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AmbulanceDriver

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APC
« on: June 21, 2011, 08:48:19 PM »
So three or four years ago, I purchased a small APC UPS for my home computer.  It's been humming along under my desk this whole time.  Until we went on vacation.  Before we left, I turned everything off, disconnected everything from the UPS, and shut it down, then unplugged it from the wall....

We got back from vacation, unpacked, did the usual post vacation things....  Went to turn on the UPS....  And got an error code...  Hrm.  Odd.   Checked connections...  Still errored out...  Hrm.  Check the battery.  Plenty of voltage...  But still getting a "no battery connected" error...  Tried a hard reset of the UPS itself...  Still the same error code....

Hrm......

Phone up APC's tech folks.  He asks a few questions, sees that I've done all the diagnostic stuff already.....

"Go ahead and give me your address, we'll ship you a replacement."

I'm worried that this is gonna cost me a couple bills, as it's well outside the 2 year warranty period.

"Oh, there'll be no charge to you sir, it appears as if there's been an internal malfunction on the unit, and we'll just go ahead and send you a refurbished unit.  You'll just need to ship us back the malfunctioning unit by the least expensive means."

So two thumbs up from me for APC....
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Jim147

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Re: APC
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2011, 09:45:48 PM »
I'm starting to hear that more and more out of a few companies.

I need to start keeping track of that few.

jim
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TommyGunn

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Re: APC
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2011, 11:19:37 PM »
I had an APC unit that mysteriously died a couple weeks ago.  I bought a replacement and it initially didn't seem to work.  A close check on the plugs :facepalm: and I discovered the computer's power cord wasn't all the way in.  ;/  D'uuuuhhh.
What a dumb problem.    OTOH I wish all my computer problems were so simple to solve ....  [popcorn]
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Devonai

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Re: APC
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2011, 11:39:38 PM »
How are you guys fitting something like an M113 under your desks?   =D
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Jocassee

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Re: APC
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2011, 12:18:21 AM »
I don't know why but it seems that in my short but brilliant career I've replaced quite a few APC UPS units.
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Tallpine

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Re: APC
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2011, 12:46:01 PM »
Quote from: Jocassee on June 22, 2011, 12:18:21 AM
I don't know why but it seems that in my short but brilliant career I've replaced quite a few APC UPS units.

The battery fails after five or so years, and by then a new and better UPS is cheaper than the replacement battery.
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Jocassee

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Re: APC
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2011, 01:04:17 PM »
Quote from: Tallpine on June 22, 2011, 12:46:01 PM
The battery fails after five or so years, and by then a new and better UPS is cheaper than the replacement battery.

Some of them went out in a matter of weeks.
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Bogie

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Re: APC
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2011, 01:35:57 PM »
You can buy a very nice used pure sine wave model by mail, if you can talk the seller into pulling the battery. When you get it, just put a big sealed battery on the floor next to it.
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Tallpine

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Re: APC
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2011, 07:19:29 PM »
Quote from: Jocassee on June 22, 2011, 01:04:17 PM
Some of them went out in a matter of weeks.

Lots of power failures  ???

Our power went off a few days ago while we were gone, so I wasn't able to shut things down in the allowed 5-10 minutes.

When the power came back on and I turned everything on again, the UPS beeped at me periodically for several days apparently because the battery was ruined.  But it finally seemed to take enough of a charge to heal itself.  =)
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230RN

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Re: APC
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2011, 11:52:37 AM »
I got a bunch of used gel-cells from UPS units and I found they take a very slow charge but put out at spec currents.  I dunno, but I could swear they have charging-current limitation built into them somehow --like 100-200 mA or something like that.  Could be they do it by limiting the depolarization system or maybe by built-in diode switching across a charge-limiting resistor or something. (I suspect the former.)

These were a set of those routinely-replaced-before-they-go-bad-but-were-still-good batteries.

So maybe that's why they seemed to take several days to recover --they're just slow on the recharging.

???

 
« Last Edit: June 23, 2011, 12:00:51 PM by 230RN »
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Tallpine

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Re: APC
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2011, 12:48:29 PM »
Quote from: 230RN on June 23, 2011, 11:52:37 AM
I got a bunch of used gel-cells from UPS units and I found they take a very slow charge but put out at spec currents.  I dunno, but I could swear they have charging-current limitation built into them somehow --like 100-200 mA or something like that.  Could be they do it by limiting the depolarization system or maybe by built-in diode switching across a charge-limiting resistor or something. (I suspect the former.)

These were a set of those routinely-replaced-before-they-go-bad-but-were-still-good batteries.

So maybe that's why they seemed to take several days to recover --they're just slow on the recharging.

???

 


I'm pretty slow on re-charging these days myself  ;)
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