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Power Sentry Emergency Battery Backup w/ AVR and Surge Protection
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HarveyH46 Offline
#21 Posted : Thursday, July 16, 2009 2:59:28 PM



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Glue didn't hold, snapped off before I got the cover all the way on. Used a different glue last night, and it held. Didn't plug it in, now I'm a little afraid... Were these on sale during July 4th? Hope the light show rarely happens...
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HarveyH46 Offline
#22 Posted : Sunday, July 19, 2009 1:07:03 PM



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Had little choice, my APC died, so hooked up the Power Sentry. No sparks or flames, seems to be working just fine. The APC battery measured around 13 volts, so not the expected problem. It's almost 20 years old, so time to retire it.

Since I was messing around with power cables, I did some re-routing, and pulled one of the two outlet Power Sentrys out of the mess. Only one outlet seemed to be working anyway. Took it a part, since it's a similar design. Might give some insight into the fire problem, and figured might get the other outlet working.

Pretty scary in there. The outlets are a simple bus, made of three thin strips of brass. The faulty outlet was simply just bent out too wide, and just squeezed them together with pliers. Same battery cover as the other, so if the glue doesn't hold... It's conceivable to get all 10 outlets hooked up, since the only thing lacking, is the holes for the plug, 5 need wires run to the buss plates. Don't figure to bother, but wouldn't be to hard to cut/drill the slots. All the circuitry is on the bottom half of the case, just below the outlets. Pretty much a lost cause for those with fire damage.

Don't think these are all bad. The biggest problem, and likely the source of the light show, is the thin brass used one the outlet buss, which bends easy, and doesn't spring back. Have to be careful and gentle plugging, and unplugging stuff. Not much isolation, wouldn't move the cords around, or place them where someone might trip over them.
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ceasar2k6 Offline
#23 Posted : Monday, July 20, 2009 2:31:47 AM


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HarveyH46 wrote:
Just got mine today. Will hook it up to the computer tomorrow. The latch portion of the battery cover was snapped off. Should have re-enforced it with metal, but just broke out one of 38 tubes of super-glue from Thing Fling, and patched it up. Will be surprised if it holds up, pretty heavy battery, and that's the only support. Will see I can do something to reduce the strain a little before putting it back together.

Like the 10 outlets, 5 will be plenty for my computer, and plenty of spares for stuff not needing protection. Should reduce the wire-web under my desk. Will also free up a squid...



HarveyH46 wrote:
Glue didn't hold, snapped off before I got the cover all the way on. Used a different glue last night, and it held. Didn't plug it in, now I'm a little afraid... Were these on sale during July 4th? Hope the light show rarely happens...



i got same issues as well...

it arrived yesterday and as soon it outta the box, the whole lower side(where the battery held) almost fell out...

i caught it and as i wondered how to snap it back into place, i realised that plastic holder was crushed.

as i took the unit a little, bunch of small plastic thingies came out of it (crushed holder).

i submitted the ticket, it's my first purchase here and i realise that these things happen, we'll see what happens...

p.s now thta i think of it, the original package was good, but they put it in a much larger box with no padding, so as it rolled on a fedex truck, it probably had a good chance to break...
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apeweek Offline
#24 Posted : Monday, July 20, 2009 12:38:11 PM


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ceasar2k6 wrote:

Glue didn't hold, snapped off before I got the cover all the way on. Used a different glue last night, and it held. Didn't plug it in, now I'm a little afraid... Were these on sale during July 4th? Hope the light show rarely happens...

i got same issues as well...

it arrived yesterday and as soon it outta the box, the whole lower side(where the battery held) almost fell out...



Yep, last one I got was cracked in a couple of spots, it started to fall apart when I removed it from the box. I used black electrical tape to hold mine together.
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ceasar2k6 Offline
#25 Posted : Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:36:23 AM


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I got my replacement today.

Prop to Fling for a 3 day turnaround.

This unit arrived in good order but now i realise the inherent issue with it. The door design is pure crap. Even now, being in working order, as soon as u place the unit, the battery is pushing on the door and it opens.

Nothing is holding battery securely in place and this is just waiting for an accident to happen.

I am gonna put 5 layers of duct tape on the outside part and let it sit that way

sigh, good product but someone failed the iditial R&D design phase. They ought to be taken outside and whipped (like in starship troopers)
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ceasar2k6 Offline
#26 Posted : Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:21:36 PM


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upen closer inspection, i realise my mistake. the first unit was just broken so i didnt even know what to look for.

this second unit, the base is good but as i did some closer inspection prior to putitng layers of duct tape on it, i see a place for little plastic tongue that ought to snap into main base and i noticed a button to release it.

well, the plastic tongue is completely broken off and i do not have 1 shread of plastic anywhere... so god knows where it is...

but, it's charging now, so we shall see what'll happen to it once it's charged i'll connect it to a computer and we'll go from there

did anyone had that tip broken off>?
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HarveyH46 Offline
#27 Posted : Thursday, July 23, 2009 3:00:58 PM



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That little tab was what was broken on mine. Used Gorilla super glue (second attempt, and very generous this time). Held up perfectly. A Popsicle stick is just right for a spacer to hold the tab in place...
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ceasar2k6 Offline
#28 Posted : Thursday, July 23, 2009 6:46:39 PM


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after ducttaping and charging it, it seems to work well.

only issue is, since we did so much to the unit, if it needs repair under warranty, will power sentry accept it?

sigh...
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HarveyH46 Offline
#29 Posted : Saturday, July 25, 2009 7:45:55 AM



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It would depend on the company, and since it's multi-national, wouldn't think so. Hope you didn't block the vents with tape. There shouldn't be any heat from the battery area, but under heavy load, or battery is discharged, the electronics side might get kind of hot. The monitoring software says mine has a 17% load, and the unit doesn't even feel warm. I do my own repairs most of the time any way, unless it doesn't work to begin with (well some stuff I get for cheap, and kind of intended to modify).

I've had mine going for a week now, thunderstorms almost daily, and some pretty hot days (high 90s), and works perfectly. These come up again, would consider another one. Takes the same space as the 2 outlet models (got 3 of them), and the AVR (automatic voltage regulation) works great in this area.
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Tracid Offline
#30 Posted : Thursday, August 20, 2009 3:13:16 AM


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Mine caught on fire, luckily I was there at the time since it was in my PC room while I was using my computer. Its past 30 days, do I take it up with thingfling or try the hell that is customer service from this company..
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apeweek Offline
#31 Posted : Thursday, August 20, 2009 11:22:51 AM


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Tracid wrote:
Mine caught on fire, luckily I was there at the time since it was in my PC room while I was using my computer. Its past 30 days, do I take it up with thingfling or try the hell that is customer service from this company..


This seems to be a real risk with these units (one of mine burned up, too.)

I discovered in the post-mortem that my unit had a completely dead battery - it was all the way down to about 4 volts in fact. I guessing that the battery charging circuit failed, and this set off a chain of events that finally led to a fire.

Before the incident, I noticed that it beeped at seemingly random times. This may be a warning sign.
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Tracid Offline
#32 Posted : Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:16:14 AM


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Mine didn't beep at all, it just croaked on me out of the blue. I've contacted their CS and Philips is handling it, they sent me a Home Theater resettable surge protector but no battery back up capability on it Sad oh well it was around the same price as this one so I accepted. Here is the product model Philip sent SPP7355WC/17. Guess I'll have to save a bit to get one of those tower UPS looking thing lol.
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