Ecoflow Wave 2 Air conditioning for Van life. (Not sponsored)

I use my Wave2 at home. Last winter I used it for heat. Now it’s summer and I use it to cool. I have my wave2 sitting on a cart with wheels. I tried it hooked directly to solar panels and that works fine but now I power it with my home solar power station. I only vent the exhaust tube out a window. It’s not necessary to vent the inlet tube. The condensation drainage works fine. I run it all day then empty the bucket in the evening.

The two tubes vs one tube, is to remove the negative pressure from and pulling the heat from outside into the van. Two tubes, you wouldn't get that negative pressure. It also cools better and more effective. It's the like a dual hose portal AC you put in houses. It also uses that exhaust to expel that vapor it removes too, so it's more efficient on getting that water outside instead of draining (in the cooling mode).

Finally someone who has tested both heater and cooling usually its just cooling obviously would be the season of when they was sending them out

Great video! I bought one last year for our 2006 Toyota sienna minivan and it works really well on a single hose, exhaust discharge only. I did this because of space saving and knew that if it did not work, I would just have to add the other hose. But that would take up more space, which we don’t have much of. Of course eco-mode works the longest but if you’re at 100° F, you’re going to use a lot of power. For the size vehicle we are in it heats and cools quickly. I will usually put it on max to get it heated up or cooled down quickly and then switch over to Eco mode to save the battery as long as possible. I bought the 1159 W battery and glad I did. You are not going to be running this on Max in a Texas summer and expect it to last all night. It will last about two hours on max at that temperature. We don’t stay in Texas in the summertime and head to the mountains, where it works really well too cool or heat. My ship battery is a 200 amp hour lithium but I try not to tap into that until the EcoFlow battery is drained. I like the app also. It’s nice not to have to get out of bed and just reach for your phone to change the temps. Pros: It works really well in a minivan size area. Nice app with a Bluetooth interface. Heavy but portable, almost 50 pounds with the battery. Cons: It’s a power hog! Expensive. Takes up some space. I am definitely glad I bought one and would not be able to survive some of the summer nights we spent that were warm traveling last summer. If I had it to do all over again on my minivan build, I would get a 300 or 400 amp hour lithium instead of a 200 amp hour battery. At the time of my minivan build, I didn’t realize I was going to need one of these units! Cheers!🤘

Very interesting findings - bit like heatpumps imagine if your van is well insulated would work a treat. Thanks for sharing - all the best, David 👍

Great review, just bought ours, taking it camping in January over an Australian summer.

Seems like you could create a cabinet for it to live and cut dedicated ports for inflow/airflow. If your trip doesn't require AC, have some port hole covers and leave it at home for more storage.

recirculating cooled air is how most domestic mains Aircon units work, there is no air drawn from outside. Vehicle aircon usually feeds fresh air instead, but on really hot days, you've probably noticed that setting it to recirculate cools the car faster.

I'm English too, moved to Australia in 1999. Last year I purchased a block of land in a remote inland area, and I have made a big concrete slab. This year (God willing) I'll buy a single-roomed cabin, which I will get craned onto the slab. I'm thinking of getting one of these eco-flow AC systems, as for 3 months out of every year its baking hot. I'm thinking of just asking the cabin manufacturers to make a cat-flap, so I'll just put the outlet through that! Thanks for the advise of not worrying about the inlet, - it makes sense not to be sucking in hot air from outside.

You're a cool dude. Great, and detailed testimony.

It took me a while to understand but it‘s true, the 2 tubes is always better than a one tube setup. What can be deceiving is the idea that with one tube the AC is getting colder faster because it is sucking already cold air in. But this is a deception and is not actually giving you a better result. The fact is, that air needs to be sucked into the AC and if the air comes from the inside of the room/car, then a negative pressure will develop and air will come into the room somehow, and that air will always be the hot air from the outside. So with the one tube, the air might feel colder faster, but the hot air will come into the room and the net result will be less efficiency compared to a two tube system. There is two reasons why the two tube system is better: firstly, if the one tube system is actually taking the cold air, then its taking that cold air away form the already colder room and some of it will be expelled again, and warm air will leak into the room. Secondly, the AC is creating that negative pressure and actually has to work harder to suck air out of the room, the more negativity it creates, therefore it has to use more energy to create the same results. In a two tube system, there will always be a pressure balance, and hot air will only come into the AC, never directly into the room. The AC then is well equipped to convert that warm air into cold air and expellees the rest out. Creating a more energy efficient cycle. I guess the main takeaway is that with an AC hot air will always come inside the room, but it is better to channel this hot air through the AC that is equipped for this and then keep a neutral balanced pressure with the room that it cools down. I hope that helped. It took me a while to understand myself. Cheers!

Understanding AC is often confusing. Ecoflow is quite useful as it is a true split portal ac. Most portable ac use an electric vaporizer like LG first did. Means switching between cooling and then venting moisture. So non split ac can’t constantly cool. Humidity is big factor in cooling. The traditional window unit ac has the compressor and radiator/heat exchanger on the outside. Any excess water just drips off to the outside. Meanwhile the fan usually pulls inside air which is cooled over the radiator then blown back into the room. Some units have an option to pull the outside in. Portable unit tend to be a single hose as they non split. So the exhaust and input tend come on one hose, which cool only half the time. It’s lot less efficient. If unit had dehumidifier mode, it would need a drip hose or after running for awhile the water trip test fills up and shutdown the unit. EcoFlow is really awesome as it a true split ac. Depend on how you set the hose and flow plates you can control where it input air and where it exhausts air. Note for off grid real ac cooling the unit does require the portable battery pack, otherwise it in fan only mode. It’s best mini portable ac currently produce. Between a generator or battery bank or Solar to its mini battery pack or ac plug. You got many options for any place. Vans. tents. Outside events. Room needing some extra cooling. It’s expensive. But worth it for its size and functionality.

if you have a van you get a mini split and save a grip. More effective too. My Wave2 barely cools the interior of my small asf Lexus GX470 interior even with it parked in shade and the windows shielded. Granted California is not the UK The tubes really bite. The heater function produces tons of water so better figure out how to drain it.

Hey mate, Great vid, I’m In Australia and do a lot of camping in a small hard top, roof top tent, very interested to know how much power it draws as I would like to hard mount it in my canopy, or are there other options out there that are more efficient for a smaller space and better suited for hard wiring ? It must be super efficient so I can run it, along with all my other gear on my 400amp setup Cheers Zac

Yehhhh a small hate pump isn't a replacement for another heating soruce which doesn't require electicity and can work even work well when it's -15C, It's a nice addition so that overnight you can leave it running with less fear that it will start a fire or poison you and it uses your solar pannels so if you have spare elecrisity it is nice to be able to use a heat pump, and obviously during the summer it's nice to be able to not fry and in that application you are going to be getting plenty of solar to run it assuming you have like 600 - 800W of solar you can almost run it 24/7 because it will on average draw more like 200 - 300W because it will turn off and on as the tempeture flucutates.

thanks for video. answered a few questions for me many thanks. I work away a lot, and spend lot of time on sides living and working from my van ( a 2018 LWB Vivaro) I have been trying to decide between a Wave 2 or a Deisel heater??? I had also thought about the Truma under bench internal box Air con / heater. my main worry was power. most of the time i have acess to Generators on sites. but not always. but as this does heating and cooling. and is portable.. maybe this is the best way for me to go.

Nice one, been looking at these for cooling and heating. Amazing lasted that long on the battery, as you say testing is way too changeable but that gave me a idea of what could be. The 2 ports in and out, see what your saying but then you moving about the same air. I know van not air tight but yeah just wondering and thinking about that. But then would use more battery because conditioning the warmer humid air. Good product by the sounds of it, I like EcoFlow stuff good quality, works, app is good. Just bit more pricey, like the claymore battery save & spend bit extra and get good quality is my thoughts. Thanks 👍🏼

Awesome review 👌 be ideal in an awning in the heat of the summer when camping 🤷🏻

Works well enough, achieved 15 degree difference (which felt cool inside the square drop trailer-in the shade, the lowered humidity helped a lot too) in 95F and 80% humidity weather here in Florida. I was also running two small USB powered fans to circulate the cooler air. My main complaint is not being able to mechanically/manually set the unit to external drainage. Every time the unit shuts down the drainage is reset to internal, which in turn shuts down the unit when really full, which happens a heck of a LOT here in Florida. The hoses, being proprietary sizes are also a PITA to hook up to anything commonly used in small trailers. The Wave 2 was outside the small square drop due to space issues, I also wish the company made a raincoat for the unit.....

You need both hoses for the best efficiency.There are two fans in the unit. The back of the unit should suck air from the outside then blow it back outside. The front fan will suck air in from the from, hear it then blow it back into the van. when you use one hose you will be sucking the heated air into the unit then back outside while cold air comes back in through gaps in the van.