Back-UPS RS 1500VA

[Anonymous user]

We have a Back-UPS RS 1500VA that was purchased in June of 2005 with the 24V BATTERY PACK which was added in August of 2007. The main battery was replaced in October of 2008. Maintenance software is PowerChute Personal Edition, vers 2.2. The unit has worked fine up until now. It has been in the same place physically, supporting the same equipment for about 9 months. The load consists of a workstation with an 800 Watt power supply, a 21" LCD monitor and a Linksys Router. Total load has never exceeded 22% of UPS capacity according to PowerChute statisitics. There are no printers, scanners, or other equipment attached to the UPS.

On January 3rd, 2009, we did some software maintenance to the workstation that required a re-boot. We decided to take the station all the way down and do cold start. The computer was turned off for about 5 minutes, then turned back on (the UPS was NOT shut down). When the computer was toggled on, the UPS started to beep and the red "overload" light came on. We turned off the computer and then shut off the UPS. We waited about 1 minute, then toggled back on the UPS. A large bang, sparks, crackling and smoke emitted from the UPS. It seemed to actually still be delivering power, but we quickly shut it down and removed it from service.

Because it is well out of warranty, we opened up the unit and found two transistors in what appears to be the battery charging circuit failed.

Has anyone else had issues similar to this with their RS units?

[BillP]

i cant speak from a customer standpoint (since i havent had experienced anything like this with my own APC products) but i can assure you that this is something in APC tech support that we come across rarely and sounds like an isolated incident. others are welcomed to join in though on their experiences though.

and just FYI, if you need a replacement, you can look into the APC Trade UPS program to get a new replacement UPS and have APC pay for the shipping/recycling of your old UPS. let me know if you want more info on that.

let us know if you have any other questions, comments, or concerns though.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Ironically, I am a Sales Rep and APC is a Customer of mine. I regularly call on the No Billerica design center and am familiar with this UPS as I participated in the design phase when this product was referred to as Cerro Torre. I am going to bring it by the facility there and show it to one of the engineering people who was on the original program. I have already ordered a replacement. Anyway, thanks for the input. It is good to hear this is not an epidemic problem.