BE750G Didn't protect my two TIVOs during a power out yesterday.

[Anonymous user]

We have two TIVOs that I had a BE750G hooked to to protect for short duration.  I'm pretty sure I tested that it would keep the TIVOs running during a short outtage, the unit had a new battery installed, not an APC battery, a Duracell brand, not 7AHs, instead an 8AH version. We have a whole house generator, newly installed on May 12 this year. Yesterday the power went out and the generator started and supplied power, both TIVOs felt the hit and rebooted. I only need the UPS to hold them for not more than 6-10 seconds. It did not!

I took the unit out of service and removed and checked the battery and it was just about 11 volts. I hooked the UPS to my computer via the maint connection and powershute said zero charge, BUT the unit PASSES self test.

What's going on, the battery is back at the vendor right now being tested as it's only 10 months old from manufacture date.

My thinking is the charging system in the UPS has failed and also it gave NO indication that anything was wrong, no blinking light, no beep, nothing. So if this is the case - it's there, I think all is well but I have no backup protection.

Thanks for any input anyone might have. BTW, I have 4 of these units in use at present.

Gene

[BillP]

Passing a self test means that the UPS can switch from Online to On Battery and with the load attached, the UPS can support the load. It may not be all encompassing to detect every single possible issue and it cannot account for something like an incompatibility issue or a charger failure. Problem reporting for this type of UPS is limited.

This may not be a battery issue either. Let me type what ran through my head.

• What else is connected to the Battery Back Up+Surge outlets, in addition to the TiVo?
• Did the UPS itself turn off or reboot when this happened? (You also said that there was no blinking light, etc - but was that only before or also during the event I am interested in any tones or LEDs?)
• I would try a basic pull plug test, with the TiVo if you can afford it. Plug it in to the battery back up once the battery up outlets on the BE750G and see if you unplug it from the wall what happens. Ideally, the best test would be tripping the breaker or light switch on the outlet versus pulling the plug out to simulate a power outage as closely as possible since pulling the plug breaks the ground connection.
• I have a TiVO also on a BX1300LCD though and haven't had an issue. Another thought I had was if TiVo has/had a problem with the output on a BE750G which is a step approximation to a sinewave and not a pure sinewave. Both BX1300LCD and BE750G have the step approximation to a sinewave for an output on battery.
• Do you monitor this UPS with a PC via USB cable (even though it is set up with the TiVo) using PowerChute at all? That would show us the load probably. Back-UPS, based on their design, only truly detect an overload when the UPS goes to battery power. If this was the case though, I would've expected all of the outlets to go off and stay off and hear a constant tone from the UPS after.

I was unclear if you had one or more units (UPS) do this. You reference one battery but said TiVos at one point making me think you had more than one UPS or maybe more than one TiVo. I couldn't tell if one UPS had a problem or more than one either depending on the answer to that first question. Based on your title, I think it is one UPS with (2) TiVos. Am I correct?

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Well, the UPS had a less than 1 year old battery from Batteries Plus installed. I took the battery out and down to Batteries Plus and it failed their tests and they gave me a new one. 

I was worried that the UPS was not charging the battery but instead it was a bad battery. The one UPS handles 2 tivos with ease, I did the unplug test and all is well. Nothing else is connected to this UPS other than the 2 tivos.

Thanks for your input,

Gene