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UPS for NAS and router- recommended features and battery formulation (VLRA, LiFePO4, or Li-ion)

Background:

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I'm waiting for the last critical piece of a NAS from scratch to arrive. It was 11 days without the pre-owned part shipping and with no communication from the seller whatsoever, so I cancelled and ordered it new from Newegg since all the other parts except the HBA have arrived and the return window is ticking. I will avoid Mercari in the future due to the lack of any communication or support whatsoever when attempting to save $45 on a case that never even shipped. The new case is still half a week away, but its better than the LSI 9305 sourced from China via ebay that was 30% cheaper but had 1 month shipping.

In any case, pun intended, I was looking over the family's APC UPS and realized the lead acid (VLRA) battery hadn't been changed in 8 years, was rated too low to support more than the router and modem in any case, and figured I would upgrade it to something affordable that would do the job, ideally with minimal maintenance, i.e. no 3-5 year battery replacements as suggested with lead acid batteries, if avoidable. Plus there's also the headache that comes with disposing lead acid batteries at an approved disposal facility which involves 40 minutes round trip and a nominal fee. There's also a service that picks up e-waste including lead acid batteries for $45 plus the fee, but given the 3-5 year lifespan and poor Wh capacity of VLRA technology I figured there had to be better options and thought to ask you after doing some initial research.

Outline:

The goal of the UPS is to support a 14th gen i5 NAS with, after future expansions, up to 18 HDDs as well as a router and modem for a reasonable period, but preferably at least 10 minutes, and ideally communicate to the connected devices that it's in use and, when the battery runs low, trigger their safe shutdowns. Blackouts are rare, with usually no more than 1-2 short duration (<1h) ones per year on average as well as the occasional but uncommon brownout.

 

Options:

APC seems to be often recommended, but nearly all of their options involve VLRA batteries that deplete within minutes and take hours to charge back up. Their $180 option does have an ethernet port that can evidently connect to the router to deliver alerts and facilitate safe shutdowns, which is nice. APC also sells Li-ion UPS, primarily for rackmounts, starting at 2.5x as much as their VLRA options but last years longer, but official replacement batteries seem difficult to come by based on reviews. Moreover Li-ion seems like a potential modest hazard to keep next to a great number of electronics given their relative vulnerability to heat, although I'm sure it's still quite safe.

LiPO4 seem like a decent compromise, but the main option available on Amazon is only rated for <20ms switchover time while ATX only requires <17ms based on reddit. Moreover, their brand page had a few typographical errors and their UPS had no method of communicating to the server to trigger a safe shutdown either by ethernet, USB, wireless, etc.

One page describes using LiPO4 batteries as a drop-in replacement in an APC VLRA unit to improve capacity and reduce the periodic replacement burden. Others have talked about adding additional external batteries to a UPS for extended runtime via jury rigged cabling.

Finally, one option is to get a solar battery generator with a UPS setting. While it doesn't come with a method to trigger a safe shutdown, switchover is 10-30ms depending on brand and model with it rarely being prominently listed, the 1000Wh+ capacity of many of these in the $400 range makes it worth mentioning given that it could conceivably outlast a modest power outage.

 

Expert Opinions:

1. Would you recommend APC or another brand? Some people complained about Cyberpower UPS units. I am currently looking at a used APC BX1500M sold without a battery, but would welcome any alternatives.

2. Would you recommend using LiFePO4 UPS units or drop-in lead acid battery unit replacements for the extended lifespan and capacity over the industry standard VLRA? For the latter the BMS should smooth over any differences.

3. What brand, if any, of "solar generator" with a UPS mode would you be least uncomfortable with? The slow switchover time is a concern even if the capacity is nice.

4. What features should be looked for besides a connection to trigger safe shutdowns and restarts when power is restored and can you point to any recommended models that support such?

5. If using a solar generator is not recommended due to the slow switchover time is it worth connecting a UPS to the modem, router, and NAS and a decent battery capacity solar generator to the UPS in a seemingly overcomplicated setup?

 

Thank you very much! I know I can't be the first to think of all these questions, but I've only found partial answers in my search online including individuals saying they'd try a brand of solar generator with UPS and never posting in the thread again with the outcome of any tests, with one exception of Bluetti that one individual  on Reddit said he had trouble with.

 

 

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47 minutes ago, Strategist1 said:

 

1. Would you recommend APC or another brand? Some people complained about Cyberpower UPS units. I am currently looking at a used APC BX1500M sold without a battery, but would welcome any alternatives.

i always buy APC because i know they're good enough, they are available locally for me, i know how to replace the batteries (being quite a hassle, unfortunately), and i've had no reason to look elsewhere.

 

49 minutes ago, Strategist1 said:

2. Would you recommend using LiFePO4 UPS units or drop-in lead acid battery unit replacements for the extended lifespan and capacity over the industry standard VLRA? For the latter the BMS should smooth over any differences.

if you already have the lead unit, get a lifepo drop in replacement. they're not even *that* expensive, surprisingly.

 

49 minutes ago, Strategist1 said:

3. What brand, if any, of "solar generator" with a UPS mode would you be least uncomfortable with? The slow switchover time is a concern even if the capacity is nice.

if your stuff is critical enough that you cant just "have a jackery on the shelf just in case" and a trigger for the NAS to shut down on mains drop and boot back up on power restored.. look into something more "whole house", because you're not gonna find a decent solution made out of IT infrastructure lego.

 

54 minutes ago, Strategist1 said:

4. What features should be looked for besides a connection to trigger safe shutdowns and restarts when power is restored and can you point to any recommended models that support such?

the features you feel like you need?

56 minutes ago, Strategist1 said:

5. If using a solar generator is not recommended due to the slow switchover time is it worth connecting a UPS to the modem, router, and NAS and a decent battery capacity solar generator to the UPS in a seemingly overcomplicated setup?

if you have a whole house setup that can switch over to battery in case of an outage, but it switches over too slow for some devices.. just get those devices a faster UPS to bridge the gap?

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On 1/22/2025 at 4:13 PM, manikyath said:

lifepo drop in replacemen

Do you have a particular recommendation? Some of the ones I looked at did not list dimensions so knowing if it would fit is a small gamble, along with the potential robustness of any given brand's Battery Management Solution.

 

On 1/22/2025 at 4:13 PM, manikyath said:

whole house setup that can switch over to battery in case of an outage

I do wish that was in the budget; I was looking at a middle ground solution that would cover important equipment for the likely duration of the rare outage. I'll likely just buy a APC UPS used as those are frequently sold without batteries and try to find a compatible LiFePO4 battery from a brand that seems somewhat reputable. Is a model with an emulated sine wave good enough or is there a substantive benefit to a pure sine wave UPS for computer and server purposes and is there a specific model that supports in the ballpark of 700-1000W that you would recommend I look for or is there no harm in the cheaper non-pure sine wave for routers, NASs and the like? Please let me know if there's any concerns to watch out for.

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On 1/22/2025 at 4:13 PM, manikyath said:

get a lifepo drop in replacement. they're not even *that* expensive,

I went ahead and took your suggestion. It ended up being $60 for a used APC with a dead battery from Facebook Marketplace, plus only $63 for 2x LiFePo4 batteries from Amazon from a brand offering a sale. I couldn't find their maximum rate of discharge listed anywhere, but based on what some said the worst case scenario would be the BMS triggering and possibly requiring a reset via a dedicated LiFePo4 charger rather than any lithium fire risk. Thanks again for clearing my remaining doubts about switching battery types, especially since the price was less than $8 more than two offbrand lead acid batteries that would only last 3 years instead of the 10 expected of LiFePo4.

 

I've attached some pictures of the battery switchover process to help others that may find this thread and help reassure them that it works as seamlessly as recommended to me. Thanks again! 

 

 

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