Guy in the imgur said that happened after overload error and this happened after he replaced battery, giving just the benefit of the doubt that overload might have damaged the unit already. Also if anyone planning to open, I would reach out supplier rather than breaking any possible warranty. But also home safety no joke, so there is that. I got 2 x 1300, I really liked , its been half year, only the having possibility of battery leak scared the .hit out of me because new units has new iron burn smell. It goes away after few weeks.
I have one of these. I have had it for years, and even swapped out the battery pack once. I have had no other issues with it.
After I read the Reddit post and watched the tear-down video, I disconnected and opened it up and found that not only did it have the yellow glue, but patches of it had turned brown and had what looked like drops on it in places.
Now I am looking for a replacement, but from the comments here it sounds like other manufacturers have the same issue.
Also have one. Also replaced the battery. The other thing I don't like about it is that the battery is lead-acid, which is extremely toxic and extremely heavy. But when I looked into that, I could not find any manufacturer that offered a consumer grade lithium-ion product.
I woke up one night to that horrible burning motherboard smell. Ran into the office and noticed it was the UPS. Somewhat freaked out (would have never expected that to go on me in this manner). I unplugged it ran downstairs and put it in the middle of the driveway. After watching it for about 10 minutes I went back to bed. Disposed of it two days later (after taking the battery out to eliminate a runaway effect.
I just got what I think is very poor response from CyberPower who tried to discredit the people posting the videos:
"Thank you for contacting CyberPower Technical Support.
We are aware of the video and we totally understand and appreciate that you brought it to our attention to confirm this.
The person who posted the video offered no evidences to support his claims in the video as he only used assumptions.
There were no presentation of test results or industry data provided to prove his claim. CyberPower products are UL listed for safety and the rubber glue we use is also UL listed. Finally, CyberPower has thoroughly tested the rubber glue we use, and our results are aligned with industry information meaning there is no danger of the UPS catching any unfortunate events or shorting out as a result of the glue. The results debunk the claims being made in the video.
I hope I have shed a light about this concern. Rest assured that all our products are safe.
Regards,
Technical Support
CyberPower Systems Inc."
This is a problem with almost all modern UPS's. I had some of the old APC's that had the aluminum case with the high quality circuit boards with adjustment pots. These units were purchased in the mid to late 90's and were rock solid, I finally retired the last one about two years ago because it ran out of adjustment on the pots.
I've have numerous later model UPS's made by APC that have gone up in smoke when they were needed most or just up and die for no good reason. The units I have now are supposed to let me know when the batteries need to be changed, but that feature is a total failure.
I had one pop on me during a power outage a few months ago. I was quite miffed. The only halfway decent looking UPSes have annoyingly loud fans on them. Still, the fans probably prevent the thermal issues.
When you say pop, what does that entail? Did it spark up and start a fire. Did it just smoke? I think that's an important distinction. Did it just stop working (as if lightning had ran in on it like you'd get on an unprotected device?) I don't care if the device fails at some point, I am much much more worried about it starting a fire.
This is a problem of supply chain quality control. Someone decides to save $1 a liter on potting compound and buys cheapest bathroom grade acetoxy stuff, or worse uses random glue from cheapest supplier available.
Please consider — not to preach :) — please consider recycling it rather than just dumping it. Shit from that battery will leech into the water supply for years. Most municipalities have some way to recycle batteries. Cyberpower has a page about it, too — https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/company/recycling.aspx
Would be nice to know what other people recommend for UPSs with sine-wave output.
Small APC units are pretty crappy by my own experience as well, especially if you go below 700VA.
I've used several 1000VA back-ups, smart-ups, and while the build quality is generally ok, the trip time for triggering and voltage upregulation was next to useless (passing >500ms). Many back-ups units tend to trigger the differential. The batteries you get from APC itself are just plainly overpriced.
I generally prefer to have many smaller upses nowdays, so I went with a few back-ups rs 500 and two cyberpower (cp900epfclcd).
Upregulation of the rs500 is a joke that you cannot rely on. The output quality is "passable" at best. It's also a pretty basic plastic case, pretty much like the cyberpower. When powered off, it keeps on flipping the main input relay every 10 seconds until it's fully disconnected from the mains.
On the other hand I didn't own cyberpower units for 10+ years like I did for APC, so I cannot truly comment on that.
Can somebody recommend alternatives that truly perform their duty?
I have similar Cyberpower UPS' and started doing research finding a good alternative. I thought since I got it from Costco I was getting a decently quality item but searching on Amazon and their sponsored ads made me realize I made a mistake buying it. I'm always leery when a product is "sponsored" on Amazon.
Looking through reddit and other forums, seems like APC Prosumer highend versions are okay (so not all APCs) and Eaton/TrippLite UPS'. Some say Tripp Lite isn't as good.
I just went to CDW and bought x2 Eaton 5SC model that is sine-wave. They are much more expensive, 1500VA was $420 vs the CyberPower I got for about $180. Eaton has cheaper versions but I dont see sine-wave as a feature so I assume it might be more simulated sine.
Back when I was the Testbed Manager for the Defense Systems Information Agency DISANet LAN, one of the things we were going to be doing was deploying over 50 servers in different data centers around the world, some of which would be in classified environments. We needed some reliable UPSes for some of those environments, because not all of the data centers had reliable power.
We looked at several brands, and one of them was APC. We bought them from the various vendors, instead of having them sent to us by their sales people, so that we would have a more representative idea of what it would be like to actually own a fleet of these things. One thing that impressed me about APC was that they seemed to be smaller but more ruggedly built than any of the others we were looking at. Unfortunately, when I plugged that unit in, it sounded like a chainsaw.
So, I called up the company, and explained who I was and what we were doing. Not much reaction from the tech support person I was talking to. Then I told them what the problem was. They told me to ship it back to them (on our dime), and they'd look at it. I tried to explain again who I was and what we were doing, but they stayed on script.
Then I got a bright idea and told them to wait while I held out the phone to let them hear what it sounded like. As I was bringing the phone back to my ear, what I heard was "... pping out by Federal Express, next day air". Lo and behold, the replacement did actually arrive at the office next day, with instructions to mail back the failed unit at our leisure and all expenses paid by APC. And the replacement was quiet. We bought 50 of them -- one for each server. So far as I know, they never failed.
I've continued to be a loyal APC customer ever since 1993, and the one and only problem I've ever had with any of them over the decades has been that the batteries sometimes need to be replaced. But spares of those types are kept in stock by every Batteries Plus or Microcenter store that I've seen here in the US. Less than five minutes to replace them.
I do go for the SmartUPS line, over the BackUPS. And I buy units that I can guarantee will give me extended run times on 15amp circuits.
The APC higher end "Smart-UPS" models might still be good, I've used them for a couple of decades without these sorts of problems, current 750 kVA one bought in 2017, just had to replace the battery at its prompting only a month ago or so (that's normal).
I can also attest their consumer level including the "Back-UPS" models are subpar. Had one bought by a parent arc inside when I was trying to diagnose what was wrong with it.
A different less catastrophic problem with at least the CP1500PFCLCD is that if it detects a battery or charger fault, instead of continuing to run in bypass mode, it is designed to immediately cut all power to the load until it is power cycled. As far as I know, this behaviour is not documented anywhere, so you only get to find out when it is too late.
The first place I ever saw a CyberPower was years ago on an Amazon sale. I was not familiar with that brand and much more aware of Tripplite and APC gear. I assumed it was some sort of cheap knock off available from Amazon only.
I have no idea about this company, but they were definiately part of the collateral damage of me being highly suspect of any thing on Amazon that is from a brand name I am not personally familiar. I don't know if that says more about me, Amazon, or CyberPower.
I had to place my unit (CP1300EPFCLCD) in an empty room for 2 weeks to let it out-gass, the smell of plastic was unbarable and was not suitable for living conditions. I found others complain on the web just as well.
After two weeks I measured the amount of VOC in the room for a couple of hours and there was still some presence but nothing to worry about.
Yeah, I came across this when I was researching UPS models since I have a few I need to replace with sine wave units. Unfortunately the current generation of APC's consumer PFC UPSes also have a reputation for catching fire.
At least this is a cause I can pre-emptively fix ony own, I guess.
Solar "all-in-one" inverters are a good alternative to a UPS and fairly inexpensive. (~$400 for 1kw). Solar panels aren't required, just bring your own battery (lead acid or LiFePo)- you could even pull the batteries from your existing UPS.
Turn your setup into an in-line UPS. Have your equipment always running off of batteries, but keep them always charging. When your mains power dies the batteries will continue to discharge. There is no 'switch-over' time as the computer is always running off batteries.
I was just looking up UPS models, I have the CP1500AVR, is that effected? It looks like all the complaints are on the PFC. I was getting wary when I saw some Amazon reviews mentioning fires including the EC850LCD. I've also read fire stories from APC. The Amazon site has the APC Gaming UPS even having countless reviews about it popping, smoking, or catching fire. So, I don't know which company to trust.
I have also wondered how many reviews people are getting counterfiets. It's hard to tell anymore.
I have a CP1500AVR from 2013. I think it's had two battery replacements. Still going. I don't trust it to deal with aging batteries well. Just like my CP1000PFCLCD it tends to get very hot with aged batteries. My solution has been having them placed under my desk in a way that I can feel them with a bare foot. Excessive temps let me know it's time to replace. Usually 4-6 years in practice.
I just took apart my unit CP1300EPFCLCD and it indeed has the yellow silicone. There's also a lot of white silicone but only to keep wires in place.
My solution is to just inspect the unit every once a year to see if any yellow glue is turning brown just like in the video. Meh ...
Edit: A closer look showed that some parts of the glue already turned brown. It seems to be affected by heat because the parts that are brown are the parts making direct contact with the board/components.
Could this kind of issue be avoided, at home, by simply setting the connected device to shutdown on power interruption?
I have a UPS connected to a NAS and because it is non critical I shutdown after 1 minute of lost power, and I think it can turn back on automatically when power is restored. I only care about data integrity, not uptime.
I think UL cert is pretty much pay to play these days, could be wrong but you know - you pay for a cert for something then you can put the logo just about anywhere.
For what it's worth, the CP1350PFCLCD I had died a strange, non-charging death where it would take about two weeks for the battery to discharge and start screaming (while being plugged in). Serves me right for cheating on APC.
[+] [-] smcleod|3 years ago|reply
One guy got a video of his burning up on his Ring doorbell as he rushed it outside: https://i.imgur.com/EzalwYC.mp4
Tear down: https://youtu.be/9gqBzLNMFe4
I have contacted CyberPower for more information.
[+] [-] hrgiger|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eeiaeaa|3 years ago|reply
After I read the Reddit post and watched the tear-down video, I disconnected and opened it up and found that not only did it have the yellow glue, but patches of it had turned brown and had what looked like drops on it in places.
Now I am looking for a replacement, but from the comments here it sounds like other manufacturers have the same issue.
[+] [-] nwah1|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] suifbwish|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MR4D|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pr0ject217|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smcleod|3 years ago|reply
"Thank you for contacting CyberPower Technical Support.
We are aware of the video and we totally understand and appreciate that you brought it to our attention to confirm this.
The person who posted the video offered no evidences to support his claims in the video as he only used assumptions.
There were no presentation of test results or industry data provided to prove his claim. CyberPower products are UL listed for safety and the rubber glue we use is also UL listed. Finally, CyberPower has thoroughly tested the rubber glue we use, and our results are aligned with industry information meaning there is no danger of the UPS catching any unfortunate events or shorting out as a result of the glue. The results debunk the claims being made in the video.
I hope I have shed a light about this concern. Rest assured that all our products are safe.
Regards, Technical Support CyberPower Systems Inc."
[+] [-] jtokoph|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] natvert|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ratsmack|3 years ago|reply
I've have numerous later model UPS's made by APC that have gone up in smoke when they were needed most or just up and die for no good reason. The units I have now are supposed to let me know when the batteries need to be changed, but that feature is a total failure.
In summary, all modern UPS's are junk.
[+] [-] physhster|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willis936|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] partiallypro|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smcleod|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] watersb|3 years ago|reply
A forum member on that RedFlagDeals.com post says that they've seen the same epoxy compound on various electronic items from 1970s, 80s, 90s.
[+] [-] rasz|3 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTV_silicone
https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1974040.pdf
[+] [-] avidphantasm|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sonofhans|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nwah1|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wakeupcall|3 years ago|reply
Small APC units are pretty crappy by my own experience as well, especially if you go below 700VA.
I've used several 1000VA back-ups, smart-ups, and while the build quality is generally ok, the trip time for triggering and voltage upregulation was next to useless (passing >500ms). Many back-ups units tend to trigger the differential. The batteries you get from APC itself are just plainly overpriced.
I generally prefer to have many smaller upses nowdays, so I went with a few back-ups rs 500 and two cyberpower (cp900epfclcd).
Upregulation of the rs500 is a joke that you cannot rely on. The output quality is "passable" at best. It's also a pretty basic plastic case, pretty much like the cyberpower. When powered off, it keeps on flipping the main input relay every 10 seconds until it's fully disconnected from the mains.
On the other hand I didn't own cyberpower units for 10+ years like I did for APC, so I cannot truly comment on that.
Can somebody recommend alternatives that truly perform their duty?
[+] [-] vanc_cefepime|3 years ago|reply
Looking through reddit and other forums, seems like APC Prosumer highend versions are okay (so not all APCs) and Eaton/TrippLite UPS'. Some say Tripp Lite isn't as good.
I just went to CDW and bought x2 Eaton 5SC model that is sine-wave. They are much more expensive, 1500VA was $420 vs the CyberPower I got for about $180. Eaton has cheaper versions but I dont see sine-wave as a feature so I assume it might be more simulated sine.
[+] [-] bradknowles|3 years ago|reply
We looked at several brands, and one of them was APC. We bought them from the various vendors, instead of having them sent to us by their sales people, so that we would have a more representative idea of what it would be like to actually own a fleet of these things. One thing that impressed me about APC was that they seemed to be smaller but more ruggedly built than any of the others we were looking at. Unfortunately, when I plugged that unit in, it sounded like a chainsaw.
So, I called up the company, and explained who I was and what we were doing. Not much reaction from the tech support person I was talking to. Then I told them what the problem was. They told me to ship it back to them (on our dime), and they'd look at it. I tried to explain again who I was and what we were doing, but they stayed on script.
Then I got a bright idea and told them to wait while I held out the phone to let them hear what it sounded like. As I was bringing the phone back to my ear, what I heard was "... pping out by Federal Express, next day air". Lo and behold, the replacement did actually arrive at the office next day, with instructions to mail back the failed unit at our leisure and all expenses paid by APC. And the replacement was quiet. We bought 50 of them -- one for each server. So far as I know, they never failed.
I've continued to be a loyal APC customer ever since 1993, and the one and only problem I've ever had with any of them over the decades has been that the batteries sometimes need to be replaced. But spares of those types are kept in stock by every Batteries Plus or Microcenter store that I've seen here in the US. Less than five minutes to replace them.
I do go for the SmartUPS line, over the BackUPS. And I buy units that I can guarantee will give me extended run times on 15amp circuits.
Worth every penny.
[+] [-] Throwawayaerlei|3 years ago|reply
I can also attest their consumer level including the "Back-UPS" models are subpar. Had one bought by a parent arc inside when I was trying to diagnose what was wrong with it.
[+] [-] csnover|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dylan604|3 years ago|reply
I have no idea about this company, but they were definiately part of the collateral damage of me being highly suspect of any thing on Amazon that is from a brand name I am not personally familiar. I don't know if that says more about me, Amazon, or CyberPower.
[+] [-] kube-system|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] revanx_|3 years ago|reply
After two weeks I measured the amount of VOC in the room for a couple of hours and there was still some presence but nothing to worry about.
Overall the unit works as intended ...
[+] [-] zargon|3 years ago|reply
At least this is a cause I can pre-emptively fix ony own, I guess.
[+] [-] turtlebits|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teruakohatu|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JamesSwift|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tguvot|3 years ago|reply
step 1: exploratory surgery of UPS
step 2: finally install new smoke detectors
The real bummer it's that I got 20kw of batteries a few months ago but they don't kick in quick enough compared to ups, so need keep on using ups
[+] [-] UI_at_80x24|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] partiallypro|3 years ago|reply
I have also wondered how many reviews people are getting counterfiets. It's hard to tell anymore.
[+] [-] epakai|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fletchowns|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silverhydradev|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] revanx_|3 years ago|reply
My solution is to just inspect the unit every once a year to see if any yellow glue is turning brown just like in the video. Meh ...
Edit: A closer look showed that some parts of the glue already turned brown. It seems to be affected by heat because the parts that are brown are the parts making direct contact with the board/components.
[+] [-] teruakohatu|3 years ago|reply
I have a UPS connected to a NAS and because it is non critical I shutdown after 1 minute of lost power, and I think it can turn back on automatically when power is restored. I only care about data integrity, not uptime.
[+] [-] aaron_m04|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smcleod|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pxmpxm|3 years ago|reply