Inverter trolley brand / manufacturer roundup - March 2023

Jan

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Best inverter trollies to escape load-shedding

South Africans looking to escape load-shedding and not break the bank may want to consider a power trolley over a portable power station. The best brands available locally include Mecer, Ellies, Lalela, RCT, and Kool Energy.

There are several benefits that inverter trolleys offer over portable power stations. For example, power trollies are often cheaper, and their batteries are generally easier to replace.
 
The problem that all of these things share though is that they're basically useless.

If I think of my main pain-points w.r.t. load-shedding it's often around either food preparation or hairdrying (not that I care about it much, but I'm married, so if it bothers the missus it bothers everyone.)

The rest of the stuff I can make do. A R1k DC UPS for the fibre, laptop has a battery so I can work or watch movies if the power is off, or just read a book. It's not a big deal. But meal-prep is what really messes us up.

In other words there's no convenience that these power trollies actually buy. So the price is quite a lot for not a lot of value.
 
You really should go the extra mile and install a changeover switch and caravan plug on your db, so you can use all your lights and a couple plugs.
 
Unfortunately, these units (especially lead acid) have such long recharge times, they are pretty useless at stages 4 and above.
 
newby_investor said:
The problem that all of these things share though is that they're basically useless.

If I think of my main pain-points w.r.t. load-shedding it's often around either food preparation or hairdrying (not that I care about it much, but I'm married, so if it bothers the missus it bothers everyone.)

The rest of the stuff I can make do. A R1k DC UPS for the fibre, laptop has a battery so I can work or watch movies if the power is off, or just read a book. It's not a big deal. But meal-prep is what really messes us up.

In other words there's no convenience that these power trollies actually buy. So the price is quite a lot for not a lot of value.
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For us the combination of a generator and trolley works.
Generator can supply enough for morning and evening peak, while the trolley is more for the hours in the day where we need work from home type equipment to run without burning R40 an hour.
The generator can also recharge the trolley, so a long type of outage like a area supply fault can be accommodated with swapping between the two.
In addition I run the generator in the middle of 4 hour slots just to top up fridges, freezers and all charging type devices.
 
BuckRogers said:
The generator can also recharge the trolley, so a long type of outage like a area supply fault can be accommodated with swapping between the two.
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I did this yesterday when I had an area wide outage, not the most efficient way but it worked.

I need to get solar panels so at least my batteries can stay topped during long area outages.
 
newby_investor said:
The problem that all of these things share though is that they're basically useless.

If I think of my main pain-points w.r.t. load-shedding it's often around either food preparation or hairdrying (not that I care about it much, but I'm married, so if it bothers the missus it bothers everyone.)

The rest of the stuff I can make do. A R1k DC UPS for the fibre, laptop has a battery so I can work or watch movies if the power is off, or just read a book. It's not a big deal. But meal-prep is what really messes us up.

In other words there's no convenience that these power trollies actually buy. So the price is quite a lot for not a lot of value.
Click to expand...
Strong disagree. The value is in the bit of freedom that a portable power station gives me. Having a small space in the house where I don't feel an outage is priceless. Turning on the lamp, streaming on a TV, charging stuff. That one room of normality for 8 hours is the value.

And as for cooking, I either prep before load shedding or I just use my gas burner.
 
Gumdrop said:
Strong disagree. The value is in the bit of freedom that a portable power station gives me. Having a small space in the house where I don't feel an outage is priceless. Turning on the lamp, streaming on a TV, charging stuff. That one room of normality for 8 hours is the value.

And as for cooking, I either prep before load shedding or I just use my gas burner.
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I mean that's fair, but you pay an incredible price for a relatively small bit of convenience.

I've got battery-powered lamps, and I can charge things from the same UPS that my fibre modem runs on (it's a relatively beefy one and my router is quite abstemious). I don't really care for TV, and as I said, if I'm really desperate I've got a laptop.

I've looked at this every which way, and there's nothing that a power trolley buys me that I actually want.

My suggestion: if you can (and I realise that there are people who can't), just save your money and put in a proper inverter / battery system. The R10-odd K from one of these is about 1/5 to 1/6 of what you would need. The solar panels can come later if necessary.
 
newby_investor said:
I mean that's fair, but you pay an incredible price for a relatively small bit of convenience.

I've got battery-powered lamps, and I can charge things from the same UPS that my fibre modem runs on (it's a relatively beefy one and my router is quite abstemious). I don't really care for TV, and as I said, if I'm really desperate I've got a laptop.

I've looked at this every which way, and there's nothing that a power trolley buys me that I actually want.

My suggestion: if you can (and I realise that there are people who can't), just save your money and put in a proper inverter / battery system. The R10-odd K from one of these is about 1/5 to 1/6 of what you would need. The solar panels can come later if necessary.
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I think you live in a bit of a bubble. Plenty people need a small setup to keep going during loadshitting. Plenty people rent or live in flats. Plenty of people don't have annoying wives.
 
newby_investor said:
I mean that's fair, but you pay an incredible price for a relatively small bit of convenience.

I've got battery-powered lamps, and I can charge things from the same UPS that my fibre modem runs on (it's a relatively beefy one and my router is quite abstemious). I don't really care for TV, and as I said, if I'm really desperate I've got a laptop.

I've looked at this every which way, and there's nothing that a power trolley buys me that I actually want.

My suggestion: if you can (and I realise that there are people who can't), just save your money and put in a proper inverter / battery system. The R10-odd K from one of these is about 1/5 to 1/6 of what you would need. The solar panels can come later if necessary.
Click to expand...
Sure there are better options. But as you say, they're not options for many for various reasons. These inverters and power stations represent an entry point for that large market. As you say, it's relative. For you it might be relatively small but for me and many, it's relatively high.

Would I prefer a more complete option? Definitely. Do my particular circumstances allow it? Nope. And being realistic, even this is not an option for the majority. For a lot of people the best they can hope for is a couple of lanterns and a power bank. And based on my viewpoint I'd say that's a relatively small convenience.
 
Jan said:
Best inverter trollies to escape load-shedding
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Whatever you say Jan... :rolleyes:

Pissing in the wind time: why not mark articles like these with "Advertorial"? Grow some integrity and balls. "MyBroadband - Trusted in tech" sounds so vacuous.
 
Anthro said:
Got myself the Kool Energy 50Ah variant (which I believe is same same) from Computer Mania in Cavendish CPT R14,999
Works well.
Just waiting to see if this happens to me, then I will go back kicking and screaming
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Mine did that also.
I switched the battery off with that round button, and the wall plug off for half hour. Turned on again and now it charges to 100 again.
Mine stopped at 98 for a few days before doing that reset thing.
All in all it is a good product and at least doesn't look out of place in the lounge
 
wingnut771 said:
I think you live in a bit of a bubble. Plenty people need a small setup to keep going during loadshitting. Plenty people rent or live in flats. Plenty of people don't have annoying wives.
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My argument though is that a "small setup to keep going" can mostly be accomplished by a Gizzu (or whatever brand) 12V DC UPS (which can keep internet going and let you charge stuff) and the torch on your phone (which you already have, free of charge), this gets you 85% of what these power trollies can do for a fraction of the price.

I can think of a few situations where a power trolley would be helpful. For instance if your work requires more than a laptop but not excessively more. If you're a graphic designer with a desktop and a large screen. That's about 150-200W. Or if you have some kind of equipment that absolutely has to stay running, like a CPAP machine if you've got sleep apnea. Or if you're really paranoid about keeping the fridge cool.* But these are niche, not mainstream.

The stuff that you actually want to do, you can't, because these things can't deliver enough power. Hairdryers, kettles, microwaves, all often over 1kW. Blenders or toasters you might get away with, but it'll be driving it close to the limit.

People who live in flats (that they own) can still get a proper inverter and battery setup, they don't take up a lot of space, even if they can't get solar panels.

People who rent are kind of the most screwed here because they're more or less forced into these portable solutions, and by the time you get one that's actually capable of doing anything worthwhile, the cost gets into the tens of thousands of rands. Which brings me back to my 12V DC UPS and phone-torch solution.

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* (But based on my own testing, any fridge under 15 years old which is properly insulated will stay cool enough even up to stage 6 load shedding, provided you're being smart about not opening and closing it too much when the power is off.)
 
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