Bluetti AC200 Max Expandable Power Station

I have seen over a hundred new portable power stations come out in the last two years and every time a new product comes out, a new/unique feature will follow. It was 2019 when Bluetti launched their EB150 battery station. It was a basic, minimal battery backup with no fancy stuff. But see today, those battery stations have become smarter, aesthetic, compact and more efficient. Also, these days, if you have a station with decent battery capacity, you can run your entire house, even HVAC (Yes, Bluetti EP500 can do it).

Talking about the company, Maxoak which is the parent company of Bluetti product series has gained a lot of traction in the last few years. If I am not mistaken, they have the widest variety of power stations in the entire market. Their portable power solutions are suitable for devices as small as CPAP to something as big as a TESLA car.

Keeping other stuff behind, let us dive into AC200 Max power station which is the next version of AC200 or AC200P unit. AC200 was a huge hit in the crowdfunding stage but AC200 Max is even better because of the enhanced features and MAINLY, expandable battery.

Design and Build

Very similar to AC200. Has two wireless phone chargers on top, a bunch of outlets on the front, some more outlets and inlets on the sides. I don’t want to go deeper because everything is the same as I wrote in the AC200 review article.

One major change: We don’t have the 220V AC output ports in AC200MAX power station whereas AC200 had two such ports. Unless you want to use this battery station outside the US or in the countries that use voltage above 220V (ex: UK or India), you don’t have to worry about it. But from my experience, 220V devices support 110V input whereas 110V rated devices may get damaged when plugged into a 220V port.

We do have a 120V/30A RV Shore Power port in place of 220V ports. I think this port is used for high-power applications.

Features of AC200Max

This is an important section because I am going to highlight the special features and their usefulness.

Power Capacity

A small increase from 2000W to 2200W is not significant. If you need an example to understand what power capacity is, please refer to my AC200 article.

Surge Rating

AC200Max has a surge rating of up to 4800W which is great but the same as AC200. This means you can easily run a 4500W device momentarily (a minute or so). If the device keeps on consuming more than 4800W for more than two minutes, the power station automatically turns off.

Surge is very helpful for power tools that consume more current when it is turned on and eventually come down after a minute or so.

Battery Capacity – This is a very important section

This is where the money is parked in AC200Max. Battery capacity is very important in determining how long the power station can provide backup to a device or home.

AC200 had an in-built battery of 1700Wh which is decent but nothing special there. BUT, AC200Max has an in-built battery of 2048Wh which is a big thing.

To give you an example, a 150Ah, 12V battery will have a capacity of 1800Wh and it is the battery used for UPS inverters for homes.

That’s not all, you can add external battery units to AC200Max. How cool is that? Well, let me rephrase it, how useful is that?

Yes, you can add 2 additional battery modules to this power station. Bluetti announced their B230 and B300 battery modules recently and both of them are compatible with AC200Max.

B200 Battery – 2048Wh capacity each which can easily power a clothes dryer (2000W) for an hour

B300 Battery – 3072Wh capacity each

AC200Max can take two such batteries. So the total capacity would be 2*2048 + 2048 (inbuilt) = 6,144Wh. WHOA!

My parents have a huge house (10,000+ sq ft) and they are using a solar inverter with two 12V 150Ah batteries and it can easily power the entire house for two days. Of course, without AC. And you know that two 150Ah batteries are equivalent to 3600Wh. But AC200Max with two B200 batteries would give you nearly twice, and the best part, it is portable!

That’s not it. If you choose to go with their B300 battery, you can increase the total battery capacity to 8,192Wh which is just crazy.

I can probably take this power station to the Himalayas and live under the radar for at least a week lol.

Remember, More power = more devices, more battery = more duration

Side Note: AC200 or AC200P version can also take in one battery module via the solar input port. You just have to use a converter cable. So the total capacity of the power station can be increased to 1700 + 3072 = 4772Wh which is decent enough.

AC200 Max as Home UPS

I gave it a thought and yes, it is possible to have this as a home inverter. As I mentioned in the previous section, if we use the extra battery modules, we can expand the capacity to at least 4096Wh and at most 8192Wh both of which are decent enough to keep a home running for hours if not days. But if you are using high power devices such as HVAC, cloth dryer, Oven, etc, then the backup duration will be down.

At my parent’s place, we have a 3800Wh battery with a 1600W inverter and 700W solar panel. It is more than enough to power my laptop, a bunch of lights, TV, mixer, refrigerator, a few IP cameras for at least 3 days. At least for me, AC200 Max will make a very good home UPS.

5 Ways to Recharge

• AC Adapter – This is via your typical AC outlet port. The input power is 500W. It also supports dual AC charging at 1000W.
• Solar Panel – Since AC200Max has an integrated MPPT charging station, it can be charged via a solar panel. A maximum of 900W solar panel can be used and the battery takes around 3.5 hours to fully charge. I would recommend using a portable solar panel that you can carry around. You can combine AC with Solar charging to get the input to about 1400W max for faster charging.
• Car – This battery generator can be charged via your car. It supports both 12V and 24V car input.
• Gas Generator – This is straightforward. You can use the AC output of the gas generator to recharge the AC200Max battery.
• Lead Acid Battery –  Supports 12V or 25V lead-acid battery. You can also use multiple batteries in parallel connections for more current.

AC200Max has a lot of other subtle features like LCD display, ports, etc but I will not be touching them in the article because those are very similar to the AC200P version. So, you can refer to my AC200P article here.

Bluetti AC200Max Performance

Assuming you have used two B200 batteries. So the total capacity is at 6144Wh

* The numbers are approximate. Efficiency may vary.

Editor’s Verdict

AC200Max has an excellent battery capacity, hands down. It is not easy to offer this much capacity at such a small and portable device. If you are looking for a higher-end power station, you can definitely go with this. Having an expandable battery option is always good because you can power your devices for an extended period. Costing around two grand, this is not affordable to many. But if you are confused between this and the AC200P version, just go with this, a $200 savings is not worth it in front of the features AC200Max has to offer.

Before you purchase a power station, make sure you are going to utilize the power and battery capacities. If your purpose is to run CPAP, then you don’t need a huge battery station like this. On the flip side, if you want to run a portable air conditioner for days, these power stations will not help you there as well. So, list down some of the devices you want to power and go from there.