Yes, I’m aware of that, which is exactly why I said I would rather toss out a $30 surge protector than a $2,000 laser cutter. You sidestepped my question. If, for example, a power surge happens, does the “internal protection” of a Glowforge need to be replaced as a surge protector would? Does the entire unit need to be trashed? More importantly, could elaborate on the recommendation of not using a surge protector, since I’ve literally never seen that on any piece of home electronics before. What about whole-house surge protection at the panel?
You’re leaving a lot of very important questions unanswered. If there are strange and unusual requirements that are unique to this product, these are things that should have been made clear far before delivery of any units.
You do realize this is a community forum and the person you’re complaining at does not work for Glowforge, right?
None of us are in a position to answer your questions about how the power supply is constructed and what will happen if it is damaged. Eventually someone from customer support will get around to closing this topic with a response that may or may not satisfy you. In the meantime, we’re just making conversation.
We also have a handy little Glowforge icon next to our faces.
3rd party equipment like that is outside of our design and test parameters, so we recommend against using it. We have successfully used UPSs with our Glowforge units, but the ones we used were $2,000 each. We only have a hundred or so hours of usage on them so we don’t even have enough data to recommend those. (I asked if someone had the brand but haven’t heard back yet).
You’re welcome to do whatever you want with your Glowforge, but should you plug your Glowforge into a device that damages it, the damage wouldn’t be covered under your warranty.
Except the staff label and the little Glowforge icon aren’t reliable to identify all staff. Not all staff are labeled staff that way, and only a minority have the icon. (Data collected from the https://community.glowforge.com/about web page.) The only sure way is to click on the person’s icon and check for the staff labeling there. (And what is the half black - half white shield supposed to indicate? That icon seems to label staff as well, and seems to be reliable.)
So a ups no not unless you get a large (computer closets sized at a minimum) most the retail models can only do about 800watts and that’s pushing it.
Also gf has indicated not to use a surge protector as they have already included suppression in the power supply of the gf so a extra suge suppressor has been noted to cause power delivery problems
I’ll check names and profiles more carefully from here on out. I still think my original question needs to be answered: Could you tell us more about the “internal protection”?
For example, if a power surge breaks that protection without being plugged in to a 3rd party device, what’s the fix for that? Is that a user-replaceable part, or does it require service? Is it covered by the warranty? What about whole-house surge protection installed at the panel?
I can understand why running any large appliance off a UPS might not work well, but what about external surge protectors?
Completely based on life experience and not speaking for the Other Dan, but I think that until such a point that Glowforge Inc offers replaceable parts in their catalog, you’re going to be forced to send the entire unit back to Glowforge for servicing.
If they start selling individual PSU units like they sell lens replacements and shipping boxes, then presumably they’ll also offer replacement service instructions to go with the replacement PSU when it becomes available.
To add to what was said here. Simple question. I have a decent surge protector and really unreliable power at my apt (sudden spikes when it goes down and the power co. fixes it) that have already knocked out two TV’s that weren’t plugged into a surge protector. What is the harm in putting what is basically a glorified fuse in front of my GF to break before it’s internal power supply does? Especially considering the whole unit would have to be sent back apparently. Not talking battery backup, just straight surge protection. This seems like a really weird thing that’s not being answered straightly. I love my GF, so I just want to keep it around as long as possible.