Charge in backup battery always low

[BillP]

as per title

brand new UPS acquired yesterday on Amazon

test passed (on APC paper and self-test)
out of box the value was on about 60 Watt

during the night the UPS was connected to the main but the PC off: now the value is quite the same i.e. 67 W

is it a powerchute bug or this value simply shows the remaining charge when the PC is not connected to the main?

in the latter case, I suggest editing the Help as it doesn't explain it at all

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I tried to disconnect the power and the UPS worked, but powerchute showed a higher (91W) battery power!

quite odd IMHO ...
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last but not least, is it normal that the unit smells of warm (not hot, luckily) plastic?

I read tons of negative comments about that on Amazon but I believed there were single case, so far ...

[BillP]

Hi,

PowerChute will only display the information the UPS is providing. If there is no load and the UPS is reporting there is a 67 watt load you should contact local support for assistance. Local support information is available at this link. http://www.apc.com/it/it/support/contact-us/index.jsp

[BillP]

Hi Bill

I suspect the Italian translation is wrong so that "Carica su batteria di backup" doesn't means that "battery is at 60 Watt of 480 Watt, but it means that 60 Watts is the amount of power needed in case mains goes off

I say that because the battery is fully charged and if I disconnect the mains the UPS works perfectly and keeps alive my PC with 2 monitors, an external audio card, a neon lamp and a router for many minutes

but the reason why I'm tempted to issue a return is the smell of hot plastic that I dislike

so maybe I'll simply buy a battery for my old Back-UPS RS BR800I that never had an issue, or I'll buy another model from APC or another company: this experience disappointed me

[SamirD_apc]

The plastic smell might just be a byproduct of the unit finally being put into operation.  Many times, electronics are tested but not fully burned in, so when they are they do emit some funny smells that go away in a short time.

I would recommend you keep the unit and see how it does, and while you wait get a battery for your older unit.  These units can work very well even after decades.  We still have some from the 1990s in operation today.  Just be sure to get genuine apc batteries.  That's what we've done and had zero issues besides having to change batteries.

[BillP]

Hi Samir

the bad smell was unchanged after 2 days, so I issued a return: sorry, but I live away from the city exactly to breath health air, so I cannot accept a bad smell at home

about the battery for the old UPS, it costs currently 100 EUR that is unacceptable considering that it costs only 50 USD in the USA, and that I paid it 60 EUR 6 years ago

I've had enough of APC and I changed company

[SamirD_apc · Accepted solution]

If the smell was still there after 2 days then I think you're right that something was wrong.

As far as battery cost, I usually look in the closeout/clearance sections of major suppliers like CDW and Provantage. Because we have a lot of older units, I can usually find a genuine battery for 50% of what the normal retail price is just because something is open box or returned.  These items still have a full warranty too.  I've actually gotten a lot of electronics like that and make that our first place to shop.  You can also find complete UPSs there for cheap.  I'm sure you have an EU equivalent out there.

I'd caution the case for newer units unless the warranty is better.  I've not seen newer units with the type of life we've gotten from our original 1990s units.