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Topic: Tripp-Lite Power Supply failures

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-18-2015 05:04 PM

Had a 1500RTXL2UA Smart On Line unit actually fail on me the other day. It would put out AC but would not charge the battery pack. Problem is NOT the battery pack. A call to Tripp Lite revealed the fact that they DO NOT repair ANY units that are out of warranty at all. I have not taken a look see at the unit yet to see if it is something obviously wrong.... I've had APC units blow internal solder in place fuses before and the fix was easy. But I was shocked to hear from Tripp-Lite that they ignore all dead out of warranty units. Anyone else getting this line of bull from them?

Mark

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 07-18-2015 05:44 PM

Mark- I've got a location with what sounds like the same problem.
AC out- - but won't charge battery. I haven't had the time to deal with it yet either, but I'd be
interested to find out what you come up with if you to looking at it before I do.
(and vice-versa)

The unit in question isn't that old, but I"m sure it's outta warranty

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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004

posted 07-18-2015 07:27 PM

In an online UPS (online - load always supplied from the inverter) the charger part is the simpler of the elements, has no black magic, and as such a local electronics whiz may well be able to fix it. The manufacturer may even supply schematics.

Having said that.... with an attitude like that I'd never recommend one of their products to anyone. There are other manufacturers who make decent kit and stand behind their products, the (much improved) APC and Liebert being just two that spring to mind.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 07-18-2015 07:49 PM

(delete. Looked up the cost.)

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-19-2015 12:49 AM

Having had near 100% failure on APC...I moved to Tripplite. I've had more SU (Smart Online, double conversion) failures than SMART (Line interactive but sine wave output). About the only place I still use the SU series are on NEC projectors (they are very touchy about power blips).

I know you can get extended warranties on many Tripplite products though we never have.

I negative trend I see with many manufacturers now is the "we don't fix em" attitude. In fact, where I've first have seen it in our industry are the DCinema projectors. Have a module fail...most won't fix them out of warranty...just by a new module. We've all seen that with the Enigma debacle until version 1.8 of the firmware came out. How many people bought a new Enigma due to a software problem? We have something like 3 or 4 Enigmas on the scrap heap now...one due to a projector that sat in storage for over a year. What would it take for TI to reload its certificate back in? How much time/effort would that be versus over $1000 module?

If you have the SNMPWEB card on any of your systems...the new software for that blows too. I've yet to find an UPS that I really like though Tripplite has come closest. Again, the SMART series seems to be more reliable than the Smart Online series. One thing Tripple spanks the others on is battery replacement. You'd have to try to take more than 5 minutes on the rack mounted products.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-19-2015 09:41 AM

Yes, I agree it's likely an easy fix. I just haven't looked at the unit as it's still on site. I was just perturbed at their "we don't fix out of warranty units" attitude. I also had a brand new one out of the box a few weeks ago that showed "fault". It was immediately returned to Tripp Lite on an RMA they issued, but they denied they ever got the unit. A quick UPS trace even showed who at Tripp Lite signed for it. Customer JUST got his replacement unit this past Monday. Seems like this company is going down the tubes fast.

Mark

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-19-2015 10:09 AM

Oh...one more thing we put into our systems...an automatic transfer switch...if a UPS dies, for any reason, we are back on city power as fast as a relay can switch. For whatever reason, that has scared the UPSes into working...none of those systems (majority) have ever had a UPS problem. It is like they know someone is watching them so they best not misbehave!

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