Battery Backup / UPS Recommendations

[jgreco]

First of all I'm sorry we are way off topic, this will be my last posting off point. I thought about Harbor Freight as I drove past it today but Sears still honors life time damage to sockets, ratchets, and most tools, and they are having a serious sale.

That'd be nice if Sears existed in a useful form anymore. Our local Sears are all gone, and even the ones in Chicago (home of Sears) are largely vanished. Craftsman as a brand has been sold off. Ace won't do replacements the way Sears did, where you could just walk in with a random tool and get a replacement. Stanley is talking about requiring proof-of-purchase, which for most people probably means the warranty is dead.

As for using diesel over propane, please consider that diesel fuel will last up to 1 year before starting to go bad so you would need to either drain the fuel from the tank be it from running the generator or using the fuel elsewhere (like in a diesel car)

Diesel actually starts to break down very, very quickly, it just doesn't get to the point of total crap for awhile. You can check to see if your generator supports running on one of the military variants of diesel, or JP8, or Jet-A, or the military variant of Jet-A, all of which have somewhat better long-term storage characteristics than standard diesel, but are lower viscosity. There are various other benefits to some of these as well, though also significantly higher cost. I'm told that "military variants" are typically the civilian variant with additives, which you may be able to do yourself. PRI-D seems to be the most commonly recommended one.

I've been using PRI-G for many years without issue, seems to work much better than STA-BIL. We live in a mandatory ethanol blending area and I periodically drive out to get pure 100% gasoline for stabilized storage.

Additional interesting reading, which I just found: https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/secrets-of-succesful-fuel-storage/

 

[jgreco]

I don't know that I'd trust Craftsman tools any more, though, since they've taken production to China (if I'm going to buy a Chinese tool, I might as well go to Harbor Freight).

Craftsman was purchased by Stanley, who claims to intend to manufacture stuff here in the states (don't know the actual status of that).

Also, there's a bit of a misconception in there somewhere. Not all Chinese tools are cheaply made. You can actually get high quality stuff from China. However, if you want an inexpensive tool, it is likely to be cheaply made, and also made in China.

The quality of Craftsman tools is still generally a good bit higher than Harbor Freight. They're not Wiha/Xcelite/Snap-On/Knipex(/slash any other high quality tool mfr), but they weren't that even when they were made in the US, and then again some of those high quality places aren't US-based either. Harbor Freight is great when you don't need a pro-grade long-lasting tool.

 

[danb35]

Diesel actually starts to break down very, very quickly, it just doesn't get to the point of total crap for awhile.

...and fortunately, I drive a diesel, so turning over fuel shouldn't be a major problem if I were keeping a store of diesel for the generator. Though at this point the issue is purely hypothetical.

That'd be nice if Sears existed in a useful form any more.

Their death is purely self-inflicted, though I'm surprised they've held out as long as they have.

Not all Chinese tools are cheaply made.

No, of course not. Similarly, not all American-made tools are of high quality. I'd love to have a garage full of Snap-On tools, but if I bought the tools, I wouldn't be able to afford the garage to put them in. Craftsman has in the past been a good source of good-quality tools at reasonable prices--about 80% of the quality of the big names, at about 1/3 the price. But that value proposition isn't quite as favorable as it once was. Meanwhile, the Harbor Freights of the world are stepping up--HF isn't to the level where Craftsman was 20 years ago, but they're getting closer, and it's a lot easier to find a HF than a Sears at this point.

But I'm starting to look at SK and Wera for future tool needs...

 

[Inxsible]

I bought a brand new Eaton 5PX 1500RTN and set it up so that my 2 FreeNAS systems and my pfSense router communicate with it over the network. Works quite well. 1440W/1440VA. The runtime would obviously depend on how much power you are drawing from it at any given time. It also has extended run capability by attaching upto 4 battery modules too. LCD screen -- if you are into that sort of thing.

I had a thread regarding it and the ebay seller was selling them for $329.99 which is cheap for a brand new networked UPS - which included the rails, usb cable, serial cable, tower stands and the Network-MS card. I didn't end up using the tower stands or the usb/serial cables because I put the unit in my rack and simply used the network card.

 

[Inxsible]

Our local Sears are all gone, and even the ones in Chicago (home of Sears)

You are located in Chicago? Nice... I am in the burbs

 

[jgreco]

You are located in Chicago? Nice... I am in the burbs

No, but I did have a client on LaSalle and Jackson for awhile and walked past the Sears Tower several times a week.

Sears was a favorite store especially for hardware and tools for many years. It's been disappointing to watch both Sears and Kmart slowly die. The Kmart thing in particular was a bit galling because Meijer showed up and settled comfortably into a similar retail profile as Kmart died off around here. Kmart could easily have pulled off that trick. It isn't quite as clear that Sears had a future in the general format they were comfortable with, but it appears to me that Lampert never had a serious plan to move forward, and was looking to wring money out of Sears.

 

[rmccullough]

I bought a brand new Eaton 5PX 1500RTN and set it up so that my 2 FreeNAS systems and my pfSense router communicate with it over the network. Works quite well. 1440W/1440VA. The runtime would obviously depend on how much power you are drawing from it at any given time. It also has extended run capability by attaching upto 4 battery modules too. LCD screen -- if you are into that sort of thing.

I had a thread regarding it and the ebay seller was selling them for $329.99 which is cheap for a brand new networked UPS - which included the rails, usb cable, serial cable, tower stands and the Network-MS card. I didn't end up using the tower stands or the usb/serial cables because I put the unit in my rack and simply used the network card.

Wow, you stole that Eaton 5PX @ $329.99.

 

[Inxsible]

Wow, you stole that Eaton 5PX @ $329.99.

Damn right !!!

I just checked on Ebay and now the price has shot up to $1124.99. That's almost quadruple of what I paid.

 

[Inxsible]

What size UPS are you looking for.... I saw a couple of Eaton 5PX 1000 for about $150+ shipping (you might have to change the batteries) and a 5PX 3000 for $170 +shipping