Trying to choose a new UPS

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Feb 22, 2012
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Greetings,

I am trying to decide between these two UPSes:

https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1350AVRLCD-Intelligent-Outlets-Mini-Tower/dp/B000OFXKFI

https://www.amazon.com/APC-Sinewave-Battery-Protector-BR1350MS/dp/B0779QFRRT

The cyberpower UPS is a bit cheaper, and has a number of replacement battery options, quite a few of which have pretty high ratings on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cp1350av...YZ0B8R6&sprefix=CP1350AVRLCD+,electronics,134

The APC UPS is a bit more expensive and is pure since wave, however, it has few 3rd party after market battery replacement options which basically means I'll be paying $70 for new batteries (when I need them).

Which one do you think is better? As an aside, I have read that 3rd party batteries tend not to be as high quality as those that come from the manufacturer, so if you have any thoughts on that, I'd like to hear them as well.

Thanks
 
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I avoid CyberPower units like the plague. They love to cycle through all sorts of proprietary battery sizes, voltages and amp ratings on many of their UPS models, and only make said batteries while the unit is in current production. They also love to sandwich the battery in many of their models as well, requiring complete disassembly of the unit, instead of a battery door. So getting batteries for old Cyberpower units with weird battery sizes can be impossible.

The units which do use normal battery sizes like the one you linked above often hides shitty design faults, or manufacturing defects. I've had to repair several Cyberpower UPSes where the mosfets that convert the battery DC to AC had forcibly detonated due to 1) grossly undersized heatsinks with no cooling and 2) No thermal compound was applied to the mosfets at all, so even if a good heatsink was installed, it would have done nothing.

Go with APC instead.
 
I've never had any bad experiences with APC and I'm still using my white back ups 600 since the mid 90s maybe. It's older then other hardware I still have running. Have changed batteries in it maybe half a dozen times over the years.

Do you have a local battery store? The one near me handles UPS, automotive, wheelchair, drone, cell phone, and pretty much anything else I've ever needed at similar prices to Amazon but it's right on the shelf ready to go when I need it. Might be worth checking what your local store stocks and going with that model so you don't have to wait on shipping for replacement batteries.
 
At work we had quite a few problems with the generation of APC UPS prior to the linked one (Back-Ups Pro) - with batteries making poor connection and having to be placed on their side. I think in the newer ones this has been resolved though, but we ended up switching many to Eaton UPS instead. As stated above, Cyberpower UPS seem to have a lot of problems with the actual circuitry instead of just batteries dying - hit and miss. Only ever seen one APC actually fry the circuitry, and it was under warranty.

Also as long as the batteries have the same Ah rating - they're pretty much equal. The APC packs in my units are just 2 batteries taped together with a jumper wire anyway. Often times you can find the genuine APC batteries from CDW outlet at a fraction of the price from new. I just bought new replacements for my 2x 1500va APC units and paid $35/ea for the oem packs from CDW outlet.
 
I've got four different CyberPower UPS devices and have been very happy with them. All on the original battery. 5+ years? 1350w to 1500w units. Home machines, not a business.
 
I've got four different CyberPower UPS devices and have been very happy with them. All on the original battery. 5+ years? 1350w to 1500w units. Home machines, not a business.

It's a good idea to replace the batteries every 2-4 years. If you leave the batteries until they're dead, the UPS is usually damaged and the batteries can inflate and get stuck in the housing, or leak sulfuric acid/lead sulfate everywhere. It's not a fun process to replace batteries when they're inflated and broken up.

SLA chemistry makes it difficult for the UPS to know how good the batteries are, so the batteries could be internally failing and the UPS wouldn't know until it's too late.

SWOLLEN-BATTERY-2.jpg
 
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It's a good idea to replace the batteries every 2-4 years. If you leave the batteries until they're dead, the UPS is usually damaged and the batteries can inflate and get stuck in the housing, or leak sulfuric acid/lead sulfate everywhere. It's not a fun process to replace batteries when they're inflated and broken up.

SLA chemistry makes it difficult for the UPS to know how good the batteries are, so the batteries could be internally failing and the UPS wouldn't know until it's too late.

View attachment 299271
Thanks for the heads up!
 
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