Grabbed a refurbished UPS from a surplus sale and it worked too well

I found this old APC UPS at a county surplus auction for like $15. Figured it would be junk but I needed something for my home lab setup. Plugged it in, ran the self test, everything looked fine. Then last week a storm hit and the power flickered like 4 times in 30 seconds. That little UPS kicked in and kept my server running no problem. But then the power came back and it just kept beeping nonstop for 20 minutes until I unplugged everything. Turns out the battery was so old it couldn't handle the recharge cycle and started swelling. Lesson learned, next time I'm just buying a new battery upfront before even using one of these things. Anyone else run into weird issues with surplus UPS gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel_lane3028d ago

Yeah been there. The old APC units are tanks but those batteries have a hard shelf life of like 3-4 years tops. I grabbed a SmartUPS 1500 from an office clearance for $20, tested fine, then two weeks later the battery vented acid all over my rack shelf. Replaced it with a generic battery pack from Amazon for $35 and it's been solid for two years now. Just factor in the cost of a new battery when you're bidding on surplus gear, makes those "$15 deals" more like $50 once you swap it. Still cheaper than buying new though.

hunt.quinn28d ago

Generic batteries aren't always the same quality though.