APC 2200 UPS – On it’s side?

Anyone know if it’s OK to lay “tower” UPSs on their side? I have an older ACP 2200 in my lab rack that was taking up too much space so I built a shelf and laid it on the bottom on its side.

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earweed

Check the manufacturers website or the users manual if you have one.
http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13

Plantwiz

pitviper wrote: »

Anyone know if it’s OK to lay “tower” UPSs on their side? I have an older ACP 2200 in my lab rack that was taking up too much space so I built a shelf and laid it on the bottom on its side.

As earweed stated contact the MFG.
or a Battery Store.

There are plenty of models to accomodate space issues, rack UPS etc.. that should fit most environments. Generally, no, it is not a good idea to leave batteries on their side for extended time.

Perhaps it is time to donate this one and find one to replace?
Do you need a 2200?? Is it for what you have plugged into it? OR do you need the run time?

DevilWAH

bad move!! they are lead acid battries so should be kept upright. the top of the electrodes need to stay out of the acid so laying them on side will cause issues. there is also the possibility of leaks. not good to leak acid!!! get a rack mounted ups if you want it to be slim and flat.

tiersten

DevilWAH wrote: »

bad move!! they are lead acid battries so should be kept upright. the top of the electrodes need to stay out of the acid so laying them on side will cause issues. there is also the possibility of leaks. not good to leak acid!!!.

No. There is more than just wet lead acid batteries. Small UPS units like the APC SmartUPS 2200 use SLA cells with a gel electrolyte and therefore can't spill or care about orientation.

Whether it matters when these are inside this particular UPS is another matter. The UPS may rely on convection to draw air through the unit for cooling which may not work well if it is on its side. As others have said, look at the manual and ask APC if it doesn't say.

pitviper

Nothing in the manual and on the APC forum they say that it’s OK to stand up the rack mount version since they use all sealed lead acid batteries. The only real concerns appear to be weight distribution (not made to support the weight on their side) and ventilation/cooling.

It’s big for what I need but it was free and the batteries are only a year old.

I think I’m going to stand it back up – either @ the bottom of the rack, or I might switch places with one of the tower servers (and lay it on its side).

Thanks guys!

BigBubba

tiersten wrote: »

No. There is more than just wet lead acid batteries. Small UPS units like the APC SmartUPS 2200 use SLA cells with a gel electrolyte and therefore can't spill or care about orientation.

Whether it matters when these are inside this particular UPS is another matter. The UPS may rely on convection to draw air through the unit for cooling which may not work well if it is on its side. As others have said, look at the manual and ask APC if it doesn't say.

Tiersten is 100% correct. The batteries are sealed lead acid batteries and will not spill whether you put them on the side or not. If you have proper ventilation there won't be a problem. We have 20 mobile carts with SMT2200 units on them laying sideways, and we have about 40 of the SU2200NET units. The units work perfectly and have never had any problems. On the older 2200's we've replaced the batteries several times, none of them have leaked or bloated. Proper ventilation is definitely important as the units get hot while on batteries. While idling and charging they don't really get warm but it's definitely an asset to have them properly ventilated.

DevilWAH

i did not suggest there are only wet battries, but even the sealed lead acid battries that use gel like the ones in ups do need to be the corret way up. looking the the battries inside my 2200 next to me, it clearly states the battery has a "top" and the packing case for a new ups has written in large writting "this way up" from this i would assume that they are intended to run upright. I bet you warrenty would be invalidated if APC found you where runnning them laying down.

tiersten

DevilWAH wrote: »

i did not suggest there are only wet battries, but even the sealed lead acid battries that use gel like the ones in ups do need to be the corret way up.

Yuasa Little Red Book of Batteries. Yuasa are a large manufacturer of lead acid batteries and they say that VRLA (SLA is an old acronym it appears) batteries don't care about orientation. VRLA batteries were designed to not spill, not care about orientation and not be open vented.

DevilWAH wrote: »

it clearly states the battery has a "top" and the packing case for a new ups has written in large writting "this way up" from this i would assume that they are intended to run upright.

Shipping instructions on the box don't imply anything. You may not want items to be crushed or rearranged by movement inside the box especially since a UPS unit is extremely heavy.