Matrix UPS 5000

[Anonymous user]

Hi Everyone,

My Matrix UPS 5000 and 5 External batteries are almost 5 years old. I have a couple of questions I was hoping you could answer:

1) If one of my external batteries die does it bring down my entire UPS system?
2) What is the recommended life expectancy of a Matrix UPS and their external batteries?
3) Does the AP9619 work in the Matrix UPS 5000?
4) What is the difference between the Symmetra and the Smart UPS XL series?
5) Do you recommend I upgrade from my Matrix 5000 to a Smart UPS or Symmetra?

I'm at a crossroad- is there a huge risk leaving the UPS as is with old batteries? In the event of a power outage is my system going to fail if no batteries are showing failed? Would it be best to upgrade now rather than wait for a battery to fail?

Thank you in advance for your advice,
D

[Anonymous user]

Hi Everyone,

My Matrix UPS 5000 and 5 External batteries are almost 5 years old. I have a couple of questions I was hoping you could answer:

1) If one of my external batteries die does it bring down my entire UPS system?
2) What is the recommended life expectancy of a Matrix UPS and their external batteries?
3) Does the AP9619 work in the Matrix UPS 5000?
4) What is the difference between the Symmetra and the Smart UPS XL series?
5) Do you recommend I upgrade from my Matrix 5000 to a Smart UPS or Symmetra?

I'm at a crossroad- is there a huge risk leaving the UPS as is with old batteries? In the event of a power outage is my system going to fail if no batteries are showing failed? Would it be best to upgrade now rather than wait for a battery to fail?

Thank you in advance for your advice,
D

[BillP · Accepted solution]

hello,

Here are some notes:

*1) If one of my external batteries die does it bring down my entire UPS system?*
No, if you have more than one battery, the others will be available. If all of the batteries die and there is a power outage, it will go down since the UPS would probably transfer to bypass with no good batteries at some point.

*2) What is the recommended life expectancy of a Matrix UPS and their external batteries?*
The Matrix units have been around for a while and there are still plenty running strong. Most of our APC UPSs have a 10 year lifecycle. The lead acid batteries inside have an expected life of 3-5 years depending on usage. They are like car batteries. Sometimes you might get 3, sometimes people stretch it out to 6 or 7 years.
*3) Does the AP9619 work in the Matrix UPS 5000?*
We'd need to check the serial number and the Matrix revision to know that. [Check this article out, it should apply to AP9619 as well|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1419].
*4) What is the difference between the Symmetra and the Smart UPS XL series?*
The Symmetra is modular, redundant, has higher rated VA capacity, better power factor, split phase technology (equal legs of 120 on output - Symmetra LX only), has the ability to have hardwire input and output, ships with an AP9619 installed, 0ms transfer time to battery, 208/240 input, automatic/manual bypass, and informative and interactive LCD menu. I think those are the biggest things.. A symmetra is higher end. Also, you can add external battery cabinents onto it as well. If you need comparisons on more items, let me know.
*5) Do you recommend I upgrade from my Matrix 5000 to a Smart UPS or Symmetra?*
A Smart UPS RT is the replacement that is recommended for a Matrix. It has the same 0ms transfer time to battery (symmetra does too), larger RTs have input/output hardwire, and have comprable amount of outlets. You would need a step down transformer to hook into it to step down your 208/240v down to 120v though. A smart UPS RT also has bypass. A Smart UPS RT would have a similar cost and majority of the features that the matrix has. A Symmetra (from my tech support standpoint), is easier to work with and its nice to have an LCD display on it. The symmetra is scalable and redundant also. You could also check out a Symmetra RM.

Is there a huge risk leaving the UPS as is with old batteries? In the event of a power outage is my system going to fail if no batteries are showing failed?Would it be best to upgrade now rather than wait for a battery to fail?

The Matrix batteries have a tendency to swell, especially the RBC14s in SMARTCELL-XRs. I would recommend replacing them at the 5 year mark if they are 5 years or even older. You run the risk of them swelling, if left unattended and it will be more of a headache in the long run. If an outage happens and the batteries are bad, it could go either way. They may work (discharge) and then have a problem when they charge back up and report failed or have a low voltage. On the other hand, if they are total toast, it could turn off if there are no batteries and it needs to go to bypass.

I hope this helps!

[Anonymous user]

Thank you very much for your answers. I do appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. If the battery swells this mean I cannot get it out correct?

Just to confirm if one battery dies in the chain of five...all five batteries stop working and it is up to the batteries inside the Matrix 5000 to keep the system up during a power outage?

Thank you,
D

[BillP]

hi again,

can you clarify, are these SMARTCELLs or SMARTCELL-XRs? (You can find this on the back of the battery some place) Smartcells are the smaller batteries that look like shoeboxes (to me anyway) - [Click here to view|http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SMARTCELL] and the SMARTCELL-XRs are in an enclosure the size of the matrix 5000 itself and you open it up and replace the internal batteries [which can be seen here|http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=RBC14]. The Smartcells you have to replace the entire thing.

So, if a smartcell swells, you need to replace entire thing. If the batteries inside a smartcell-xr swell, they can warp the casing and yes, you might not be able to get them out, or will need to wait for them to cool.

Let me know what you have. Also, the matrix does not have internal batteries. It has a lower half - the isolation unit and the top half with the LCD - the electronics units. All of the batteries are external.

If one battery dies in the chain of 5, the communication should still be there, unless the communication card fails, so it will still see the other batteries.

If all of the batteries are connected via DC cables (and not the phone cable communication cables), then they will be continued to be used if the communication isnt there. You just wont know when they are bad and the LCD wont calculate runtime correctly since it wont detect them. Thus, anything that shuts down based on runtime wont work correctly even though the battery power will still be there.

[Anonymous user]

Hi,

Thank you for the quick turnaround on my last post. We currently have 5x SMARTCELL-XRs daisy chained to the Matrix 5000. I noticed the communication cable (telephone cable) attached to all the external batteries.

Typically a daisy chain (like christmas lights) will fail if one battery (or ligh bulb) blows. I assume this is not the case with the setup I've just described?

The reason why I am very cautious is due to a recent UPS issue at one of my offices. One of the batteries blew and it brought down power to the entire datacentre. I want to ensure if we decide to keep the aforementioned setup and one of the batteries die- the entire system will continue to run and not cut off power to my servers and PBX.

Thanks for your help!,
D

[BillP]

Well, on this, if the batteries fail, where the internal batteries are fail, the communication card should be online and thus be able to communicate to the other batteries in the chain. If the communication card were to go, as mentioned, you'd lose communications to the other batteries but they still should charge assuming theres no problems with the DC power cable/XR battery bus. So, in a best case scenario, a battery will report bad during an outage, and then the replace battery LED will come on but the other batteries will still chug along.

I cannot think of every single scenario here but I mean there is a remote chance something could really go haywire and cause the whole chain to go down, thus having no batteries left and possibly causing a premature shutdown.

So, essentially, a bad battery - meaning that it is designated bad by the Matrix - should not cause the entire chain to fail. But it is possible if something happens to the entire XR cabinet, especially the first, where it can no longer charge the rest of the chain nor communicate, that then the UPS will be left with no batteries.