New UPS - recommendations appreciated (UK)

[tekguru]

My current UPS is an APC Smart-UPS 750 which I got hold of when the company I worked at went into liquidation. It is about 6 years old (I think) and according to its system the battery is due to hit end of life in November.
Last week while on holiday we suffered a power outage of just over an hour and the UPS failed in its job and the NAS lost power. This was approximately 5 minutes after the outage started. So it looks like the issue with the battery is here already.
The devices plugged into the UPS are; the NAS, Orbi Router, Apple Mac Mini, Draytek Modem.
I'm therefore looking for recommendations for a new UPS to replace it, hopefully, something that won't cost the earth. It must be quiet in operation though as it'll sit under my desk.
Thoughts appreciated guys.

 

[tekguru]

Well the BX950UI is here and so far I'm not very impressed at all.

It arrived with 90% battery charge, and it's plugged in with status saying it is charging, but so far down to 82% losing 3% of charge every 13 minutes.

This is what PowerChute Personal says on my Workstation which I connected the UPS lead to so I could see how it is performing.

The manual does say it has to be left on charge for 10 hours so I'll see what it is like tomorrow, but if it does not improve it'll be going back to Amazon!

-- post merged: 6. Oct 2021 --

Now down to 78% and falling..... incoming voltage is 228V :

 

[Telos]

Must be plugged in backwards or a connector is loose.

 

[tekguru]

Connectors are tight. See above it reckons it is charging. Oh and this is with nothing plugged in apart from the power lead.

 

[tekguru]

Well overnight the UPS still reckons it's charging but the battery level is down to 38% so definitely looking faulty.

I've replugged in the battery 'clip' and the power lead just in case but I can't see those fixing it....

 

[fredbert]

Sounds not right. Mine just needed the yellow battery connection plug inserted and connecting to mains power. I've never had a problem with it charging and the battery depleting at the same time.

Was the box unopened? Only things I can think of would that either:

• it's faulty, or
• someone ordered a new one, then put an old unit into the box and sent it back saying it's faulty.

 

[tekguru]

Yeah not fun. I did as you say (used APC for many years in my career). I did have issues plugging in the battery connection plug, it's very stiff, but yep plugged that in and on mains power.

I'm not looking forward to unplugging the battery connection plug.

The box was unopened so I think it's faulty.

 

[fredbert]

I'm not looking forward to unplugging the battery connection plug.

There's a slot/gap above the plug when it's in, use a flat-blade screwdriver to ease it out. I did this when replacing the battery.

 

[tekguru]

Yep that did the trick. It was darned tight though!

Anyway it'll be returned next week, Amazon will be collecting it. I've now got to decide whether to go with an exact replacement or go for a different model.

 

[tekguru]

The APC Smart-UPS 750 generally runs at around 20% load so I'm now thinking of going with the CP900EPFCLCD-UK as a replacement.
The CP1500EPFCLCD-UK would be nice to have but it's £100 more than the 900 model and looks to have everything I'd need?
Thoughts guys?

 

[Acetone]

The APC Smart-UPS 750 generally runs at around 20% load so I'm now thinking of going with the CP900EPFCLCD-UK as a replacement.
The CP1500EPFCLCD-UK would be nice to have but it's £100 more than the 900 model and looks to have everything I'd need?
Thoughts guys?

As I said I have the 900, if you've not got a big load then the only advantage I can think for the 1500 is it has a USB charge port for your phone in this winters predicted power cuts

-- post merged: 8. Oct 2021 --

If you can get your money back from Amazon, Box.co.uk are selling the CP900EPFCLCD-UK for £20 less at £159.99

That's were I got mine from, but I guess their returns policy is not quite as good as Amazon.

 

[tekguru]

Thanks, I've now got to work out if it does have enough capacity for my needs. What %load do you run at on average?

 

[fredbert]

If you can get your money back from Amazon, Box.co.uk are selling the CP900EPFCLCD-UK for £20 less at £159.99

I saw that and via Amazon the seller is 'Box Online', the same?

 

[Acetone]

Thanks, I've now got to work out if it does have enough capacity for my needs. What %load do you run at on average?

I only have the NAS DS718+ and two external HDD (used for Hyperbackup) connected.
Running Hyperbackup, streaming audio via DLNA and a couple of synology office apps running , I have under 10% load with a battery time of around 50mins.

I'm still on DSM 6.2.4 and the nas does power off the UPS after shutdown and everything auto powers on when electricity is restored.

 

[tekguru]

Thanks I will go with CyberPower but have to chat to the accountant (wife) to see which model we go with. APC now packaged up for return on Monday.

 

[Robbie]

Following my path - I found Eaton at the end of it.

APC and notable others tend to be pretty good at the high end but consumer models trade away that goodness for price margin - both build and quality hit the floor.

 

[tekguru]

Understood, but looking at the prices of Eaton they are way too high for me to afford.

 

[Acetone]

When I was looking I found Eaton very expensive but even harder to source here in the UK

 

[RonV42]

When I was looking I found Eaton very expensive but even harder to source here in the UK

My father-in-law worked on the wide for EATON when he retired from the steel mill, he was a motor shop manager and expert electrician, on his farm in Michigan all his electrical equipment was from EATON and commercial. The plant he was at produced the big ticket items for distribution of power. He had one of their commercial UPS's and a PDS in his workshop, two racks of batteries to drive the thing. Let say the catalogue price of this rig would have been in the 100k dollar range and I assume he got it used for a great price.

 

[tekguru]

To close this out I ordered the CP1500EPFCLCD-UK, it'll be here on the 27th.......

 

[tekguru]

I'm now having doubts about the as Marius over at Marius Hosting says he's had a lot of problems with his Cyperpower device and that customer service don't respond.

@Acetone how have you found yours?