ECO-WORTHY 3,500W inverter + ECO-WORTHY 51.2V 100Ah 5.12 kWh battery

Interesting combo to consider — ECO-WORTHY gear tends to get overlooked in favour of the usual Victron or Growatt setups, but for budget-conscious builds it's worth a proper look.

On the narrowboat I ran a similar 48V LiFePO4 pairing for about eight months before upgrading, and the main thing I'd flag with any inverter at that wattage is surge capacity. The 3,500W continuous rating sounds generous, but if you're running inductive loads — pumps, compressors, anything with a motor — you want to know the peak surge figure and how long it sustains it. ECO-WORTHY's spec sheets can be a bit vague on that front.

A few questions worth investigating before committing:

• BMS communication — does the battery talk to the inverter at all, or are they completely isolated? No CAN/RS485 comms means the inverter won't know to back off before the BMS trips, which causes nuisance shutdowns under load.
• Charge parameters — can you set absorption/float voltages manually? LiFePO4 really wants 58.4V absorption and around 54V float for a 48V bank, not the generic lithium profile some cheaper inverters default to.
• Ventilation — that inverter will throw real heat at anything above 2kW sustained. Don't underestimate it in an enclosed space.

Would be genuinely curious whether anyone's paired this specific battery with a proper comms-capable inverter like a Victron Multiplus and seen better results. The ECO-WORTHY battery cells themselves seem reasonably decent from teardown videos I've seen — it's always the integration that makes or breaks these budget systems.

Ran ECO-WORTHY panels on the motorhome for a season and they punched above their weight, but I'd personally want to see long-term discharge cycle data before trusting that 100Ah LiFePO4 through a British winter — Fogstar Drift exists at a similar price point and actually tells you what's inside the cells. 🔋

Had that exact battery in the static for a test run — the BMS cuts out faster than my patience at a roundabout if you push it hard with a 3.5kW inverter on startup surge, so derate your expectations accordingly.

The inverter's a modified sine wave unit at that price point too, so anything with a motor or decent electronics will let you know about it sharpish.

If budget's genuinely tight, a Fogstar Drift 100Ah paired with even a basic Victron Phoenix is a more honest stack for the money — at least the BMS comms actually work and you're not guessing what's happening inside the pack.

ECO-WORTHY's fine for panels, but betting your whole system on their battery and inverter together is the kind of optimism I lost somewhere around my second van conversion.

@Rob1963 ha, the BMS thing is real — had similar drama with a budget LiFePO4 on the boat before I switched to Fogstar. Once it trips you're scrambling around in the dark trying to reset it at midnight, not ideal.

Genuine question though — what's the inverter's idle draw like? That's where cheaper units tend to absolutely murder your battery overnight. My old 3000W no-name thing was pulling 25W just sitting there doing nothing, which on a 100Ah bank is... not great.

The 3,500W rating sounds decent on paper but I'd want to know if that's continuous or peak. Eco-Worthy specs can be a bit creative shall we say. If it's properly 3.5kW continuous that's actually respectable for the price point compared to what Victron would cost you for equivalent output.

@Rob1963 that roundabout comparison is painfully accurate — had a similar BMS moment on the boat last winter, killed power mid-passage through a lock. Not ideal.

What I'd add to this thread: the 3,500W inverter is rated continuous, but what's the surge capacity? On a narrowboat you're regularly throwing pumps, a compressor fridge, and maybe a small inverter charger into the mix simultaneously. Budget inverters often fib a bit on surge figures.

I ran a comparable ECO-WORTHY setup in my shepherd's hut before upgrading — it handled the kettle and a few lights no bother, but the moment I added a power tool it got very warm very quickly.

For a static install with modest loads it's probably fine. Anything with a demanding start-up draw, I'd want to see independent test data before trusting those headline specs.