Looking for UPS suggestions

[Angel Eyes]

My piece o'crap CyberPower UPS bit the dust and I'm looking to replace it.  Power needs are fairly basic: one mini-tower PC and a Samsung SyncMaster EX2220 monitor for the surge+UPS side; a TrueAir air purifier and a small pair of speakers on the surge-only side.

Was browsing Amazon and this caught my eye:  http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-SMART1500LCDT-1500VA-Battery/dp/B009TZTGWK/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1457415385&sr=1-2&keywords=tripp-lite

A bit of overkill for one PC?  What does the hive mind recommend?

[Brad Johnson]

Hard to go wrong buying a good UPS and TrippLite is a respected name. Hard to get "too much" UPS but it's darned easy to get too little.

Brad

[Firethorn]

How badly did your UPS 'bite the dust'?  It's generally considerably cheaper to hit up a local battery shop and just buy replacement batteries, as the batteries are the item that goes wrong the most.

[TechMan]

Hard to go wrong buying a good UPS and TrippLite is a respected name. Hard to get "too much" UPS but it's darned easy to get too little.

Brad

Agreed.  TrippLite is a good brand.

[RocketMan]

How badly did your UPS 'bite the dust'?  It's generally considerably cheaper to hit up a local battery shop and just buy replacement batteries, as the batteries are the item that goes wrong the most.

Very true.  Those gel cell batteries don't usually last more than 2-3 years.  Although I have an APC 600 VA UPS with batteries much older than that, I expect them to fail any day.  I doubt they have anywhere near their rated capacity anymore.

[Firethorn]

Very true.  Those gel cell batteries don't usually last more than 2-3 years.  Although I have an APC 600 VA UPS with batteries much older than that, I expect them to fail any day.  I doubt they have anywhere near their rated capacity anymore.

My APC is on it's fourth set of batteries.  Works great.  Yes, at this point I've spent more on batteries for the thing than I paid for it new.  Still a lot cheaper than 4 APC UPS would have been.

Makes me wonder how the hell my truck's battery can still be going strong after 8 years while I have to replace the gel cells in the UPS, as you say, every 3-4*.

*I figure I get the extra year because it's cold up here and I'm easy on the thermostat.

[RocketMan]

I have found gel cells to be highly variable in their lifespans.  I suppose it depends mostly on charge/discharge cycles and the quality of the charging circuitry.  Plus, the quality of the battery itself is a huge factor.
We have some batteries at work that last 18 months tops in a fire alarm power supply application.  Those same batteries can last for 2-3 (or more) years in other applications.
I've got a large commercial gel cell I got free from a batteriesplus dealer that I knew in Oregon, and it's on year four or five right now.  (He had accidentally damaged a terminal and didn't want in to sell it to a customer.  Gave it to me instead, and I fixed it with a 1/4-20 bottom tap.  Use it to power my radio bench with a homemade charger.)

[Hawkmoon]

I've always liked and trusted APS. I'm currently working in a state-controlled construction office, and the state mandates APS for the backup power.

[zahc]

APC units perform a self test every 2 weeks. This causes an output ripple. For sensitive applications this can cause problems. On a piece of industrial equipment I went through 2 units including an oversized one before giving up and bypassing the UPS.

[Angel Eyes]

How badly did your UPS 'bite the dust'?

The surge-only outlets work; no power at all on the surge+UPS outlets.  The power light does not light up.

  It's generally considerably cheaper to hit up a local battery shop and just buy replacement batteries, as the batteries are the item that goes wrong the most.

I had considered that, but the CyberPower unit was designed such that replacing the battery is not trivial.  Also, there might be something wrong besides the battery.

[lee n. field]

APC units perform a self test every 2 weeks. This causes an output ripple. For sensitive applications this can cause problems. On a piece of industrial equipment I went through 2 units including an oversized one before giving up and bypassing the UPS.

The Tripp Lite dual conversion unit I try to sell folks would not have that problem.  The load is always running off the batteries.  The batteries are always being charged.  And a 1500 VA unit will cost you  3 times what the cheap one will.

I had considered that, but the CyberPower unit was designed such that replacing the battery is not trivial.  Also, there might be something wrong besides the battery.

With that Tripp Lite, batteries can be replaced while the unit is running.

[Angel Eyes]

With that Tripp Lite, batteries can be replaced while the unit is running.

I think I just made my decision.  Thanks to everyone for their input.

[KD5NRH]

How badly did your UPS 'bite the dust'?  It's generally considerably cheaper to hit up a local battery shop and just buy replacement batteries, as the batteries are the item that goes wrong the most.

Eliminate the batteries altogether; electric motor, large flywheel and generator.

[Triphammer]

It's called a RUPS, Rotating uninterruptable power supply. Put a gas motor w/ an auto start on the other side of the generator & the load never sees a blip. We still had one here up until recently.

[Fly320s]

Looking for UPS suggestions

www.fedex.com

[Angel Eyes]

www.fedex.com

There's always one smartass in the room.

I've always liked and trusted APS. I'm currently working in a state-controlled construction office, and the state mandates APS for the backup power.

I like APS too, but what does that have to do with power supplies?









(I figure you meant APC)

[KD5NRH]

It's called a RUPS, Rotating uninterruptable power supply. Put a gas motor w/ an auto start on the other side of the generator & the load never sees a blip. We still had one here up until recently.

But it's not as much fun if it's not kludged together from old car parts.

[KD5NRH]

Detcord.

And a piezoelectric generator.

APS: making detcord a slightly logical solution since...whenever.

[lee n. field]

I think I just made my decision.  Thanks to everyone for their input.

https://www.tripplite.com/on-line-double-conversion-ups-system-1.5kva-tower-100v-110v-120v-nema-outlets~SU1500XL/

This is the unit.  If you can afford it.

Our wireless ISP division uses a crap-ton of them, and the 1kva unit, or rack mount equivalent.

[never_retreat]

More recently I've been using trip light.
Although I have a beast in my home office that was made by Best/powerware. Owned by Eaton now I think.

[Firethorn]

Last power outage I bought a big inverter - no generators to be had, figured I could use my truck battery.  Note:  My alternator isn't big enough to run it at full power 'forever', oh well, the intent was to get enough power to run the boiler.

I figure that if I can find a big 12V battery, I can hook that up - and just use my battery charger on occasion.  It wouldn't be 'uninterruptible', but for my boiler - meh.

[Angel Eyes]

https://www.tripplite.com/on-line-double-conversion-ups-system-1.5kva-tower-100v-110v-120v-nema-outlets~SU1500XL/

This is the unit.  If you can afford it.

Our wireless ISP division uses a crap-ton of them, and the 1kva unit, or rack mount equivalent.

Nice, but a bit outside my budget.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I've been a fan of APC for a while, but then the little 800VA unit I had decided to have a rather severe failure and not really do anything about it.   Heck, the "change battery" light didn't even come on.  So the batteries are connected in series, and one of the batteries failed....   Well, that little UPS decided that it just needed to charge harder....   I went into the guest room/office and smelled something electrical, and hot....   Couldn't find the source for a while, until my hand touched the case of the UPS....   Hot enough to almost burn my hand.  Well, yanked the plug, let the thing cool off, and opened it up.   Not sure exactly what failed first, but one of the two batteries was so overheated it had leaked the gel electrolyte through the connector.   Won't trust a UPS that just keeps cranking amps at a failed battery to the point of nearly starting a fire.

[Marnoot]

I had an APC UPS do the same thing. Another fun thing to do is peel the APC sticker off of their batteries to see the original sticker from various Chinese manufacturers on different APC batteries.

After seeing that I've never worried about getting APC-branded batteries, they just buy the cheapest Chinese ones they can, and so do I :-P

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

[Firethorn]

I'd do a little research - find one that uses easily replaceable batteries, and their replacement costs.