Opinions on UPS brands

[Brijm]

After talking to APC, they recommended their SURTA1500XL which costs $760 and close to bumpless transfer time. After that the only burping was from our supervisors.

We've used the SURTA1500XL. I've never had one on an oscilloscope, but the are an active ups, and should be bumpless, as they are always running on the battery. It's probably harder on power supplies, but necessary to keepmthe plant running until e generator kicks on.

 

[Tom Jenkins]

I don't know if it has all the features you need, but inside control panels I've used the Sola DIN rail mounted UPS with good success. It has a much higher temp rating than a standard office UPS, and won't get knocked out onto the floor while your working on wiring!

 

[creativepaper]

We've used the SURTA1500XL. I've never had one on an oscilloscope, but the are an active ups, and should be bumpless, as they are always running on the battery. It's probably harder on power supplies, but necessary to keepmthe plant running until e generator kicks on.

I found the email that mentions this. It isn't a active UPS, but a double conversion unit. This was 4 years ago (Jun 2007)

Most likely, the PLC cannot handle the transfer time on the Smart-UPS. The Smart-UPS 1500 has a 4 to 6 millisecond transfer time. For a zero transfer time, you would need a UPS that is an online double conversion unit rather than a line interactive unit. In general, smaller UPS units are either standby or line interactive UPS units. Generally, online double conversion units are over 10 KVA, but we do now manufacture some smaller online double conversion units, but nothing below 1500 VA. The SURTA1500XL is the smallest unit we manufacture that is an online double conversion UPS. The SURTA1500XL would provide you with approximately one hour and 52 minutes of runtime at a load of 1 AMPS. You may view the technical specifications of the SURTA1500XL at the link below:
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=

 

[Mark Snodgrass]

Thanks for your input guys! I had never heard of Liebert before and wanted an unbiased thought on them before changing brands.

We had a problem with one of our PLCs (randomly dumping program) that we changed the processor and the power supply, then put a Office Depot bought APC on it, and haven't missed a beat since. Our General Manager now wants a UPS on all of our PLCs. I think we will go with Lieberts for the immediate future and see how they work out.

P.S. Yes, we know we have some serious power issues. Some are caused by the relative remoteness of our mill and the power companies refusal to upgrade their service lines. The problem with the particular PLC's power should be corrected as we are just starting a major upgrade of that entire buildings equipment and most of the motors and electronics are being replaced.

 

[keithkyll]

Oneac. Bad experience with APC.

 

[theDave2]

Use an on-line double conversion unit. I have used the "BEST" brand and think MGE owns them now.

While APC is popular, they didn't (last I checked) have many on-line units.