UPS Electrical Failure - Teardown and Analysis!

#restoration #electronics #repair

[STRDVD]

Ok, that was shocking. APC went from a company I could trust to one I now cannot. That was quick. Thanks for the teardown lad. Great stuff!

[skyricq]

That's extremely unprofessional and dangerous for them to have done that, glad you caught it quickly. Also thanks for sharing with us.

[ronsingh]

Oh my, as the owner of an IT shop, this was a shock -- Our "meat n' potatoes" UPS is the APC BR1500MS2 1500VA unit. In the next 48 hours we are ripping apart the transformers of this unit and the equiv from CyberPower and Triplite. Whomever has copper windings on the xformers is the winner to me. Regardless, APC is OUT...this is unforgivable.
MASSIVE thanks to Mr. Carlson for bringing this issue to light.

[johnopalko]

APC devices were really top of the line and were extremely reliable, at least when they were made by American Power Conversion. In 2007, Schneider Electric acquired APC and the quality has gone steadily downhill ever since.

[sandy]

The QC/inspection printout on the side is pretty common with APC's consumer & smaller APCs. It's there to show that it's been through QC, and they've been sticking it to their hardware for a long time. We've stopped selling APCs altogether now. Their quality declined precipitously after Schneider Electric bought them out. And their inverter boards never seemed to do all that well down here in Florida anyway.

[VintageStuff]

This is the first time I've ever seen Aluminum wire used in a transformer! I noticed a very steep decline in the quality of APC units roughly 10 years ago despite their premium price. After I had a few fail only a couple years into service, I replaced every single APC UPS I had with units from Cyberpower and couldn't be happier.

[victorrodriguez-dicq]

i have like 6 ups, where i live the electricity is not reliable. My first 2 where apc and both failed after less than 2 years, after that i purchased cyberpower, i can say they are just way better, they have been with me for at least 7 years and i have just change the battery packs. Watching this video now tells me why the APC keep failing. great video man thank you for showing this

[martynrekowski]

Fun fact: the transformers in all of these consumer-grade units is almost always sized way too small to handle the sticker-rated loads. They depend on the pathetic drop-out of the weak lead-acid batteries they put in these units to be the weakest link in the chain, draining before the transformer can heat up enough to cook itself and start a fire. Wire any of these consumer-grade units up to a bigger battery or DC source at the same/correct voltage, put >60-70% of the rated sticker load on them and watch them go up in smoke & flames. No joke. Works every time.

[Debraj]

My father used to say: "During my days, things were made to last". How true he was.
In the name of "value engineering", core engineering takes a back seat.

[utubejeffo]

One has to wonder how many other little hidden shortcuts lurk in all the cheap garbage electronics we are surrounded with. Awful LED lamps and their power supplies come to mind. Good job, Mr. C! At first I wondered why you'd soil yourself on this junk, but it ended up being informative and ....revealing. Thanks!

[BitSmythe]

Right away, there’s *one of my favorite HeathKits* on the bench!

[adamwilkie]

Thanks for the autopsy of this UPS. I've had several of these same units fail along with the warranty replacements. Either firmware issues or seeing the outer case actually melting because the transformer overheated. Even with a small load! APC demands a premium price, but IMHO, their product is far from premium anymore.

[jeffm]

I just fixed an APC BX1000M where the copper was crimped to three aluminum windings with some type of solder as well. It was over 2k ohms resistance, I guess it oxidized. I pulled apart all the windings, crimped on ferrules to the winding and soldering it all back together. Now works like a charm again. It was throwing an F04 code, nothing else damaged expect the transformer.

[yourdiytechlife]

That’s sad. I used to use APC all the time for smaller data centers but it seems like they’ve really gone cheap. The silly thing is that if they had used the proper connection Im sure it would hav been just fine. That was such shoddy work, I hope you sent pics to APC just to document the hazard.

[davidfulginiti]

I’ve been dealing with APC and their total disregard for quality design for 20 years! Now throw away units!
Thanks for the vid.

[unmountablebootvolume]

The thing on the side is a factory testing protocol, and you get that with every APC UPS, or at least every half decent one. It is there to tell you the unit passed QC and works, so you can be (relatively) sure that it won't cause a power outage itself.

[MillersMotors]

Shocking.. I have one of these running the wood stove fan thanks for the heads up

[richardb]

I'm totally stunned that they use aluminium, horrible. I'm guessing for cost, weight and thermal properties during very short overloads, but if you're going to use it, then terminate it correctly lol.... I would be uncomfortable buying APC now, very sad. Great video as always

[mark-]

wow! I won't be using APC anymore. thanks for showing this .

[miketech]

When I was an IT manager, we used these specific devices. They have an absolutely ATROCIOUS failure rate… They fail in the most spectacular fashion also, usually with sparks and smoke (which made for some very interesting helpdesk tickets). I did autopsies on a few of them. Often it would be those voltage regulators (the ones attached to the 4 heat sinks) which would explode. I can’t emphasize this enough: AVOID THESE!