วีดีโอ

I really appreciate non-sponsored content. These are few and far between for these power stations. I recently purchased this unit and also waiting to receive the add-on battery to expand to 4000wh. Got both on sale for about $1800 all together. I have a 4 circuit transfer switch in my garage already, so I thought it would be cool to use the Ecoflow with about 800 watts of solar (that’s all I have space for) to run one circuit to my kitchen, full time. This includes a full sized fridge, microwave, toaster oven and gas range (with electric starter ). You can charge the Ecoflow from ac and solar simultaneously. You can set it to charge from solar only until it reaches your desired state of charge before it starts charging from both ac and solar. This way you can use the battery while maintaining some reserve for brief power outages. These batteries degrade a bit over time, whether you use them or not. So it makes sense to me to just use them. And I do have a small inverter gas generator that I can use to recharge the battery if necessary. Certainly not a shtf solution, but I think it’s just so cool to be able to use the sun for a bit of electricity daily as well as have some backup for temporary grid down situations. That’s my use case, and I’m sticking to it!

Wish you would have posted the results. When you list accuracy of the pin models and say some were not accurate, how far off was each model? If the meter said it was 18 % and the sample was actually 16 or maybe 20 is that bad?

Great video 👍 after watching all the sales bull channels, you were a breath of fresh air, and great humour - thoroughly enjoyed it - thx for sharing 👍👍

I'm a retired hardwood kiln operator with over 20 years of drying experience drying hardwood for high grade cabinets and furniture. I was in charge of 17 dry kilns that held on average 40,000 bdft in each of them, I also ran two large pre-dryer buildings that held 500,000 bdft. I've dried millions of bdft of various hardwood species, mostly red oak. I've dried millions of oven samples in my lab oven. I recently retired and now Im learning about firewood for my cabin and I've noticed that all firewood videos that deal with MC always use a handheld meter and NO ONE was doing the "oven test". I used a pinless meter to spot check boards but if the boss wanted to know the true MC%, it was always checked via oven test. So yeah, good video. Wagner is the industry standard, I'd never ever use a cheap MC meter in an industrial setting. Also be careful with the lab oven, they've been known to malfunction and get the samples hot enough to smolder and billow smoke and fuck up the inside of the oven. In my 22 years of drying, I've seen three of them on fire, filling the kiln control room with smoke. Your lab oven looks new and is probably not going to catch the sample on fire anytime soon, but beware. Anyone wants to bullshit about drying or kilns, ask me anything.

It’s been a bit since I’ve done research on meters. Split a good amount of firewood, and at first was using pins when I contacted the manufacturers, a lot of people don’t seem to realize the pins are supposed to go in almost all the way in. This is never going to happen on a hard piece of firewood, like oak or black locus As for pinless, I’ve had pretty good luck like you said Oak actually splits pretty flat

I betcha didn't get that for 600 bucks.

Ok, first thing: I never pay full price at Harbor Freight - they always have deals and coupons if you just have patience. I paid less than $450 for mine including tax. Second: Read the manual - Yes, this machine will chip/shred limbs up to 3 inches. However, it clearly shows in the manual that those 3 inch pieces need to be cut down to 10-12 inches in length. ANY chipper/shredder that says 3 inch max will bog down if you try to run a 5 or 6 foot limb through it. Even the Champion with the bigger engine will bog if you feed it long pieces of 3 inch wood. Third: Any brand of these machines will "beat you up" if you're not wearing proper protection - gloves, ear and eye protection, etc.

Thanks!

Thanks for the rigor here.

I decided not to wait on JD parts to be made, and I bought a bell crank for my 2025R off Ebay ($53). This one was fabricated with steel and welded(much stronger). It took me less than 45 minutes to install, and would probably take someone who has done it before about 25 minutes. I suggest you put the tractor on level ground and block the wheels for safety. Use a 13mm wrench (a 1/2 inch will also work, but remember the two bolts are metric, M8 - 1.25) and it is helpful to have a long screwdriver for leveraging off the rod that goes back to the rear axle/brake. When finished, I replaced the cotter pin with a new one. Remember that the rod (which goes to the back of the tractor) is on springs and can be pulled forward by hand, to help you line up the brake rod hole in the crank. Both original bolts through the bell crank do NOT have nuts. You will see that the original bolts (when backing them out) will literally eventually hit part of the frame, but if you tip the head of the bolt back and wriggle, you have just enough room to get the bolts completely out. I used a ratcheting 1/2" box wrench, but then had to switch to a crescent wrench, otherwise the ratcheting wrench will get stuck [because the bolts are flanged] when the bolt is nearly out. Note that only the axle (?) itself is threaded. I discovered that the original bell crank is cast [aluminum ???] and cheaply made. The cast crank is only threaded about 25%. There is no need to jack the tractor up because there is plenty of room [unless you have a big stomach] to crawl on your back under the right side of the tractor. The bell crank is on the RIGHT side of the tractor, directly beneath where the heal of your shoe is, when your right foot is on the (foreward/reverse) pedals. It's a simple fix because the part is 100% metal and there is no electronics or plastics, etc., involved. Local people are fabricating them from steel in their shops [welding]. JD plans on sending techs to your home and doing the needed replacements there, so you don't have to go to a dealership. But the fix is pretty easy, if you want to do it yourself. Again, I got the part for about $53 from someone probably fabricating them in their garage or metal working job. Honestly, a 12 year old boy could probably figure out how to do the removal/installation, but remember, the rod that goes between the crank and the rear brakes is with springs so it can be easily moved back and forth to line it up with the crank hole (top) again. [Don't have the parking brake on when doing the replacement.] When you get the original one (cast) off and hold it, you will see how cheaply it was made and understand why it has failed for so many owners.

I replaced/installed the new (fabricated by one of all steel-welding) yesterday. Easy do it yourself fix, for $53.00. See my below comments.

I decided not to wait on JD parts to be made, and I bought a bell crank for my 2025R off Ebay ($53). This one was fabricated with steel and welded(much stronger). It took me less than 45 minutes to install, and would probably take someone who has done it before about 25 minutes. I suggest you put the tractor on level ground and block the wheels for safety. Use a 13mm wrench (a 1/2 inch will also work, but remember the two bolts are metric, M8 - 1.25) and it is helpful to have a long screwdriver for leveraging off the rod that goes back to the rear axle/brake. When finished, I replaced the cotter pin with a new one. Remember that the rod (which goes to the back of the tractor) is on springs and can be pulled forward by hand, to help you line up the brake rod hole in the crank. Both original bolts through the bell crank do NOT have nuts. You will see that the original bolts (when backing them out) will literally eventually hit part of the frame, but if you tip the head of the bolt back and wriggle, you have just enough room to get the bolts completely out. I used a ratcheting 1/2" box wrench, but then had to switch to a crescent wrench, otherwise the ratcheting wrench will get stuck [because the bolts are flanged] when the bolt is nearly out. Note that only the axle (?) itself is threaded. I discovered that the original bell crank is caste [aluminum ???] and cheaply made. The caste crank is only threaded about 25%. There is no need to jack the tractor up because there is plenty of room [unless you have a big stomach] to crawl on your back under the right side of the tractor. The bell crank is on the RIGHT side of the tractor, directly beneath where the heal of your shoe is, when your right foot is on the (foreward/reverse) pedals. It's a simple fix because the part is 100% metal and there is no electronics or plastics, etc., involved. Local people are fabricating them from steel in their shops [welding]. JD plans on sending techs to your home and doing the needed replacements there, so you don't have to go to a dealership. But the fix is pretty easy, if you want to do it yourself. Again, I got the part for about $53 from someone probably fabricating them in their garage or metal working job. Honestly, a 12 year old boy could probably figure out how to do the removal/installation, but remember, the rod that goes between the crank and the rear brakes is with springs so it can be easily moved back and forth to line it up with the crank hole (top) again. [Don't have the parking brake on when doing the replacement. Chuck the wheels, etc.]

Sorry, I can't buy anything with IED in the name. Not after Iraq, my ears are still ringing.

Same thing happened to mine yesterday with my 2022 2025R bolt went through bottom of casing

14:00 but in disaster what if there is no water?

Go to www.magicmind.com/JOHNWCH20 gets you up to 48% off your first subscription for the next 10 days or 20% off for a one time purchase #magicmind #mentalperformance #productivityhacks

Wish we saw the numbers before and after baking in your easy bake oven

Genius. Well played sir.

Thanks for an honest evaluation. I was thinking of getting one, but now I don’t think so. Thanks again.

Great Video! I had one question. When hooking up to your house propane, are you using the output of your house regulator (9-13 w.c.) and plumbing it directly to the generator or is there additional regulation needed? A quick calculation for w.c to psi is ~.5psi and the 20lb tank regulator reduces the pressure to 1psi. Just bought the 10500 version and I'm waiting for its delivery. Thanks-Gary

Great video cheers Maybe now review it again when charging via the sun and alternator charger via car. Alternator one is a game changer You can also use it while it charges

I sell HUNDREDS of chainsaw on eBay!

Great information, well explained. My use case is for firewood, so ease of use is most important, I often don’t know the species so I’m happy with my pinned meter that has just the one setting. I’ve tested kiln dried alder and the meter shows around 15%. So I use that as a datum now - anything there or thereabouts is good to go. Never considered repeatability as, before watching, I would have called that accuracy! Now, I’m now going to have to investigate further about relative density too. Thanks

There are replacement parts on eBay that are actually made from steel

damn, i was thinking about buying one.

Leaves a quesion though: what do you get if you have wavey logs? There was no decent pinned option in the affordable range!

You’re a legend 👍🏼

I remember 0.4 century ago I was an apprentice in construction at polytechnic they show me this method only using the pin type meter

Thank you for your information Woodridge. I have contacted the seller, United Ag, twice. They have no information on when the repair parts will be provided by John Deere. I called John Deere and they also have no information on when the repair parts will be available to the dealers. I didn't buy a tractor to end up as a sequel in a Laurel and Hardy movie. I am going to file a complaint with U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and hope all affected will as well. If that goes unanswered maybe a class action lawsuit would be in order.

Is there a separate pressure valve for the backhoe attachment

Add the 2 supplemental batteries and with 6kw you can run more...

I think it should be a class action lawsuit against John deer. They should have to pay us whatever it would cost to rent a tractor for however, more many months. These things are down.

I have this unit and it charges fine from the 110 V outlet but I plugged my solar panel into the back and it will not charge from the solar panel and I checked the panels putting out 20 V DC anybody have any ideas? What’s wrong?

Glad it back! and fixed of course. Try one of those weed burner torches and heat the driveway up

2.9 gal. for crankcase per JD website. Not 2.9 Quarts. The website seems like quite a lot. 2.9 quarts seems more like it

I loved the video! Great work. The way you showed the real life usage with fridge, coffee, lights, etc., is easy to understand. Looking forward to seeing your next video!

Just watched, this is super helpful. I wondered if the more expensive pinless models were worth it. Now I have my answer. Thanks!

While this product is great, I highly recommend starting off with a generator first. If you need to save money, get the generator and some gas cans then fill them up before storms approach and you'll be set. If you have some extra money to spend and you want to stay ready 24/7/365 then get a dual fuel generator and several tanks full of propane or 1 big tank if you dont foresee the need to leave. Propane stores much longer than gasoline and theres no pouring involved, plus a 5 gallon can of gas weighs about as much as a 20lb propane tank when full anyway so its not like the gas is easier to move around. 5 gallons of gas is enough to get you by a couple days but you're going to have to refuel the generator during that time. If you use propane the generator draws from the tank non-stop so theres less need for downtime. Propane burns cleaner, meaning less maintenance needed for the generator too. The downside? Well, propane isnt as energy dense, having approximately 430,000 BTUs per container (20lb/5 gallons) compared to gasoline at 624,421 BTUs per container (5 gallons) so you wont get as much power out of it. If you need a generator consider getting a smaller one than you might have thought of first. Smaller generators are more portable, more efficient, and often quieter too. If you need a cheap gas generator I recommend the GN400I from WEN. For just $375 you get 3500W of pure-sine inverter-based power and it only weighs 61lbs, just a bit more than a typical jerry can full of gas. This is the generator I have right now and it works great while being small and light enough to fit in the trunk of my car, making an emergency evacuation easier. Even if I was injured I could load the equipment or find just about any other able bodied teen or adult to load it for me. Generator, gas cans, and gas will cost much less than this product while outputting several times more power and having much less downtime compared to recharging a power station or "solar generator" like this. I'm not knocking these portable power stations either, I have 7 Ecoflows myself. I just want to make people aware this is by no means the ideal place to start prepping for power outages unless they live in a city where power outages are few and far between, or somewhere they couldnt run a generator. If you want nonstop power from something like this product you better be ready to spend big. I have a 400AH (5120WH) lifepo4 server rack battery in my suburban that I've been converting into a micro camper and that's enough to get me by with my tiny 12V appliances but even then I use propane for my water heater and stove/oven to save power. Thats a $2,500 power system build all in, and it still shirks the bulk of the load to propane to be viable. Trying to power an entire house can easily add a zero to that price tag

camping gas burner, butane cartridges are really cheap and last weeks 2-3 for one person.

For cooking and making coffee: Buy a camping-stove (gas, alcohol or whatever fuel you have available or can easily store!)...runing that via a power-station drains it too much, too quickly!

At least they will fix it if it was a car company they would tell you to pound sand especially Ford.

are you saying out where you live you do not have a storage system for 100 gallons of gasoline, 100 gallons of diesel!, then a 500 gallon propane tank + a number of full portable tanks? as well as 8 cords of seasoned firewood. as that couple of inches of snow will make you home bound till the plow comes through.

I saw this in Reddit. Very nice and well done video!

Just did this last week at a little over 50 hours. Here's what I learned. There were lots of little rubber silicone gasket material pieces in the bottom of the sump. If I could do it all over again I would pull out the screen and not the plug, this would allow the pressure of all that fluid coming out to push all the silicone pieces out. The other thing is is I would have done this at about 30 hours. I ended up straining the old fluid and running it back through with the screen out. Would have been easier to just pull the screen out and take my chances with the mess.

After calling and calling my local dealer to only not get my call answered, went in today. Was informed, they've got 50K customers in the same boat as I am and that they're waiting for the parts to come in. Since JD is moving to Mexico, I say American's need to stop buying Deere products, especially since they keep cutting jobs only for their CEO to continue to make multiple millions per year. It's all about greed, Deere and Co., they don't care unless it hurts their sales. I'll never buy another Deere again.

I had the same question….why stop at 2022 model year? After coming across and watching your first video on this topic earlier today, I went out to my 2023 1025R and put a magnet to the part…not steel. My unit is not on the recall list according to the JD website so I won’t be getting a notice but my question was why? Just came across this video this evening and feel vindicated!😂 Nothing good about this issue.

I tested my wood for moisture without any meter simply by looking at the smoke when I burned a sacrificial piece. The lesser the smoke the drier it was. I was extending my house and my uncle who helped me frame it told me he would be back in 6 months after showing how wet my wood was as he burned a piece of wood that I had in my garage over 10 years and compared to the new wood. . The smoke from my wood was unbelievable as a lot of it was steam. He said it would go quicker if I moved my wood to the garage and cover it with plastic and shipping blankets and leave a tiny heater going 24/7. He said to refresh the air 3-4 times a day and you could easily feel the humidity. In about 4 months that wood was ready to build. It still smoked more than the old wood but not by much.

I bought a new 1025R 11 months ago (absolutely no issues to date at all,it’s been great) and both the model year and manufacture year are 2023; therefore not on the recall list…I ran the serial number on the JD website. I’m wondering if anyone knows if JD did in fact change the material and/or manufacturing process on the bell crank sometime between 2022 and 2023 because the one on my machine looks strikingly similar to the photos I’ve seen of ones that have either failed or need to be replaced. Thanks.

I actually called both Deere and my local dealer about 3 weeks ago. Deere told me they expected to have the new parts starting to ship to my dealer by the end of the month. I asked what I was supposed to do with not being able to use my tractor. I got crickets. As you mentioned it’s nothing more than a CYA by them. I said now I have a tractor that I’m still making payments on and can’t use it. What they did say is to contact their credit department and ask for deferred payments until this issue is resolved. I asked if I could send them a bill for hiring someone to maintain my land. Guess you know that answer. As far as my local dealer goes, I sensed they were as frustrated as I am. They told me they didn’t have an estimated timeline as to when the replacement parts are shipped. They did say they were going to start with the older models first and work forward doing the repairs. The other issue is from what I understand that the customer will need to either pay to have their tractor sent back to the dealer or haul it to the dealer themselves Sounds like a Class Action Lawsuit to me. It’s making me rethink why I spent several thousand dollars more on the Deere. Not very happy with them right now.

Much appreciated!