Uninterruptible Power Supply

**boybi** · May 7th, 2009 07:23 PM

Aside from the expensive APC UPSes, what other UPS brands can you recommend?

I just got 2 generic UPS from my local PC shop, brand: Elite. My problem with this UPS is it shuts down after a few minutes even if the battery can still last longer. I want my devices to stay ON as long as possible, but I cannot do it with this UPS.

**artpogi** · May 7th, 2009 08:47 PM

we are using several brands here at our office from those huges rackmount APC UPS3000 to the small APC UPS 500s, one thing I notice though among the brands that we're using here at the office, APC last longer as far as service/battery life is concerned, the others are a far second.

**ghosthunter** · May 7th, 2009 09:57 PM

I have used a number of LANTECH brand 600VA UPS units and they do a good job. I do notice that the batteries require replacement about every 1.5 to 2 years. The ones i have are around ten years old. Out of the six units, two have died (electronics failure) about a year ago and a month ago.

I also bought a UPS from CDRKING (three months ago) but I have no idea how long the battery and the UPS will last. But it works fine so far.

**jatcos** · May 11th, 2009 12:35 AM

UPS are supposed to give you time to save your work..Not unless you are using extended batteries, its not intended to run long. If you really want uninterruptible power supply, better get a backup generator with auto start/stop and atomatic transfer switch.

Ive been using APCs and Emerson/ Liebert and they are both good. What ive liked with APC is the availability of service, and battery they used is almost available everywhere. Quality of APC is good as industrial-grade UPS like GE, MGE(merlin gerin), Deltec, Delta. Other brands to consider-Powercom(PCM), AEC.

If youre running a shop, better use larger UPS say 3kva with hot-swappable battery cartridge(ex APC SURT series). Its easy to maintain than one UPS per PC. Another tip is to check input voltage, higher tolerance the better. Avoid UPS with up to 230VAC input only, they are notorious for toasted varistors especially here in manila where voltage can surge up to 240-260V.

Another good brand ive used is Tripp Lite, it served me well for 6yrs before i replaced batteries and untill now (on its 11th yr) its working.

**jatcos** · May 11th, 2009 12:36 AM

UPS are supposed to give you time to save your work..Not unless you are using extended batteries, its not intended to run long. If you really want uninterruptible power supply, better get a backup generator with auto start/stop and atomatic transfer switch.

Ive been using APCs and Emerson/ Liebert and they are both good. What ive liked with APC is the availability of service, and battery they used is almost available everywhere. Quality of APC is good as industrial-grade UPS like GE, MGE(merlin gerin), Deltec, Delta. Other brands to consider-Powercom(PCM), AEC.

If youre running a shop, better use larger UPS say 3kva with hot-swappable battery cartridge(ex APC SURT series). Its easy to maintain than one UPS per PC. Another tip is to check input voltage, higher tolerance the better. Avoid UPS with up to 230VAC input only, they are notorious for toasted varistors especially here in manila where voltage can surge up to 240-260V.

Another good brand ive used is Tripp Lite, it served me well for 6yrs before i replaced batteries and untill now (on its 11th yr) its working.

**ghosthunter** · May 11th, 2009 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by boybi

Aside from the expensive APC UPSes, what other UPS brands can you recommend?

I just got 2 generic UPS from my local PC shop, brand: Elite. My problem with this UPS is it shuts down after a few minutes even if the battery can still last longer. I want my devices to stay ON as long as possible, but I cannot do it with this UPS.

You can extend the operating time of a typical UPS on battery mode by replacing the original small 12volt battery with a large car or deep cycle battery. Downside is recharging a depleted battery will take a long time but if the power outage is not often (not daily), the original charging circuit should be enough.

A few years back, I had a modified UPS capable of running over six hours. My brother had a larger battery and can run his PC for eight hours.

**oj88** · May 11th, 2009 08:03 AM

^ Did that with three 675VA Tripp-Lite more than a decade back coupled to a 2SM battery. That was a time when Metro Manila was having blackouts of 6-8 hours a day. We needed the PC for desktop publishing work.

**boybi** · May 12th, 2009 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by ghosthunter

You can extend the operating time of a typical UPS on battery mode by replacing the original small 12volt battery with a large car or deep cycle battery. Downside is recharging a depleted battery will take a long time but if the power outage is not often (not daily), the original charging circuit should be enough.

A few years back, I had a modified UPS capable of running over six hours. My brother had a larger battery and can run his PC for eight hours.

The problem with the UPS I bought is it shuts down after less than 5 minutes, even if the battery still have juice. I'm planning on replacing this with another brand. But I want to make sure that the replacement uses all the capacity of the battery before it shuts down.

I have a APC BackUPS at home and it can do that but it's too expensive. the 1100kVa model costs more than 15K! I want one that costs less than 10K or better if less than 5K.