way to ensure the yeti is happy. Oddly, GZ says that adapter isn’t a step up and instead just regulates the current to keep the yeti from pulling too much. They also say the yeti needs 16v or more to kick kin the charger. When I tested the output, I swear I saw 16v and showed that in my video.
@@todd.parker initial testing using a 19 volt, 15 amp, 285 watt dc to dc boost converter powered by 18 ah lead acid works!
Puzzled why Yeti 1000 lithium screen only shows 125 watts input, tho
@@todd.parker Hi Todd - your GoalZero videos are absolutely great! This video in particular got me thinking how I can charge my Yeti 1000 while I drive - without having to buy the proprietary Yeti Link. I bought the Victron Orion 12/24-15 Isolated DC to DC Charger, connected it directly to my Sprinter van battery terminals. No need for a fuse since this particular Orion unit has a built-in fuse. I used 8 awg wire from the starter battery to the Orion, then 10 awg wire from the Orion to a stacked APP connector which then plugs in directly into the PWM APP input port. From there I used the VictronConnect android app, and configured it such that the output voltage is 21.0V (staying within the 15V-22V Yeti limits). Since the Sprinter van has a smart alternator, I can configure the Victron to turn on when the voltage is greater than 13.4V, and turns off automatically when the van is off and the voltage is therefore below 13.2V. This setup is absolutely awesome! While the engine is on, the Yeti screen shows roughly 320W input. No need for solar if you drive a lot like I do in between campsites or cities. You'd get tons of views on a follow up video if you did one with this kind of setup. You could also go a step further and use the Orion on a house battery connected to Yeti so it acts like a storage tank. You'd just have to configure the Orion appropriately. No need for the Victron Battery Protect device either, since the Orion can be configured to turn off automatically once the voltage goes below 12.05V (AGM 50% State of Charge level). You can then charge it back up using any battery charger - connected to shore power or even via the Yeti (disconnect the Orion at that point if used as a tank). Hope this helps all of you with a GoalZero Yeti. This definitely works well! Cheaper than the Yeti link. Click my RUclips channel and my website details it under the GoalZero tab.
Nice video!! What's the charge cycles for the yeti 1000?
Chris they are rated at 500 full cycles (to 0%) before battery has lost 20% capacity. You can keep using it to 2,000 cycles but it will progressively lose capacity. I think this is the same as the K2 but each company rates them differently. Going to make a video on this topic because it’s unclear comparing. Inergy only lets you cycle to 20% on the K2 so the true available watt hours is 20% less than a Yeti.
Todd Parker that’s exactly what I’ve been wondering. I watch your videos over and over And wonder why doesn’t goal zero put out videos like this. You should get paid for your time anyway so glad I started reading the comments thank you so much for your service
Thank you for this informative video! Well done. I have a Yeti 1,000 lithium and an extra battery from another Yeti 1,000 lithium (no case, just a battery). I’m looking to make use of it. Do you have advice on how I may connect the two together? Thank you!
I am thinking about using the 12v charging cable with the 12v regulator from goal zero to do this, otherwise got to use the inverter and power cord from one yeti to the other
Ofer Morag Do you still have the case from the Yeti you pulled the battery from?
Any way to do this in reverse for a 6v 235ah battery?
Hmmm, no sure. The Yeti like 16 volts or more so you' need a boost converter to get there from 6v
"From reading up, a MPPT controller keeps testing the source by increasing the power until it hits a wall."
Not quite. MPPT periodically opens the circuit to measure the open circuit voltage of the solar panel as well as try out different transformation ratios. It isn't a function of the MPPT to "increase power". What it does is change the DC to DC transformation ratio in different ways seeking the optimum combination of volts and amps. But that assumes you have enough extra voltage to play around with input voltage in the first place.
What charges the battery is amps. Not volts, not watts. AMPS. Volts are there only to push amps. Now if you have a surplus of volts at a given amps, you can transform this to less voltage and more amps; a thing trivially easy with alternating current but not so easy with direct current. For instance: Going from 120 volts AC at 1 amp will give you 12 volts AC at 10 amps; the power is still 120 watts on each side but 10 amps is a lot more battery charging than 1 amp.
Solar panels typically have surplus volts, various charging devices do not. Since the MPPT itself requires power to operate, unless you are using solar panels, using the MPPT is probably detrimental but only slightly so.
I get about 15 percent more charging power using MPPT but *only* with solar panels and then only in sunshine when those extra volts exist.
Wow, thanks for all this super detailed information, really appreciate it!
Love the videos, hope you make more. Just ordered a 1000 pretty much based upon the info here on your channel. Was looking at the apex but their forcing us to use their panels sunk the deal for me.
Was wondering if you could combine multiple car chargers like you did with the power bricks? Couldn’t you leverage your roof panels in a grid down situation via some charge controller to keep your yeti up?
Hi Todd. As you know I am a big fan, but I feel that I should make it clear that you are not chaining you are only transferring power. There is a big difference!!
I was pretty much just showing that you can use an external battery to charge the Yeti in this video. I agree that true “chaining” is a bit different because the external battery is treated as an extension of the primary battery (as opposed to a charging source), that additional capacity should be reflected in the power meters, and it auto-charges the external battery. I cover this is a charger style setup and that you need to use an external charger so I hope this video doesn’t overstate what I was doing. I used the name in the title so it’s more easily found I searching.
HI Todd. Great explanation! After my last talk with GZ, I have come to realize that the new tank and link will not be true chaining either. The tanks will just be extra storage for the yeti. I think it will be a case of over promise and under deliver. I pre-ordered the new Kodiak Apex. With discounts and shipping it came to $1365.00. The promise of chaining an external lithium ion external battery (to be announced) is promising . I hope that it is not just more of the same. Love your video's. Keep them coming.
Todd Parker Hi,question how can i charge the battleborn using the yeti 1000 and later using the energy store in the battle born back to the yeti.If you have one can you make a video about it,is confusing all the battery voltage and circuit and all of that.Thank you again Todd for always answering
Hi Gabriel. Goal Zero brought out their much anticipated Link and Tank today. It is all very easy to understand and to use. With 4 tanks you can double the capacity of your yeti 3000. There are both good and bad points to this system but you should check it out.
Hi Gregory sorry I was talking about the battleborn
Nice video! Has anyone tried chaining a lithium battery to a yeti 400? Can you mix lead acid batteries with lithium to get the best of both worlds? What kind of connector is the chaining port called? I want to get a connector with rings (for the additional battery) on one end that can plug into the chaining port on the other. Thanks!
You could "chain" this to a Yeti 400 since they are treated as separate systems. You're basically just using the battery + car charger cable to charge it. To recharge the battery, you'd need to use a 12v battery charger plugged into AC power.
Anyone has try this with a battleborn battery?
That would be ideal
I tried the same thing with the same NOCO plug, and the car charger turned red, not green
Was the battery charged up?
@@todd.parker yes, switched to AGM deep cycle 75ah, only lasted about an hour drawing 60 watts
@@chriscarpenter5160 Yeah, that's not right. Even drawing down to a 50% DoD, that should give you about 450 watt hours (12v x 75ah x 0.5) and you only got 60wH. I have a AGM battery from the video that dies pretty quickly like that but I've assumed it was because the battery is 4-5 years old and near the end of it's life. I'd like two buy a new lithium battery and see if I get the rated output in this setup.
Chris Carpenter I just ordered a 100aH lithium battery so look for a follow up video once I get some testing done.
@@chriscarpenter5160 Just spoke to Goal Zero support and the 12v car adapter will shut off when the external battery hits around 12.2v. A lead acid battery voltage sags quickly so that's probably our problem. A lithium battery has a higher voltage that is steady. He checked with their engineers and they said this setup should work so I'll give it a go
Have anyone try to power a 5000btu out of a yeti 1000 and larger?
Hi Gabriel seems Texas Tramper found a 5,000btu unit that works, here’s her video on it: ruclips.net/video/I7Vgr1rAnII/видео.html and a deep link to the Frigidaire unit: www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FFRE0533S1-Window-Mounted-Mini-Compact-Full-Function/dp/B01B4XUUDI
Thank you Todd
Hi Gabriel. I run a 10 amp GE portable a/c with my 3000 and it works great but uses about 700 watts. I recharge the 300 by transferring power from my other yeti lithium in order to extend runtime. Hope that this helps. A/C uses a lot of power and it is a challenge to replace the watts being used quickly.
Thank you gregory, I guess I will be using fans intead.
Todd Parker thank you for always replying back.With the new car charger and the 12volt regulator goal zero have for the yeti lithium do you think I’ll be able to link a yeti 1000 to a 3000 using the 12v from the 1000 to the 8mm input in the 3000? If yes do you think it will run on the 5a or 10a
Hey Todd sorry I’m always asking you but I always like all your videos since I will like to expand my yeti 3000 with lithium batteries,can you explain how to do this using lithium for expansion
Hi Gabriel I'm hoping this video gives you a high-level idea of how to do that. I'd recommend getting a high quality Lithium (LiFePO4) 12v battery like the Battle Born or Renogy that has a good BMS and safety features built in. Will Prowse has a good buyer's guide here: ruclips.net/video/gOqQp2Xjr6U/видео.html.
For even more power, you could connect multiple lithium batteries in parallel to stay at 12v but increase the amp hours of the bank. Lithium batteries can handle pushing out power quickly and can cycle deeply all the way to 0% so they will work well for this application.
Since a single Goal Zero car charger can only output 120 watts, you'd probably want to attach more than one to keep the 3000 charged if you have heavy output loads. You could sum 3 car chargers (8mm outputs) into the Anderson input for a total of 360 watts (10a). If you had a large enough battery bank, you could scale this up to 6 car chargers with 360 watts going into both the MPPT and PWM Anderson inputs for a total of 720 watts of additional power going into your Yeti. Be sure to protect your batteries from being cycled too deeply and make sure everything has fuses.
I hope that makes sense and would love to hear if that works for you...
Todd Parker Thank you for your answer.I hope you make more videos soon.Btw the yeti fast charger are available over the phone,I ordered 2 for my yeti 3000 and they are great they charge my 3000 from 20-100% in 7h and they are only 149 with a fan built in.You should check it out.
dam that's interesting.
I want one of these so bad but I just can't bring myself to drop $3000 for everything I want
Yeah, it’s steep! The 100 can be had for $715 refurbished which I think is the best value out there, even compared to DIY. www.goalzero.com/shop/open-box-product/
I just bought the Yeti 3000 from REI using a 20% voucher - yep they took $600 off the price and free freight to the local REI store so no shipping cost (estimated at $105) - my net price $2399. That is way cheaper than buying all the components