Review and Usage: APC Smart-UPS 1500VA Lithium Ion UPS SMTL1500RM3UC
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- Опубліковано 26 січ 2025
- Curious about the SmartUPS SMTL1500RM3UC from APC? I sure was, so I purchased one to test out in our network racks. In this video I'll give it a quick runtime test and show you what it looks like and my thoughts using it after about a week.
The exact UPS is this one: amzn.to/3GFABXq
Thanks for this, I was looking on APC's site for the details of the battery, which they didn't say much. DIY power peeps are always on the hunt for new places to find lithium batteries that might still be in otherwise good condition. As you pointed out these are LifePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries, and based on the voltage at time 3:20 it looks like a 12 V back fully charged would be 14V. Based on the pack its clear its a 4S (series) set of LifePo4 batteries since each cell is 3.2V nominal (3.65V max high) (2.5V max low). We can also see the whole pack can only provide about 76wH. Which is hardly anything considering a single LifePo4 cell can reach numbers waaaaay higher than that. Since its converting to a pure sine 120 AC power source and all the other electronics needed to keep the unit running that will eat into the runtime. I don't know what these things cost but those lithium batteries are trash in terms of power output. To put it into perspective I just got my hands on some brand new unused batteries from a hybrid car company. 4 of them can provide 20% of power to my home for a day. For less than $600.
I love the Lazy Susan for equipment testing, that's smart
thank you so much for this in-depth review!
I am currently researching the replacement of an SMT1500 (LCD) with one of the Lithium-Ion Units (the 3kVA version) and am quite concerned about the noise (this will be at 400W-500W load ) and I hope the 3kVA unit would be quiet enough for a living room.
Thank you for sharing the 'noise' details, this is very helpful.
You are welcome!
@@tciproductions Thank you! I have set my sights on the SMTL3000RMI2UC and I hope it can be as quiet as your unit (or that the fans can be modded with Noctuas). :)
@@vincentcojot6578 Exactly my point as well. THis was a very important topic for me as well. I run my 19" rack in my garage, but I wanted to know about the noise levels. The data sheet only mentioned
Anyone know of a place that sells the back-up batteries?
Thank you for reviewing this!!
What's the model # in of the battery? I tried to screenshot and read but it's just not quite good enough quality
I looked at my hi-res original shots, and I believe the model is LI1206-01. However, I know of no way to purchase one without going directly to APC via their support line. Nothing online is available.
@@tciproductions Thank you!
What is the part number for the battery pack you pulled out? APC don't have a replacement battery pack listed on their site.
At the time that I looked at this, a person was forced to call APC support and purchase one direct. It may be different at a later time but it appears not to be available any other way.
I wish they sold retrofit kits for the old models. And a firmware update is all it would need
Your "350w server and 2 Cisco switches" only drew 114w when on battery. Was the 18-minute runtime at only 114w, or was that some editing? The video made it seem like a ~400watt load would run for 18 minutes.
18 mins was at 114w. At 100% load you'd get at best 5 minutes, and likely a sudden power off near the last 10-15% of charge. It would be very unwise to run a UPS at 100% load. Even though this looks fancy, its runtime is no different than a store bought BackUPS 1500va, don't look at this like an upgrade of runtime, it won't perform that way.
I heard APC have received pretty bad
press lately due to their poor internal quality with regards to transformers etc being a fire risk. I’d be curious to know if these Lithium Ion models are any different given the much higher price, or if they are plagued by the same issues as their lead-acid brothers.
This one is a big step up from the ones they sell for small business networks, but I couldn't say honestly. I have several deployed mostly out of curiosity (lifespan, maintenance issues, performance), if any fail or fry you can be sure I will document in a follow-up. However thus far since I posted this all have been running solidly.
They are expensive because apc holding a high margin on these as they won't get to sell as many battries with these.
With the older ones they would sell battery packs every 3-4 years. Many institutions have a requirement to use only oem replacement parts and apc would charge 3x 4x more on the battries after pasting a sticker on Chinese cheap leadacids.
With lithium this scope is out of question as the battries will last atleast 10 years if not more.
I have switched my ups to Lifepo4 6 years ago and they are still holding over 90% capacity.
All my apc units are online models bought for cheap on the used market. They were all sold with bad battries and i just replaced the battery.
The most repair i had to ever do on one was to fix the charging smps as a lizard had committed suicide on it and destroyed the pcb with arcing.
@@KuntalGhosh Well .. Li-Ion batteries are also just more expensive in general.
@@MelroyvandenBerg not really in 2024 the prices of lithium ion has fallen. And Lifepo4 is cheaper than leadacid.
I bought 16 cells for 50$ and the measured capacity was about 300whr for brand new Lifepo4 cells. To achive real world 300whr capacity from leadacid battery you would have to buy 150$ worth of 6x 12v 9ah battery. With leadacid the pukert effect reduces capacity a lot..in my ups 28ah 12x2v (24v) battery runs 300w load for 47mins. While the 12ah 25.6v Lifepo4 runs the same load for 45min. I have been using this low cost pack for 3yrs now..still haven't noticed a single minute of loss in runtime.
Apc li ion ups's are grossly overpriced because of lack of compitition..even if they are using name brand high quality cells from lithiumwerks , toshiba , panasonic, eve , samsung, lg chem it would never cost this much for the amount of capacity they are giving.
Can you set a max SOC (state of charge) on this to make it last longer ? (lithium batts generally dont like sitting close to 100% without being cycled occasionally)
This is built into the APC's firmware and I didn't notice a setting to adjust it. I believe the unit lets the battery discharge to about 75%, and then periodically tops it off, lets it slowly discharge to 75% and then cycles it back. On my other batteries it takes about 90 days to get 75%, but I don't how this particular device functions in that regard.
@@tciproductions good info - thanks
I'm going to try these at our remote sites.
Actually the price is also pretty good, considering this battery last much longer and can even work at an environment above 25 degrees without degradation.
I found myself on a scissor lift the other day replacing some heavy SmartUPS 2200 batteries and this model was looking a lot more appealing at that time. It would be worth the reduction in inconvenience.
Excellent review
Hmm. I noticed the video was mirrored left-to-right. The TCI logo on the shirt is backwards. I'm curious as to why you chose to do that?
Inexperience with my camera sadly :)
I was looking into getting the smaller 2U version, APC SMTL1000RM2UC. Do you know how many batteries it has internally?
I see this 3U unit has 4 batteries oriented in the standing position, figured the 2U 1000VA unit would have 2 batteries oriented laying down and the 2U 750VA unit would have only 1 battery oriented lasting down.
I don't have a 1000va model of this unit to check with, but none of the manuals show the battery compartment, and there's nothing in any promotional image that shows it either. Your thoughts line up pretty well with what I would guess. If I get my hands on one I will post it.
@@tciproductions That would be helpful indeed. If you get that chance, would be interesting to compare the short-depth of a 3U vs 2U.
Can you chain these together?
Nobody knows, but most likely no?
Made in Philippines ?
you're better off with with Bluetti portable power station like the AC200L, P or MAX models/ this way you can be able to charge the battery via solar power and use it for other appliances ON THE GO.
It's just a different use case. The bluetti isn't rackable, isn't meant for server equipment, doesn't have a network card for remote monitoring and control of the ports, and solar and being on the go are nice, but these are meant to sit in a server rack in a warehouse. Also the battery cells in this are hot swappable, I'm not sure where the portable units are with a feature like that. Use whatever works, I was mostly just curious about this model.
What is that screw driver?
It is a ballgrip style of rechargeable screwdriver, if you don't mind the amazon link, its this: amzn.to/3Z19Djs
@@tciproductions Thanks for the link!
Actually 10 years of battery life.
Setting aside the rack mounting and the battery chemistry, the BackUPS Pro line is different from the SmartUPS line in several ways. APC puts a lot more filtering and power delivery checks/compensation in their SmartUPS line, including better sinewave output. The BackUPS line uses the janky stepped-sinewave method when it is on battery power and a lot of sensitive electronics HATE that. SmartUPS are generally higher build quality. That said, the people complaining about transformer fires in more recently purchased APC products gives me pause.... Schneider Electric rattles off a list of safety features to prevent lithium battery fires, but when a lithium pack shorts out it won't stop burning until it is fully discharged. All the while it will be burning in your rack and damaging other equipment, which will be further damaged by whatever firefighting methods are used to try to control it. I just can't think of any scenario where saving weight and an inch or two of space is advantageous in a server rack or wiring closet.
I'm not really a fan of the overall product lines of APC in particular, but half the weight or more being saved and then only a very short depth has benefits for wall mounted cabinets and IDFs, which is what I said in the video. As for the rest, I don't have experience or knowledge to speak to the issues you brought up. I am keeping a close eye on the ones I have deployed, if they malfunction I will document it and post an update.
Dude seriously, go and troll somewhere else with your bull$hit. Better yet, go and recharge your RC lipo battery unattended.
Es la misma UPS de hace tantos años, el mismo transformador y modulo de potencia, lo unico es el tema del pack de baterias y el sistema de carga, no veo un real avance en ese modelo, solo presentación