UPS odor

[Bus Driver]

Just received my-ever first UPS unit on Friday. Bought from Amazon. This thing really stinks, smells a bit like cresols, the active ingredient in Lysol. Cresols are a type of phenolic. My hand has the odor briefly after I pickup the unit. Internet search shows numbers of odor complaints but not very many considering how many USP units must be in use.
The odor is not hydrogen sulfide. The unit is warm at one place, but not to the point of discomfort to the hand. The unit I have is rated 300 watts, but the largest load on it has been about 28 watts. And it stinks when powered up with no load placed on it for hours.
I moved it to the garage and plugged it in to see if the odor will subside over time. Thus far, this thing is intolerable inside the house.
Users of some units also complain of noise. My sense of smell is quite good, my hearing is poor.
I plan to use the unit in the room in which I sleep.
Have you had good experience with a specific unit? What brand and exact model?

[Joel]

I have 3 or 4 in my house. All are APC and I haven't had any problems with them. They also didn't smell. Not like you're describing at least. New plastic smell from being closed up. I bought mine at Circuit City, Staples, Best Buy... wherever is running a sale. When I priced them, you'd pay more in shipping from Amazon than Tax. I'm using them from Computers and TV/Video setups.

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE650G1&total_watts=200
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE750G&total_watts=200
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE550G&total_watts=200

Note: the model number coincides with the Volt-amps, not watts.

The newest one is at least 2 years old.

Good Luck!

[Barnyard]

A lot of units will put off a smell when first used. It will soon disappear. The building I manage has an area where the computer folks start up every new unit before it is distributed to someone out on the floor. This eliminates all the "something is burning" calls our maintenance unit used to get when someone had a new computer installed. At times there may be 20-30 units in that room getting "burned in". I don't really care to go in there when they are working.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Being a retired electronics technician I have heard that complaint before, but never to the extreme you describe it. It is most likely The new plastic (probably made in China), but is the possibility of coating burning off components. Many of the circuit boards are sealed to protect from moisture and humidity, and there may be some coating on a larger resister that is burning off. If it is just an odor type problem, it should go away in a day or two. If not I suggest taking it back. I have an old Newpoint brand UPS that is so old I am amazed the battery is still good, but it is.

[tmays]

Bus Driver I gotta tell you I read through your post and for the life of me could not figure out what the HECK you were talking about! I was completely and utterly lost. That is until I read Joel's, Barnyard's, and John's posts. I had no idea what UPS stood for

[Rudi]

Uninteruptable Power Supplies (UPS) come in so many different quality categories it is hard to find decent ones. I have only ever recommend APC UPS's to those whose puters I built/repaired/rebuilt/upgraded. Along with an APC Surge Arrest and the best Anti-Virus Maintenance Suites a UPS is a must especially for those who have small home-based businesses. I am beginning to believe that a properly sized UPS may be a serious backup for medical equipment such as a Concentrator (like I have for O2 at night), Insulin Pumps and the like. I would never recommend off-brands but Belkin has become a pretty good player in that market and one that I have recommended on occasion. I have at least a dozen APC SA's and am looking at getting a UPS unit for my server and concentrator.

Oh yeah, I have never noticed any of that new unit burn-off odour with the APC's so it has never been an issue.

[Mr E]

We use APC exclusively at work. I have never noticed a smell from the ones I install. I have pretty much everything from small units for individual PCs, to huge rack-mounted units for servers.

Maybe something is wrong with my smeller! Never had a user complain, either.

[Dennis]

Bus Driver I gotta tell you I read through your post and for the life of me could not figure out what the HECK you were talking about! I was completely and utterly lost. That is until I read Joel's, Barnyard's, and John's posts. I had no idea what UPS stood for

When I first read the subject line, I thought he was having problems with his delivery driver

Seriously though, I have used APC, Tripplite and Cyberpower and they have all been very good.

[beaconlight]

Yeah I got caught in the Brown truck thing for a minute too.

[tmays]

Bus Driver I gotta tell you I read through your post and for the life of me could not figure out what the HECK you were talking about! I was completely and utterly lost. That is until I read Joel's, Barnyard's, and John's posts. I had no idea what UPS stood for

When I first read the subject line, I thought he was having problems with his delivery driver

Seriously though, I have used APC, Tripplite and Cyberpower and they have all been very good.

Yeah I got caught in the Brown truck thing for a minute too.

Whew glad to know I wasn't the only one! For a minute I thought the driver was really stinking the joint up, but he got to talking about units and plugging them in and I was beginning to think...heck I don't know what I was beginning to think!

[Bus Driver]

This is the computer related forum, so I thought that UPS was OK.
I have no idea what the delivery drivers eat. They do not stay long when they are here.

[Bus Driver]

I now have a new UPS unit that had a slight odor for about half a day. I now must get very close to smell anything from it. No complaints from #1 wife.

[Joel]

glad to hear you got it sorted out!

[Bus Driver]

The latest UPS unit generates so little odor that no one notices except me and then it is so slight as to not matter.
As I anticipated, as soon as I got it, the power company has had no more 1 second outages. In fact, no outages at all. Sometimes they would have 3 per day and most of the time 1 per week.