So yesterday my Gloweforge just stopped working after having it for only a day with less than an hour of run time. My paranoia with a replacement is what if it was power related? The manual says to plug directly to the wall, not to use a surge protector and the use of a UPS seems questionable on if it will void the warranty.
I get that Gloweforge has something built in but I am just really concerned about how ours shut down and couldn’t start back up and maybe GF people can tell me when they get this unit back what happened…
Search feature seems to come up with ups’s a bit. Looking at the 900w backup by cyberpower.
While I don’t have any personal experience with CyberPower, I do use APC on everything but the GlowForge. I don’t trust CyberPower because of their price point.
Glowforge has a surge protector built in. I still have one between the wall and the GF and have had it there for over a year without a problem. I get thunderstorms all summer and don’t want to take the chance. In spite of what you may read elsewhere, two surge protectors in-line will not spontaneously combust.
The reason GlowForge does not recommend a battery backup or surge protector is the wave shaping that happens after most of these protection devices. That being said, other users have used them and have not had any issues to my knowledge.
If the GF is the only thing that failed, it is likely a problem with the GF itself and not a power issue. Power issues tend to hit more than one thing, unless the GF was on a dedicated circuit, and even then you should have seen some other indication of a power event. I suspect this is an internal power supply failure due to a component that was marginal enough to pass testing after assembly but not strong enough to run during normal use. This is what warranties are for.
Is the unit a pro? There have been cases where the power interlock (a staple looking contact) on the back of the machine at the power switch came loose. It should be inserted all the way in.
That thread doesn’t really articulate a specific reason. I think it’s more that there are a lot of variables being introduced when you put some random UPS or other power-conditioning device in line with the GF. They don’t want to have to debug problems caused by these devices, so their official policy is “should not be used”. But you can use a UPS. I do (APC), and it hasn’t been a problem. There’s no way a good UPS can do any damage to the device that’s plugged in to it. And properly rated, it should not interfere with normal operation. I haven’t used my GF a huge amount, I admit, but it’s operated flawlessly, hooked up to a UPS for nearly a year now.
