Done with APC UPS's, looking for replacement recommendations.

Posted by Creative-Package6213@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 62 comments

We've recently had a few APC (APC Smart-UPS SLC500RM1UC) UPS's just die on us. One was within the warranty period the other was not. We only use this in our networking racks around our buildings, but I really want to find something that is more reliable as these really shouldn't be dropping dead within 3 - 4 years. Does anyone have any good recommendations for a replacement? They just need to be 1u units, and about 600w - 1,000w of power and decently priced.

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beanmachine-23@reddit

We went from APC to Tripplite/eaton 4 years ago and they are on their second set of batteries, which is fairly normal for a SLA UPS. They have been easy to manage. We did have a batch of non-double online Tripplites that had a default setting to not turn back on when the battery was depleted, which was annoying but repairable. The cost was significantly lower. They work well with the Zabbix monitoring.

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MattAdmin444@reddit

Are Eaton's the better version of Tripplites? Pretty much every Tripplite I've found in my district seems to have preemptively died while the APCs, several of which are older, are still trucking along.

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j0mbie@reddit

Eaton bought Tripp Lite in 2021. Since then, the quality of Tripp Lite UPSs have improved, but Eaton is still the premium version.

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MattAdmin444@reddit

Hmm that would track with when I started here I suppose. While I never got my hands on the purchase orders the Tripplites I had I'm reasonably sure had been bought within a couple years before 2021.

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beanmachine-23@reddit

Eaton bought tripplite. Same thing now

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catherder9000@reddit

Yep, our Tripp Lite backups just keep working and working, some are on set 3 of batteries now (9-10+ years) and they all test perfectly fine.

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SandyTech@reddit

Eaton or Vertiv.

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Competitive_Run_3920@reddit

I recently replaced my old symmetry with a vertiv APS system and so far I’m very happy with the hardware. Haven’t had to test out support yet other than a network card setting I couldn’t find.

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SandyTech@reddit

I don’t think I’ve ever had to work with their support directly, at least not for our big systems anyway. We have a maintenance agreement with the company that installed the systems and they deal with Vertiv.

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trail-g62Bim@reddit

We have switched to Vertiv. It has been mostly good. There are some things I dont love about them, but otherwise am happy with them.

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sta3b@reddit

+Eaton

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ISeeDeadPackets@reddit

I swapped to Eaton on my last refresh, pretty happy so far.

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Shad0wguy@reddit

Ive been using eaton exclusively ever since apc pay walled their nmc firmware updates.

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NoDistrict1529@reddit

Eaton. They're really good for a reason.

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GoodEnoughThen@reddit

Curuius, what's the reason(s)?

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NoDistrict1529@reddit

APC shifted to a subscription model for their network management cards. Tried eaton and have been much happier.

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kissmyash933@reddit

I bought my first Eaton last night for a project I’m working on, a used 5PX for $200.

Right off the bat I noticed that it’s really nice on the outside compared to an APC. It was filthy so I opened it up and cleaned it out and it cleaned up well - it has very nice caps all throughout, is laid out well inside, has very nicely heatsunk regulators and feels very high quality overall. The kicker is that the batteries in it gave me an hour of runtime when I hooked up one PSU of an R630 and one PSU of an ICX6610 to it and pulled the plug.

When I buy a used UPS, I always expect it’s going to need batteries immediately — I didn’t look at the date codes on the batteries (CSB!!) but they aren’t new for sure. An APC would have had dead batteries, or they’d have been so swollen I’d have to excavate them out the top. My rack at home has 4x SmartUPS 1500’s in it, every one of those units needs new batteries every two years on the dot. I have a feeling I’m going to be dumping them for a larger Eaton unit if it turns out to be nice to the batteries inside, which the APC’s aren’t.

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bacon_in_beard@reddit

schneider turned that brand to shit

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cjchico@reddit

Eaton

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RansomStark78@reddit

Eaton, i have a plus 10 year unit

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ProgressBartender@reddit

How many times have you replaced the batteries?

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RansomStark78@reddit

Mandatory two year replacement cycle, third party replaces batteries

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Nero_XY@reddit

Two years is wild, we normally go for for four to five years

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RansomStark78@reddit

Yeah mgt mandate, budget is there

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Arudinne@reddit

We've got one of similar vintage. It's on it's 3rd set, which is fairly typical.

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screampuff@reddit

Are they double-conversion units?

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Burgergold@reddit

Eaton

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EVERGREEN619@reddit

My company is next door neighbors to Cyberpower. So I will try some of their equipment when I need to renew. Hopefully I can avoid shipping costs and just wheel over a dolly.

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Nero_XY@reddit

I have a small unit for my NAS at home, so far so good :)

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SpotlessCheetah@reddit

Vertiv all day. Take a look at the PSI5 line with lithium. Should be perfect for network racks. They are compact, light and well priced.

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catherder9000@reddit

I've been entirely happy with all our TrippLite UPSes (they were bought by Eaton) and honestly do not see a real difference between them and the more expensive Eaton versions for the 500-4500 range of things. Although, if your APC are dying due to bad batteries, that's just normal for every UPS out there -- a 3-4 battery swap cycle is to be expected.

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screampuff@reddit

Your networking racks should be using double conversion UPS, not line-interactive.

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sryan2k1@reddit

Always Eaton. The 9PX series is absolutely rock solid.

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jason_wallace@reddit

This \^

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CountGeoffrey@reddit

APC are great. You shouldn't have gone with lithium. You always need 2, with dual power supplies on the equipment.

That said, there are only 2 choices. Eaton or APC.

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Arudinne@reddit

We use Eaton. We've only had one die when it was less than 6 months old, but the Eaton rep I got when we called them had a replacement shipped out to us almost immediately.

I think we've got one unit that's nearing 10 years old and is on it's 3rd set of batteries.

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peraving@reddit

I’ve had good experiences with cyberpower UPS’

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Creative-Package6213@reddit (OP)

You know that is what we used to get previously and I'm wondering if we should go back to them.

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JLee50@reddit

I’ve had a Cyberpower die too, fwiw.

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Jaegermeiste@reddit

All UPS's die eventually, just like the battery in your car wears out eventually. Then you replace the battery/batteries and keep going...

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JLee50@reddit

I don’t think we’re talking about battery failure, though maybe I misinterpreted the OP. When my Cyberpower died it stopped passing power from the wall and took down the rack. I’ve had an APC do the same thing.

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DerpyNirvash@reddit

Which goes to say, all UPS's die eventually. APC, Cyberpower, Tripplite, ect, will have a failure that leaves the output dead. Though APC historically kills batteries faster due to their float voltage.

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DiggyTroll@reddit

Yep, once the controller fails, it's done

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xpkranger@reddit

Vertiv is pretty decent. Running about 80 of their smaller GXT 5k-10k units.

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Current_Anybody8325@reddit

We completely switched to Cyberpower for our main datacenter racks and for all our remote sites. Their support is not great, but the product has been FAR superior in quality to APC.

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Expensive_Plant_9530@reddit

We’ve been using Eaton for something like 5-6 years now.

We used to use APC but we’ve had too many QC issues.

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Soylent_gray@reddit

We had an office that kept killing UPS's. It turned out there was a power issue in the building that was constantly over voltage

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OG_Dadditor@reddit

Vertiv has been solid for us

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baw3000@reddit

I’ve had better luck with Eaton and Cyberpower

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illicITparameters@reddit

They're all the same for the first 5 years, but after that APC's quality and reliability falls off a cliff in my experience. I have an 8yr old Eaton UPS at home and all I've had to do was swap out the battery once.

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aguynamedbrand@reddit

We have deployed close to 50 APC 1500VA 3U Li-ion UPSes without any issue. We have had a couple die after over 6-7 years of use so that is to be expected. The APC Li-ion UPSes are some of my favorite UPSes to use for 2 post network racks.

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illicITparameters@reddit

Eaton or CyberPower.

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bingblangblong@reddit

Eaton

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Big_H77@reddit

Left the APC train 7 years ago... Eaton has been a great replacement.

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QuietGoliath@reddit

I've been using APC's for decades at this point, having 2 die in short order 'could' just be bad luck - did they fail in the same way? Have you had your source checked out?

Had something similar in a DC about a decade ago, turned out the 3 phase splitter from the diesel generator outback was faulty and that killed a couple of UPS's in short order. Unironically protected everything else downstream of them admittedly.

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Creative-Package6213@reddit (OP)

Yes and yes. It seems this model in particular has a habit of being shit.

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