I used to have a APC UPS, it worked fine for quite a few years but suddenly stopped working. I heard good things about Eaton, and bought one, but it has been a disaster to be honest. I use it on a fileserver, and the capacity should be good, but when i tried the new one from Eaton it cut power during startup, and restarted the machine several times, maybe some peak power thing, but the APC what 650VA, and the new one is 850VA and the APC worked fine. For some reason it caused some data loss, which is certainly a big drawback when preventing data loss is the main reason for having it in the first place. I had a power failure, and the Eaton seems to have handled shutting down the machine, but after the failure it trips the circuit when it is plugged in. Does anyone have some other UPS to recommend? As of know the UPSes has caused more power outages than just not having one.
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What Eaton unit are you using?
I run hand full of Eaton 5P 750va in satellite network racks in the building. Those are good to 600w power delivery. No issues with them.
Put a meter like a Kill-a-Watt on that system and watch the power draw on start up. Might be worth hooking up another system to it as well and see if the problem persists. If it doesn’t act up on the 2nd system, might be an issue with the PSUs for the 1st system and what killed the APC.
I honestly got tired of APC/CyberPowr units either taking a complete shit (internal failures), or yeeting batteries every year or two.
I ended up building my own damn UPS, a few years ago.
https://xtremeownage.com/2021/06/12/portable-2-4kwh-power-supply-ups/
I have tested with up to a 1,500 watts constant load, and it was able to power a 1.5kw load for around an hour and a half.
It should be good for 20 years or so. Expensive, but, damn, peace of mind is nice. Under typical load, it can power my entire rack from around 4-6 hours depending on load…
You seem to have a sample size of one with Eaton. What did Eaton Technical Support have to say? The last time I called them they were very easy to work with and very helpful. If you bought a used Eaton, you probably got a bad unit.
It is new, but you might be right, I have just been unlucky.
The size of your power supply matters. My server only draws 200w under load yet has a 1400w power supply. My 700va, 450w UPS would trip on start up as the inrush for the server was too large. I upgraded to a 1500va, 1150w UPS and it’s been fine ever since. Both UPSs were Eaton 5SLCD models.
I am sure it does, but it is a bit weird that the old APC handled it fine (and to be honest, should the ups trip when the inrush current is to large when connected to power??
First part:. Different UPSs have different behavior. Some are more sensitive to disturbances, whether caused by line or load.
Second part, the UPS being connected to utility has no effect on the inrush to the server. It all depends on where in the AC sine wave the energy starts flowing. Ever plug something into an extension cord with a clear receptacle? Sometimes there is a sizable blue arc, sometimes small, sometimes none. All about where in the cycle the connection is made.
One thing that I have used is an inrush current limiter. It works, but there are few options on the market that are pre made and relatively affordable. An auto bypass relay that selects between UPS and outlet power also does wonders for maintaining power to your computer(s).