Hang around in the tech world long enough and you’ll hear “check those backups” a lot. Typically they’re referring to data backups, but as I learned this week, you should be checking your battery backups too.
The Prep
There was a winter storm incoming, and besides stocking up on groceries to prepare, I also made sure all of my backup sources of power were charged. That included my Bluetti power station I’d owned for years and used as my primary means of keeping my phone charged. It can also handle other small devices if needed. If you don’t own one, I highly recommend you check out our guide to the best portable power stations. The reasons to get a power station are many.
I plugged my unit into the wall and the display confidently showed it was already at 100 percent, which felt like a relief. What I didn’t do was unplug it, turn it on, and try to charge something. That’s where I went wrong.
The Panic
Eventually, the winter weather arrived, I in fact got snowed in, and the temperatures dropped to dangerous levels. I was concerned about my power staying on considering the wind and the strain on the grid from everyone trying to stay warm.
Soon after nightfall, I happened to be looking out the window and saw in the distance some weird flashes of blue and green light, and almost immediately the lights in my home flickered and turned off. Evidently, a transformer exploded, and I was now reliant on my backup power.
I first sprang into action making sure I stayed as warm as possible. With that taken care of I gathered my power sources. Before laying down for the night in my cold weather sleeping bag, I plugged my phone into the power station, hit the power button, and—nothing. Uh oh. I tried the troubleshooting fixes in the user manual, but no dice. I wasn’t going to be able to rely on it.
I had a smaller backup battery in the form of a large Bluetooth speaker that had charging capabilities. That would keep me going for a while, but if the outage went for too long I’d lose my phone in a couple of days.
The Lesson Learned
Luckily the line crews got my power restored within a few hours, so disaster was averted by those brave souls. I learned my lesson for the future, though: always make sure your power source will actually supply power to you. Don’t assume because it turns on when it’s connected to the wall that it’s functioning and can be relied on.
In sort of a happy ending, I eventually figured out how to “jumpstart” the power station back into working order with more research and some testing. I needed electricity to do that, though, so in the outage it would have been too late anyway. Check those backups.
