Battery Backup: Ecotech vs UPS Systems

[Shaka_Reefer]

I have 2-MP40s and I was wondering if I should get the ecotech battery backup or a UPS system. What are your thoughts? Pros and cons. Please chime in if you’ve had these two products

Thanks!

I will also be purchasing a Honda 2000 generator for long-term power outages.

 

[VermontReefs]

I'm a strong believer in Ecotech or Ice Cap backups - UPS doesnt offer enough power imo. BTW the Ecotech battery is made by Ice Cap or at least it use to be. So you can save some cash with the Ice Cap Ice Cap Battery Backup - I run both Ecotech & Ice Cap plus I have a whole house generator because I live in rural Vermont with a questionable power grid during strong storms.

 

[Shaka_Reefer]

I'm a strong believer in Ecotech or Ice Cap backups - UPS doesnt offer enough power imo. BTW the Ecotech battery is made by Ice Cap or at least it use to be. So you can save some cash with the Ice Cap Ice Cap Battery Backup - I run both Ecotech & Ice Cap plus I have a whole house generator because I live in rural Vermont with a questionable power grid during strong storms.

Thanks for your reply! I can use the MP40s in the icecap battery? Do I need to purchase any other equipment besides the battery

 

[zukihara]

BRS does have a video comparing Ecotech to UPS floating around.

 

[Specific Ocean]

I’m on the same boat! I’m nearly over the fence on ecotech

 

[LeftyReefer]

If the IceCap and Ecotech battery backups are similar, why are their stated capacities so different?

What is the battery capacity of the Ice Cap unit? the specs on sites like BRS and MarineDepot all say it has a capacity of 2.5 Ah...... ? but that can't be correct.... that's barely better than a single AA battery. and that won't power any pump for 30+ hours, so that can't be correct. When I look at the Ecotech unit, it says 18 Ah, which would make a lot more sense than what Ice Cap is claiming.

Anybody know what the true capacity of the IceCap backup V3 is? please tell me it isn't really 2.5 Ah.

 

[SPR1968]

I’ve got the eco tech battery backups for MP60/40’s and they work seemlessly which is what there designed to do in the event of power failure

If your worried about long term power failure probably the generator is a good option anyway for you.

I’m based in England, and to be honest we rarely get power outages, and when we do it might be a very short one, so I’ve not been able to test them other than turning off the power

I do however understand the vastness of the space in the US, so I can understand the issue, I’ve spent many happy times touring around all over in RV’s and what a beautiful country it is

 

[elysics]

A ups is super inefficient, it transforms from DC battery to ac power and then the the pumps power supply has to turn it back into DC. There's losses at every step of that.

The backup systems are DC batteries directly powering DC pumps. The ecotech one for example is literally just a dc battery with a fancy looking cover around it, there's nothing else inside.

 

[Augus7us]

I'm a strong believer in Ecotech or Ice Cap backups - UPS doesnt offer enough power imo. BTW the Ecotech battery is made by Ice Cap or at least it use to be. So you can save some cash with the Ice Cap Ice Cap Battery Backup - I run both Ecotech & Ice Cap plus I have a whole house generator because I live in rural Vermont with a questionable power grid during strong storms.

What ups?

 

[Augus7us]

I'm curious about this because the term "UPS" has been thrown around several threads fairly generically. You can get giant UPS systems. They are just batteries like the echo tech. What I am trying to understand is why you guys think an 18amp hour battery is superior to other non eho tech offerings? Like someone else pointed out its just a battery with an eco tech cover on it. I never used the eco tech pumps so maybe I'm missing something.

Elysics, I understand what your saying but eco tech says its an 18 amp hour battery. If I can buy a 100amp hour UPS for the same price what does the eco tech provide me?

 

[elysics]

I'm curious about this because the term "UPS" has been thrown around several threads fairly generically. You can get giant UPS systems. They are just batteries like the echo tech. What I am trying to understand is why you guys think an 18amp hour battery is superior to other non eho tech offerings? Like someone else pointed out its just a battery with an eco tech cover on it. I never used the eco tech pumps so maybe I'm missing something.

Elysics, I understand what your saying but eco tech says its an 18 amp hour battery. If I can buy a 100amp hour UPS for the same price what does the eco tech provide me?

I can find 100Ah ups batteries for a similar price, and those might work and be a better deal, not really whole systems. Won't comment on compatibility of particular ones though. Suffice to say that Amp hours isn't the only spec that matters for a battery, and quality is relevant too.

 

[Rubberfrog]

You can't just compare amp hours. Voltage also matters.

18 ah at 10v is a lot less total power than 18 ah at 110v.

When comparing a traditional UPS (usually listed for 115v) to an ecotech/icecap backup (listed for 10v), you have to do some math. You also have to account for energy loss converting 12v up to110v and then down to 10v via a UPS.

I would like to see someone run a powered wave pump until the battery died on an icecap unit, and then on do the same on a UPS.

 

[ca1ore]

I've no useful input on the electrical theory side ..... but when I ran a test a few years ago, my two daisy chained ETM backups ran a MP60 for almost 3 days. I also use an UPS to maintain power to a few key electrical components while the generator spools up. Battery backups are just in case I'm away and the generator decides to misbehave.

 

[Rubberfrog]

I've no useful input on the electrical theory side ..... but when I ran a test a few years ago, my two daisy chained ETM backups ran a MP60 for almost 3 days. I also use an UPS to maintain power to a few key electrical components while the generator spools up. Battery backups are just in case I'm away and the generator decides to misbehave.

What does the acronym ETM stand for?

 

[ca1ore]

Oh sorry, ETM = EcoTech Marine

 

[LegendaryCG]

Well one thing about the Ecotech battery is that they force the MPs to run in a energy conservation mode which extends run time. This doesn’t happen if you use a UPS.

 

[Rubberfrog]

Oh sorry, ETM = EcoTech Marine

Thanks. Three days is impressive. More than enough time to get power back, or make other arrangements. I have everything plugged into a UPS for surge protection, but only one of my gyre pumps plugged into to the battery side of it.

 

[LeftyReefer]

A ups is super inefficient, it transforms from DC battery to ac power and then the the pumps power supply has to turn it back into DC. There's losses at every step of that.

The backup systems are DC batteries directly powering DC pumps. The ecotech one for example is literally just a dc battery with a fancy looking cover around it, there's nothing else inside.

Some UPS units also have DC outputs. Take a look at any of the mini-UPS units designed to supply backup power to networking equipment like routers, switches, modems, etc.... A lot of networking equipment is powered by DC, so UPS units designed to power them also have DC outputs rated for 5/9/12/24/48v too.

For instance, you can get a mini-UPS that puts out 12v/2A DC and has a built in 10Ah battery for $45. (single 12v DC output) You could put two of them together for $90 and have 20 Ah capacity.

These mini-UPS typically have (4) lithium cells in them. Like (4) @ 2200mah or (4) @ 2500 mAh cells.
The $45 one I was looking at has (4) 2500 mAh cells, so 10,000 mAh = 10Ah. Put two of them together and you'd have 20Ah capacity for $90. The Ecotech says it's capacity is 18Ah, so I'm guessing it has (8) @ 2250 mAh cells inside. (??)

The only difference I saw was that the Ecotech unit is rated for 12v/2.5A where the mini-UPS I was looking at was rated 12v/2A. Depending on what pump(s) you were running, and needing 12v/24v, this might make a difference...

Saying all that.... I run a simple setup with no DC pumps. So any regular UPS would work for my setup.

 

[robbyg]

 

[Bnutz]

That power save mode is the difference. Does the icecap do the same thing with their gyre pumps?