Tried using an old car battery to power my router during a grid failure test and it melted the ground wire clean off

Got a used 12V battery from a junkyard for $20, hooked it up to my modem with a cheap inverter, and within 30 minutes the insulation on the negative cable was bubbling smoke, so now I know you need a real deep-cycle battery and a fuse for any off-grid tech setup, anyone else have a similar scare messing with backup power?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_young9223d ago

Honestly the wire gauge argument only goes so far when you're talking about a junkyard battery with who knows what internal resistance. Without a fuse you're basically gambling that nothing ever shorts out between the battery and your stuff.

michael_green4424d ago

Yeah that melting ground wire thing is terrifying. I had basically the same thing happen with an old marine battery I found in my dad's garage. Hooked it straight to my router with alligator clips no fuse nothing and within an hour the positive terminal was so hot it melted the plastic housing around the clip. Now I always run a 30 amp inline fuse right at the battery post and use proper ring terminals torqued down. Also learned the hard way that cheap inverters from Amazon are garbage for sensitive electronics. You really need a pure sine wave one or just get a 12v adapter for your specific router model.

gray87524d ago

Honestly I think people make too big a deal about fusing battery setups. I've been running a deep cycle battery in my truck for like two years now with zero protection and it's fine. The wire gauge and connection quality matters way more than a fuse if you ask me. Plus a fuse is just another point of resistance and another thing that can fail on you when you really need power. Maybe it's just me but I feel like if you size your wire right and keep your connections clean you're probably gonna be okay most of the time.