Power draw of Nespresso type coffee machine.

[ben373]

A good morning which is always better with coffee of course. Thinking it may be simpler to use a small pod machine like Nespresso DeLonghi. The ones I have looked at are 1250 watts or so.

I have a 1200w inverter. Has anyone used a unit / brand with less power draw? I appreciate they don't draw power for long.

I also appreciate there are lots of other ways to make coffee but think this will be simpler for me with space limitations.

[Tillsbury]

It’s right on the edge of your inverter. I would suggest you get one of the models that has a manual lever to engage the pod, rather than a motorised one. Not only are they more reliable, but you don’t want to be adding draw when it’s already pulling 1000W+ with the heater.

I’ve run one like this on an old Heart Interface 1000W inverter that was so far from a sine wave it would fry most electronics. You should be fine with it.

Worst case it doesn’t work, but then you’ll need a new inverter anyway as no coffee isn’t a way to sail.

[dougweibel]

I've never used one but your question got me interested enough to track this down:
https://nowpresso.com/pages/tech-specs

It is rechargeable and draws only 56 watts at 12 volts, so that would be 4 2/3 Amps. Charges in 2.5 hours and will make 3 cups on a charge, so if it is just you drinking coffee that probably is OK. Interestingly it also lets you heat the water externally so if you boiled water and started with a thermos of hot water you could make all the coffee you would need for a crowd without recharging.

[barnakiel]

Start up draw will likely be higher. The 1250 is probably a standardized figure that uses some kind of averaging.


Always get an inverter that is bigger than the biggest rated load - exactly for this reason. (Unless your inverter clearly says it will accept short start up overloads).



b.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by ben373

A good morning which is always better with coffee of course. Thinking it may be simpler to use a small pod machine like Nespresso DeLonghi. The ones I have looked at are 1250 watts or so.

I have a 1200w inverter. Has anyone used a unit / brand with less power draw? I appreciate they don't draw power for long.

I also appreciate there are lots of other ways to make coffee but think this will be simpler for me with space limitations.

I have one of these, and hit an unexpected problem that you may or may not also experience.

My original battery bank was quite small, just 210 AH from a pair of 12 volt decent quality FLA batteries. My inverter was rated at 2000 watts, so I figured the 1300 watts draw of the pod machine would not be a problem.

What I had not considered was the voltage drop on the batteries from the load. The batteries were perfectly healthy, but hitting each battery with a 50+ amp draw led to massive voltage drop, even when fully charged. This in turn freaked out the inverter which would shut down after a few seconds of alarm to protect the batteries. So even though I only required a tiny fraction of the stored energy in the battery bank, I could not access it at a high enough rate.

So unless you have at least four batteries to share the load (or batteries of a chemistry that does not experience such voltage drops under load) I suspect you will find you have a problem. I now have 6 batteries in parallel, and the pod machine works fine, but I still see a drop of around 0.7 volts on a full battery bank while making the coffee. This is with a load of a little under 20 amps from each battery.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by dougweibel

I've never used one but your question got me interested enough to track this down:
https://nowpresso.com/pages/tech-specs

That looks very clever. Good find!

[40 South]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

…….I’ve run one like this on an old Heart Interface 1000W inverter that was so far from a sine wave it would fry most electronics. You should be fine with it. …..

Becareful Matt, if your inverter is not sine wave you may have problems with the electronics inside the coffee machine.

I also have an old Heart Interface inverter that has fried 3 Delongi MiniMe machines, all returned under warranty.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GILow

I have one of these, and hit an unexpected problem that you may or may not also experience.

My original battery bank was quite small, just 210 AH from a pair of 12 volt decent quality FLA batteries. My inverter was rated at 2000 watts, so I figured the 1300 watts draw of the pod machine would not be a problem.

What I had not considered was the voltage drop on the batteries from the load. The batteries were perfectly healthy, but hitting each battery with a 50+ amp draw led to massive voltage drop, even when fully charged. This in turn freaked out the inverter which would shut down after a few seconds of alarm to protect the batteries. So even though I only required a tiny fraction of the stored energy in the battery bank, I could not access it at a high enough rate.

So unless you have at least four batteries to share the load (or batteries of a chemistry that does not experience such voltage drops under load) I suspect you will find you have a problem. I now have 6 batteries in parallel, and the pod machine works fine, but I still see a drop of around 0.7 volts on a full battery bank while making the coffee. This is with a load of a little under 20 amps from each battery.

making coffee this way just screams for Lfp

[GILow]

Originally Posted by newhaul

making coffee this way just screams for Lfp

Agreed!

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by newhaul

making coffee this way just screams for Lfp

It doesn't need lfp at all. It's a small load that runs fine from a pair of decent fla or agm batteries. It's only pulling 90A for a few seconds. I've used one for a while now and it's nothing like the load from a microwave.

This is exactly the sort of device that's easy to run from a normal bank plus small inverter.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

It doesn't need lfp at all. It's a small load that runs fine from a pair of decent fla or agm batteries. It's only pulling 90A for a few seconds. I've used one for a while now and it's nothing like the load from a microwave.

This is exactly the sort of device that's easy to run from a normal bank plus small inverter.

I fully understand that however I and several others including glLow have been in discussions concerning his desire to go Lfp that is all that exact comment was about .

[GILow]

Well, just to confuse things, I wasn’t really all that fussed about agm vs fla vs lfp.

I was just saying that my dual FLA battery setup did NOT cope with my coffee pod machine, right from day one.

If someone is pulling 90 amps out of an FLA or even two FLAs in parallel without voltage sag problems then I am seriously impressed and would love to know the make and model of those batteries.

[BigAl.NZ]

I am also looking at tackling this issue. The inverter is a Victron MultiPlus 2kva.

Batteries is GEL (4x6v in series-parallel) with 360/C20 - will this handle the voltage drop?

Also flat white is popular here, so I think the draw is 2 part - heat water then heat and froth the milk.

[senormechanico]

I draw about 100 amps for 15 minutes around noon every few days at anchor in the summertime to make hot water.

My single 200 aH LiFep04 bank goes from 13.2 down to 12.6 near the end of the run while still delivering 100 amps.
After dropping the load, the voltage returns to around 13 and solar fills them back up by the end of the day.
Some people love their compost toilets, I love my lithiums!

[GILow]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

I draw about 100 amps for 15 minutes around noon every few days at anchor in the summertime to make hot water.

My single 200 aH LiFep04 bank goes from 13.2 down to 12.6 near the end of the run while still delivering 100 amps.
After dropping the load, the voltage returns to around 13 and solar fills them back up by the end of the day.
Some people love their compost toilets, I love my lithiums!

This is certainly consistent with what I hear about lithium batteries. I was tempted a while back, and may be again one day, but it was just one more thing to master when really, the boat just needed a floor more than anything else.