Re: UPS recommendations OTHER THAN APC?

[Larry Bolhuis <lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Frankie and Friends have never been let down by their Tripp-Lite UPSs 
(Official UPS Supplier of Frankenseries.com)
www.tripp-lite.com

On the APC Units we have *LOTS of experience with the smaller (i.e. less 
than 5KVA) units cooking the batteries. The UPS itself is fine but the 
batteries are a) *HOT* (You noticed) and b) Swollen so bad you can't get 
them out. (You can only SEE the front one, I'll bet you lunch every one 
is just as bad) If you remove the top cover you can get the buggers out 
with a BFS. (Um, warning? Depower the unit first!) Their newer designs 
hold the batteries differently so apparently they have discovered this 
problem.

What seems to happen is when the batteries finally go to *nuthin (i.e. 
open or shorted) the UPS just drops like a stone. It also acts like it 
is completely blown up even when plugged in. I wholeheartedly agree with 
you that not detecting these failed batteries long before this happens 
is a severe shortcoming of these units. However it must be said that 
those who do not run a test on their UPS at least once per quarter are 
guaranteed to get bit by this sort of problem at some point.

- Larry

James H H Lampert wrote:
> One other detail:
>
> On opening the battery compartment, I found that it was 
> almost hot enough to cook on, and the front battery pack 
> in the unit is so swollen I can't get it out.
>
> Pretty obviously, that pack is toast. Probably at least 
> one shorted cell.
>
> But why the damned unit didn't see this coming . . . .
>
> --
> JHHL
>