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Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies

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"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message news:jn75k1$fae$1@dont-email.me...
> In news:jn73d8$1e5$1@dont-email.me,
> philo wrote:
>> On 04/24/2012 11:05 AM, BillW50 wrote:
>>> I was a huge fan of uninterruptible power supplies since the
>>> beginning (even for laptop use). Besides the computer, you can power
>>> lots of other things. A small lamp, cordless phones, DSL modem,
>>> alarm clock, etc. All great of course. And I have gone through a
>>> number of UPS over the years. Generally the battery fails after 3 to
>>> 5 years. And the batteries generally run in the 25 to 35 buck range
>>> and they are heavy to pay for shipping. And if you wait for a sale
>>> on UPS, you could get one for about the same price as getting a new
>>> battery for an old one. So just get a new one.
>>>
>>> Well my CyberPower 685AVR UPS battery just died recently. I tried to
>>> disassemble it and all of the parts fit into slots between the two
>>> halves. And trying to take it apart, some are staying in one half and
>>> some in the other half. To get it apart, all of it has to stay in one
>>> half. But not as easy as it seems. And I have better things to do
>>> then to fiddle with this thing all day.
>>>
>>> I checked online and I thought I only paid about 50 bucks for this
>>> one on sale. But nothing comes close to this one under 100 bucks.
>>> Sure I could afford it, but that isn't the point. Why do I need one
>>> again? Being a fan of laptops since my first one back in '84, I am also a
>>> big fan of leaving the battery out (especially Li-Ion batteries). As
>>> the heat and repeated charging only shortens the life of the battery
>>> even far more than just throwing the battery in a drawer and just
>>> using it when you really need portable power.
>>>
>>> This all made a lot of sense to me all of these years. Although I now
>>> have five netbook batteries for three notebooks. Nine Gateway
>>> batteries for nine Gateway machines. And five Alienware batteries
>>> for five Alienware machines. That is 19 batteries of only three
>>> different battery types. And I have plenty of them nowadays. And
>>> only like three of them have less than 95% of their rated capacity.
>>> Plus chemically, they will become paperweights in about 10 years
>>> anyway no matter how well you take care of them.
>>>
>>> So I figure why not use some of them as an UPS instead? So what if
>>> one wears out in two or three years? I can't possibly wear them all
>>> out before they all will be so old to be any good anyway.
>>
>> You really need to get a good quality UPS if you want it to last.
>> I have four commercial grade UPS's and they have been working
>> trouble-free for years...but you are right concerning the batteries.
>> The small gel-cells rarely last more than 4 or 5 years...
>
> I do like UPS, so don't get me wrong. But if one is running laptops/netbooks and has plenty of spare batteries for the 
> machines anyway... an UPS seems somewhat pointless for them anyway.
>

The power supply part of it may be worthless (in essence) on a laptop, but the surge protection is nice to have. I'd 
rather replace a cheap (by comparison) UPS after a large surge than try to find parts to fix a laptop's power circuit, 
especially the ones that don't have the external brick.

I have a CyberPower 800AVR that I replaced the battery a couple of years ago. IIRC, the trick to getting the two halves 
apart was to unplug the cables that linked each half, change the battery, then plug the cables back while working the 
halves back together. I kinda recall it took a lot longer than the APC's and TrippLite's we had at work.
-- 
SC Tom

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I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-24 11:05 -0500
  Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> - 2012-04-24 15:19 -0500
    Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-24 16:00 -0500
      Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-24 17:04 -0500
      Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> - 2012-04-24 18:19 -0500
        Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-25 18:48 -0500
          Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2012-04-25 19:15 -0700
            Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-26 11:45 -0500
              Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "RnR" <rnrtexas@gmail.com> - 2012-04-28 01:57 -0500
                Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-28 12:19 -0500
            Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "RnR" <rnrtexas@gmail.com> - 2012-04-28 01:47 -0500
  Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies philo <philo@privacy.net> - 2012-04-24 15:45 -0500
    Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-24 16:23 -0500
      Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "SC Tom" <sc@tom.net> - 2012-04-24 19:51 -0400
        Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2012-04-26 11:39 -0500
  Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies "RJK" <nosuch@hotmail.com> - 2012-05-16 23:02 +0100
    Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> - 2012-05-16 20:03 -0700
    Re: I'm losing faith in uninterruptible power supplies Roland Mösl <founder@pge.org> - 2012-05-17 08:34 +0200

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