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Bluetti Handsfree 2 Backpack Power Station Review | Next Level Portable Power?
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Dec 10, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a detailed review of the unique Bluetti Handsfree 2 Backpack Power station - combing a 60L backpack with a self contained 512Wh power station with a 700W inverter. | Check out the text review: https://tinyurl.com/Handsfree2DA | Purchase the Bluetti Handsfree 2 @ Bluetti USA https://shrsl.com/4rpz4 | Amazon https://amzn.to/4eQBn27 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4i79ups | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3VbaBKZ Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept 1:27 - Power Station Specs
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:11
the point of portable power stations has
0:13
always been to get power off grid to
0:16
where you need it but blue Eddy's
0:18
handsfree 2 has taken that to a whole
0:20
another level incorporating a 512 wat
0:24
hour power station into a 60 L backpack
0:29
today we're going to explore if that
0:31
Union pays
0:34
dividends the bluetti handsfree 2 packs
0:37
a 700 watt inverter but thanks to their
0:40
power lift technology I can run even
0:43
more higher powered things and make a
0:45
cup of tea or have a little bit of
0:46
oatmeal even out in the
0:57
wilderness cheers so with the blue Eddie
1:01
handsfree 2 you can have both DC and AC
1:05
power on the go You' got AC on one side
1:08
DC on the other now the downside to this
1:11
configuration of course is that big
1:12
batteries aren't light so you're going
1:14
to be starting at 16 and2 PBS or 7 and 1
1:17
12 kilos on your back before you store
1:20
anything else in there so do this whole
1:23
concept make sense that's what we're
1:25
going to explore in today's review so
1:27
obviously there are two components of
1:29
this particular review we have the power
1:31
station itself and then of course the
1:33
backpack performance itself so we'll
1:35
start by taking a look at the power
1:37
station now right now at the moment that
1:39
I'm doing this review there's sales on
1:41
and so you can get this arrangement for
1:43
about 400 US bucks now that's pretty
1:45
awesome obviously it all is built around
1:48
a fully removable 512 wat hour uh
1:53
battery storage here this is lithium
1:55
iron phosphate it is rated for 4,000
1:58
charge cycles up to 80% so that's more
2:01
than 10 years of daily full recharge
2:04
Cycles the inverter itself is 700 Watts
2:07
but there is 1200 watts of lifting power
2:10
and I find that that actually lasts for
2:11
quite a while which becomes relevant
2:13
when we get to some of our test segment
2:15
it has blue 's powerlift technology that
2:17
allows you to run certain High draw
2:19
items even if uh to run them even if
2:22
they exceed the actual raid capacity of
2:25
it itself you have the typical three
2:27
ways to charge the actual power station
2:30
itself and so the first of those is
2:32
obviously via AC and you can charge at
2:34
up to 600 watts of input so that takes
2:37
45 minutes to charge to 80% or 1.3 hours
2:41
to 100% you can also charge via a car
2:45
input style and that is depending on
2:48
whether you have 12vt or 24volt output
2:51
there in that configuration so if it's
2:52
12 Vol volt it's going to take 5.8 hours
2:55
but it will drop to 3.1 hours if you're
2:58
charging at 24 vol you can also charge
3:01
via solar and that can have input which
3:04
is surprisingly good of up to 350 watts
3:07
and that's via the xt60 connection here
3:10
and so you can get up to
3:12
350 watts of input I actually found that
3:15
it was pretty good too in my test in
3:17
terms of the charge rate but if you're
3:19
getting that maximum 350 Watts which by
3:21
the way you'll probably never achieve
3:23
but in the perfect world if you could
3:25
achieve that you could do that in about
3:27
2 hours now obviously your real world
3:30
solar charging is going to be wholly
3:32
dependent on how good your actual
3:34
sunlight is the angle your panels all of
3:36
those things the actual Power Station
3:39
itself does not have a dedicated IP
3:42
rating but of course it's designed to be
3:44
carried within this configuration and
3:45
access from the side so if you've got
3:47
this closed up the actual backpack
3:50
itself is quite weatherproof and then if
3:52
you need further it actually has a
3:54
dedicated rain hood that is packed in
3:57
here that you can cover the whole
3:58
shebang with to make make sure that
4:00
you're keeping it completely out of the
4:01
elements so not too bad of configuration
4:04
there as mentioned in the intro the
4:06
total weight between the backpack and
4:07
the power station is 16 12 PB or 7.5 kog
4:12
and so of that the power station itself
4:14
constitutes about 13 of those pounds so
4:18
the vast majority of it overall size
4:20
configuration here it's
4:22
305 mimet in length 105 millimet in
4:26
width and 305 millim in overall depth
4:30
now the actual LCD screen itself it's
4:32
not huge but it is clear and bright if
4:35
you're uh familiar with blue Eddie
4:36
products as I am all the relevant
4:39
information is where it should be where
4:41
you would expect it to be this also
4:43
happens to be Bluetooth compatible and
4:46
so you can actually access it via the
4:47
Bluetooth app remotely and change
4:50
settings kind of overview how your
4:52
charge rate is going or your output rate
4:54
how much time you have left firmware
4:56
updates all of those different
4:58
configurations so that's obvious
4:59
obvously very very useful there is a
5:02
5-year warranty on this which is good
5:05
there is as mentioned bluetooth app
5:06
control there's even a UPS mode and
5:09
power pass through if you wanted to use
5:11
it in that kind of configuration what
5:13
comes in the box is the backpack the
5:15
charge power station there's an AC and
5:18
solar charging cables along with a
5:20
manual you can actually get a combo I
5:23
don't have it here but you can get a
5:24
combo with a portable solar panel that
5:26
will attach to the backpack itself and a
5:29
full fold out and it it actually folds
5:31
out in sections and so that you can you
5:34
know however tall you are you can fold
5:35
out as many sections as that and so you
5:37
can actually use it while uh backpacking
5:40
and hiking and maybe get a little bit of
5:41
charge As you move along though
5:43
obviously you're rarely going to be in
5:45
maybe the optimal Sun position unless
5:47
you happen to be walking in a straight
5:49
line away from the Sun now the port
5:51
configuration there are five total ports
5:53
here on one side as mentioned there is a
5:56
single AC port by the way also the AC
5:59
input is on that same side so obviously
6:01
AC inverter stuff is located to one side
6:05
the other side is going to be your DC
6:06
ports and then also your DC inputs as
6:09
well so there is that one AC port on the
6:11
one side That's rated up to 700 Watts
6:14
more on that in just a moment then there
6:15
is also two USB C ports rated at 100
6:18
watts two usba a ports as well and those
6:22
are rated at 15 watts and so a good
6:25
variety there so a quick overview of the
6:28
backpack itself now the backpack p is 60
6:30
L as mentioned the backpack itself
6:32
weighs about 5 lb and so it's not bad if
6:36
you have the power station out of there
6:38
uh when it first arrived it actually the
6:39
two components arrived separately and so
6:41
when I pulled out just the backpack I
6:42
was like no way I can't believe they've
6:44
been able to make at this light and then
6:46
I started looking through the backpack
6:48
and I found no power station so then
6:50
when the power station itself arrived my
6:52
excitement level as far as the weight
6:53
went considerably down but the backpack
6:55
itself is quite nice and lightweight you
6:59
will find that there is a lot of
7:01
well-designed Zips and hooks all over
7:03
the place they've clearly tried to
7:05
design this to be as uh friendly as
7:08
possible of attaching a lot of stuff to
7:10
so I hope you have a strong back I do
7:12
like the design here to will they have
7:14
these cleverly designed Zips that allow
7:16
you access and then they have this strap
7:18
up here that can allow you to strap
7:20
everything up out of the way and so
7:22
you're not having to De with something
7:23
flopping down in your way all the time
7:25
so I appreciate that also I appreciate
7:28
the fact that this is is really cleverly
7:30
designed here in that there is some
7:32
raised rubbery sections those give you
7:35
some impact protection over the face of
7:37
your power station obviously important
7:39
but they're also designed that on the
7:41
bottom side they actually have little
7:43
air vents that will allow there to be
7:45
some breathing throughout this and so if
7:47
you have it zipped up um you know maybe
7:49
even while you're backpacking but you're
7:51
charging stuff internally uh even if
7:53
it's going to be allow it to dissipate
7:54
some heat out of there so that's really
7:56
really good the actual backpack itself
7:58
is designed to carry up to a 30 kg load
8:02
and so by doing the math I can tell you
8:04
that that leaves you 22 1 12 kg or 50
8:07
lbs of additional stuff that you can
8:10
pack into there as long as you can carry
8:12
it you can probably pretty much put it
8:13
in there now interestingly here we have
8:16
a number of layers and so in this first
8:19
layer here obviously we have a layer at
8:22
the back for the power station itself
8:24
now I do appreciate the fact that there
8:26
is an additional storage compartment it
8:28
is on top of that you can see it's a
8:30
pretty decent size area so the power
8:32
station doesn't come up the full height
8:34
of that leaving you about 8 in and a
8:36
fair bit of width to pack something into
8:39
on that layer the next layer that you
8:41
will come to is a photography layer my
8:44
favorite layer and that obviously is
8:46
going to give you the various
8:48
photography dividers and uh it will get
8:52
allow you to obviously these are can be
8:54
moved around and configured and
8:55
obviously if you're not a photography
8:57
person and you still like the idea of
8:58
this backpack maybe you just have a
9:00
drone or something you can take out most
9:02
of these dividers and you can put other
9:03
things into this space we've got a nice
9:06
big laptop section or tablet that you
9:08
want to throw that into the next section
9:11
beyond that is actually a general
9:14
storage section and so this is really
9:16
cleverly designed in that right now it
9:18
looks quite shallow but that's just
9:20
because this is an expandable section
9:22
and so you can actually zip it
9:26
off there are lots of zippers here by
9:28
the way but if I run this zipper around
9:31
all the way around I am going to
9:33
dramatically increase the amount of
9:36
space that this can expand to and now
9:38
you get a depth overall I would say of
9:41
uh 4 in and of course you can pack that
9:43
Fuller than that I like inside here me
9:46
see if I can show it to
9:50
you inside here we do have some various
9:53
pouches including a zipped pouch you can
9:56
store things in if you want to have
9:57
clothes this helps you to keep
9:58
everything in space there and so
10:01
obviously this backpack can become
10:03
thicker or shallower depending upon
10:06
whether or not you have the expansion
10:08
joint uh zipped in or out on the front
10:11
side you've got a number of other
10:13
additional pouches and so we've got a
10:15
pouch here at the top that things can be
10:16
stored in a lot of attachment points but
10:19
also underneath this is a another pouch
10:23
that is uh quite large and you can put a
10:26
lot inside of there and then a bottom
10:29
pouch as well that again has smaller
10:32
dividers in there if you want to put uh
10:34
kind of individualized items as you can
10:36
see here from this promotional video
10:38
from uh blue edti themselves you can p
10:41
put a tremendous amount of stuff into a
10:44
bag like this um both in the interior of
10:47
the bag and then by attaching things to
10:49
the outside as well there's a decent not
10:53
exceptional but a decent carry handle up
10:55
here the actual straps themselves have a
10:57
good range of adjustment up and down and
10:59
so you can get things in optimal
11:01
position again on the straps themselves
11:03
a lot of different attachment points
11:06
Hooks and various things and so that you
11:08
can attach things on the front and then
11:10
even on the waist straps themselves
11:13
there's also additional pouches and
11:14
there almost like fanny packs one of
11:16
them is is occupied with the the uh the
11:20
overall rain Hood you could put that
11:22
elsewhere if you wanted if you wanted to
11:24
store stuff kind of in a convenient
11:26
accessible in your waste but a couple of
11:28
pouches in that these are also quite
11:30
padded and so that it makes it
11:32
reasonably comfortable in carrying
11:33
around I'm not going to try to oversell
11:35
that it really depends on your comfort
11:37
level with backpacking and so if you're
11:39
comfortable with carrying a lot of
11:40
weight on your back you'll be okay with
11:42
this if you're not you're going to find
11:43
this to be heavy uh even before you
11:45
start putting stuff into it now I do
11:48
appreciate again materials here are very
11:51
tough and durable they've given you a
11:52
pretty significant warranty on this but
11:54
the Fabrics themselves are Splash
11:56
resistant um the zippers are waterproof
11:59
design designed plus of course there is
12:01
that rain Hood as well if you want to
12:03
cover everything up with that so let's
12:06
talk for a few minutes about the test so
12:08
first of all uh one of the things that I
12:10
tested was my tea kettle and I
12:12
demonstrated that in the opening section
12:14
that I am able to successfully use it
12:16
even though it consistently draws more
12:18
than what the actual inverter here is
12:20
capable of putting out it's continually
12:22
drawing in the 950 range and so uh it's
12:25
exceeding that 700 Watts pretty
12:27
significantly however because of their
12:28
power lift technology if you're using
12:30
things with heating elements it can
12:32
actually it's designed where it will
12:33
actually rather than trying to ramp all
12:35
the way up to the the draw it will feed
12:38
that at a smaller rate and because it
12:40
just has that basic heating element it's
12:42
not going to make any do any damage to
12:44
the actual for in my case tea kettle and
12:47
and so it's able to it takes a little
12:48
bit longer but it's going to bring that
12:50
up to the appropriate level bring my
12:53
water to boil and so again I mean you
12:55
can make you know out in the the woods
12:57
camping or wherever you happen to be and
12:58
you you can make tea or coffee if you
13:00
wanted to make something hot as far as
13:02
even like a a freeze-dried meal or
13:05
something like oatmeal things like that
13:07
being able to have something hot is
13:09
often really really refreshing when
13:10
you've been out for a while and so I
13:12
think that that is a pretty awesome
13:14
feature now what's interesting here is
13:16
that I also found that because it's able
13:20
to sustain even that higher draw level
13:22
it can it can go ramp up to 1200 watts
13:25
but I find that rather than just being
13:26
able to do that for you know 8 or N9
13:28
seconds it can actually actually do that
13:30
for between 30 and 45 seconds and so
13:32
what I found is that for example my 1100
13:35
wat U blender I was able to actually
13:38
make my smoothie with it because you
13:40
really don't have to run a blender all
13:41
that long when you're making a smooth
13:43
smoothie you're typically running for
13:45
you know 15 to 20 seconds for example
13:47
well it had zero problems with that it
13:49
did all that I needed it to do and it
13:51
never tripped that actual protection
13:53
circuit so that's fantastic as well I
13:55
also found that it had good charge rates
13:58
obviously both in the AC power but as
13:59
noted also I was impressed with what I
14:02
was able to get even though this is not
14:03
optimal solar charging time of year for
14:05
me I was still able to get close to
14:07
right under 300 watts of input on that
14:10
which I consider that to be pretty
14:11
fantastic I also like the fact that
14:13
you're able to charge your photography
14:15
gear or other Tech you know tablets
14:17
phones whatever while on the move so you
14:19
could be actually you know hiking to
14:21
location you could be you know powering
14:23
up your drone batteries for example
14:25
whatever that may be and so while you're
14:27
moving because you can internalize all
14:28
that cable routing you can do all that
14:30
as you go so let's talk about some
14:31
things that I like I have often noted
14:35
that carrying power stations to a
14:37
campsite for example or someplace off-
14:39
grid they're not always convenient to
14:41
carry along and so obviously this is
14:43
going to save you at least one trip
14:45
because you can put that on your back
14:46
and your hands are still free that's
14:48
kind of the whole name of it hands free
14:50
um and so your hands are going to be
14:51
free to carry other things and so
14:53
obviously that's going to cut down your
14:55
time and and if you're having to your
14:57
campsite if it is it's one thing if it's
15:00
you know 100 meters away from your car
15:03
if it's several kilometers away from
15:04
your car or you know miles that's a
15:06
whole different story and this is going
15:08
to be much more convenient than carrying
15:09
something along like this and so it's
15:12
not light obviously but it's easiest way
15:14
to carry power to a campsite I also
15:17
appreciate the fact that I feel like the
15:18
backpack itself is well executed that's
15:21
kind of a big deal in something that is
15:23
a combo it's not just the power station
15:25
we're evaluating it's the actual
15:26
backpack itself and the backpack is good
15:28
enough and useful enough that I would
15:30
even use it without the power station
15:33
inside there popping that out and you've
15:35
got a large conventional backpack but
15:37
that is welld designed with tons of
15:39
storage pockets and enabled an ability
15:41
to really kind of sort everything that
15:43
you're carrying for easy access so I
15:45
appreciate that I appreciate the fact
15:47
that it does have a dedicated
15:48
photography section with dividers I also
15:51
appreciate the fact that there is a very
15:53
usable amount of inverter power to where
15:55
I could power a a number of expected and
15:58
even a few unexpected things and so if
16:00
you're on a mobile camp site not only
16:02
can you power basic stuff like you know
16:05
phones or drones or things like that
16:07
frankly you could do something like that
16:08
with a power bank the fact that you can
16:10
actually run things like a kettle or
16:12
I've seen already some people have been
16:14
able to run a hot plate and make
16:16
themselves you know grilled cheese
16:17
sandwiches and and uh fry up bacon in
16:20
the morning on that well that's
16:21
obviously pretty fantastic that's going
16:23
to up your whole camping experience and
16:25
make it more um more friendly I
16:28
appreciate their power power lift
16:29
technology that can be very very useful
16:31
to power extra things and I also
16:33
appreciate the fact that this they
16:34
didn't skimp on the charging speed it's
16:36
able to take both uh AC and DC power at
16:40
pretty impressive levels enough to be
16:41
very useful and so you can charge this
16:43
thing up pretty quickly let's talk about
16:46
some things that I don't like well
16:48
obviously this whole concept is limited
16:50
by the state of current battery
16:51
technology and the state of current
16:53
batter technology is that it's big and
16:55
it's heavy and so unfortunately this
16:58
isn't some kind of like little light
17:00
thing that you're hardly going to notice
17:01
the weight that is there it it's pretty
17:04
heavy before you start to add other
17:05
stuff to it and you are probably going
17:07
to notice that again it's all going to
17:08
depend on your tolerance for carrying
17:10
heavy weights on your back I will also
17:12
note that as on a photographer level you
17:15
might notice that the actual section for
17:18
your photography gear it is fairly
17:20
shallow and so you can forget you know
17:22
obviously things like lenses they're
17:25
going to fit in they're just fine my my
17:27
fullframe cameras that are conventional
17:30
non-vertical grip they will fit in there
17:32
though I'm going to be robbing a little
17:33
bit of room from this section to
17:35
accomplish that but you can forget about
17:37
anything like a a a camera with a
17:40
battery grip or a a camera style that
17:43
has the vertical grip already integrated
17:45
into it that's not going to fit and if
17:47
you have some really kind of thick type
17:49
gear that you can't lay flat it's
17:52
probably not going to work too well on
17:53
this because this section is fairly
17:55
shallow so my conclusion is this the
17:57
bluetti handsfree 2 back pack power
17:59
station is a great idea to take portable
18:02
power to the next level I suspect that
18:04
future technology is going to make this
18:06
first generation seem kind of clumsy and
18:10
bigger than necessary but in the present
18:12
tense with the tech we have it's still
18:14
pretty cool this only makes sense
18:16
however if you really need this specific
18:18
case use do you really need to use a
18:21
backpack to get to an inaccessible
18:22
destination if not a more conventional
18:25
Power Station probably makes more sense
18:27
I will say however this feels like a
18:29
pretty strong value when you consider
18:31
that getting a power station in this
18:33
kind of level cost basically this amount
18:35
and the fact that a good quality
18:38
backpack like this can cost you well in
18:40
excess of $100 it feels like the
18:42
combination represents a pretty strong
18:44
value and so if the overall concept
18:46
appeals to you and you have a strong
18:48
back then check out the blue Eddy
18:50
handsfree 2 not only portable power
18:53
station but backpackable Power Station
18:56
if you want more information you can
18:57
check out my uh text review that's
18:59
Linked In the description down below
19:00
also there's buying links there if you'd
19:02
like to purchase one for yourself as
19:04
always thanks for watching have a great
19:05
day and let the light in
19:08
[Music]