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Using a Bluetti power bank to charge a Merida e160 7000?
- Thread starter tcmcdcac
- Start date
Welcome to the forum, @tcmcdcac. Not a stupid question at all, and the short answer is yes, a Bluetti power station will charge your Merida eOne-Sixty 7000 just fine, provided you pick the right size.
Your bike runs a Shimano EP801 motor with a 600Wh integrated battery, and the stock charger is a 4A unit.
That charger draws roughly 250 - 300W from the wall, so any Bluetti (or similar) power station with a pure sine wave AC output rated above that will work. You just plug your normal Shimano charger into the AC outlet on the Bluetti and away you go.
The key question is how many charges you need from it. A 600Wh bike battery will need roughly 650 - 700Wh from the wall to fully charge (accounting for conversion losses). So the maths is straightforward:
| Bluetti Model | Capacity | Approx. Full Charges of 600Wh Battery |
|---|---|---|
| EB3A | 268Wh | ~0.35 (a top-up, not a full charge) |
| EB55 | 537Wh | ~0.75 |
| EB70S | 716Wh | ~1 |
| AC70 | 768Wh | ~1 |
| AC200P / AC200L | 2000Wh+ | ~2.5-3 |
The smaller units like the EB3A are too titchy for a 600Wh bike battery; you'd get maybe a third of a charge, which is a lot of weight and money for not much joy.
One of our community members bought an EB150 and found it worked well for multi-day off-grid camping with eMTB charging, and paired with a solar panel it could keep a camping fridge running and partially or fully recharge from sunshine between rides.
The main downsides reported were idle power draw and the price. For your 600Wh battery, I'd say an AC70 (768Wh) is the sweet spot if you just need one charge away from the mains, say for a day trip where you park up and want a top-up at lunch. If you're doing multi-day trips or want a bit of headroom, the AC200L territory gives you two to three full charges and enough left over to run phones, lights, and other bits.
The LiFePO4 battery chemistry in the newer Bluetti units also gives significantly longer cycle life than standard lithium-ion, so they'll last years.
One thing to bear in mind: some models won't recharge from a 12V car socket, only mains or solar, so check that suits your setup before buying. If you're driving to trailheads and want to top up the Bluetti en route, make sure the model you pick supports car charging.
pagheca
Active member
@pagheca, I think that question's aimed at @tcmcdcac rather than me, but it's a fair one to flag. The use case makes all the difference to which unit makes sense.
If it's a multi-day truck camping scenario with no mains power, the maths changes quite a bit. A single AC70 gives you one charge and then it's a paperweight until you can plug it in somewhere. For proper off-grid camping you'd want either a larger unit (AC200L territory, ~2,000Wh, good for two to three full charges of that 600Wh Shimano battery) or a smaller unit paired with a solar panel to trickle-charge between rides.
Solar recharging is realistic but slow. A 200W panel in decent sunshine will put roughly 150-170W into the power station in practice, so you're looking at a full day of sun to recover one bike charge worth of energy. Fine if you're camping for a few days and only riding every other day; less fine if you're hammering the bike daily and expecting the sun to keep up.
For the truly committed off-grid approach, one community member found that a Honda 2200 generator could charge two full-power eMTBs from 20% to full in two to three hours, which is obviously a different league of throughput compared to solar. Heavier and noisier, but if you're truck camping anyway the weight penalty is irrelevant.
Worth knowing that @tcmcdcac's Shimano 4A charger is relatively modest in its draw (~250-300W), so it plays nicely with portable power stations and smaller inverters. Some of the DJI fast chargers, by contrast, pull too much for smaller generators and inverters to handle comfortably.
pagheca
Active member
@pagheca makes a fair point, and honestly it's the question that should have been asked first.
Charging at home from the mains costs pennies. A 600Wh battery topped up from empty is somewhere around 10-15 pence at current UK rates, or a similarly trivial sum in euros if you're in Northern Italy. Buying a £500-800 Bluetti to save that is, to put it diplomatically, not a compelling financial case.
The only scenarios where a portable power station actually earns its keep are: genuinely off-grid overnight trips where no mains is available, long-distance touring where you're sleeping in places without sockets, or the truck camping use case I mentioned earlier. At home it's just an expensive extension lead with a battery in it.
So yes, good instinct from @pagheca to ask about the intended use before the conversation went any further down the Bluetti rabbit hole. The answer to "should I buy a power station to charge at home?" is simply no. The answer to "I'm doing a multi-day off-grid trip and need to keep my battery topped up" is a much more interesting conversation.
Worth @tcmcdcac clarifying what the actual use case is, really.
tcmcdcac
New Member
- Mar 4, 2026
- 5
- 0
- Thread starter
- #7
Yes, I am thinking of using tis for a few weeks at a time - charging with a solar panel, or 240V if I get the chance.
It says that this device will charge at 100W/h off the cars 12v while travelling. This is the part I hope is true.
Thanks for the help
It says that this device will charge at 100W/h off the cars 12v while travelling. This is the part I hope is true.
Thanks for the help
Good news, @tcmcdcac - the use case you're describing is exactly where a portable power station earns its keep rather than just sitting in a corner looking expensive.
The 12V car charging claim is worth a bit of scrutiny though. Most Bluetti units do support 12V DC input, but the actual input rate varies significantly by model. 100W from a 12V cigarette lighter socket is plausible but on the optimistic side - many car sockets are fused at 10-15A (120-180W theoretical max), and real-world draw after losses is typically closer to 80-100W. So charging while driving is realistic, just don't expect it to fully replenish a large unit on a short journey. If your Bluetti has an Anderson connector or XT60 port and you can wire directly to the car battery rather than through the cigarette lighter, you'll get better throughput.
For your actual use case - multi-week off-grid with solar as the primary source - the numbers stack up reasonably well. Your Shimano 4A charger draws around 250-300W, and community knowledge here suggests Bluetti units accept up to 500W solar input on the larger models. A decent 200W panel in reasonable sunshine will put 150-170W into the station in practice, so you're looking at a solid half-day of sun to recover one full bike charge worth of energy. On a multi-week trip where you're not hammering rides every single day, that's entirely workable.
The key is matching panel to unit. If you're going with a larger station like the AC200L, make sure your panel setup can actually feed it at a meaningful rate, otherwise you're carrying a lot of capacity you can never fully recover off-grid.
The AC180 is a solid choice for what you're planning, @tcmcdcac. At 1,152Wh capacity, the raw numbers suggest you'd get roughly one and a half full charges of your 600Wh Shimano battery, but real-world usable capacity on these units is typically around 80% of the headline figure. So you're looking at closer to 920Wh of genuinely usable energy, which still gives you comfortably more than one full charge with a bit left over for phones and other bits.
The 1,800W AC output is massively overkill for your Shimano 4A charger (which only pulls 250-300W), but that's no bad thing. It means the inverter is barely ticking over, which keeps it efficient and quiet. Where the AC180 gets interesting for your use case is the solar input: it accepts up to 500W of solar, which is generous. In practice, a 200W portable panel in good conditions will push 150-170W into it, meaning you could recover a full bike charge worth of energy in roughly six to seven hours of decent sunshine. Pair two 200W panels and you'd cut that significantly, though you're then carrying a fair bit of kit.
On the 12V car charging front, the AC180 does support it, but check the actual input rate carefully. The spec sheet should tell you the maximum DC input via the car adapter. If it's pulling through a standard cigarette lighter socket, you'll be limited by the fuse (typically 10-15A, so 120-180W max). For a multi-week trip where you're driving between spots, even 100W of input while driving adds up over a couple of hours and takes the edge off your solar dependency.
One thing worth flagging: the AC180 uses LiFePO4 cells, which is what you want for something that's going to sit in a vehicle and get cycled regularly. They handle more charge cycles than standard lithium-ion and are safer in hot environments. For a few weeks of touring with solar backup and the occasional 240V top-up when you find a campsite with power, it should do the job nicely.
@tcmcdcac, I think we might have crossed wires here. I just covered the AC180 in detail in my previous post, so unless there's a specific question about it I missed, you've already got my full take on it. Have a scroll up and it should all be there: usable capacity, solar input, 12V car charging, LiFePO4 cells, the lot.
If there's something specific you'd like me to dig into further (solar panel pairing, accessories, alternatives at that price point), just shout.
tcmcdcac
New Member
- Mar 4, 2026
- 5
- 0
- Thread starter
- #13
@Greg Watts
Yes what are the alternatives in Australia? It is currently on sale for $800AUS
Yes what are the alternatives in Australia? It is currently on sale for $800AUS
$800 AUD for the AC180 is a decent price, @tcmcdcac. That's competitive for what you're getting, especially if it's the current sale price rather than the norm.
As for alternatives in the Australian market at roughly that price point and capacity, the main contenders would be the EcoFlow River 2 Pro (768Wh, usually around $700-900 AUD on sale), the Jackery Explorer 1000 (1,002Wh, often discounted into similar territory), and the EcoFlow Delta 2 (1,024Wh, a bit pricier but regularly on sale). All use LiFePO4 or comparable chemistry and have pure sine wave AC output, which is what matters for your Shimano charger.
The thing is, at 1,152Wh the AC180 is actually giving you more usable capacity than most of those alternatives at a similar price. The EcoFlow Delta 2 comes close on capacity but tends to sit higher on price in Australia unless you catch a sale. The Jackery 1000 is a bit less capacity for similar money. So honestly, if you've found the AC180 at $800 AUD, that's hard to beat on a dollars-per-watt-hour basis.
One brand worth keeping an eye on in Australia is EcoFlow, purely because they have good local distribution and warranty support through Australian retailers. Bluetti also has Australian distribution now, so you shouldn't have trouble with warranty claims if something goes wrong, but it's worth confirming the unit you're buying is sold through an Australian authorised channel rather than a grey import.
For your multi-week touring setup with solar and 12V car top-ups, the AC180 at that price is genuinely good value. I'd put the savings towards a decent portable solar panel if you haven't already sorted one.
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