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The Professor reviews Growatt’s debut solar power station the Infinity 1500 with 2000w inverter, 1512wh battery, 800w solar input, and remote APP support at a “best bang for the buck” price.

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Intro

• Growatt is well known for their low frequency inverters and has decided to delve into the crowded solar generator market with their own 2000 watt offering, the INFINITY 1500. 

Quirks & Features

• Battery Capacity/Tech/Cycles: 1512wh lithium ion battery rated 800 cycles to 80% capacity

• Size/Weight: I’ll put the size at the bottom and here’s is what it weighed on my scale. 17 x 9 x11

• Design/Display: The Infinity 1500 resembles a much happier alternate universe version of the Ecoflow Delta. Just think of it as the Bearded Spock of solar generators.

• Inverter Size/Type (constant/peak) and #outlets: Interestingly, the Growatt enables the user to decide if they want a 1500w, 1800w, or 2000w pure sine inverter by choosing within their app. By limiting the inverter power you also limit the loudness of the cooling fans which we’ll test in a bit. You access this power via 4x 20A outlets on the side.

• Ways To Charge (and times for each): It does offer the standard 3 ways to charge…

  • First by grid (or AC wall) power at a maximum of 1500w, also configurable within the app, and at that rate the Growatt can charge to 80% in under an hour or about 90 minutes to full.

  • Second by 12/24v vehicle which takes about 14 hours.

  • Finally, it supports 800w of solar through it’s MPPT controller with a surprisingly wide voltage range of 12v-100v at a maximum of 12A. At 800w you can top up the Growatt in just under 3 hours. The voltage range as tested is actually different than in the printed manual and we’ll review this in my testing coming up.

• 12v Output Types: The Infinity offers a single 12v cigarette lighter socket rated at 10A and is regulated at 13.6v

• USB Output Types: As for USB outputs there are 6 total. You get a pair of standard USB outputs good for charging your dinosaurs, a pair of 18 QC ports, and a pair of 60w PD outputs. Note the power delivery ports are output only and can not be used to charge the Growatt.

• Other Outputs: There is also a 15w wireless charging pad up top if your phone supports wireless charging

• Other Features:

  • The Growatt does offer a basic 20ms UPS (or uninterruptable power supply) feature and we’ll demo that here in a bit.

  • Now because it does offer a UPS feature, it means up to 3 units can be chained together from the output of one to the input of another to essentially expand battery capacity. This does mean having the inverter running on each unit so it’s not really the most power efficient.

  • And while there is no built in flashlight good for flagging down UFO’s, Growatt does have their own app called “MyGro” that lets you remotely control the unit. 

• Warranty: Growatt does offer a 2 year manufacturer’s warranty on this product

Testing

• DC Battery Capacity Test (time lapse): 1023wh/1512 for an abysmal 68%. Now, I didn’t notice until after I started editing this video that I had apparently left the WIFI and Bluetooth enabled during this test. I had also left the screen on permanently and the combo of those two parasitic loads over 10 hours could have affected the final results. So I did a last minute retest with those features off and at a slightly higher load and well, the results somehow were worse by about 40wh. So getting about 1000wh from the DC output seems to be a legit result.

• AC Battery Capacity Test (time lapse): As for the AC capacity results it scored a far better 1230wh/1512 or 81% and this was on the maximum 2000w inverter setting with WIFI, Bluetooth and screen off.

• Sine wave check under load: 119v/60hz

• Inverter capacity test (max): 2400W

• Cooling ability test (rated @ 5mins): pass 2000w (will not recharge if hot)

• Temperature check:

• Inverter fan noise db: 60

• Max Charge Rate @ watts/volts: AC 1500w, DC 14v 105w, 100v 800w

• Charging fan noise db: 50 slow, 56 fast

• Simultaneous charging ability: yes 1500w favors solar = 800w solar + 700 AC

• Pass thru / UPS: UPS passed laptop test

• DC Output(s) Max Rate: 10A

• 12v output(s) regulated: 13.6v

• USB output rate check: 60w pass

• Wireless/other output: pass

• Amp interference test: pass

My opinion

• What do I think about the Infinity 1500? Well, for Growatt’s first offering it is certainly enough bang for the buck to make it to my recommended list. While there is nothing really game changing about the Infinity 1500, it does do everything well. You have a clean 2000w inverter with a 1500wh battery, ample USB ports of every flavor, wireless charging, an APP (which does need some blingification), and a UPS that switches fast enough for use with personal computers.

• Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff ends. I’m saddened by the 12v DC capacity results that I did verify with a retest. I know most folks aren’t going to use the 12v output on this but if that’s a major feature for you then the Growatt isn’t the most efficient choice. I really have no idea why the single 12v output on this consumes so much power. Fortunately, the inverter is great and rates about average numbers across all brands.

• Since Growatt decided to raid the parts bin of Ecoflow, they have the exact same complaint as virtually the entire Ecoflow line of products when it comes to the sound level of their cooling fans. I’m afraid their just too darn loud. Fortunately, Growatt mends this somewhat by offering differing charge rates and inverter outputs in an attempt to mitigate some of the loudness. If you don’t mind turning everything down to minimal settings it will cut out 6db of noise or the equivalent of being about twice as far away. I think for most noise sensitive folks this makes it even a better choice than the Ecoflow especially at it’s rock bottom introductory price.

Pricing and competition

• Product Price with current discounts:

  • About that rock bottom price … Retail the Infinity 1500 goes for $1299 but viewers of HOBOTECH of course get a special discount for a final price of $1099 (that’s only 55 cents per watt or 72 cents per watt hour). You need to use the code HOBOSFANS along with this link to get the special deal.

• Main Competitor:

  • Since they share so many parts, the Growatt nearest competition is probably the Ecoflow Delta Max. While most of the specs are similar, the Ecoflow sports a slightly larger battery with a much higher price of $1899. The Jackery 1500 would be the next closest competitor size and price wise if it was still the year 2020, but in order to even touch the specs of the Growatt you’d need to compare the more current $2100 Jackery 2000 Pro. When comparing price and features of these competing NMC products the Growatt is practically a steal even at it’s regular $1299 price.

• Recommended Solar Panel Type/Size:

  • The Growatt supports up to 800w of solar within a wide voltage range up to 110v and 12A. This lets you use just about any panels you want. If you need portable panels I’d go with the 200w Growatt panels. You can run 4 of those in series to max out this unit. If you want a more permanent solution, I’d recommend the BougeRV 180w or 200w panels or the Renogy 320w panels which can be found on hobotech.tv/amazon under “solar kits”.

• If you’re interested, use this link with discount code HOBOSFANS for the best deal online. The Infinity 1500 is not available at any retail stores.