Like many middle-aged men, I have a large solar-powered area on the top of my head: it’s called a bald spot. If I work in the yard for a long time, it turns very red and glows at night. So I wear a hat, but all that beautiful solar energy bouncing off my dome goes to waste — or it did until I tried the $129 hat EcoFlow Power Hat (currently $99 on sale)a new sun hat/solar power source combination.
It has eight solar panels that power two USB ports (one USB-A and one USB-C) in a small box with a small LED under the back edge. While it adequately protected my bald spot, it failed to charge my phone to any significant extent. Plus, it’s just an ugly hat.
Pros
- Covers my head, adequately doing the job of a hat
- Technically it can charge a phone slowly, so I guess it works
Cons
- Very low charging rate with just 5 watts of power
- Need a cable running across your back
- The design will only appeal to Wicked cosplayers (it’s ugly)
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Design: The least attractive hat I’ve ever worn
Let me be clear: this is a really ugly hat. Sunhats aren’t usually elegant, but this thing looks like a melted flower pot or a giant version of one of those horrible flower pot holders made out of vinyl records. I’m not a fashionista, but the Oasis reunion made bucket hats cool again and hats with wider brims like the Tilley TS1 Protect yourself from the sun without looking like you’ve been hit, Wile E. Coyote style, by a falling satellite dish. I’m a big fan of practicality over style, but there are limits, especially since it’s not very practical.
Not easy to clean or use
All the electronics in the hat mean you can’t wash it. When my baseball cap gets dirty, sweaty, and covered in dirt from hard work, I can throw it in the washing machine. Try that with the EcoFlow Power Hat and you’ll destroy it. You also need a cable connecting the hat to the phone, which isn’t very practical when you’re trying to pull weeds. I ended up running a cable through the back of my shirt, which just made the whole thing look even sillier.
Charging: Can’t charge anything worth using
The problem is how solar energy works. Sunlight hits a solar panel, which converts it into electrical energy. This is called the photoelectric effect, first explained by Albert Einstein, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering it in 1921. The amount of energy depends on the size of the panel and the amount of light that hits it. This, in turn, depends on how the panel is positioned in relation to the sun.
That’s why your roof’s solar panels are angled south to face the sun. The EcoFlow Power hat features eight small solar panels positioned around its large brim. This means that most do not receive much or any direct light unless the sun is directly overhead. The sun has an annoying habit of rising and falling, so most of the time you won’t get a consistent amount of direct sunlight.
What does all this mean in practical terms? That means this sun hat doesn’t work very well. I tested the hat in full midday sun in my backyard near Boston and found that, at best, it generated about 5 watts of power; that’s not much. It generated 5 volts at the USB port, but the current flow never exceeded 1 amp, meaning it still only generated about 5 watts of power. In the morning or afternoon, when the sun was at a certain angle, the current generated dropped to less than 0.3 amps, approximately 2 watts. EcoFlow claims it can generate up to 12 watts, but I’ve never gotten anything close to that.
100 hours to charge an iPhone 17 Pro
To test this further, I conducted an arduous gardening session. Well, okay, I put it on a pole, connected it to a rugged portable power bank and watched from the deck to make sure my local groundhog (we call him Wilbur the Pig Whistle) did not steal it. After six hours of this hard work, the charge level increased by 9%, representing around 225 mAh of stored charge. This is about 5% of the capacity of a so this hat would take about 100 hours to charge the phone. That’s assuming the phone isn’t currently working.
Specifications
- Two sizes: Medium-Large (56-58 centimeters) and Large-XL (59-61 centimeters)
- Dual USB-A and USB-C ports to charge two devices simultaneously.
- It has eight small solar panels on the edge.
- SPF 50+, sun and UV protection
- Claims 24% thermal to electricity conversion and up to 12 watts of power; tested to only 5 watts
- IP65 waterproof and dustproof rating
Buying Advice: Skip, there are better hats and better solar charging options out there
Many of the products I test end up being a case of a great idea but poor execution. The practicalities of manufacturing products and real-world engineering compromises often detract from the product’s intended purpose. However, for the full price of $129 or $99 on sale if you buy direct from EcoFlowEcoFlow Power Hat is one of the rare exceptions that is a bad idea with poor execution.
It’s ugly and has solar panels that are too small to be effective for, well, anything. Maybe it would be better if they went with a flat lid designor a Sahara or hiking hat design with the solar panels on the top or neck flap. It is also an inferior solution to simply getting a fast and compact portable chargerlike the InfinityLab InstaGo 5000 or Anker 523 PowerCore Slim 10K PD. Another alternative is to use a larger portable solar panelwith which you can pair a power station or clip to your backpack while walking to charge your devices, like the Bluetti 2 speakerphone.
All of these options will provide more power than the EcoFlow Solar Hat and will do it better and faster. Therefore, keep solar panels away from your head and stick them on your roof.
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