battery backup question

[techgamer]

I have my computer, monitor and a few other pieces plugged into a battery backup supply. Lately every few days or so, maybe with some sort of power fluctuation, the unit will turn off, terminating all power, and go into its warning mode which emits a loud noise. I dont know what is wrong with it. To my understanding I thought when the backup units are triggered they are supposed to keep supplying power to everything. But when this happens I have to hit the reset button and then its fine again for a while until this happens again. Any ideas?

 

[jackschmittusa]

How long have you had the ups? Its' capacity diminishes with age. Perhaps it was only marginally capable of sustaining the load you have on it and can no longer do it.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: techgamer
I have my computer, monitor and a few other pieces plugged into a battery backup supply. Lately every few days or so, maybe with some sort of power fluctuation, the unit will turn off, terminating all power, and go into its warning mode which emits a loud noise. I dont know what is wrong with it. To my understanding I thought when the backup units are triggered they are supposed to keep supplying power to everything. But when this happens I have to hit the reset button and then its fine again for a while until this happens again. Any ideas?

Your battery back-up outlets are overloaded.

Battery back-up outlets should only accomodate low-power devices, in addition to your computer: Monitor, Modem, Router, external Hard Drives, maybe a cordless phone.

All the printers, desk lamps, scanners, faxes, speakers etc, should be connected to the Surge Protected outlets ONLY.

 

[techgamer]

Ok thanks, I will reduce the plugs in it and let you know. I didnt know if it might be a fuse gone bad or something? hopefully this does the trick. And to answer the first question, the backup unit is 2-3 years old.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, with the junk Chinese batteries you find in a lot of UPSes, you're lucky to get 3 years out of one. How long has it been since you did an uptime test on it (i.e. pull its wall plug and see how long it takes to scream its death knell - unless it has an internal diagnostic).
. And if the battery needs replacing, then the MOVs in it will need replacing too as they wear out over time just like the batt.

.bh.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

the battery might just be old and needs to be replaced by the manufacturer or the unit is broken and doesn't charge the battery anymore.

this happened to my old Cyberpower UPS. replaced it with the stronger APC ups and its working fine with power outtages. (3x in the past 2 months)

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Yup, with the junk Chinese batteries you find in a lot of UPSes, you're lucky to get 3 years out of one. How long has it been since you did an uptime test on it (i.e. pull its wall plug and see how long it takes to scream its death knell - unless it has an internal diagnostic).
. And if the battery needs replacing, then the MOVs in it will need replacing too as they wear out over time just like the batt.

.bh.

I've had a similar problem. The batteries in a 5-year-old Cyberpower UPS started to lose capacity suddenly.
They had a really bizarre output voltage. I wish I could've graphed it.

The voltage would start at 12.75V, swing down to about 7.65V or lower, but then suddenly go back up to 12V. Or I'd start the discharge, and it'd read a ridiculously low 4V, but then jump up to 12V after a second of discharge.

Those things were really in bad shape. The UPS would just shut down right away, saying "Check battery." The amperage capacity (ignoring the crazy voltage swings) was probably about 1/7th of rated. But it gave me a reason to open the UPS to check out the problem, and I discovered that the PCB had bulging caps as well.

Whenever I come upon some more money, I'll buy some good replacements and return this UPS to service. The caps have already been replaced, but the batteries are a good bit more expensive than 4 low-ESR capacitors.


For the MOV's, how about plugging a UPS into a surge protector? I know that the opposite is a bad idea - if you plug a surge protector into a UPS and it switches to the modified sine inverter, the surge protector will go nuts trying to filter what it perceives as excessive noise. But a UPS with used-up MOV's plugged into the surge protector, I don't see any filtering issues there. The protector should just see an attached load, wouldn't it?


Or is it just as easy as soldering in new MOV's in the UPS to rejuvenate it?

 

[Zepper]

MOVs can fail in a shorted condition- Very Bad! -though they are not "supposed to" - they are supposed to fail in an open condition. Leave them in long enough and they Will fail. Caps should last thru a couple of changes of batt. and MOVs unless they are cheapies too.

Panasonic and Yuasa are the top names in gelled, lead acid batts.

.bh.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: Zepper
[Yup, with the junk Chinese batteries you find in a lot of UPSes,] you're lucky to get 3 years out of one. How long has it been since you did an uptime test on it (i.e. pull its wall plug and see how long it takes to scream its death knell - unless it has an internal diagnostic).
. And if the battery needs replacing, then the MOVs in it will need replacing too as they wear out over time just like the batt.

.bh.

just to add

-[Yup, with the junk Chinese batteries you find in a lot of UPSes,]

Those batteries also can go into a short, when they die causing a dead UPS.

-,][ you're lucky to get 3 years out of one,]

I have found when UPS do not have the 12" all the way around them. the cheap batts will over heat needing replacement less than 18 months ,papers placed on top ,books,computor, hot offices where A\C is shut off overnight and weekends

In a hot room I wouldn't load them past 50% APC 1000 @600w = 300 w load MAX ,One high end gaming Rig