Agreed. Not for everybody. Probably not even for most people. My only point in that respect was that it has gotten way cheaper than it was even a year ago. Plus, you can repurpose it with solar or a propane generator for an emergency situation. Where I live, after a winter storm not long ago, it’s clear that everybody is on their own for that scenario.
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I just looked cause I figure it may apply to me.
The APC I own is rated for 4 hours. I thought that was good but in further reading that’s for a router. Given that I’m on fiber and the power being out means no fiber, that info turns out to be useless.
Maybe I can find one that strikes a balance between uptime and what I’m willing to pay. Funny I don’t know what I’d be willing to pay. Last one was around $100
I prefer the APC units and I have installed many (possibly hundreds). Most are the small 700VA units, but there have been plenty of the 1.5KVA, 5KVA and 14KVA versions - including several APC Symmetra units.
The only reason I used the Tripp-Lite for my X1Cs is because I received it for free and didn’t have any other use for it.
I’ve never installed the CyberPower units, but had an experience where I was called in to support a handful of them that wouldn’t start. The problem was that the batteries had expired and were discharged. Those UPSes won’t even turn on and run from utility power without a good and charged battery. I felt that was a design flaw and that left me with a bad impression. That was years ago and with one model, so it’s not representative of most current CyberPower UPS units.
I stand by my assertion that switching power supplies are not sensitive to utility waveform. Most or all of them have bridge rectifiers for the incoming mains and so work at any frequency - or even DC. You will note that most - like those used in the Bambu X1C - are auto-ranging (120 - 250V or anywhere in between) and don’t care whether they are supplied with 50Hz, 60Hz or 400Hz.
Most modern electronic equipment uses switching power supplies and thus are not sensitive to the mains waveform. For that reason, I wouldn’t bother to spend significantly more money on a UPS that is “pure sine wave” for these applications.
Whether or not the power supply has the PFC option has no bearing on power supply functionality. PFC merely makes the power supply easier for the utility to power.
Good luck!
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Thanks for your reply, but I respectfully disagree.
Switching power supplies do not care much about main waveform shape or quality - regardless of whether the switching power supply has the PFC option or is a bargain basement type without PFC.
If you have some reputable source claiming that PFC power supplies require pure sine wave, the please post that source here - I would love to read that.
I have read many dozens of power supply manufacturer’s spec sheets. One would think that if pure sine wave was required, one of those manufacturers might mention that in those spec sheets. It’s possible I’ve missed something along the way, but I have never, ever seen a power supply manufacturer mention anything remotely like that. And I consider the power supply manufacturers to be reputable sources.
Beyond that, it also makes no sense if you understand what Power Factor - and therefore Power Factor Correction - is: In the electrical utilities perfect world, all loads would have a ideal PF of 1.0. In simple terms, that means that a 5KVA load can be driven adequately by a 5KVA supply from the utility.
In the real world, many devices draw current non-linearly . For example, switching power supplies with bridge rectifiers on the mains input turn on full at 0.6V. They can draw full current before the sine wave is ready to deliver it, making them somewhat mismatched to the utility supplying the power.
Devices like this have a power factor significantly greater than 1.0 and so the power supply has to be greater than the device load to compensate for the non-linearity. For example, a 5VKA load with a power factor of 1.5 requires a minimum power supply of 7.5KVA for reliable operation.
The bottom line is that a switching power supply that doesn’t have the PFC option will require a larger UPS than the same power supply with the PFC option. For the 150W power supply in the X1C, the difference is immaterial because you can’t buy such small UPS units. Even the smallest UPS will support the X1C’s power supply whether it’s PFC or not.
For North American 120V operations, a small 700VA UPS is more than enough for the 350W heatbed plus the 150W switching power supply. For European 250V operations, you will need a larger UPS to support the 1000W heatbed plus the 150W switching power supply.
Whether the switching power supply is PFC or not, or whether the UPS is pure sine wave or modified sine wave, is pretty much immaterial.
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In my experience, most power supply manufacturers offer both PFC and non-PFC power supplies.
Since the PFC option adds $3-5 USD cost to the power supply, the manufacturers only offer non-PFC on their “bargain basement” power supplies. That means those where the $3-5 USD cost is a make-or-break consideration.
Any of the mid-level or premium power supplies are likely to include the PFC option. Personally, I would never use a non-PFC power supply in the equipment that I design.
With that said, the spec sheet for the MornSun power supply in the Bambu X1C does not mention anything about PFC. It would be shocking if it had PFC and MornSun just failed to mention it.
Therefore, I’m guessing the X1C includes a non-PFC power supply.
The Bambu X1C could be powered for days with a 100Ah battery. Most of us aren’t going to spend hundreds to protect against a scenario that is unlikely to happen. Admittedly, your location and situation may be very different.
If the power is out at my house for days, whatever I’m printing is not going to be my main concern. I’m more interested in air conditioning and food in the refrigerators.
In our area (Tampa, Florida, US), power is underground and rarely blinks during hurricanes. It’s been out for over an hour for 4-5 times in the 25 years I’ve lived here.
For my purposes, any UPS that will support the printers for five minutes is likely to be all I’ll ever need.
Your mileage may vary…
Cheers!
Oh, I totally understand. I am so tempted to just smile and nod politely. That’s what most people would do. That’s what I really should do. But I’m not going to.
Since you were kind enough to share your knowledge, I’ll just share an unsolicited, probably thankless, story and then let this go. You see, I still need to earn my angel wings. 
And because I really like the starfish story and believe in it with all my heart (check it out sometime if you’ve never heard it).
Consider the proud state of Texas. It produces more NG than the rest of the united states combined. It’s a generally hot climate. Winters are typically mild. It is self-sufficient and has its own power grid. What would you calculate the odds of nearly the entire state shutting down, without electricity, without natural gas, and without even drinking water for at least a week, and in some locations up to a month? And hundreds of people freezing to death in their own homes? What? Surely not here. We’re not some third world country. Or, so I thought.
It turns out those probabilities were calculated, and deemed safe, but it happened anyway. Well, living in Florida you may or may not remember, but that’s exactly what happened on February 13, 2021. By sheer luck, my house happened to be on a critical circuit, so my family was spared the brunt of it, though we were far from unscathed. Meanwhile, about a mile away in a different subdivision, a guy froze to death in his own bed. There was no help. No national guard. People just quietly died. Although some improvements were made afterward, the politicians deflected blame from themselves by calling it unprecedented and unimaginable and vowing that it would never happen again. What they really mean is: odds are some other politician will be in office when it happens. And when it does, we’ll hear the same excuses all over again. How do I know this? Because it already happened before, in a prior decade! I never knew, because I wasn’t here for that one.
Is Florida or anywhere else better prepared? I don’t know. I hope so. But I would never again assume so. Good luck. I mean that sincerely. Someday you may need it!
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I’m well aware of what happened in Texas and you have my sincere sympathies. That event should not have ever happened.
Plenty of areas in Tampa experience frequent power outages. In communities where power is underground – like ours - power rarely goes out and when it does, it’s never for very long. Our use cases are very different. And the original question involved powering Bambu printers with a UPS. So for me, I wouldn’t be willing to spend thousands to keep the printers running during an extended outage.
With that said, I do have a Honda 7KVA generator that I converted to LP (our neighborhood has NG) in my garage and I have 240 pounds of LP ready outside. I chose LP to make everything portable so I can help someone who might be out for days.
Fingers crossed that the powers that be in Texas get it figured out and permanently fixed. And fingers crossed that Tampa never gets that direct hit from a hurricane.
Cheers!
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I’ve had three of those in use since 2017. Living in the country, they’re coming on to supplement brownouts often during peak summer days or frigid days. That and the occasional power outage. They run all my TV’s, PC’s, AV and now printers.
Sure, the lifepo would be awesome, but if I’m spending that kind of money, I’m doing whole home with auto switch for a generator.
Having said that, I think DJI has something similar in the 1,000.00 range but I don’t know about rin times and capacity on those. Still quite expensive compared to a UPS.
Most likely will be fine.
Pure Since Wave I use mainly on computer due to CPU and GPU high sensitive with voltage + you have a lot of interferences from radio wifi/bluetooth, audio system etc.
3D printer power is just mostly mechanical, heater, and the motherboard on them are low power anyway.
I’m using APC 1500VA both X1C and P1S.
Holy god this thread.
I caved to imaginary peer pressure. Bought a new one today.
Bambu keeps making me spend money in one way or another.
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Gotta protect your investments.
New Bambu X1C… Darn… now I wanna buy a UPS for it! LOL