My UPS (APC) has faulty batteries (again). 3 years old, already fried. I don’t mind the poor capacity of the PbAc batteries but this life cycle is horrible (2-3y tops).

Can I replace them with equivalent LiFe batteries like the ones you find on Amazon and such with the same form factor?

Or are there LiFePo4 UPS available in Europe?

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    3·
    17 days ago

    My UPS (APC)

    https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/117oa9i/why_is_eaton_ups_so_much_more_expensive_than_apc/

    Why is Eaton UPS so much more expensive than APC and Cyberpower?

    In what ways is Eaton so much better that it can demand nearly 2x the price?

    UK person here, so not sure how it differs country to country, but every APC UPS we’ve had has excelled in utterly trashing the batteries. Where I have to change batteries in an APC every 18-24 months, an Eaton will go five or six years without killing them.

    There’s some further discussion talking about how the APC units hold the charge voltage at a high level, and the Eaton ones, once the batteries reach target voltage, bring it back down and only bring the charging voltage up occasionally for brief periods to maintain the charge in the battery.

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      2·
      17 days ago

      Why am I not surprised to hear APC is crap compared to Eaton?

      A little aside: Eaton does a whole slew of electrical products, including things as “simple” as circuit breakers to electrical assist for large trucks.

      Electrical is what they do.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1·
        17 days ago

        Why am I not surprised to hear APC is crap compared to Eaton?

        Keep in mind that this isn’t my personal experience talking here. I also don’t know if the user in question is correct, or if it might be specific to some portion of the respective brands — both make a wide range of UPSes, from inexpensive to pretty pricey. But I did remember reading that, and it did seem potentially germane to OPs problem, so…shrug

        Someone with a multitester or oscilloscope or something and some of those units could probably examine further, see what the actual behavior is for a given model.