UPS: APC vs Dynamix

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boland

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#260146 12-Nov-2019 21:52

Looking to buy a new UPS. Not good experience with Eaton.

This Dynamix has very good reviews, but I haven't heard of that brand before. Thinking to buy this APC instead. I don't need much battery capacity, and budget is up to $200.

Any thoughts?

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#2352557 12-Nov-2019 22:21

I have always used and recommend APC.

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#2352558 12-Nov-2019 22:22

Both are good, APC is better.

chevrolux

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#2352566 12-Nov-2019 23:23

I'm surprised to see an APC that cheap!!

Dynamix are good as gold though. Just be prepared to swap the batteries in 2-3 years (only around $10/battery).

Personally, I would just buy the biggest (power and capacity wise) one I could afford at the time from any brand - assuming home use.

Tinkerisk

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#2352570 13-Nov-2019 05:17

boland: Not good experience with Eaton.

May I ask you to expand a little bit technically? Thanks!

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Dynamic

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#2352660 13-Nov-2019 09:19

Dynamix are cheap and cheerful but don't last and aren't flash at monitoring battery health. If you walk up to a 3 year old Dynamix and pull the mains power, I'd put money on power to your computer your computer dying within 30 seconds.

APC are one of the industry leaders. For important workloads, this should be your pick.

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richms

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#2352663 13-Nov-2019 09:39

Old APCs were terribly inefficient. I dont know if they have solved that in the new ones but I would see 20-30 watts more going in than leaving the UPS constantly. That adds up.

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#2352675 13-Nov-2019 10:19

I've used both extensively and the APC is in a different League from the Dynamix. Every Dynamix UPS Ive bought has failed far too soon for my liking. If its for home use and you have some physical flexibility I would recommend one of these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32856831739.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d5noGo2 and a car battery/ups battery of some sort. I've bought several of these and the bigger versions and they are a far superior option to a cheap UPS. You get hours of run time instead of minutes and have worked out to be far more reliable in my experience.

boland

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#2353081 14-Nov-2019 09:28

Dynamic:

Dynamix are cheap and cheerful but don't last and aren't flash at monitoring battery health. If you walk up to a 3 year old Dynamix and pull the mains power, I'd put money on power to your computer your computer dying within 30 seconds.

APC are one of the industry leaders. For important workloads, this should be your pick.

I ran into issues with my UPS connected to my NAS, it would say the power went out, but there was no outage. This caused my NAS to shut down after x minutes.

I emailed Eaton support. They replied once, after 1 week, saying that it's probably caused by power spikes. No solution. After emailing twice again, no reply.

For now I've fixed the issue to connect the UPS to my Linux server which gives me more flexibility. But if I need to buy a new one, won't buy Eaton again.

palmypete

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#2353090 14-Nov-2019 10:03

I have the models bigger brother running in my network cabinet (supports a router, switch and NAS). My only complaint is that it smells quite strongly of plastic. The new plastic smell just won't go away.

Other than that I can't fault it's performance.

Tinkerisk

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#2353613 15-Nov-2019 01:58

boland:

I ran into issues with my UPS connected to my NAS, it would say the power went out, but there was no outage. This caused my NAS to shut down after x minutes.

I emailed Eaton support. They replied once, after 1 week, saying that it's probably caused by power spikes. No solution. After emailing twice again, no reply.

For now I've fixed the issue to connect the UPS to my Linux server which gives me more flexibility. But if I need to buy a new one, won't buy Eaton again.

Depending of the model there are several options for sensitivity - i.e. you can increase the input voltage tolerance of the UPS not to switch over to battery supply.

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boland

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#2354321 15-Nov-2019 16:37

Tinkerisk:

boland:

I ran into issues with my UPS connected to my NAS, it would say the power went out, but there was no outage. This caused my NAS to shut down after x minutes.

I emailed Eaton support. They replied once, after 1 week, saying that it's probably caused by power spikes. No solution. After emailing twice again, no reply.

For now I've fixed the issue to connect the UPS to my Linux server which gives me more flexibility. But if I need to buy a new one, won't buy Eaton again.

Depending of the model there are several options for sensitivity - i.e. you can increase the input voltage tolerance of the UPS not to switch over to battery supply.

How can I find out about that?

Why didn't their support tell me that... :(

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Tinkerisk

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#2354323 15-Nov-2019 16:43

boland:

How can I find out about that?

Why didn't their support tell me that... :(

Maybe because you don't tell them what model you have like you don't tell here?

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#2354389 15-Nov-2019 17:58

Our APC unit does that occasionally. Says mains failed then 30 seconds later mains restored.

Happens maybe once or twice a month.

You really need the software on the PC/UPS set up so that it waits for minute or two before shutting down, and if power is restored, cancels shut-down.

Dynamic

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#2354391 15-Nov-2019 18:04

SomeoneSomewhere:

Our APC unit does that occasionally. Says mains failed then 30 seconds later mains restored.

Happens maybe once or twice a month.

You really need the software on the PC/UPS set up so that it waits for minute or two before shutting down, and if power is restored, cancels shut-down.

Is it the APC unit being picky about the input voltage and the mains supply drops below the 'expected' level for a short time? I've seen this a number of times where the UPS is configured to expect 240v but the mains supply is 230v and the UPS doesn't like the occasional drop below 225v. If you tell the UPS that 230v is the expected supply, an occasional drop to 225 doesn't trigger a warning.

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#2354493 15-Nov-2019 23:09

It's set for 230V and 'medium' input power sensitivity. Limits are shown as 180 & 266V. Last reason for transfer was 'input voltage out of range'.

It's on a dedicated-ish circuit with no other heavy loads and we don't have any high inrush loads, plus it doesn't happen at any consistent time. Could be tap changing on the power company side; I suppose it might be interesting to do some datalogging at some point...

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