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ranked #81,828 most helpful out of 571,544,897 reviews
★☆☆☆☆
Works For A Few Weeks, And Now It's Dead!
tl;dr: Failed after two weeks due to a non-battery issue. Customer support send me back to Amazon. Amazon shipped a new replacement, no return required. I bought this about 2 weeks ago, and it worked fine! It worked perfectly, keeping my PC and monitors on while there was a brief power outage (before the campus backup generators kicked on). However this morning, I was startled awake by this buzzing sound. For a second, I thought that the power went out for some reason again, but I didn't hear our backup generators on, and I noticed my alarm clock and electric heater in my room still worked. Upon further inspection, I saw that my router and PC (that were connected to the battery side of the UPS) were off! As I looked at the display, it said that there was a low supply voltage (~96 volts), and that the Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) was turned on. I was really confused, until the UPS emitted a solid tone alerting that the battery was at a critically low voltage, and then quickly shut off. I unplugged everything from the UPS, plugged it straight into an available power strip, and turned on my PC to see if the PowerPanel software that the UPS came with could help me understand what was happening more. Upon inspection, I was able to confirm that the UPS was detecting massive voltage swings from ~96 volts to ~115 volts (of course before the unit auto shut off again due to low battery voltage). I am an Computer Engineer, and I love tinkering with electronics, so I pulled out my multimeter and tested the batter inside the UPS. The battery was definitely low at around 8 volts (it was a 12 volt battery). I also tested my power outlets to see if there was really a crazy power fluctuation, and I didn't detect anything wrong (the supply voltage from an adjacent outlet was ~115 volts). In conclusion, I realized that the UPS had failed somehow. I called CyberPower customer support, and after giving them some information about the device and the problem, they told me to talk to the original reseller for a replacement (some bad customer support if I do say myself). Luckily, Amazon saved the day with their amazing customer support, and promptly shipped me a replacement for free without even having to return this defective unit (maybe I can still use the battery for something). I'll give CyberPower another try, but if this new unit fails on me again, I'm taking my business elsewhere.
February 2015 · Electronics · verified purchase
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