Anyone else running a small inverter generator as backup alongside solar — what's your experience with the EcoFlow Smart Generator pairing?

We've had a 400W solar setup on our static caravan in Wales for about two years now — two 200W panels, a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15, and a 100Ah lithium (Fogstar Drift). Works brilliantly from April through September, but the last two winters have been a proper reminder that the sun doesn't really show up in Snowdonia between November and February. Running the battery down to 20% by 9am on grey days is getting old fast.

I've been looking at the EcoFlow Smart Generator (the dual-fuel 1800W one) as a backup to top the battery up on bad days rather than as a primary source. The idea of it kicking in automatically when the SOC drops below a set threshold is really appealing — I hate faffing about with manual starts. But at around £500–£600 it's not cheap, and I'm not sure how well it actually integrates outside of EcoFlow's own ecosystem. Our storage isn't an EcoFlow unit.

Has anyone got this running alongside a Victron setup, or something similar? I'm particularly curious whether the auto-start feature works via a dry contact signal from the Cerbo GX, or whether you're essentially locked into EcoFlow's own app and batteries for that to function properly. Also keen to know how it holds up to damp — our site gets properly soggy in winter and I'd need to store it in a vented outbuilding.

@EllaDixon71 solid setup. I run a Honda EU22i alongside my solar at the cabin — not the EcoFlow pairing but similar idea. Main thing I'd say: don't rely on the auto-start feature too heavily in winter. Cold mornings it can be sluggish and by the time it kicks in your inverter's already thrown a low voltage alarm.

What I do now is just manually fire it up when the Victron shows SOC dropping below 30% heading into a cloudy spell. Takes 2 mins to top the Fogstar back up to 80% and you're sorted.

The EcoFlow smart integration looks tidy on paper but I'd want to know how it handles a 100Ah lithium specifically — their pairing seems optimised for their own batteries really.

@EllaDixon71 — funny timing, I was just wrestling with exactly this question on the narrowboat last winter. I ended up going a different route to the EcoFlow pairing, running a Jackery generator into my Victron Multiplus rather than a dedicated smart-paired unit. Worked fine but required a bit of manual babysitting.

The appeal of the EcoFlow smart pairing is obviously the auto-start threshold — it kicks in when SOC drops below whatever you've set, which for emergency backup is pretty much the whole point. Wales in November with 400W of panels... you'll know those three-day grey stretches where you're getting next to nothing.

Only thing I'd flag is the EcoFlow's battery capacity acts as a buffer between the generator and your Fogstar — check whether that suits your load profile or whether you'd rather charge direct.

@EllaDixon71 the EcoFlow pairing is clever in theory but I'd think carefully before committing. On the boat I ran a similar auto-start setup and the constant short-cycling of the generator was the killer — small petrol engines really don't like being fired up for 20 minutes then shut off repeatedly. Carburetor gunk, stale fuel issues, the works.

What actually worked better for me was setting a manual SOC trigger — generator only kicks in below 20%, runs until 80%, done. Fewer cycles, engine stays healthier.

For a static caravan in Wales though, you're getting hammered by weather more than most. Might be worth sizing your battery bank up before adding generator complexity — a second Fogstar Drift would arguably be cheaper than the maintenance headaches of auto-start pairing over a Welsh winter.

@EllaDixon71 ran a similar "solar + genny as backup" combo in my van for 18 months and the honest truth is the generator mostly just sat there looking smug until January arrived and suddenly it was the most important thing I owned — Wales winters will absolutely batter your solar yield, so having something ready to top up the Fogstar is just sensible insurance rather than overkill.

On the EcoFlow Smart Generator specifically — the auto-start triggered by battery percentage is genuinely tidy, but I'd double-check your Victron DVCC settings play nicely with it, because the two can occasionally argue about who's in charge of charging and you end up with neither doing it properly, which is peak off-grid comedy until your heating dies at 2am.

Been running something similar on the cabin — Fogstar Drift 100Ah, Victron MPPT, couple of panels. Added a small inverter genny last autumn as backup.

Main thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet: runtime hours really add up even on a "backup" genny if your winters are as grim as mine. Worth logging when it actually kicks in — surprised myself how often it was running in Nov/Dec.

Haven't tried the EcoFlow Smart Generator specifically, went with a Honda EU22i instead. Plays nicely with the Victron kit, no complaints there.

@EllaDixon71 Wales winters will test that 100Ah harder than you'd expect tbh. Might be worth checking your Victron app history to see actual state-of-charge trends before deciding which backup route to go.

@EllaDixon71 Wales in winter is genuinely brutal for solar — I feel your pain. I've not used the EcoFlow Smart Generator specifically, but I ran a similar auto-start setup with a Victron Multiplus and a Yamaha EF2000iS for about eighteen months at my off-grid place in Scotland. The main thing I'd watch is the generator runtime cycles — lots of short runs are harder on the engine than fewer, longer ones. Whatever system you use, try to set the SOC trigger low enough that the generator runs for a decent stretch each time rather than constantly kicking in and out. Also worth checking your Victron's charge current settings match what the generator can comfortably deliver — undersizing that caused me grief initially. @BoatIan makes a fair point about thinking it through first. What's your typical daily consumption in the darker months?

@EllaDixon71 the EcoFlow pairing is clever in theory but I went a different route — a cheap Honda EU22i feeding straight into my Victron Multiplus. The MultiPlus does the heavy lifting deciding when to pull from the genny versus battery, and honestly once it's dialled in you forget the generator exists until it fires up on a grey November Tuesday and saves your bacon.

The key thing nobody mentions: generator runtime drops massively once your Victron is doing proper absorption rather than bulk charging the whole time. Mine runs maybe 40 minutes where it used to run two hours.

@EllaDixon71 worth knowing the EcoFlow Smart Generator works best when paired with an EcoFlow battery ecosystem — if you're running Victron kit and a Fogstar it won't get that "auto-start on low SOC" functionality without some workarounds. What some folks do is use a separate voltage-triggered auto-start relay to kick a standard inverter generator instead. A Honda EU22i or Yamaha EF2200iS will be far more reliable long-term than the EcoFlow unit outside its native ecosystem, especially in Welsh winters where you'll actually be leaning on it regularly. Just something to consider before committing to the expense.

@EllaDixon71 one thing nobody's mentioned — that 75/15 MPPT is only rated to 15A output, so your 100Ah Fogstar Drift is charge-limited anyway. Before adding any generator, double-check your actual absorption/float settings in VictorConnect. I've seen lithiums massively undercharged because someone left the profile on AGM defaults.

On the generator question specifically: if you're not already in the EcoFlow ecosystem, wiring a small inverter-genny through a basic Victron MultiPlus or even a standalone charger gives you far more flexibility and isn't locked to one manufacturer's app deciding when to start.