How Does the Inergy Flex Solar Generator Stack Up Against the Rest?

Inergy Flex 1500Inergy is a company that has made a lot of waves in the solar industry. When they came out with the Kodiak, it blew the competition out of the water. The only thing close was the Goal Zero Yeti 1250, but it really wasn’t a competition. The Kodiak was powerful and light, being one of the first companies to use lithium-ion batteries. After the Kodiak, Inergy released the Apex. It was completely overhyped and unfortunately it under-delivered. You can read my review about it here.

The newest model is the Flex 1500 Power Station. It has not hit the market yet, so this review will just be looking over the listed specs and features. When it hits the market, I will do a more thorough review and see if it actually performs according to what they say. People have been asking me how it compares to my favorite and most recommended solar generator, the Point Zero Titan. It shares some very similar features, but can it compete with the best?

Click Here for the Best Solar Generator Kits

Battery Capacity

Battery capacity determines how long your system can run electronics before it needs to be recharged. The bigger capacity, the longer it will last. More battery capacity comes at a cost, both financially and in terms of weight. Batteries are the heaviest component of a solar generator system. When I am looking at purchasing a solar generator, I look at what I need it to do, and then buy the generator that meets my needs.

Inergy Flex SpecsThe Flex 1500 uses a 1069Wh 12V Lithium-ion battery. Most companies use a model number equivalent to the battery capacity, but in this case, it’s called the 1500 because of the inverter size. Like the previous models, they’ve stayed just above that 1000Wh mark. I’m curious why they haven’t made it bigger than that. A lot of new companies are pushing between 1500-3000Wh, and in my opinion that just makes a much more capable system.

I’m curious to see during testing to see how much battery capacity it actually has. When electricity is converted from DC power (solar) to AC power, there is always loss due to inefficiencies. A lot of companies advertise the nominal size of the battery, not the actual. The only generator I know of that I can actually use the full listed amount of the battery is the Titan which has 2000wh of usable battery capacity.

The Flex 1500 battery is detachable from the rest of the system. This is a really nice feature because when the battery wears out, I can just buy a replacement battery and I don’t have to send the whole unit back to the manufacturer for them to put a new battery in. I can also have a backup battery on hand to switch out with the old one when it wears out.

Point Zero was the company that came up with the detachable battery idea. How does their battery compare? The Titan uses a 2000Wh Lithium-ion battery, and you can actually use all 2000Wh. That is because the battery is actually larger than the number advertised, so when they say 2000Wh that is actually what I am going to get. So one Titan battery is equal to two Flex batteries.

 

Expandability

Flex With Expanded BatteriesWhat really makes the detachable battery cool is that I can add multiple batteries to each other to expand my overall battery capacity. Now, I’m not going to sugar coat it here. It appears Inergy has blatantly copied the Point Zero Titan battery stacking design. While it is unfortunate to see another company copy another company’s design, it is a very well thought out system and I love how it works. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

By expanding my battery capacity, I can lengthen the time I can operate my electrical appliances before I have to recharge. My biggest concern is always looking at if I have enough battery to run my appliances through the night until I have sunlight to recharge those batteries. Having the ability to have more or less batteries for any given application is a nice feature, and one I hope more companies will incorporate in the future.

The Flex 1500 and the Titan are essentially equal in this department. But I have to give the edge to Titan for being the ones who actually came up with the idea.

 

Weight/Portability

The weight and portability of the solar generator is an important consideration depending on application. I’m not that concerned about the portability of an off-grid cabin solar generator setup because once it is setup, it isn’t moving. For my RV, camping, and road trip needs, I want something that I can easily load into my rig and not break my back doing so.

The overall weight of the Flex 1500 is 30 pounds, and if you detach the battery both halves way 14 pounds and 16 pounds. That is very light and makes it very easy to move around. Its footprint is 14”x9”x8” so it doesn’t take up much floor space either.

The Titan is about double this number. 66 pounds for the overall system, 31 pounds and 35 pounds if you split them up. Double the battery size, double the weight. 30 pounds give or take is still easily maneuverable, so they both are great in this area.

That means that the Titan has double the weight, as well as double the inverter capacity and double the battery capacity.

One really nice feature of the Inergy Flex 1500 batteries is that you don’t have to calibrate them to be the same voltage before stacking them together. Or at least that’s what they say. You can stack the batteries together safely even if they’re at different voltages. The Titan batteries need to be within .5v of each other when connecting them. However, I only have to do that once with the Titan since I’m using multiple batteries and those batteries always stay together, they never go out of balance from each other after the initial setup.

Click Here for the Best Solar Generator Kits

Charge Speed

Flex Charge SpeedCharge speed is important to look at, because if I can’t recharge my battery all the way in one day, then I don’t have a system that can operate day to day. It’s like if I was driving my car daily but I couldn’t afford to fill up the gas tank all the way. Eventually, it will run empty and I’ll be stranded.

I want a solar system that can recharge daily so that I go into the evening with a full battery, meaning I don’t have to worry about my appliances turning off leaving me in the dark. A day in solar terms is the window of optimal sunlight, typically 5-6 hours.

The Flex 1500 can handle 600W of solar input, meaning that it could recharge a battery in a little less than two hours, well under the 5-6 hour window. If I added a second battery, I could still charge up to 2000Wh+ in around 4 hours. I like to leave a little cushion room because conditions will not always be perfect. Clouds, shade, smoke, and other factors can make for imperfect conditions and it might take longer.

I take the “600w charge speed” with a grain of salt because they had said that about the Kodiak as well as the Apex and it wasn’t actually 600w of solar input that it could handle. In fact, many customers fried their Kodiaks trying to connect 600w of solar panels because the charge port could really only handle 30 amps max. And when 6 panels are connected in parallel together the amperage can reach around 36 amps. That caused many people dangerous situations with their Kodiaks melting wires and components.

I can also charge the Flex 1500 by way of AC wall outlet or with a car charger. Using the wall charger, it can charge in about 11 hours. Not the fastest, but not the slowest either. The car charger can charge in about the same time. Car charging is very nice when road-tripping and RVing to be able to charge between destinations.

The Titan has a max solar input of 1000W, almost twice as much as the Flex 1500. And if I add a battery, I can increase my solar input by another 1000W. To be fair, the Flex 1500 has a MPPT Supercharger that allows me to charge up to 1200 watts, but it’s an extra add on that costs $500. No add on needed for the Titan. The Titan is really just double that of the Flex 1500. Battery is twice as big, and the solar input is twice as much.

The nice feature of the Flex 1500 is that you can add as many MPPT Superchargers as you’d like. Essentially, for every battery you can add another MPPT Supercharger if you’d like. It does get very pricey at that point but then the charge times from solar stay very low.

The Titan has a max solar input of 2000w but I have found that to be plenty even for my off-grid cabin that runs 100% year-round with the Titan.

 

Life Cycle

Solar generators have made huge improvements in capability since going to Lithium-ion batteries over lead acid batteries. Lithium-ion offers many benefits, one of which is the increased lifespan of the battery. This is referred to as life cycles, and it’s the number of times a battery can go from 100% to 0% and then back to 100%. After a certain number of life cycles, the battery will start to lose its overall capacity, usually down to about 80%. I want to buy something that has a high number of life cycles so that I know I can rely on my system for years to come.

Inergy Flex CookingIt was tricky to find the life cycles of the Flex 1500. It isn’t listed in the specs or features of the main listing. Under the FAQs they say, “The cycle life of your battery is totally dependent on how you use it. Your Flex Battery could last anywhere from 400 cycles up to 2,000 cycles or 10 years if you use it to run moderate loads and take good care of it.” I’m not sure what that means. Everybody else posts an actual number of life cycles I can expect from their system.

The Titan actually is listed as having 2000 Life Cycles. The way they get this high number is by oversizing the battery, but then limiting how much of it I can actually use. This means I never actually drain the battery to 0% which means the battery lasts longer. Very smart move by Point Zero.

Number of plugin ports

The Flex 1500 has a good amount of ports and outlets. 6 110/120V wall outlet plugs, 2 DC ports, 2 USB A, and 2 USB C ports. My only complaint would be that it seems like the wall outlet plugs are too close together. If I was using a power cord with the box on the end, it would most likely make the outlets on either side unusable.

The Titan also has 6 110/120V wall outlet plugs, and it has 4 DC ports which gives me the option of either DC power or I can use converters for USB type plugs. The spacing on the wall outlet plugs is much better in my opinion and there is no overlap with a box style power cord.

I should also add here that the Titan has a switch to run either AC power or DC power only. If I only needed DC power, I can run it more efficiently by flipping the DC power only switch. The Flex 1500 has a whole different power station dedicated to DC power only. I much prefer the simpleness of a switch versus a whole new system.

Inverter Size

The inverter determines how much power I can draw from the battery, which determines what kind of equipment I can use. The bigger the inverter, the bigger the equipment. The Flex 1500 has a 1500W continuous Pure Sine Wave inverter with a 3000W surge capacity.

The previous model, the Apex, also had a 1500W inverter but the battery could only output around 850Wh. This made it rather pointless to have an inverter that big if it is limited by the battery. Inergy claims the Flex 1500 doesn’t have this issue as it can run 1500W continuously from 100% of the battery down to 20%.

The Titan on the other hand, just like the battery and solar input, is twice as big. 3000W continuous Pure Sine Wave inverter with a 6000W surge capacity. This allows me to run power equipment like chop saws, welders, etc. Just like in my vehicles, I prefer the power of a V8. The Titan has been tested and can actually draw 3000W continuously until the battery is at 0%. That is amazing.

RV Connectivity

A dedicated RV 30-amp style plug allows me to plug the solar generator in to the RV and power everything, without having to run power cords everywhere. It is a really nice feature that I like to have. The Flex 1500 does not have this feature. Their previous models, the Kodiak and the Apex, did have one. It wasn’t great, because even though it was a 30-amp style plug it could only pull 12.5 amps.

The Titan does have a dedicated RV 30-amp style plug that can pull 25 amps. Plenty of power to run my RV, and because of the size of the inverter could even run an AC unit.

Customer Support and Warranty

I want to know that I’ll be taken care of when I buy an expensive piece of equipment. I want to be able to call a company if I have issues or questions and talk to an actual person instead of hearing a long list of menu options and getting the runaround.

Inergy Flex UnitInergy doesn’t have a great track record of customer service. A quick look at Amazon reviews and you can see the issues people have had. That makes me really nervous about spending my hard-earned money. But they do offer a two-year warranty on the Flex 1500. They are offering a 10-year warranty on their batteries if you buy their system at a Pre-sale price.

It could’ve been an anomaly but when I called Inergy to ask more questions about the Flex 1500 I was on hold for 37mins. Then I got hung up on. I called again because I thought there’s no way they’d just hang up on me. I waited 42mins and then got hung up on. Needless to say, I was not happy at all.

For the Titan it is very easy to get answers. Calling 800-489-0552 gets me directly to a customer service agent. Sometimes waiting in the queue happens because the phone number gets busy at times, but they always call back.

Click Here for the Best Solar Generator Kits

Pricing and Final Thoughts

The Titan without panels is $2,995. I’ve already shown how it doubles the specs of the Flex 1500. If I add another battery and the MPPT Supercharger to the Flex to match the battery size and solar input specs of the Titan, it would cost $2,950 for standard pricing and $2,650 presale pricing. A difference of $45 and I get an inverter that is twice as powerful and a battery with 4x the life cycle.

Taking it a step further, let’s say I add another battery to the Titan. I would have 4000Wh battery capacity for $4,390. To get that kind of capacity with the Flex 1500 I’d be looking at 3 additional batteries and 3 additional MPPT Superchargers, which would equal $5,800. $1400 more than the Titan, and the Titan still outperforms and has more features.

That is why I highly recommend the Point Zero Titan over the Inergy Flex 1500. It beats it in every category and at a better price point. Buy with confidence!

Continue ReadingHow Does the Inergy Flex Solar Generator Stack Up Against the Rest?

Read Before You Buy! – Full Review of the Inergy Apex Solar Generator

Inergy Apex Solar Generator

The Inergy Apex solar generator, or as some would prefer it said “power station,” was one of the most anticipated solar generators to come out. Since the Kodiak was such a big hit when it first came out because it was vastly better than the Goal Zero, the Apex was thought to be quite amazing. But when it finally launched, did it live up to the hype?

The Apex is essentially a slightly modified Kodiak for all intents and purposes. One of the biggest differences was that the Kodiak had a PWM charge controller and the Apex has an MPPT charge controller. Having an MPPT charge controller is a must-have feature now-a-days. The reason is that solar generators have come a long way and using old tech like a PWM charge controller is just a symbol of low quality.

Since the Apex has the MPPT charge controller it gained a little bit of weight from the Kodiak. The Kodiak was only 20lbs and the Apex is now 25lbs which is still very lightweight. This allows the Apex to put in up to 500 watts of solar panels connected in parallel.

 

Battery

The lithium nmc (lithium-ion) battery inside of the Inergy Apex is a 12-volt, 90 amp-hour battery. That gives it a total of 1,100wh of capacity. The battery is a fair size especially since one of the main focuses of the Apex is to remain lightweight. When Lithium Ion Battery Packlooking at something like the MAXOAK Bluetti and seeing that it weighs nearly 40lbs and has a 1,500wh battery it makes sense why Inergy didn’t put in a large battery.

More battery just means that it will last longer without a charge. This is great, especially when powering things through the night or if there is a string of cloudy days. But it also means more weight. The battery, even a lithium-ion battery, is by far the heaviest part of any portable solar generator kit.

 

According to Inergy, the battery is rated to a 550-watt continuous draw for 2 hours. By not using more than 550 watts continuously the battery is more likely to reach it’s 2,000 rated lifecycles. In the extreme testing that I did with the Apex I found that the battery could push out up to 850 watts continuously and still run all the way down to 0%. But if anything more was put on the Apex it would quit working before reaching 0%.Apex Battery Inverter Draw Times

For example, with just a 950-watt load the Apex will stop working after about 40 minutes. With a 1,500-watt continuous load it will shut off the inverter after just 3.5 minutes. This is one of the problems with the Apex.

Inverter

The inverter is great. It’s a 1,500-watt pure sine wave inverter that has a peak of 3,000 watts. For almost anything during an emergency situation, blackout, RV or camping the 1,500-watt inverter is plenty big. The downside is that it is limited by the batteryconnected to it. Since the battery can only draw 850 watts continuously there’s not really a point to having a 1,500w inverter. This works well for people who need to run less than 1,000-watts continuously. The question at that point would be “wouldn’t it be better to get something like a MAXOAK Bluetti or an ExpertPower Alpha for the same price but get more battery?”

Apex Solar Generator Inverter

I simply wish that I could either run the 1,500-watt inverter longer than 3.5 minutes or that Inergy would’ve put in an inverter that matches the battery. Placing an inverter larger than what can be used makes me feel like I am paying for something that I can’t use, at least most of the time. I can still use the 1,500-watts just not for long.

Charging

The fastest way to charge the Apex is to use solar panels. Since it has an MPPT charge controller it is a good idea to get a good set of solar panels to optimize how fast it can charge. It will allow up to 500 watts of solar panels to be connected as long as it stays within the 12v range and nothing higher than 30 amps. Using five 100-watt solar panels is the best way to achieve that. Connecting them in parallel will make lots of power for the Apex and can charge it in as little as 2.2 hours in perfect conditions.

It is rare to have perfect conditions. There are about 5 or 6 hours a day that can be used to make full power from solar panels. The fact that the Apex can input up to 500 watts is one of my favorite features about it. It can be fully drained, then recharged, fully drained and recharged again all within one day. That’s a lot of power going in and out which means it can run quite a few things and still be charged up for the night.

Using the wall charger can be a bit hard if the Apex is being used. The AC wall charger that comes with the Apex will only put in a max of 80 watts at a time into the battery. With a 1,100wh battery that means it takes up to 14 hours to charge it all the way up. The nice thing of having it charge slowly is that it will not cause problems with the battery. Lithium likes to be charged slowly so that it doesn’t have any problems in the future with how many lifecycles it has.

There is an optional “Quick Wall Charger” for the Apex that will charge about twice as fast as the standard wall charger. Coming down from 14 hours to 7 hours isn’t great but it’s better than taking more than half a day.

Car Charger for ApexThere is no car charger for the Apex. I thought this was a bit sad since there was a car charger for the Kodiak. A car charger is never really that fast on a solar generator, but it is a nice comfort to have. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a power outage, fire, hurricane, flood, RVing or whatever, it is nice to have the option to charge on the go. The way Inergy gets around this is they now suggest a small 300-watt inverter that can be easily plugged into the cigarette lighter ports in a car. Then the AC wall charger is plugged into the inverter and can charge on the go.

It is becoming much more common with solar generators to allow for simultaneous charging or multiple charging inputs. Meaning that a unit can be charged by solar while simultaneously being charged by a wall outlet, wind turbine, car charger, hydro turbine or other option. The Apex sadly does not allow for that. Only solar or AC charger and only one at a time. It does allow for charging and discharging at the same time though. Meaning that it can have a charge coming in from solar panels while being used and running other equipment. That is the best way to use it generally.

Recommended Kit

In my opinion, the best thing that can be done for the Apex is to use it to its full extent. This means getting five solar panels, using high-quality 8-gauge cables, and other accessories so it can be charged quickly and used easily.

These are the specific items I have tested and found to be extremely good to use with the Apex. It matches what is called the “Apex Gold Kit”:

One Inergy Apex
Five 100w Solar Panels (option 1)
Five 100w Solar Panels (option 2)
One Set 70ft 8 AWG Panel Cables
Two Sets 5ft 8 AWG Panel Cables
One EC8 to PV Connector Adapter
One 5 to 1 PV Connector Branch Adapter
One 30amp to 15amp Adapter
Panel Cord Cover (1/Inergy Panel)

Inergy Apex Max Kit

 

Connectors

The Inergy Apex solar generator uses the uncommon EC8 connector. EC8 connectors are most commonly used with remote control cars or RC toys. They are great for that purpose because they can handle a large load of amps which helps the RC cars and toys to run fast and hard for short periods of time.

There are some drawbacks to the EC8 connector though. The first is that they are not common or easy to work with. If for some reason an EC8 connector were to break it is very hard to replace it or repair it since it is not a commonly carried connector at electronic or RV stores. But what would cause them to break? The sun does a number on them because they are not UV proof. This can cause them to become brittle. The good news is that the Apex is not likely to be in the sun very often since 99% of users have it indoors when using it for long periods of time.

However, using the Linx 100w Flexible Solar Panels can be a bit risky since they have EC8 connectors and obviously would be outside in the sun and weather. EC8 connectors are also not waterproof. Inergy has recommended a couple of things to helpLinx Solar Panel with Apex with the lack of UV protection and water getting into connectors. The first is to use an outdoor extension cord connector box because it is UV rated and water-resistant. The second option is to use silicone glue and heat shrink to help cover the EC8 connectors to keep the sun and water out.

This is why I prefer to use my own solar panels with PV Connector connectors. PV Connector connectors are the most common solar panel connection worldwide. They are both UV proof as well as waterproof so it’s a tried and true method of getting reliable use out of solar panels. Just make sure to use flexible solar panels with an ETFE finish. Any flexible solar panel that has a PET finish will not last a year outside before it begins to discolor, crack, fade or break.

Outlets

The Inergy Apex has six 110/120v wall socket styled outlets. This is tied for the highest number of plugs in the industry when compared to other solar generators. It is tied with other units like the Titan solar generator which has six outlets too, but the Titan has them split into two banks where each row can run up to 15 amps for a total of 30 amps at once. The Apex has a 15-amp limit on all six outlets together. It is very nice having lots of outlets that are fairly well spaced out so lots of things can be connected at once.

K2 Apex Solar Generator

It has two cigarette lighter DC ports which are rated to 15 amps. They allow for a total of up to 180 watts load on them. It also has two 5.5×2.5mm DC ports which are perfect for their Chainable Basecamp Lights. The total DC output is rated to 15 amps or 180 watts.

There two types of USB ports on the Apex. There are two new USB-C ports provided on the Apex. Unfortunately, they are not high wattage 45w or 60w plugs so they will only work to charge cell phones and tablets not laptops. According to the Apex User Manual, each one is rated to 5 volts and 3 amps. and two traditional USB-A ports. This is nice to have the traditional ports as well so that everyday electronics that use traditional USB cords can be used to charge up. They are also rated to 3 amps which will usually provide “fast charging” speeds on phones.

The three-prong 30-amp RV plug is a great feature to have on the Apex. This is the easiest way to connect to a travel trailer, RV or van to provide easy power. The user manual says it can pull a max of 12.5 amps or 1,500 watts continuously. Keep in mind that it cannot push out more than what the normal AC outlets can do but will make it easy to connect to power your rig.

Warranty

Inergy provides a full 1-year warranty on their workmanship. If there are any flaws, defects or if anything is broken that is not the fault of the customer, they will fix it. It’s always good to have at least a 1-year warranty on a solar generator so it can be taken care of what’s needed. It is very important to actually test, use and experiment with the Apex though. Don’t make the mistake of purchasing an Apex, not using it for a year, pulling it out for a power outage only to find out something is either missing or doesn’t work. It’s surprising how many emails and phone calls I have received from people saying that they just barely opened it after over a year and there’s an issue. Don’t be like that.

Conclusion

It’s not a solar generator I can fully get behind since I feel it has a few problems with the output. I love that it can handle 500 watts of solar input but dislike that it can’t run 1,500 watts for more than a few minutes. The bottom line is if you don’t need to run more than 850 watts very often then it is a pretty good option. I have seen prices vary quite a bit but they are very constant and the lowest on Amazon. If you’re interested in getting an Inergy Apex solar generator then I recommend getting if from Amazon for the best price.

The Kodiak used to be my “go-to” solar generator and thought the Apex would be what replaced it. That is not the case. My “go-to” solar generator is hands down the Titan.

Continue ReadingRead Before You Buy! – Full Review of the Inergy Apex Solar Generator