UPS Help

So after 24 hours the charge is still very poor, i.e., the display indicate only 6 minutes run time at 150W load. For reference my other identical UPS, which is even older, reads 20 minutes at 220W. It seems that either the new batteries are crap or the USP is not charging the batteries. The voltage on the one I can reach is about 13.3, which is a little low, but I'm not sure that is enough to explain such a low capacity. What do you think?
 
So should I risk another $80 for new batteries directly from the manufacturer (does APC sell them?) or spend another $200 on a whole new UPS?
 
I believe APC sells them, but for my money I would replace the whole thing. UPSes (and their power conditioning properties) is something I very much believe in.
 
It is just annoying that barely 2 years and $250 into this I have nothing and will have to dispose of the 2-day old batteries somehow. The reviews of most of the newer UPS are worse than the one I have and the form factors are bad for my space. Then i'd still have the battery replacement problem in 2-3 years again. :tdown:
 
The replacement batteries may be fine, if it's the physical UPS unit at fault. If you can get one that uses the same form factor batteries then you could have the 2 day old batteries as spares?
 
The electronics of a UPS do degrade over time. The warranty of the UPS should give an indication; though there are certainly other motivating factors for them wanting you to buy a new one. Too bad there is not a testing and replacement procedure for the internals. It's not like the form factors have changed that much.
 
AC and DC caps in UPS units indeed go bad over time just like batteries. If you have a UPS with no diagnostics in it you aren't going to have a clue whats going on.

Also can't you return that battery?
 
Howell said:
The electronics of a UPS do degrade over time. The warranty of the UPS should give an indication; though there are certainly other motivating factors for them wanting you to buy a new one. Too bad there is not a testing and replacement procedure for the internals. It's not like the form factors have changed that much.
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The mfg. date is 2008, so it should not be degraded.
 
Howell said:
Lunar, why not switch the new batteries into the working UPS to test the
? Or buy a used working UPS to match up with them.
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Yes, I thought about swapping battery sets. There are so many dozens of devices and all the external hard drives on top of the UPS, etc. it would be quite difficult.
 
Battery life is down to four minuten. I think DD was right; the batteries are shite.
 
After looking at a bunch of reviews I'm less than thrilled with the newer replacement models. Most of the $150-200 units are worse than previous models or have issues with certain devices and that the commercial types are very expensive and too heavy for me.

I'm thinking about going more old school with a UPS like this and also an external battery for more run time. Thoughts or better ideas?
 
I'm buying the Tripplite since all the smart-ass comments are not getting anywhere. :)
 
LunarMist said:
I'm buying the Tripplite since all the smart-ass comments are not getting anywhere. :)
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All I have ever used are APC. If you don't replace the batteries when the unit tells you to, the entire UPS shuts down in ~30 days. Not much of an Uninterruptable PS
 
Bozo said:
All I have ever used are APC. If you don't replace the batteries when the unit tells you to, the entire UPS shuts down in ~30 days. Not much of an Uninterruptable PS
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Are you friggin kidding me??

All of ours just turn into a super annoying power conditioner as far as I am aware.
 
MaxBurn said:
Are you friggin kidding me??

All of ours just turn into a super annoying power conditioner as far as I am aware.
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No, I'm not kidding. Some of these were installed by well meaning but uninformed employees and vender's. We are in the process of removing them when we find them or they totally fail, which is how we usually find them.
The only ones we are keeping at the moment are the ones in our network hubs. If there is a local area power failure, our network stays up. But our dim-witted clueless boss won't buy the APC software to monitor these hubs, so the battery dies and after a few weeks the ups shuts down. And the network dies with it. We change the batteries every three years but batteries have a mind of their own and can fail at any time.
 
Actually, we are not replacing them. Most of them are on a piece of production equipment. If there is a power failure at the equipment, there is not much sense keeping the computer powered up. They just add to our maintenance.
 
Bozo said:
All I have ever used are APC. If you don't replace the batteries when the unit tells you to, the entire UPS shuts down in ~30 days. Not much of an Uninterruptable PS
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F*ck that. It should just disconnect the battery. What if I am on holiday?

:joker:
 
Real ups systems need quarterly battery maintenance. We also have a battery checking system by alber that the more critical systems seem to favor.
 
Bozo said:
Shut the computers off before you leave and enjoy your vacation.
Recharging your batteries is more important than any computer.
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No. All of the TVs and cable boxes are on UPS too. They need it.
 
:spiderman:Aw crap. The software does not work so there is no way to know how long it will last.
 
Now I find it does not work on either of two computers. Well at least the UPS should run for an hour with the external battery; not that I will know when it will die off (suddenly). :mad:
 
You mean, like watching the TV if I am there or making sure the scheduled recordings are not borked if I am gone?
 
The run time of the new UPS was 32 minutes with a 32' TV, cable, DVDR, speakers, telephone, clock, etc. and one computer (only the 3.6GHz quadratic core and three HDs), but no monitor. There is a fairly noisy fan which only runs when the AC is off, so I can live with that.

The external battery pack has about twice the capacity of the internals, so it will have about 3x total capacity (~540 WH if I calculate correctly). According to the UPS (shipping) the battery is taking the long route and it probably won't arrive this week. :( Air shipping would have cost as much as the product, UPS and batteries are so damned heavy.

I'm thinking about plugging both computers, all the hard drives, and the one monitor into the new UPS with external battery pack. I'm not quite sure if it can handle the maximum load, but it's not like I would be stressing the CPUs on both machines with foldings or using a benchmark at 100% all day. The run time should be fine since I'd only be using one system if the power conked out anyway. Then I'll connect the TV, etc. to the one good APC with the new batteries.
 
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