Power Conversion
Published 19 years, 6 months pastWhile I was in Japan, my old APC BF 250 UPS up and died. I’m not sure if I unplugged it without turning it off and thus killed the battery, or what exactly, but the end result is that it was dead dead dead.
Once I got back, I checked around to find out what I might do for a replacement. Over at the APC site, I discovered that they sell replacement batteries and charge kits, even for old units like mine, but both options are more expensive than a brand new unit. Even better, they have a trade-in program. You tell them what unit you have, and then you get up to a certain number of volt-amps in replacements. Seriously. You can pick multiple low volt-amp units, or one higher-rated unit. Or maybe one higher and one low. Whatever works for you, apparently.
So in my case, I traded in a 250vA unit for a 500vA unit, and got 10% off the replacement. And here’s the best part: part of the trade-in process is that you can send in the old unit for free. They generate a shipping label for you to print, and once the new unit arrives, you send them the old one. The disposal of the lead battery is thus their problem, not yours.
If you have an APC unit you’re thinking about replacing, I’d definitely recommend the trade-in program. You’ll pay more than you would at some on-line stores, perhaps, but what you’ll save in having them take the old unit off your hands more than makes up for it, if you ask me.
Comments (5)
I used APC’s trade-in program just last month after deciding my backup was bad. Aside from the fact that it had problems recognizing my very old model’s serial number, everything else worked without hitch and I was very happy to not have to worry about disposing of the battery myself and I have a more powerful system to handle the equipment I’ve collected since I got the first one.
Sending in your old unit for free in a nice offer, considering how much they can weigh and the cost of shipping these days.
I just traded in a quite elderly APC Smart-UPS for a new one and found it less expensive than buying one from any of the online sources I checked. At other times and for other potential trades I’ve found the opposite to be true, clearly a case of YMMV, but worth investigating in any case.
If I recall, the last time I ordered a replacement battery, it also came with a label to ship the dead battery back in the box. Definitely makes it worth ordering directly from APC.
APC does take care of the freight if your trading in the whole UPS. You can trade in any brand working or not and purchase double the VA of what your trading. You can trade in several smaller units for one larger unit. Here at Vision we send out UPS barcode labels to our customers for units under 150lbs, units over 150lbs we schedule a truck to come and pick them up. All the old units still go back to APC. No need to order directly from APC to take advantage of the TradeUPS program. Your VAR should know about this program. Actually freight on the new model should be cheaper going through a VAR they can shit it from local a local warehouse. I promote the TradeUPS program to my customers and process dozens of TradeUPS orders every day.
Send me a line if you have any questions.