Topic: APC Back-UPS Safety Recall

[Dan Williams]

Hoping no one is offended that I am posting this here.
We have had 2 UPS (APC) burn up that I am aware of, one was the 700 NET, and the other was the 1000NET.
The recall does not apply to the models I had fry on me, but applies to the following:
http://www.apc.com/rely/index.cfm
Just a heads up:
Dan Williams

[Nathan Fowler]

Thanks Dan, this is good stuff to know.  I've had a few SmartUPS 1400's swell the battery so large that it's unremovable from the UPS without taking the UPS apart in th past.  The batteries always look like their ready to explode at any given instant.

I'm checking the URL now, hoping that SmartUPS are listed

[NickR]

I had a 1400 die such that it cooked its battery to the point of boiling the sulphuric acid - nearly gassed myself getting to it to disconnect it from the mains!

[Nathan Fowler]

I see that the 1400's are listed, but there has to be something defective with them....out of a crop of 12, we've had 8 of them destroy the batteries.

[Dan Williams]

I am considering changing brands, the more I look into this the more disapponted I am.
As I said, I have had two of them, to the point of a fire (split the batteries, and boiled acid all over everything) It looks like it is more of a problem than most think.
Any comments as to other brands, or am I jumping ship to quickly?
Dan

[Nathan Fowler]

Believe it or not, I've always considered APC to be the leader in UPS and power management, but I too have grown tired of defective products and poor software (APC Powerchute is absolute garbage).  I went into BestBuy looking for a consumer level UPS for my home system.  I ended up standing there for about 30 minutes as I compared the technical specifications of each product (APC, Belkin, CyberPower, NetUPS).  I wound up buying a Belkin UPS, based on specifications alone.  The UPS I purchased is VERY IMPRESSIVE.  It supports AVR and is highly configurable.  I've got a 21" Sony with a 300W power supply and a plethora of peripherials and am able to achive a runtime of +30 minutes.

I installed the Bulldog software (I thought, great, 'Bulldog', what a stupid name, this software will be garbage).  I was taken back by how configurable it was and how much information was displayed.  I can create charts, graphs, alerts, and I can watch the meters.  I can see incoming frequency, voltage, amperage, as well as the UPS state and battery state.  It's awesome, and I will probably never buy an APC product again.

The Belkin UPS has not yet disappointed me.  Amazling, it also provides RJ11/RJ45 Phone/Ethernet surge protection, something I was unable to find in the APC consumer line of products.  It comes with USB and/or Serial monitoring.

(Please excuse any spelling mistakes, my wrists are killing me)