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It's possible, but not certain. I'm just hedging my bets. If I'm wrong, I have extra preps that don't expire soon at all. If I'm right and we're without power for a few days or weeks, I'll be better prepared to deal with no power.
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Sep 11, 2023 21:12
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In any event, we’re in an El Niño right now, and it seems like a good chunk of the eastern US could be in for the first snowy winter we’ve had in almost a decade, which means supply chain disruptions along the I-95 corridor that could compound and turn into lengthy delays/shortages for staples. Have any of you been involved with Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT?) Anecdotal reviews of people’s experiences with them make it seem like it’s retirees with nothing to do or people who couldn’t get into either a fire or police academy. I’m not too keen on hanging out with either type but I am looking to get more involved with my community on a local basis. My local mutual aid group seems more interested in housing issues, which is all laudable and good, but doesn’t seem to be focused on community resilience or recovery.
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Sep 12, 2023 05:11
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Jackery has a Black Friday deal with some major discounts on various battery backups. 1000w Power Station is at $650 right now. Anyone have any opinions on these? I'm sorely tempted, but I've had only one brief power outage in the last four years and worry it'll just sit in my closet, gathering dust and losing capacity. It'd certainly be handy to have around if Seattle finally gets hit by a major earthquake, but 
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Nov 20, 2023 08:01
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I have a 400w Anker model that's about 7 years old, I pull it out and check the charge once a year or so and it's usually still around 90%. Unless you're cycling it a ton it's not going to lose capacity just sitting there, and in an extended outage it's real nice to have something you can plug normal poo poo into along with all of your mobile devices. They're also handy for car camping if you're into that kinda thing.
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Nov 20, 2023 09:07
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Anyone have any recommendations for a car battery jumper pack? I’m heading into some serious cold this weekend and want to make sure I have a way to breathe some life back into my battery if it freezes, or help out one of my friends should they need it.
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Jan 9, 2024 06:51
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the standard issue costco one has been o.k. for me, but I did have to repair some of the internal wiring when I changed the battery out.
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Jan 9, 2024 08:49
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Usually a trickle charger is best for preventing cold weather battery problems. For your friends, your own vehicle is the simpliest option to helping them out.
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Jan 9, 2024 08:55
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nah, jump starting a car with a little battery pack is a million times safer and easier than jump starting a car with another car. also poo poo happens like dome lights being left on. mine has an air compressor too and that's gotten way more use than the battery charger part
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Jan 9, 2024 09:12
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pantslesswithwolves posted:Anyone have any recommendations for a car battery jumper pack? I’m heading into some serious cold this weekend and want to make sure I have a way to breathe some life back into my battery if it freezes, or help out one of my friends should they need it.
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Jan 9, 2024 09:42
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I got a small portable charger for my Highlander. It works… okay. Trick is this model requires letting it sit for a bit before you can attempt starting.
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Jan 9, 2024 14:08
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The Voice of Labor posted:nah, jump starting a car with a little battery pack is a million times safer and easier than jump starting a car with another car. also poo poo happens like dome lights being left on. mine has an air compressor too and that's gotten way more use than the battery charger part ....I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion, since the same risks exist with the little battery pack as do so with jumping from another vehicle, and the other vehicle's battery is far far less likely to burst into flames due to overloading. If you can't get + to + and - to - or Chassis Ground/Metal, both of them are risky. Really, just get a battery maintainer for winter, especially if your battery is more than a few years old, a good winter freeze will likely deplete it.
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Jan 9, 2024 17:47
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CommieGIR posted:a good winter freeze will likely deplete it. Thankfully this is becoming less and less of an issue
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Jan 9, 2024 18:02
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Yeah we haven't gotten much snow this year at all. Temperatures have been mild even compared to last winter. Things are not great!
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Jan 9, 2024 18:19
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CommieGIR posted:....I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion, you don't have to position two cars to where they're kissing you only have 2 leads you need to clip on to the correct terminals and not have them slip off, not 4 the battery charger things will shut off if they're connected to the wrong way or if there's a short The Voice of Labor fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jan 9, 2024 |
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Jan 9, 2024 20:17
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The Voice of Labor posted:you don't have to position two cars to where they're kissing 1. Yeah, that's nice 2. If you cannot figure out Red to + on both sides and black to - on both sides, probably aren't gonna be doing much better with a jump pack 3. A nice feature, but again if you are wiring it wrong anyways, probably don't need to be playing with a jump pack either. McNally posted:Thankfully this is becoming less and less of an issue I don't know if 'thankfully' is the right word for Global Warming, unless you mean AGM versus standard lead acid batteries.
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Jan 9, 2024 21:36
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I settled on a supercapacitor-based charger (Schumacher DS1) since the summer heat here will kill lithium batteries fast. Supposedly, it can charge fully even from a nearly dead car battery (plus wall charger or USB). Of course, the one time I needed it, it turned out to be a dud, and I had to break out the jumper cables anyway. You better believe I'm going to test the warranty replacement as soon as it arrives.
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Jan 9, 2024 23:46
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CommieGIR posted:1. Yeah, that's nice 1 is a way bigger deal than "yeah that's nice". popping one hood and carrying over a device, in the dark, in the rain, in the snow, in the mud, in cramped spaces, kicks rear end over trying to maneuver a car. 2 and 3 are comparatively minor life improvements, but an extra circuit or two as a fail safe against corroded terminals, poorly marked poo poo or general error, in the dark, in the rain, in the snow, are still nothing to scoff at. between a reliable, easy jump and the ability to pump up a flat tire, two of the most common bad car things are reduced to totally painless inconveniences. the benefit for 10 pounds of weight, a quarterly charging, and a small backpack's worth of trunk space are genuinely profound. if you wish to decry the jumpstarter, I can think of no better punishment for your wrongness than for you to not have one. goon day, sir!
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Jan 10, 2024 00:30
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Modern jump packs fit in your glove box and only weigh a pound or two, and a lot of them have flashlights and USB charging on board as well. Got good use out of mine, mostly helping other people.
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Jan 10, 2024 02:27
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CommieGIR posted:1. Yeah, that's nice It sure sounds like you're agreeing that these devices are safer than jumping from another car.
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Jan 10, 2024 09:34
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Atticus_1354 posted:It sure sounds like you're agreeing that these devices are safer than jumping from another car. Nope, I think they are equally as safe.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:15
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CommieGIR posted:Nope, I think they are equally as safe. You just acknowledged that it has safety features that function to protect inexperienced people who do it wrong. That literally makes it safer.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:48
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Atticus_1354 posted:You just acknowledged that it has safety features that function to protect inexperienced people who do it wrong. That literally makes it safer. Y'know at some point its a matter of - maybe they need to learn how to do it properly regardless - the idea that a jump pack solves the issues of basic automotive knowledge is my problem with it. Yes, I'll admit - having the reverse polarity sensing is great. At this point I'm dropping this because I'm wrong, but learning some basic knowledge and not going nuts under the hood of your vehicles probably is just as easy as having reverse polarity sensing. If you are worried about reversing the polarity on your car - don't try to jump start it or follow the directions in your manual. Reverse polarity sensing is not a substitute for basic car knowledge.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:53
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In the end, I got this Clore JNC 325 unit because it was well-reviewed, compact and lightweight. https://cloreautomotive.com/product/jnc325/ Here’s to hoping I won’t need to use it on my car or my friends but I’ll feel better having it in my vehicle for sure.
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Jan 10, 2024 13:18
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Sliding in juuuust a little late with this, but... maybe it helps someone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMXyoIBJyJA
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Jan 10, 2024 16:00
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I've got a NOCO jumper that's been useful a few times; I've jumped up to a 327 V8 with it. Also recommend a Battery Tender or similar trickle charger, especially for the price. If it saves you from replacing your battery ONCE, it's paid for itself 3-5 times over.
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Jan 18, 2024 22:59
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Crampons. Really useful if you live in an area that ices over in the winter. I got a pair of YaxTrax Diamond Grips and they've been great here n Portland during its ice storm.
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Jan 18, 2024 23:13
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CommieGIR posted:Y'know at some point its a matter of - maybe they need to learn how to do it properly regardless - the idea that a jump pack solves the issues of basic automotive knowledge is my problem with it. Yeah kids don't understand computer filesystems anymore either, it's a funny ol world
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Jan 19, 2024 09:59
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Kesper North posted:Yeah kids don't understand computer filesystems anymore either, it's a funny ol world Is it good or bad that most millennials/Gen Z/Alpha won't appreciate how good they have it for never having to worry about the order of entries in their config.sys/autoexec.bat just to squeeze that last bit of RAM out of DOS? Come to think of it, I may have actually spent more time test booting my machine than playing games.
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Jan 19, 2024 21:00
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Winter driving fun and a lesson learnt: I spent last weekend cross-country skiing, and on my way out of town, I needed to make a u-turn to account for a missed turn. Spying a parking lot that looked plowed and sanded, I pulled in, and promptly got stuck in six inches of fresh snow atop a thin layer of ice. I couldn't get any traction whatsoever, despite my car having all-wheel drive. Fortunately, a guy with a huge pick-up truck and heavy duty straps was able to pull me out by my rear trailer hitch and my drive home went without incident, but it demonstrates the need to either have traction mats, chains, winter tires or all three if you're driving in snow. It was deceptive as the main roads in this area were fine to drive on, especially in a car with AWD, but once you got off the main roads, it could be icy and dicey as poo poo in some areas.
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Jan 19, 2024 22:11
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Thanks for reminding me that I should put a couple sandbags in the trunk of my Highlander for traction. Also moved my care care bag back in, tho I need to put my E-tool in as well.
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Jan 19, 2024 22:47
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Jonny Quest posted:Is it good or bad that most millennials/Gen Z/Alpha won't appreciate how good they have it for never having to worry about the order of entries in their config.sys/autoexec.bat just to squeeze that last bit of RAM out of DOS? driving home today I realized that optical mice have been a thing for more than 20 years. kids today would only snicker were you to tell them that mice used to have balls and that you'd periodically have to clean them
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Jan 20, 2024 00:19
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The Voice of Labor posted:driving home today I realized that optical mice have been a thing for more than 20 years. kids today would only snicker were you to tell them that mice used to have balls and that you'd periodically have to clean them Early optical mice were absolute poo poo for gaming though, if you were playing anything where precision and speed both mattered (as in any FPS).
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Jan 20, 2024 14:27
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You don't have an emergency DOS boot disk with a backup of your MBR, CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT? Do you even prep, bro?
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Jan 20, 2024 17:33
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Discussion Quorum posted:You don't have an emergency DOS boot disk with a backup of your MBR, CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT? Do you even prep, bro? 3.5" and 5.25", scrub 
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Jan 20, 2024 22:05
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Shooting Blanks posted:3.5" and 5.25", scrub Look at this jerk not making use of Bernoulli Boards. The superior data disk format.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:26
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Can anyone recommend a lithium-ion battery pack suitable for medical applications? Primary purpose is to power my CPAP during outages. Amazon has a gazillion of them but they're all from drop-shippers and I have no idea what their quality control is like, don't want to burn the house down in my sleep.
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Jan 21, 2024 04:58
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Not sure how big you need but I have some Anker ones that haven’t burned down my house yet. They are like 10-13k mAh.
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Jan 21, 2024 05:05
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A 500W Jackery works for my S10 bipap with nearly 50% charge remaining when I wake up. I use it while camping. If you go that route, get a DC power adapter so you don’t have to pay the power cost of the AC conversion; in my case with the AC adapter it would drain the thing in a couple of hours.
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Jan 21, 2024 05:07
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Steely Dad posted:A 500W Jackery works for my S10 bipap with nearly 50% charge remaining when I wake up. I use it while camping. If you go that route, get a DC power adapter so you don’t have to pay the power cost of the AC conversion; in my case with the AC adapter it would drain the thing in a couple of hours. Now that's some jackery! 
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Jan 21, 2024 05:11
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| # ? May 2, 2024 22:48 |
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Kesper North posted:Can anyone recommend a lithium-ion battery pack suitable for medical applications? Primary purpose is to power my CPAP during outages. Amazon has a gazillion of them but they're all from drop-shippers and I have no idea what their quality control is like, don't want to burn the house down in my sleep. How much power do your devices use and how many days between recharges?
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Jan 21, 2024 05:12
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