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APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:03 am
by Apoptosis
Anyone bought a UPS lately?

I have an APC Back-UPS 550 that I bought roughly 7 years ago that has a failing battery (came home today to the alarm sounding). I don't feel like sinking ~$50 into it for a battery as I only paid about $80 for it new. I see the new UPS models have "Pure Sinewave" technology and all that. Anyone have any advice on that front?

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:15 pm
by camaroguy1998
Stick with APC!

I've had 2 CyberPower and both failed at about 3 to 3 1/2yrs old!
I now have 2 APC 650's, both still working!
One is like yours, about 7yrs old, the other is closer to 4 or 5!
I'll never buy another CyberPower!

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:37 am
by KnightRid
Yea I would recommend APC also as the others I have used all failed soon after warranty.

My APC's have been so good taht this is my 3rd battery replacement for them and they are still chugging along! Mine are 1500va units though so replacing batteries is normally a lot cheaper than buying a new unit.

I got mine from - https://www.techbatterysolutions.com/ - at a great price (well like 3 years ago now) so maybe you can get lucky and find some low cost batteries.

Best Buy has a 650va for $64.99 - https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apc-back-u ... Id=4984103

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:37 am
by Apoptosis
Wow, those are pretty good prices at Best Buy for the 650VA. Amazon wants $74 and Walmart wants $72.

techbatterysolutions.com Wants $31 shipped for a new battery... So, $31 to put a new battery in or ~$70 after tax to buy a new model... ugh

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:45 pm
by camaroguy1998
Apoptosis wrote:Wow, those are pretty good prices at Best Buy for the 650VA. Amazon wants $74 and Walmart wants $72.

techbatterysolutions.com Wants $31 shipped for a new battery... So, $31 to put a new battery in or ~$70 after tax to buy a new model... ugh
$31 for a new Battery, you can do that twice and still save a couple bucks!
I'd say that equals another 10-15yrs up time!

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 5:01 am
by KnightRid
Pure sinewave would be nice and might help out in certain situations but I think I would at least replace the batteries once before chucking it and getting a new one....but thats just my cheap ass self lol

Weird typing on my laptop.

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:31 am
by Apoptosis
Talked with APC a bit and they are game for sending some models out for review.

Thinking about going with the BR1500MS for the office as it has some nice features like SineWave and USB Type-C charge ports. It's 900W and runs just under $190 on Amazon.

Then I'm also going to ask for BE600M1 as I think that would be ideal for your networking area of the home. You can hook up the cable modem, wireless router, security camera system and other home networking devices. that one is 330W and only $57 shipped on Amazon.

So, one UPS for the networking area of the home and then the other for where the PC, printer and other devices are.

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 1:48 pm
by bubba
never put a laser printer on a UPS.

inkjet printers are fine, but laser printers pull to hard to fast.

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 9:46 pm
by camaroguy1998
Apoptosis wrote:Talked with APC a bit and they are game for sending some models out for review.

Thinking about going with the BR1500MS for the office as it has some nice features like SineWave and USB Type-C charge ports. It's 900W and runs just under $190 on Amazon.

Then I'm also going to ask for BE600M1 as I think that would be ideal for your networking area of the home. You can hook up the cable modem, wireless router, security camera system and other home networking devices. that one is 330W and only $57 shipped on Amazon.

So, one UPS for the networking area of the home and then the other for where the PC, printer and other devices are.
Must be nice to have connections in the review world! :mrgreen:
The BR1500MS looks impressive! :drool:
I like the idea of being able to disable the alarm during certain hours of the day!
Wake up in the middle of the night hearing that alarm and imagine what happens next!
Jealous but, still can't justify $190! Thats 3 times what I paid for mine! Thats me being a cheapskate!

Looking forward to those reviews!

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:14 am
by KnightRid
Had to get direct injection in my neck yesterday so missed this.

Just make sure they have enough battery supplied outlets for the devices you want to put on them. This is the main problem I have found with cell phones, tablets, etc becoming so popular and even though they are low draw on battery backups, most backup units do not supply enough plugins (on battery, they do supply some on surge only) to keep your devices in and on during an outage.

Maybe they have usb battery supplied ports now a days?

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 7:11 pm
by Apoptosis
They still haven't shipped anything... LOL

Waiting!

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 9:32 pm
by camaroguy1998
Apoptosis wrote:They still haven't shipped anything... LOL

Waiting!
We're all waiting, well at least I am!

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:38 pm
by sbohdan
I would try e-bay first. Look for an aftermarket battery from china. They are usualy pretty good and cost fraction of the price with shipping incl.

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 5:04 pm
by Apoptosis
sbohdan wrote:I would try e-bay first. Look for an aftermarket battery from china. They are usualy pretty good and cost fraction of the price with shipping incl.
Half the batteries on e-bay/amazon are fakes from china or just using crap components. Reading the reviews is scary.
bar-codes.jpg
fake-batteries.jpg
The good news is that I got the new APC units in this past week and will have a review up on one hopefully tomorrow. Big changes in specs from the 2008 model to the 2016 model. After looking into the specifications closer it's worth spending ~$20 on a new model.

Re: APC Back-UPS 550 Finally Giving Scream of Death After 7 Years

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:19 am
by sbohdan
Yes, I know lots of fakes. There is a chinese saying: "If you can con them, do it". This is theft. I always said thiefs should be hanged like they used to. Anyway, I always buy it on e-bay, look at ratings first, read reviews and if there is still a problem, than there is e-bay's money back garantie.