power outage despite ups

[samuel]

i have a Zircon Like 1000VA connected to my pc.
until today it always worked well.

today our village had a power outage and - to my big surprise - the UPS was dead right on the spot.
this is the 1st time to happen.
so i wonder what is the cause for this?

usually the UPS should bridge the power supply for min 15 minutes - so far it did exactly that.
but today - just dead right away.

after the outage i checked the UPS and saw this.
i'm afraid the battery has been killed by the outage.
any explanation from the tech gurus here?
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22-08-_2021_07-43-08.jpg (20.2 KiB) Viewed 2094 times

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[tamada]

You need to replace the battery making sure that you let the UPS charge the new battery fully before placing it online.

I have the same UPS that is now over a year old. I noted that on most of the evening low-voltage issues it performed as a UPS should and maintained output for long enough to shut stuff down. However, I did note that on several occasions when there was a sharp voltage transient, it would momentarily drop output with a click. Peripherals stayed on but the PC would shut off instantly. This depends on the response time of a low-power power supply such as a modem or printer versus the tighter input voltage tolerances of the higher powered switching power supplies in PC's and the like.

These UPS's aren't server-grade and use a relatively cheap gel-type battery costing between 600 and 800 baht on lazada or Amorn at Big C and a few other stores. My experience with these batteries is that they deteriorate quite quickly, losing capacity and are pretty much useless after around 14-16 months and sometimes even less. Another factor that shortens battery life is that these units are usually placed on the floor and having no inbuilt cooling, get quite hot. The minimal case venting gets easily blocked with dust bunnies and the like. This trapped heat causes the gel to dry out and the capacity to drop. I always put the UPS's up off the floor and in a location where there is some sort of air flow.

[samuel]

...

thank you for your explanation.
i was wondering why the UPS did not notify that the battery is low, e.g. via display or with a beep.
maybe more expensive brands do it but not this one?

[glalt]

I have a small UPS that died about the same way. It had a 5 AH very small battery. I ordered a 12 AH battery, drilled a hole in the side of the case, fished the wires out and connected that bigger battery. It is still working very well. My computer room is totally solar so I don't need it in here. I use it for my wife's TV in the living room. She gets irritated when the grid power blinks and the TV goes off.

[tamada]

...

thank you for your explanation.
i was wondering why the UPS did not notify that the battery is low, e.g. via display or with a beep.
maybe more expensive brands do it but not this one?

You are right that these home-use UPS's lack all the bells and whistles... and beeps! You posted a picture in your OP that looks like you have the monitoring software installed and I see that the bottom row of indicators including low battery are greyed out. I never bothered with installing the software and monitoring mine so not sure if that's default display or of something hasn't been enabled/selected or something else is wrong. Do the settings allow for setting up an audible warning for low battery other than the one when the mains goes low or off?

I have a small UPS that died about the same way. It had a 5 AH very small battery. I ordered a 12 AH battery, drilled a hole in the side of the case, fished the wires out and connected that bigger battery. It is still working very well. My computer room is totally solar so I don't need it in here. I use it for my wife's TV in the living room. She gets irritated when the grid power blinks and the TV goes off.

I have also done this with my Zircon UPS and have a couple of external batteries in parallel with the one inside. Since I run a shedload of peripherals in the office (including the ones they recommend NOT be protected), it gives me time to turn off what I really don't need first and have a more relaxed, sequential shut down, leaving the modem to last. The efficiency of these add-on external batteries is questionable though since most UPS's internal chargers are designed for the single, internal battery and may not be adequate to recharge 1 or 2 extra ones if they all gets drained to cut-off.

[glalt]

I had some concerns about the bigger battery. Since it sits outside of the UPS the terminals are open and easy to check with my multimeter. Even when is discharged to quite low voltage it charges back up fairly fast so no problems there. I think I could have added an even bigger AH battery.

As a side note, the unit beeps when the battery is low and shuts itself down when it gets too low.

[Bandung_Dero]

Had my 15yo UPS hooked up to a 12 volt car (maintenence free) battery for years after it's internal battery died. Last long power outage it kept my pc with 2 monitors up and running for 1 hour and 50 odd minutes.

[samuel]

i'm using the UPsmart Software here:
https://zircon.co.th/en/portfolio/zirco ... re_for_ups

as long as the battery is not empty it works well and shuts the pc down in case of power outage.
when bridging the outage the UPS beeps.
but not this time because battery was completely empty.
so i was wondering why the battery became empty.

i will replace it and have a regular look at it's capacity.

[tamada]

i'm using the UPsmart Software here:
https://zircon.co.th/en/portfolio/zirco ... re_for_ups

as long as the battery is not empty it works well and shuts the pc down in case of power outage.
when bridging the outage the UPS beeps.
but not this time because battery was completely empty.
so i was wondering why the battery became empty.

i will replace it and have a regular look at it's capacity.

How old is the UPS?

[samuel]

How old is the UPS?

ordered via Lazada 22 April 2020 at 1'650 THB

[tamada]

How old is the UPS?

ordered via Lazada 22 April 2020 at 1'650 THB

Probably around the same time I bought my one from that office supplier beside Tops. If you go ahead and DIY battery replacement, see if the original battery has a manufacturers date stamp on it. It's still at least 16 months old so maybe it was due for replacement anyway? Also, make a note of the date you replace the battery and see if you get the same or better life out of the new one.

[Bandung_Dero]

ordered via Lazada 22 April 2020 at 1'650 THB

If you only payed 1650 Baht for a UPS you've got exactly what it is. A decent battery alone is worth more than that!