BLUETTI Elite 400 — Goldilocks of Portable Power Stations?

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I recently received and got to review a BLUETTI Elite 400 portable power station*. I’ve used and reviewed several portable power stations now. Different sizes with different capacities are right for different people and needs. No product is going to be perfect for everything. However, all things considered, this very much felt like a “goldilocks” power station — not too big, not too small. In fact, how we’ve ended up using it may well prove that point.

First of all, though, let’s get into some specs and details. The BLUETTI Elite 400 portable power station comes with the following:

• 3,840 Wh energy storage capacity
• 2,600 W power capacity
• 3,900 W lifting power
• 5,200 W surge power
• Charges from 0–80% in 70 minutes (at 2,800 W)
• 15 ms UPS
• 86 lb — “lightest 3.8kWh power station”
• 4 × AC Outlets (2,600 W Max.)
• 2 × USB-A (15 W Max. each, 30 W total)
• 2 × USB-C (100 W Max.)
• 1 × Cigarette Lighter Port (120 W Max.)
• 432 × 288 × 490 mm (17 × 11.34 × 19.29 in)

At the moment, you can get the portable power station for $1,299. Or, actually, you can get it a bit cheaper. BLUETTI has provided a special offer on the Elite 400 — 6% off — for the CleanTechnica audience. Just use the following discount code: CLEANTECH6OFF

The power station is large and heavy, but that’s the price you pay for a lot of energy storage. The nice thing is that it’s not so heavy that it’s practically immovable — if needed, I can carry it a short distance without much trouble (I just have to be careful with my back and lift appropriately). Also, it has a handy suitcase-style handle that you can pull out and two wheels on the bottom on the back side, so you can roll it around like a suitcase if needed.

The machine is quite discreet, so you can just tuck it away in a corner or next to a couch and hardly notice it. It looks sort of like a large speaker. We put it on the side of our couch and have had it there for weeks without it annoying us for looking out of place or like it’s adding clutter. In fact, it also makes a nice little shelf/side table as needed. And it has feet on two sides — so you can stand it up tall and more narrow, or you can plop it down to a lower height and have it take up more ground space. Either way, though, it has a nice table-like top. We’ve ended up using it as the place to plug in my daughter’s computer for school, which she prefers to use downstairs in the dining room than up at her desk.

Here are some results we found from testing the BLUETTI Elite 400 portable power station:

• Charging a computer for half an hour, the battery went from 60% to 58%.
• Charging a computer for two hours, the battery went from 60% to 53%.
• With the computer plugged in but not needing a continuous charge for 2½ hours, the battery went from 60% to 52%.
• Using the wall charger, recharged the BLUETTI Elite 400 from 15% to 85% in just under 2½ hours (got to 86% in 2½ hours).
• Plugged in two computers, two phones, and an Apple Watch simultaneously without problem, and with more charging ports to spare. (Was pulling 108 W AC and 15 W DC.)

I didn’t plug a refrigerator into it because it’s really hard to pull our fridge out from its little corner, but I have done that previously with another BLUETTI system and it worked well.

Overall, I don’t know what else there is to ask from the BLUETTI Elite 400 portable power station. It is a bit heavy, but that’s the price you pay for so much energy storage capacity, and BLUETTI did a good job of making the machine portable despite the weight. Also, they note that it is 35% lighter than competing power stations, and the lightest on the market for its energy storage capacity.

Whether the BLUETTI Elite 400 is right for you depends on your needs. You may want something with even more storage capacity, but then there are other tradeoffs. Or perhaps you want something smaller — or much smaller — but with considerably less storage capacity. The nice thing is that BLUETTI seems to have a system for every type of portable power need or desire.

*Disclosure: BLUETTI supported this article and provided an Elite 400 for testing, but had no input into the editorial content.

Again, you can use the following discount code for 6% off the BLUETTI Elite 400 if you decide to buy one: CLEANTECH6OFF