Icecap Battery Backup for Vortech

[fritz]

Just received my Battery Backup today and upon reading the letter that accompanies it I must say I'm very impressed. Icecap estimates these batteries to be good for 5-7 years before they will need to be replaced. Upon such time they say they will replace the batteries for around $65. They don't make you buy a new one, they simply replace the batteries in your current unit, dispose of the old ones for you and ship it back which is not bad for $65.

It also comes with a 2 year warranty.

 

[inkblue]

hoW long wiLL it last in a blackout :scratch:

 

[House of Laughter]

I think it was rated at 30 hours - and you can daisy chain more than 1 to another. So if you want more comfort and reassurance, buy 2 - they are around $100 brand new.

House

 

[fritz]

They say about 30 hours but it depends:

If you have your pump set to > 50% it will run the pump at 1/2 speed until the battery dies

If you have your pump set to < 50% the battery will run the pump at the same speed until it dies.

Should be 30 hours either way they say.

Interesting:
They elaborate that the pump runs on 24 volts (DC) and that the battery supplies 12 volts (DC), thus the 1/2 speed. It seems that at < 50% the pump is only using 12 volts. I think their actual useage estimate for wattage is much lower but I'm no electrical engineer so I'll leave that for others. ( I think there's a flux capaciter or something like that in it)

 

[alrha]

Cool, mine should be coming shortly as well.
Fred, how do things plug into this? would it only work on a Vortech? or is it a regular outlet that i can plug anything i want into it?

 

[fritz]

Only a vortech would work with this it doesn't use the 110 Edison plugs. It has it's own adapter (much like the vortech) which powers the battery. The driver for the vortech would plug into the battery rather then into the adapter that the vortech came with.

(One plug powers both)


Outlet->Battery->Vortech

Another thing worth mentioning is that it is HEAVY.

 

[alrha]

ok, i see. at least it doesnt add more wires.
how do you have yours mounted? (got a pic?)
I wish they made something similar to plug in other devices (like my Red Dragon return pump which doesnt use a lot of energy either).

 

[House of Laughter]

. . . .

Another thing worth mentioning is that it is HEAVY.

Um most batteries are, no?

I believe no matter what you have the pump set to, when power goes out, it drops to a set speed -

House

 

[fritz]

Yeah Jim, most batteries are heavy
This is comparable to a 900 VA battery backup unit like you would use for a PC. As a matter of fact I used to have a MJ 1200 plugged into a UPS before I got my vortech. The problem with the UPS (as Cali explained it) is that the electricity in these battery are stored as DC whereas my MJ was an AC pump. When the UPS converts the DC back to AC the voltage is "dirty." This would be neglible to a PC or Monitor but to a small electromagnetic AC pump it caused it to vibrate and shimmy quite violently.

MY UPS broke and I thought about getting another one rather than the Icecap Battery. I don't have any other DC devices to plug into it so I opted to go with the Icecap as that's all that could have used the UPS anyway.

 

[fritz]

I was wrong, it does take another outlet

Outlet->driver->vortech
Outlet->Battery->thin wire that plugs into the driver.

 

[FRY]

you can use one of this to power your pump 12 volts just get the power supply and and battery should last a lot longer if need you can switch battery with your car battery and let car charge the battery you can run as long you need to,

http://www.basementwatchdog.com/sump_pump_comparison.htm