Yeti 3000x + 200 watt solar on sale

[IGBT]

It is an expensive option but Costco just put the Yeti 3000x package with 200 watt Boulder solar kit on sale for $2700.

The Yeti 3000x alone on the Goal Zero site is $3400.

I have the slightly older yeti 3000, which has a 1500 watt pure sine inverter instead of the 2000 watt version in the 3000x but I absolutely love mine and use it all the time in the van for camping, powering tools on the job site, running the fridge for days without solar, etc.  It has the equivalent of about four lead acid batteries of lithium cells and seems very reliable.

I know the $2700 is a kick in the teeth though but just wanted to give a heads up.

 

[tx2sturgis]

I went to the Cosco website and typed in Yeti and....oops....'log in to see price' and 'members only'.

So...I'll take your word for it.

 

[RvDreams]

Costco is a members only warehouse.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Right, but it seems to me that Cosco should show the price to get the viewer 'interested'...like Sam's does.

And posting a 'members only' deal, where I have to join and pay to play, or even see the price, would likely have limited appeal. Or so it seems to me.

Actually I didn't know Costco sold camping equipment, so there is value in that.

 

[IGBT]

Yes, sorry, a member only warehouse store.  It is a fairly cheap membership though and I think you can cancel and get your money back if you are not satisfied (like $40?)

I wish I had not looked at this kit cause now my older yeti 3000 is very jealous.  I have had the 3000 for about 3 years and it is still way above the expected life after many cycles so I don't know where they are pulling the 500 cycle life from.  I think it is probably something like 1000+ cycles with normal use (not always going from 100% to 0%, but maybe 100% to 30% then recharging).

The new version comes with the 230 watt fast charger (I had to buy one for $120 on sale)
Has a regulated 12V 30 amp port now for powering 12V fridges and other things
Has a built in 600 watt MPPT solar charger (mine was included but had a much smaller voltage range and was 400 watt max)
2000 watt continuous 3500 watt surge inverter (my 1500/3000 can't start my big chop saw but I bet this would do it)

Oh well, maybe in another 5 years my old one will die.

 

[ldsreliance]

Good grief. I'll never understand the appeal.

 

[IGBT]

Good grief.  I'll never understand the appeal.

It isn't for everyone that is for sure.

Still, it is compact, ready to go, easy to use, has a 24 month warranty from a reliable company and is a fairly good value as a sum of parts.

3000 watt-hr of lithium with a 24 month warranty by itself is something like $1500 by the time you include bms and charging solutions.

A 2000 watt pure sine inverter is a few hundred bucks.  A 230 watt wall charger is over $100 just for the meanwell power supply.

A 600 watt mppt solar charger is $100 or more.


200 watt folding solar suitcase is $200 or more.

Pretty soon you get to the point where a cobbled together duct tape and tackle box solution is more than the yeti.

 

[ldsreliance]

The main problem is the batteries in the GoalZero and most portable power station are garbage.  They are only good for 500 cycles @ 80% DoD.  You can see so yourself in the tech specs (https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/goal-zero-yeti-3000x-portable-power-station/).  Any halfway decent grade A lithium cell should last 2,000+ cycles at 80% DoD.  All of the ones that I carry go for 4,000+ cycles at 80% DoD.

So if we compare piecing together your own:

A 3kWh lithium battery is about $1200 with a 10 year warranty and over 3,000 cycles (BigBattery Owl MAX 2 - DM me for coupon code if interested).  It weighs 50 pounds and is significantly smaller than the 3000x (Owl is 10 inches by 12 inches by 7 inches).

A Renogy 12V 2000W pure sine inverter is $270 at Home Depot right now and has a higher peak surge at 4,000W.

A Renogy 200W folding solar suitcase with MPPT controller is $380 right now.

I will give you the wall charger.  A charger with Anderson powerpole connectors is rare and expensive (about $150).

But that is still only $2050 total and you get an infinitely superior battery, 5x more warranty, higher surge capacity in the battery and inverter, you can replace individual components if something fails after the warranty instead of throwing the whole thing away, and you can add on more batteries in the future if you choose to do so.

I agree that a lot of people want an easy-to-use package and don't need to wire anything up or burn any brain calories trying to put a system together.  But even at this heavily discounted price, this is not a good deal for performance, value, or longevity.  Like at all.

 

[jacqueg]

Right, but it seems to me that Cosco should show the price to get the viewer 'interested'...like Sam's does.

And posting a 'members only' deal, where I have to join and pay to play, or even see the price, would likely have limited appeal. Or so it seems to me.

Actually I didn't know Costco sold camping equipment, so there is value in that.

Costco sells a lot of camping equipment, usually in the spring - it's seasonal for them.

Basic membership is $50/year. You can share it with a family member or a friend if you want to. I easily get back my membership by buying their gas. Depends on where you travel.

 

[IGBT]

The main problem is the batteries in the GoalZero and most portable power station are garbage.  They are only good for 500 cycles @ 80% DoD.  You can see so yourself in the tech specs (https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/goal-zero-yeti-3000x-portable-power-station/).  Any halfway decent grade A lithium cell should last 2,000+ cycles at 80% DoD.  All of the ones that I carry go for 4,000+ cycles at 80% DoD.

So if we compare piecing together your own:

A 3kWh lithium battery is about $1200 with a 10 year warranty and over 3,000 cycles (BigBattery Owl MAX 2 - DM me for coupon code if interested).  It weighs 50 pounds and is significantly smaller than the 3000x (Owl is 10 inches by 12 inches by 7 inches).

A Renogy 12V 2000W pure sine inverter is $270 at Home Depot right now and has a higher peak surge at 4,000W.

A Renogy 200W folding solar suitcase with MPPT controller is $380 right now.

I will give you the wall charger.  A charger with Anderson powerpole connectors is rare and expensive (about $150).

But that is still only $2050 total and you get an infinitely superior battery, 5x more warranty, higher surge capacity in the battery and inverter, you can replace individual components if something fails after the warranty instead of throwing the whole thing away, and you can add on more batteries in the future if you choose to do so.

I agree that a lot of people want an easy-to-use package and don't need to wire anything up or burn any brain calories trying to put a system together.  But even at this heavily discounted price, this is not a good deal for performance, value, or longevity.  Like at all.

Can you provide a link to the big battery owl max 2?  I am getting errors when searching for that which doesn't give warm and fuzzy feelings on a 10 year warranty.  Also, how long have they been in business?  I would hope at least 5 years to have some history of warranty reputation.


$1200 for a 3kw-h battery with all the support equipment sounds like a great deal and I am interested.

 

[IGBT]

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/bigbattery-reply-to-will-prowse-bashing-videos-on-youtube.23955/

Some entertaining reading for sure.   Not my cup of tea company but it bigbattery works for you then awesome!

 

[IGBT]

"I have no issues with Will's video. I thought it was extremely fair considering the issues I have had with Big Battery and the three 12V Owl Max units I purchased. Even after the leaking electrolyte issue Will had, I stayed the course with BB as my units were in the shipping process at the time and I wanted to support a USA company and a product assembled in the USA with USA support. That did me little good. The return process was a cluster "F" to say the least. Started the process May 27 and it's still ongoing. When the BB customer service folks are frustrated with the BB shipping department for lack of response getting RMA's after several requests over a week, then that should tell you something @MrGreen . Then the pure BS with FedEx. BB can play the victim card all you'd like. With my first hand experience, I know better."

 

[ldsreliance]

Can you provide a link to the big battery owl max 2?  I am getting errors when searching for that which doesn't give warm and fuzzy feelings on a 10 year warranty.  Also, how long have they been in business?  I would hope at least 5 years to have some history of warranty reputation.


$1200 for a 3kw-h battery with all the support equipment sounds like a great deal and I am interested.

https://bigbattery.com/products/12v-owl-max2-lifepo4-228ah-3-018kwh/

 

[ldsreliance]

You can always find poor reviews for any product. Here are some for GoalZero:

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/goalzero.com

"After owning multiple of their products and over $1000 invested, I can firmly say I'll never buy from them again. They come out with "innovative" designs that fail immediately after the warranty period is up and there is ZERO support to try and fix them. They will not even respond to acknowledge your issue. They do not care about their customers or their products beyond getting them sold once. Save your money and get better products from another company. Hese are as reliable as the chinese knock off except 10x the price. Example: Goal Zero Lighthouse 250 ($80 lantern) will not turn off until the battery is drained... useless unless plugged into a power source and then you would have to cover it up with something to go to sleep and recharge before the net use"

 

[IGBT]

Very true.  I have found several poor reviews about goal zero and nearly every other product lol.

 

[Tom_M]

The main problem is the batteries in the GoalZero and most portable power station are garbage.  They are only good for 500 cycles @ 80% DoD.  You can see so yourself in the tech specs (https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/goal-zero-yeti-3000x-portable-power-station/).  Any halfway decent grade A lithium cell should last 2,000+ cycles at 80% DoD.  All of the ones that I carry go for 4,000+ cycles at 80% DoD.

You are comparing apples to oranges. GoalZero is using Li-ion NMC (Lithium-Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt-Oxide) chemistry. The number of cycles for NMC is a lot less than LiFePo4 but there may be other advantages.

 

[IGBT]

From what I have read the YETI 3000 would be about 90 pounds using LFP instead of the current 70 pounds so I guess weight was one of the main reasons.  It is already very heavy at 70 pounds.  Just my guess.

 

[IGBT]

The owl max 2 is 52 pounds 10.25 x 7.5 x 13.1

The Renogy 2000 watt inverter is 11.7 pounds  [font=Biryani, sans-serif]17.8 x 8.6 x 4 in[/font]

[font=Biryani, sans-serif]Renogy 30 amp mppt charge controller is 3 pounds [size=medium][font=Biryani, sans-serif]8.27 x 5.94 x 2.34 in[/font][/font][/size]

[font=Biryani, sans-serif][size=medium][font=Biryani, sans-serif]Those are the main parts that match the specs on the yeti 3000x but then you also have quite a bit of heavy gauge interconnect wire, fusing (some fusing already in the owl max though), and a case to put everything in.  Based on the dimensions of above, I think you would be lucky to get it all to fit in a large cooler that would weigh 10 pounds by itself.  You would probably want to mount some fans on the cooler or some sort of thermal management.  I am also leaving off the USB options that the goal zero has as they may not be important for all but it does have a 5-20v USB C-PD port that can provide 60 watts which is what a lot of laptops use now.[/font][/font][/size]

So Goal Zero YETI 3000x has the advantage of compact (at least half the size of a component system) and lower weight (68 pounds vs 75 to 90 pounds) plus zero effort in assembling.

The other system has the advantage of quite a bit longer life (2x to 4x longer or more) and you can expand it and replace individual components.  It requires some work to gather and assemble components plus tools to build the enclosure and wiring.

I think both are valid options depending on people's situation.   I am a EE and I go for the 3000x just because I recognize the effort required to integrate all of the components into a compact easy to use package that I can pick up.  It is the same reason I buy a laptop sometimes over building my own system from motherboard and monitors.

 

[Ripper238]

Right, but it seems to me that Cosco should show the price to get the viewer 'interested'...like Sam's does.

And posting a 'members only' deal, where I have to join and pay to play, or even see the price, would likely have limited appeal. Or so it seems to me.

Actually I didn't know Costco sold camping equipment, so there is value in that.

They also sell cheap top tier gas. Its the one reason I am a member besides the occasional bulk order. The Costco in CT was at 2.65 last week for regular.

 

[tx2sturgis]

The closest brick-n-mortar Costco to me is 75 miles away. 

So I have no desire to be a member. I used to maintain a membership to Sam's Club but again, the nearest club was 75 miles away and it was rare that I bought anything other than the occasional 5 gallon bucket of detergent or a low-priced laptop or printer once every 5 years or so. 

I get it: If you are near one (meaning you live or are staying in a built-up urban area) then yeah, take advantage of one or the other.

But I'm out here in the sticks!

Having said that, yes, you can order stuff online but having to PAY just to be able to see prices on the website seems odd...and not at all 'user friendly' to the vast majority of members here.