One of the worst aspects of loadshedding for those working from home – although there are many – is the loss of your WiFi router. Sure, you could just use mobile data, but with a gigabyte of data costing what it does, some may want to consider reading a book instead.

However, for those working from home, connectivity is something that has to be up at all times and today we want to showcase three products that can keep your router and Optical Network Terminal (ONT) box powered on, no matter which stage of loadshedding Eskom declares.

These products come from Elecstor and its Titan range of backup power solutions. These solutions are well priced and provide a great solution for those on a budget.

For Stages 1 through 4

We start with the Elecstor 18W and 30W Mini DC UPS.

Both variants house LiFePO4 batteries with 5V, 9V and 12V outputs as well as a 5V USB port.

The 18W iteration has more available juice with a total of 12 000mAh coming from two 6 000mAh batteries. The 30W model only has a maximum capacity of 10 000mAh from four 2 500mAh. The difference here is in the output as the 18W and 30W suggests.

We were able to power a TP-Link Archer C5 and an ONT box for roughly six hours with the 18W and just over 5 hours with the 30W. A beefier router and more demanding connection will yield different results.

Unfortunately, while the 30W does output more power, its lower overall capacity means it’s not powering your gear for as long as the version with a lower output. The difference here is that you could also charge your smartphone or tablet with the 30W although that would eat into the up-time of your network gear.

Recharging these devices is rather quick with the 18W taking little over an hour and the 30W coming in at around 45 minutes. 

Both versions are priced reasonably at R1 199 for the 18W and R1 299 for the 30W.

There are a bevy of protections including overload protection, overcharge protection and short-circuit protection.

Overall these are great and do exactly what they claim on the box.

For Stage 5 and up

The four hour loadshedding blocks can be hell and if you want to power a second screen as well as your networking gear, the NPS is for you.

The Elecstor NPS features a 24 000mAh backup battery capacity consisting of four 6 000mAh LiFePO4 batteries. The unit has a maximum output of 100W and has a number of 12V, 9V and 5V output ports. Up front there is also USB Type-C and Type-A outputs for charging smartphones and other handheld electronics.

The NPS powered our router and ONT for 9 hours. Alternatively the unit can power a FullHD monitor and a set of desktop speakers for around an hour and a half. Drop the speakers and you can squeeze two hours of life to power a monitor which is rather fantastic for us.

Charging this monstrous unit up from empty took us roughly two hours so it’s something you’re going to want to keep plugged in so that it starts charging the moment loadshedding ends in preparation for the next block.

At R1 799, the NPS is the one we recommend even if it is a bit pricier. The fact is that it will comfortably last through not only a four hour block of loadshedding but extra outages caused when the power returns and trips or overloads the system.

Overall these systems are rather great and perform as claimed on the box, which is very refreshing.

With that having been said, these units really are best when used to keep your fixed or mobile internet connection alive. While you can use them for other purposes we feel that other, more robust solutions would be better suited.

We’re keen to test more products from this brand, but for now we’re impressed and Elecstor gets a hearty recommendation from us.

You can find retailers for Elecstor products here.