MrLinux Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 (edited) Has anyone used a CyberPower 1500VA / 900Watts True Sine Wave Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with unRAID? Costco has this for $150 (sale) and wondering if it's plug-n-play like APC UPS's. I just bought a APC Back-UPS Pro 1000 VA UPS, 8-Outlets, Black (BX1000M-LM60) from Staples ($90) and thinking about upgrading to this one instead because it's (1) True Sine Wave, (2) has more power, and (3) Costo "warranty" if anything goes wrong with it. Model: CST1500S Link: https://www.costco.com/cyberpower-1500va--900watts-true-sine-wave-uninterruptible-power-supply-(ups).product.100527623.html Thanks Edited September 28, 2020 by MrLinux Quote Link to comment
cmarshall85 Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 I'm curious about this as well. Also, I've read a handful of people say that they prefer APC over CyberPower UPS's. A couple people said their CyberPower UPS caught fire or started smoking, but some of them sounded like negligence on their end (waiting too long to change battery, dust accumulation in the unit, etc.) Quote Link to comment
MrLinux Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 @cmarshall85 I just checked out some CyberPower reviews and yes, there are quite a bit of fire/smoke stories. Maybe I will just keep this APC. We don't have thunderstorms or high humidity here, in Southern California, which may cause a spike. Testing the APC by pulling the plug seems to keep it on power well enough for ~35min (according to the unit's display). Thanks for the heads up. Quote Link to comment
cmarshall85 Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 2 minutes ago, MrLinux said: @cmarshall85 I just checked out some CyberPower reviews and yes, there are quite a bit of fire/smoke stories. Maybe I will just keep this APC. We don't have thunderstorms or high humidity here, in Southern California, which may cause a spike. Testing the APC by pulling the plug seems to keep it on power well enough for ~35min (according to the unit's display). Thanks for the heads up. There's this sale going on right now as well. https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6335460&CatId=234 Quote Link to comment
MrLinux Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 Thanks for the link. I'll consider that one too. Not too sure how the return policy is with Tiger DIrect if anything goes wrong. Maybe Best Buy can PM them. Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 2 hours ago, MrLinux said: Testing the APC by pulling the plug Don't do that unless you have bonded the UPS ground to earth through some other means. Any current imbalance between the equipment powered by the UPS and other equipment still grounded will travel through whatever connections are still there, probably your network at the very least. Turn off the circuit at the breaker, or temporarily plug the UPS into a switched outlet or power strip, but don't just yank the plug out of the wall. 3 Quote Link to comment
DivideBy0 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 (edited) I have 2 of these CyberPower UPS's on both my unraid's and they work perfect, rock SOLID I even replaced batteries on one of them with after market and works perfect. Not sure where the horror stories come from? I do have a whole house surge protector and went through several surges and brown outs and all is SOLID on the computer side. I have all my computers and Unifi stuff going through these 2 UPS's Edited September 29, 2020 by johnwhicker 1 Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 2 minutes ago, johnwhicker said: Not sure where the horror stores from? People yanking the plug out of the wall to test them?🙂 Quote Link to comment
DivideBy0 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, jonathanm said: People yanking the plug out of the wall to test them?🙂 I call that silly You can at least do an orderly shutdown test, right ? Not just unplug from the grid and see what happens You know I made that mistake once, genuine mistake and both of my unraids went down, slam, cold The surprise was when they came back they both went through a parity check. OOPS. Never made that mistake again. I unplugged the wrong CABLES Such an idiot on my part. Edited September 29, 2020 by johnwhicker Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 25 minutes ago, johnwhicker said: I call that silly Well, I must admit I found out the hard way why you shouldn't do it, but yeah, pretty silly. That was 20+ years ago. At least the only thing I smoked was a power strip that was plugged into the UPS. Worst part, I have a degree in electronics engineering, and still yanked a UPS plug out. Electronics != Electrical, (generally low power vs. high power), but I still should have known better. I educated myself really quickly on floating grounds with line power circuits. For even more fun, throw a small generator into the mix. Having a single earth point with a continuous ground circuit makes all the difference. The little details really can kill you. Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 21 minutes ago, johnwhicker said: You can at least do an orderly shutdown test, right ? This is my method of UPS testing. https://forums.unraid.net/topic/85784-ups-issues/?do=findComment&comment=795247 1 Quote Link to comment
jmbailey2000 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 (edited) I've been using Cyberpower for years. Used APC for years too (and Tripplite). Now I have 2 Cyberpower 1500 Sine on my daily machine and a 1325 Sine I just put on my Unraid box. No issues. I was even able to get Telegraf/Grafana to see the UPS and provide info using the NUT docker. Never heard anything about them catching fire and mine don't seem to be running any warmer then any other UPS I've owned. Edited September 29, 2020 by jmbailey2000 1 Quote Link to comment
MrLinux Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 I've been using Cyberpower for years. Used APC for years too (and Tripplite). Now I have 2 Cyberpower 1500 Sine on my daily machine and a 1325 Sine I just put on my Unraid box. No issues. I was even able to get Telegraf/Grafana to see the UPS and provide info using the NUT docker. Never heard anything about them catching fire and mine don't seem to be running any warmer then any other UPS I've owned. Thanks for the info. Anyone know if there are there any best practices when it comes to placing a UPS like ventilation, having so many inches unobstructed, keep it away from _______?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment
DivideBy0 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 54 minutes ago, MrLinux said: Thanks for the info. Anyone know if there are there any best practices when it comes to placing a UPS like ventilation, having so many inches unobstructed, keep it away from _______? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Not following the question. Keep it away from what? I have 2 of them and they're next to each other about 2" in between them. Is that what you looking for? Quote Link to comment
MrLinux Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 1 hour ago, johnwhicker said: Not following the question. Keep it away from what? I have 2 of them and they're next to each other about 2" in between them. Is that what you looking for? Yeah, just trying to see if there's a rule of thumb about how much space should be provided around the unit and any maintenance care that would be needed. Take a desktop for example Keep it in an area that can have some airflow, not in an enclosed cabinet which can restrict air Give at least 2 inches around so fans can push air Keep it elevated off the carpet so the bottom vents can pull in air If it will be near the carpet, put it on a flat surface, not just raised, so it doesn't bring in dust Every few months, check the filters and clean out any dust and/or move it to a better location etc Are there any good rules of thumb when caring for a UPS?...other than not pulling it from the outlet Quote Link to comment
ChatNoir Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Most UPS do not have any active cooling and generally do not require any particular positionning except the obvious for any electronics (near water, a heater, etc.) 1 Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 1 hour ago, MrLinux said: Are there any good rules of thumb when caring for a UPS? It's likely to be one of the heaviest things in the area, so low is good. It also will require battery replacement every few years, so try not to bury it too deeply, or put it in a location that requires a huge amount of rearranging to access. It does create some heat, but as long as it's got a little air exposure it'll be fine. Try to manage it so the batteries are never depleted too far, or you will be replacing batteries sooner. As a rule of thumb, I like to attempt never to go below 50% charge, which means if things don't go as planned you have a healthy margin before things get bad. Keep in mind the recharge rate is likely around 10 or more to 1, meaning if you discharge for 5 minutes it's probably going to take close to an hour to fully recover. During discharge and recharge it will get significantly warmer. The long recharge is another reason to not deeply discharge, it would suck to go to all the trouble of setting up a good battery backup and have 2 back to back outages negate all your effort with a dirty shutdown. The batteries are SLA, sealed lead acid, so sort of like a car battery in some ways. 1 Quote Link to comment
SMR1952 Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 If ”plug and play" is a real thing, then this would be a good example. CST1500S is intuitive to integrate into your power management, it will likely replace an existing more basic power strip you already have in place... really, that easy. It is surprisingly heavy for such a small package (28lbs +/-). When in standby mode, it monitors and can stabilize your line power. When line power goes out of range, the batteries engage without hesitation or interruptions; mine maintains my modem, routers, and USB power for telephones, and tablets. This low power draw should should keep my wifi going for 100 plus minutes, if not longer. Very quite when operating with line power, quiet when working as back up. No evidence of any heat retention. "Plug and play"... read the short operating guide and don't overlook the equally short and well written descriptors of how to get available information from the LED display. I put my CST1500S next to my desk, accessible, but on the floor. I am going to make room for relocation onto my desk making both the LED display and front located USB ports more conveniently accessible. Hope this helps with evaluations. FYI, this is my first CyberPower product. Quote Link to comment
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