Does anyone use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) with their laser?

[Scott Anders]

Hi all, my distributor told me when i bought my laser that fluctuating power can shorten the life of my laser tube and that i should buy a UPS (also called a power conditioner) to maintain a regulated power supply. He told me that he supplied a laser to a guy and his tube went in a month:eek: and he got another under warranty but that one also went belly up two months later, they ended up fitting it to a UPS and it solved the problem. Does anybody have any opinions on this?
Scott

[Mike Null]

Look at line conditioners. Don't have one but it will be my next purchase. For me, it's protection beyond surge protectors as I'm in an area where we get nasty electrical storms.

I unplug my machine during such storms after a lightning strike in our back yard a few years ago that caused a couple of thousand in damage to various elecronic stuff.

I am not buying into what your rep told you but you may live in an area where power fluctuations are the norm.

[Kenneth Hertzog]

Scott
YES I use a ups on my laser. Have since I bought it. For what I paid for the laser the ups was next to nothing. Also have the computor on one of its own also. I don't like to run the machines when their is a storm but sometimes you can't put off work for that long. With the ups I feel a little safer. :rolleyes:
ken

[Luke Phillips]

I also use an UPS with my laser as my power source is a generator in a trailer. You can't get much more dirtier power than that. I doubt power flucuations will damage the tube but sudden outages probably will over time. I have run the laser with and without the UPS and there was no noticable difference in performance. Better safe than sorry - buy an UPS.

[Eric Allen]

While I don't currently run one, it's a lesser of two evils affair for me. I'm looking for a reasonably priced true sine wave version that can handle the load comfortably. I have surge and line conditioning. I also unplug the power line and the usb cable to the machine if there's a storm nearby. One thing to consider on a UPS is that many of them produce a square or "modified sine", it's not particularly friendly to motors as I understand it, not sure about power supplies or the laser tube itself. Peck (an Epilog tech guy) discussed this in another post, I believe he thought sine was the best option. It's hard to shop for them this way because some don't post their wave types, those are usually square. I just found one for around $549 at Fry's Electronics, seems a bit painful, but it's true sine and that's a common cost. Hope this helps rather than causes you more headaches:)

[Scott Shepherd]

I don't run a UPS on it, but I do have a decent surge supressor that carries $100,000 worth of insurance if something gets through and fries my equipment. I've used that before and they have paid for the equipment to be replaced.

I wouldn't plug anything into the wall that was required to run my business. Data recovery on a disc can be $2500 alone, not to mention replacing the computer. APC probably loves me because I have the things all over the place.

[Ed Newbold]

I don't run a UPS on it, but I do have a decent surge supressor that carries $100,000 worth of insurance if something gets through and fries my equipment. I've used that before and they have paid for the equipment to be replaced. I use a surge suppressor also. I do have a UPS of the computer, but not the engraver.

Cheers,

[Scott Anders]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the feedback
Scott