[vcf-midatlantic] How's Everyone Doing

[David Riley]

On Apr 24, 2020, at 3:24 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> 
>  I replace batteries in about twelve APC UPSes.  It's definitely worth it.  I have one SmartUPS 2000XL that I've had since the mid 1990s that's still going strong.  Years ago I bought two Matrix 5000s used from a surplus dealer, and got ten years of service out of one before it was destroyed by lightning, and a solid fifteen years of service out of the other before it died of natural causes just recently.
> 
>  UPS batteries are a consumable.  Lead-acid batteries last 2-3 years whether they are being used or not.
> 
>  I buy batteries from refurbups.com, for about fifteen years now.  Don't buy the "Werker" batteries at Batteries Plus, they are garbage.

Good to know a reliable source, I've been going mostly with Panasonic, but they're a bit pricy; heard good things about PowerSonic ones and was thinking about trying them out.

I was recently having some weird intermittent problems where one server in my mini-rack was mysteriously hanging, usually waiting until I was out of town; the problems went away as soon as I replaced the very old batteries in the UPS, so presumably it was getting a brownout during the automatic testing cycle or something.

It's worth noting that lead-acid batteries are some of the most recyclable battery technologies we have! The lead, plastic and electrolyte all get chopped up and recycled, pretty much the only thing that goes to waste is the stabilizing substrate between the cells.  There are some pretty neat videos of the process if you look around.


- Dave