Tower UPS with Network Alerting

[DalekSec]

Morning All,

 

I'm looking for a tower UPS to power our 3 remote sites, needs to have alerting when on battery.

 

I've had a dig around but most don't seem to have the alerting option, anyone know of a make model that does?

 

Thanks!

[Aprice]

APC SmartUPS would do the job, with a management card installed.

https://www.comms-express.com/products/apc-smt750ic-smart-ups-750va-lcd-230v-with-smartconnect/?_gl=1*8m2gpf*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4PqU253VjgMVLYdQBh1VownjEAQYBiABEgKpcPD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAD_eWHTyXyq-M10n2dwDHtkT9xYpY

https://www.comms-express.com/products/apc-ap9640-ups-network-management-card-3/?_gl=1*urijno*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4PqU253VjgMVLYdQBh1VownjEAQYBiABEgKpcPD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAD_eWHTyXyq-M10n2dwDHtkT9xYpY

 

That's a basic model, just size up if you need it, so long as it's got a slot for the management card you should be OK

 

The new ones have an Ethernet port for their cloud platform, wouldn't bother with that though, needs a subscription to be of any use. Just pop a management card in and setup email alerts.

 

[DalekSec]

Ah thank you, was looking into the cloud platform models didnt realise it was a sub!

[StephenPink]

Jumping on the back of this - I'm looking at a larger UPS, again tower as no rack space - however are APC still the go to/good value? Others I've heard mentioned but would appreciate feedback on are;
- Riello

- Dell (rebranded APC but seem slightly cheaper - and their versions include the NIC card, and the tower mounting stand, and the rack mount kit)
- Certa

 

Cheers

[Aprice]

Always found Riello to be very solid.

APC generally do the job, however have had several fail over the years, including my home one which started smoking. 

Eaton also generally seem pretty good.

 

 

[DalekSec]

I ended up going for the APC Smart UPS C1500, you get a free sub for 6 months but the sub isnt that expensive once you do have to pay for it. In testing does everything i need, plus event send Slack messages via webhook 

[CrootUK]

Support over 20 of the Eaton 5PX range, would reccomend. 

[MrEprise]

2 hours ago, CrootUK said:

Support over 20 of the Eaton 5PX range, would reccomend. 

 

When I was kitting out the IT for a local business I did voluntary support for, I got one of these when they moved from portakabins to a proper-built building. I liked that it also included the network management card (something APC often charges extra for) & a free screwdriver so you could put it all together with relative ease.

 

It was easy to set up and nice enough when it worked but unfortunately died towards the end of its first year of operation (charging fault). It's also a good lesson to have another one for redundancy, which I didn't have and caused a bit of controversy there as I couldn't drop what I was doing to go sort it all out

 

When I did get to troubleshooting it, Eaton's support was really good. They asked me to try a few things and pull off the logs to send to them, after which they decided to send me a whole new boxed unit complete with batteries, brackets, cables, screws, network management card and another screwdriver!

 

I fully expected them to send a courier to pick up the old unit but they didn't, so I've still got the old 5PX knocking around somewhere, complete with all its accessories. Not sure why I've still got it though I'm holding out hope it might be repairable.

 

EDIT: forgot to add that the replacement they sent worked fine and the above happened about 9 or 10 years ago so it's been going strong since!

Edited August 10, 2025 by MrEprise