Back-UPS Office 350 Reliability

[Anonymous user]

We used to use Back-UPS Office 350s for the computers in our small store. I say used to because they keep dying and I keep replacing them with something else. So what is the expected life of these consumer-grade products? I'm not talking about battery life. I always try a new battery before tossing them. Today's little problem is that the UPS beeps and tells me the battery needs replacing. I replace the battery with a known good one (measured over 13.6V) and it keeps beeping and complaining about the battery. Sometimes it starts this annoying beeping while customers are in our nice, peaceful store. Very bad for business.

I have replaced some others with Triplite or with larger and hopefully more pro-grade APC UPSs, but the one that died today needs to be small. Can someone recommend a small desktop-sized UPS that will be more reliable than this consumer-grade stuff? I buy a UPS to make my computers more reliable, not less reliable. Winter and spring are very stormy in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and we cannot run our computers directly from the outlet. They must be protected.

Thanks.

Message was edited by: FatBear

[Erasmus_apc]

What is the model number on the UPS, and what is the serial number?

[Anonymous user]

Sorry, our store has been open since about when you asked the last question and the POS system with the faulty UPS on it has been in use. I'll get the info when things slow down in an hour or two.

Thanks for the help.

[Erasmus_apc]

Hi,

Battery life on all of our UPS systems when using official APC RBC's or the original APC installed factory battery is 3-5 years when used in the supported temperature/environments and subject to "average" use. Average of course depends on the location, a UPS that is going to battery for more a few minutes multiple times every week will have less runtime than one that goes to battery once a month.

The Smart-UPS line of products has a more intelligent battery management/charging system and also has AVR functionality to condition power actively during a dip or overvoltage, instead of always going to battery, which can increase battery life expectancy in "risky" areas. The SUA series starts at 750VA so you may want to look into this. The Back-UPS RS/XS line also has the AVR functionality that can reduce the number of transfers to battery.

[Anonymous user]

OK, I've got 'em. The model number is BF350, the s/n is NB0045221108.

[Anonymous user]

The battery isn't the issue. As I said, I replaced it with a good battery and the unit still beeps and tells me it is a bad battery. It's not a bad battery. I even checked the battery voltage with it installed in the UPS, the UPS plugged into the wall outlet and with the power switch turned on and off. When I unplug the UPS from the wall outlet the battery voltage drops a tiny bit, as you would expect when a load is placed on it, but the UPS does not provide battery backup.

[Erasmus_apc · Accepted solution]

Ok, well it is possible a unit that old can fail, after all it is 10 years old (NB00 indicates mfg. in 2000). I have to voice again though that it is important to use an official APC RBC (in that model's case, an RBC10) since we spec our batteries to be charged and operate normally with our UPS systems. Non-APC batteries can provide adequate on-battery backup time, but not all the time. Also, more often than an actual battery failure, the unit can report false indications of a battery being bad or disconnected. Clearly here, regardless of what kind of battery is being used, the issue does appear to point towards the unit being the point of failure.

Life expectancy for those units is generally 6-10 years (about 2 battery replacements), and the official "lifecycle" we use for judging warranty application and other APC-internal policies is 10 years. The UPS itself can last longer than that but "lasting longer than normal" can be applied to many modern devices. I have not heard of any known issues with those units in terms of premature failure. If you want a new unit that is equivalent to that, you could look at the varying sizes of the BR/BX line of Back-UPS, or if you want a step up in performance, the Smart-UPS line that starts at 750VA.

[Anonymous user]

OK, thanks Erasmus. I didn't realize it was that old. I guess I'll be replacing it before the next storm comes through. We do take our UPSs very seriously here on the north coast of Oregon. Lots of storms, lots of power problems, lightning, etc. I use them on all electronics, not just my computers, and have been doing so for more than the ten year's age of this unit. Not only do they prevent catastrophic problems, but everything just seems to last longer with the cleaner power. I don't think I have ever had a computer failure of any kind in a system plugged into a UPS. I had lots of problems before I initiated this policy.

[Anonymous user]

We used to use Back-UPS Office 350s for the computers in our small store. I say used to because they keep dying and I keep replacing them with something else. So what is the expected life of these consumer-grade products? I'm not talking about battery life. I always try a new battery before tossing them. Today's little problem is that the UPS beeps and tells me the battery needs replacing. I replace the battery with a known good one (measured over 13.6V) and it keeps beeping and complaining about the battery. Sometimes it starts this annoying beeping while customers are in our nice, peaceful store. Very bad for business.

I have replaced some others with Triplite or with larger and hopefully more pro-grade APC UPSs, but the one that died today needs to be small. Can someone recommend a small desktop-sized UPS that will be more reliable than this consumer-grade stuff? I buy a UPS to make my computers more reliable, not less reliable. Winter and spring are very stormy in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and we cannot run our computers directly from the outlet. They must be protected.

Thanks.

Message was edited by: FatBear