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Heavy thunderstorm caused power outage in our area, and to my surprise the CyberPower 1500 UPS didn't provide even a minute of backup power. Computer and drives just died when we lost power.
This unit is six years old, so it wouldn't surprise me if the batteries were gone. But the Battery-Capacity icon on the display shows full! And the Current Load is modest; the display says c. 46 minutes of Time to Shut Down. But if I test by unplugging from the wall, it just dies.
When plugged in, there is no Fault symbol, and no Replace Battery icon either.
So what's up with it? If there's something wrong with the circuitry, I don't want to buy new batteries. It's model no. 1500PFCLCD.
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"Full" just means that it's a full charge for whatever the remaining capacity is.
UPS batteries last 3-5 years. Yours is almost certainly dead.
Can't speak to the specific technical reason why the device hasn't reported a dead battery.
Since it failed to do its job, I'd replace the UPS.
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I have three of those units around my house and 3 years is typical for batteries. The periodic automatic self test should have revealed that. I wonder if it got turned off somehow? Anyway, a new unit is around $220 and batteries are about $50 all on Amazon.
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Apparently the circuitry to detect a dead battery has failed. Time to replace the entire unit.
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Are you SURE that you're plugged into the battery backup outlets and not the mere power surge outlets?
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Just an anecdotal observation, that may be full of crap in reality, but from said observation, it seems as though the UPS will last longer if/when you replace batteries close to the end of their useful life, rather than several years after their useful life has expired. I tend to get three, and sometimes four battery cycles (2X or 3X batt replacements) from similar quality UPS's when changed promptly.
I also think a lot has to do w/ the quality of the power to the premises.... I had a client whose building was in an industrial warehouse district, that had the worst power fluctuations allowable by the PUC. UPS's there were lucky to last a year. After ~3 years of constant complaining, we finally got the power there cleaned up a little bit, but that was also in conjunction w/ more businesses in the area getting more tech'ed up.
In addition to the UPS's self-tests, you should test 'em yourself every couple of months after the first year, or so, of use w/ new batteries.
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Sounds like replacing the unit is the ticket. Is CyberPower still the favored brand here, or some other?
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mrlynn wrote:
Sounds like replacing the unit is the ticket. Is CyberPower still the favored brand here, or some other?
APC is my favored brand, if not "the favored brand here."
Cyberpower is often cheaper and ain't really "bad."
It has been my experience that Cyberpower has a slightly higher fail-rate vs APC. But it's not a great difference. And APC has had some bad runs.
Getting surge and brownout protection and having the battery-backup are more important considerations than brand.
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Tiangou wrote:
APC is my favored brand, if not "the favored brand here."
One of the main reasons I moved away from APC a (very) long time back was (at the time) their refusal to allow for muting of the alarms. I remember getting an email from them saying "no, they cannot be muted; we feel it is important for you to be aware of when there is a power failure".
I think they've since corrected that and APC units do allow for muting.
