I've been on the fence on whether I should invest $500-$1,000 on a LifePo4 battery. We have some medical devices in the house that need charging, a Resmed CPAP being primary. We already have the Resmed DC power converter in-hand, but have not pulled the trigger on a battery solution; I have not been 100% sold on the safety of these devices and whether I would be adding to the risk of a major fire occurring.
We may get 2-3 outages a year spanning a few hours up to a full night; it has been a decade since we had multiple consecutive days without power.
I've looked at Jackery, Ecoflow, Bluetti, Goal Zero, etc. They seem like cheap products with questionable reliability and safety(?) with mostly non existent support from Chinese entities. Some of them have apps to aid in monitoring performance, but those also give me pause given the reports from the US government about Chinese apps like Tik-Tok spying on keystrokes, and stealing user data. At one point I even researched building a DIY solution using a battery box, but I don't know anything about electricity so I would rather not to be honest.
Goal Zero has US based support, however its most capable portable offering, the Yeti 700 (LifePo4) has a smaller battery and smaller inverter than the others for the price which has been as low as $460 at REI and Amazon during regular sales. I am not concerned about paying a premium for a better engineered product, but is Goal Zero the better engineered product or have they just been lapped by the competition? At least they address the question of US based support if it were to be needed.
Brands aside, are these products generally safe to keep in the primary residence without risking a catastrophe?
We may get 2-3 outages a year spanning a few hours up to a full night; it has been a decade since we had multiple consecutive days without power.
I've looked at Jackery, Ecoflow, Bluetti, Goal Zero, etc. They seem like cheap products with questionable reliability and safety(?) with mostly non existent support from Chinese entities. Some of them have apps to aid in monitoring performance, but those also give me pause given the reports from the US government about Chinese apps like Tik-Tok spying on keystrokes, and stealing user data. At one point I even researched building a DIY solution using a battery box, but I don't know anything about electricity so I would rather not to be honest.
Goal Zero has US based support, however its most capable portable offering, the Yeti 700 (LifePo4) has a smaller battery and smaller inverter than the others for the price which has been as low as $460 at REI and Amazon during regular sales. I am not concerned about paying a premium for a better engineered product, but is Goal Zero the better engineered product or have they just been lapped by the competition? At least they address the question of US based support if it were to be needed.
Brands aside, are these products generally safe to keep in the primary residence without risking a catastrophe?
Statistics: Posted by PA_Boglehead — Sun Dec 29, 2024 10:31 am — Replies 11 — Views 291