[BC] UPS hell

[Dale H. Cook]

At 11:24 PM 2/23/2012, Rob Landry wrote:

>It didn't prevent my client's problems. He's lost three UPS's in the course of a week and a half, none of them with batteries even two years old.

In that case I would suggest a different brand of UPS or a different brand of replacement cell. My most critical units are all vintage BEST units that have had batteries replaced a number of times. When one dies (failure other than batteries) I expect we'll replace it with an LPC.

Less critical units (not truly uninterruptable) are mostly APC. When one dies (failure other than batteries) I will try to make sure that it will not be replaced by an APC - I will try to get LPC units for those locations.

Note also that reliability of a UPS depends on many factors. One is the quality of batteries used - a cheap gel cell is not worth the hassle. I use Power-Sonic cells for all of my replacements.

Another factor is heat - a UPS needs plenty of breathing space. My rack-mounted units generally have at least 2 RU of space above and below them.

Dale H. Cook, Market Chief Engineer, Centennial Broadcasting, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcityeng/index.html