A number of experiences have lately emerged a couple of potential hearth hazard with two CyberPower UPSes (uninterruptible energy provides). Sizzling on the heels of our current information protection, a CyberPower UPS proprietor named Mit, who lives in Maryland, reached out to Tom’s {Hardware} to share an identical expertise he encountered together with his unit simply final week.
Mit mentioned that he had been utilizing his CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD usually with out difficulty since he purchased it in 2017. Nonetheless, apparently, on July sixth, he misplaced energy for quarter-hour and the unit turned off as an alternative of working. When the facility got here again on, the machine started making popping and crackling noises whereas smoke billowed out. He writes:
“At round ~6:15PM Japanese Time on 7/6/2022, the facility goes out. The unit turns off instantly as an alternative of staying on as you’d count on a UPS to do for a bit. At ~6:30PM, energy is restored. I examine the UPS, because it began making terrifying noises, to see smoke popping out and I pull the facility out of the wall together with all the things plugged in. I seize a fireplace extinguisher simply in case. The unit continues to be smoking presently however not violently, I take it and place it exterior as a result of fumes and name CyberPower.”
Mit despatched us a slew of images of his fried CP1500AVRLCD UPS and has additionally shared a video of smoke nonetheless coming from the unit’s vents. He instructed us that the UPS had been linked to a low-powered PC (100W beneath full load), a Netgear GS108E Ethernet swap, a Fios Quantum Gateway router, a Philips Hue Bridge and an Arlo Sensible Hub. He famous that, throughout its four-year lifespan, the CP1500AVRLCD had efficiently stayed on via a number of energy outages of 25 to 35 minutes.
Sadly, complaints about smoking CyberPower UPSes return loads farther than the video we reported on earlier this week. We checked Amazon’s person critiques of the CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD and counted 47 critiques (opens in new tab) the place customers complained of smoke and popping noises popping out of their items. The oldest of those complaints dates approach again to 2013 and the most recent ones have been from the previous yr. Nonetheless, the product has greater than 15,000 person scores with a median of 4.5 stars.
YouTuber Mark Furneaux posted a video in Might 2021 theorizing that the items are failing due to a yellow glue that “turns into conductive and corrosive” over time. However adhesive would not seem like implicated, not less than in Mit’s case.
Tom’s {Hardware} energy professional Aris Mpitziopoulos says he doubts that the glue is the wrongdoer in any failures as a result of it’s generally utilized in numerous energy provides and doesn’t trigger points. Mit’s images don’t even present any hint of yellow glue on the PCB in his unit.
After viewing Mit’s photos and studying his account, he notes that the facility cables for the principle transformer have melted on each side. Mpitziopoulos mentioned he thinks the UPS’s battery is the supply of the smoking and that both the battery pack itself went unhealthy, or the UPS despatched an excessive amount of charging voltage to it. Nonetheless, he couldn’t say for certain what’s inflicting the totally different failures with out doing a radical examination and testing of the failed items.
CyberPower additionally says that the glue is protected to make use of, writing in a press release that “we’ve completely examined the adhesives we use, and our outcomes are aligned with trade and UL requirements.”
In its assertion, which we printed in full in our earlier article, the corporate additionally says that it takes all such complaints critically and that it completely exams its merchandise earlier than sending them to market. The corporate mentioned it was conscious of the unique smoking UPS video we reported on earlier, however mentioned it had no file of that person opening a case with them.
As for Mit, he says he referred to as CyberPower as quickly as his machine began smoking and, although his machine was out of guarantee, the corporate provided to ship him a brand new one. Precisely why Mit’s UPS and the others have emitted smoke stays a thriller. The issue could possibly be unhealthy luck as elements put on out or it could possibly be proof of a defect.
