Had to pick between a refurbished and a new UPS for a client's server room

Went with the refurbished $150 APC unit to save them money, but after 3 months the battery started swelling and nearly took out a whole rack of gear. Ended up costing double in emergency replacement fees. Anyone ever had a refurb UPS fail on them like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

williamhenderson16d ago

Whoa, that's rough! In my experience refurbished batteries are a total crapshoot, I've seen them go bad way faster than new ones even if the unit itself is fine.

emmaking16d ago

Whoa, that’s a scary close call. I actually read a thread on a tech forum a while back where a guy who repairs these things said refurbished batteries are the main risk, not the unit itself. He said the cells can degrade even if the UPS looks perfect, and swelling is way more common after they’ve been sitting around for years. Sounds like that’s exactly what happened here. Did you check the manufacture date on the battery before you installed it?

wells.christopher16d ago

I saw a post from a fire safety guy once who said those refurb batteries are basically ticking time bombs. Said the internal separators dry out over time and that's what causes the shorts. Always sketchy.

marybutler16d ago

That swelling is terrifying, and @williamhenderson is right about refurb batteries being a total gamble.