[RndTbl] UPS batteries

[Gilbert E. Detillieux]

On 2013-01-31 15:55, Trevor Cordes wrote:
> On 2013-01-30 Dan Keizer wrote:
>> Funny timing ... I bought two APC 750 units just over a year ago and
>> use them to keep my servers running in the rack.
>>
>> A week or so ago, one of them started to complain (beeping wildly in
>> the night) and flashing it's lights etc ...
>
> As much as I love APC, I must say their non-Smart lines are generally
> complete crap now.  They live for 2-6 years then fail in strange,
> different, and noisy ways, creating support nightmares, even after new
> batteries are put in.
>
> The Smart ones live a lot longer but can still do incredibly wonky
> things if the batteries are dying/dead.  You will sometimes not get any
> warning via the software or the UPS even though the batteries are
> gone.  In some cases I open up the UPS to find the batteries bulging to
> insane widths.  Moral of the story is set yourself reminders at 3-4
> years to start thinking about pro-active battery replacement and/or load
> testing (apctest in apcupsd in linux is good for this).
>
> I still haven't found a better UPS brand, so I stick mostly with APC
> Smart.

We've had several APC Smart UPS'es fail catastrophically and without 
warning.  In one case, a 2200VA unit literally caught on fire!

A bit over a year ago, we bought a CyberPower PR2200LCDRT2U (2170 VA 
1600 Watts) rack-mount UPS, which was about half the price of the 
equivalent unit from APC.  So far, it's been fine, but time will tell if 
it's better than those we've previously bought from APC.

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609