[Discussion] Yard Force 1200W Solar Power Station

geekcohen on 27/01/2025 - 06:31

General Discussion about the Yard Force 1200W Solar Power Station product to avoid thread takeovers and to start fresh with feedback/issues/concerns. It seems based on the recent Ecoflow RIVER 2 Portable Power Station deal that a number of the Yard Force buyers have had some issues with theirs.

luigough posted two writes ups on the product. He posted a tear down on the device which was great. But this month he posted about his failure of the power station.

Woosta has also had a failure after 1 month

i didn't miss out on the deal, the yardforce lasted 1 month and died.

I was having mine sitting there for the odd occassion and backup. But now prompted me to use it a bit more to try and see if it can get it to failure before the warranty ends. Yesterday it worked okay. My solar blanket has crapped itself, so was only charging 30W and I was drawing 100W. Time for a new solar panel for this.

Anyone else with issues?

General Discussion Power Station Yard Force

Comments

  • theHMASfriendship on 27/01/2025 - 07:57
    +5

    If the coalition gets in at the next election there may be some nuclear options available

    • Sye on 27/01/2025 - 13:54
      +2

      Scientists are getting close to being able to harness all the hot air that politicians are full of to heat up water, which then turns into steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity.

      • lachhelix on 19/02/2025 - 08:30
        +1

        How does that work? Do we lock them in a room and give them an important topic, like raising car rego prices, to discuss or

  • whats up skip on 27/01/2025 - 12:06

    I would imagine that these units were being sold off cheap (below cost) as I suspect a manufacturer in China went out of business and this stock was just bought up cheap. It wouldn't be worth a business attempting to repair these, assuming suitable parts were available.

    I suspect that using the device while charging was too much for some part of the system and that is why it gave way. Of course it could be a faulty capacitor, but given the age this is less likely.

    • JimmyF on 27/01/2025 - 12:17

      I suspect that using the device while charging was too much for some part of the system and that is why it gave way. Of course it could be a faulty capacitor, but given the age this is less likely.

      Seems like they might have overloaded the charging circuit to me reading the update. There was no talk about the size of the solar panels connected to the system.

      My guess was too many volts/amps that the little chip couldn't get rid of the heat and gave up the ghost. Which is what the OP said looks like happened.

      So stick to the stock 100w charger and don't put a crazy amount of solar panels on it, and you'll be ok!

  • JakDac on 02/02/2025 - 01:18
    +2

    Keep on commenting

  • jtb on 02/02/2025 - 11:50

    I purchased mine as a back up in case power goes out so don't intend to use it often.

    Reading about the failures, are there any tests I should run to make sure I don't have a dud? I've tested it briefly (USB A and one of the AC power ports) and it does work.

    Also, I noticed that when I switched AC on (nothing plugged in) the HRs remaining dropped from 99 to 60 - is this the because it's powering the inverter?

    • JimmyF on 02/02/2025 - 12:07
      +1

      Also, I noticed that when I switched AC on (nothing plugged in) the HRs remaining dropped from 99 to 60 - is this the because it's powering the inverter?

      Correct, with the AC off, it's only the DC side that is powered on. Once the AC is on, it uses power to keep the inverter running. Add a AC load and it'll drop again.

      Reading about the failures

      LOL its hardly a mass of failures. Two reported failures, 1 of them could have been because they overloaded the solar input.

      Considering the deal had 7626 clicks, I would expect to see a few more failures reported.

      Our unit is running well still :)

      • jtb on 02/02/2025 - 13:44

        Thanks mate… and yeah, you're absolutely right… :)

        • JimmyF on 02/02/2025 - 14:37
          +1

          Well not saying they are not a pile of crap, just only had two failures reported here and one of them seems a bit questionable about if they had been running within the specs.

          Mine is working ok, but the I stick to the 100w charger or the 12v car charger. No issues to report yet. Touch wood!

  • Woosta on 09/02/2025 - 09:02
    +1

    There are also 0 technical support on these products. I have called the yard service centre and emailed mutiple times and after weeks of back and forth communication they just told me to go back to my local mitre10 for a refund, still a great little product when it worked for the price, hopefully everyones isnt a dud like mine.

    • JimmyF on 09/02/2025 - 09:04

      Agreed, Yard Force is just a brand/importer. They don't seem to know anything about the product or are able to repair the units at all.

      What issue are you having? Maybe someone here can help?

      • Woosta on 09/02/2025 - 09:10
        +1

        I have already returned it and got a refund, but the unit just stopped charging and started showing a display of "19 u 14". My charging method was a 160w solar panel from powertech which hardly hit 120w at most and car/standard ac. Max usage was a small 600w kettle maybe 5 times and the rest was just charging batteries like powerbank and ryobi batteries.

        • JimmyF on 09/02/2025 - 09:26

          My charging method was a 160w solar panel from powertech which hardly hit 120w at most and car/standard ac

          What voltage ranges did the panel output?

          Wondering if this is another overloading of solar input like the blog post above that fried the chip?

          So far, mine is still strong, only charged via the supplied DC brick or 12v socket, so both at around 100w.

          I have already returned it and got a refund

          Good outcome I guess. Now what to buy as a replacement?

          • Woosta on 09/02/2025 - 09:29

            @JimmyF: Specifications:
            Type: Mono Crystalline Solar Cells
            Peak Power: 160W
            Rated Voltage: 12V
            Voltage @ Peak Power: 18.0V
            Current @ Peak Power: 8.88A
            Open Circuit Voltage: 22.30V
            Short Circuit Current: 9.19A

            Well i didn't want no headache so just bought the bluetti ac60p with the b80p extra battery.

            • JimmyF on 09/02/2025 - 10:07

              @Woosta:

              Well i didn't want no headache so just bought the bluetti ac60p with the b80p extra battery.

              Good buy, but certainly not as cheap as the Yard Force was.

              How are you finding it?

              • Woosta on 09/02/2025 - 11:43

                @JimmyF: Not where near as cheap. $999 for both, but so far so good. Definitely alot easier and user friendly with apps too, but work even better camping when you use 2 separately

  • JakDac on 18/02/2025 - 09:18

    Wonder if a pwm controller in line would help with less amp 10 amp maybe

    • JimmyF on 18/02/2025 - 12:25

      I'm feeling the above article you linked to might be hinting at the cause of the failures for these units as well, voltage spiking or too much current for the chip to handle and it is giving up.

      So putting in something to regulate the voltage/current before hitting the unit certainly would't hurt for sure!

      The manual states 10-30v in one spot, and 10-25v in another for the solar input. So really should be aiming for under 20v to be 'safe'.

      All the failures in this thread do seem to be from people charging on solar. Be interesting to see what sort of open voltage these panels had been getting.

  • JakDac on 19/02/2025 - 00:13

    Is there a specific item one could put in line other than a solar controller what would be advisable ?

  • HappyPants on 19/02/2025 - 08:25
    +1

    https://youtu.be/wu7KV-kAXlA?si=tS_3LdC_wdhuslXL

    Thought this little vid might be slightly relevant too, possibly to help us overloading the solar input.

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