Slightly OTT : Riello UPS

Re: Slightly OTT : Riello UPS By: Martin Gregorie to All on Fri Feb 18 2022 06:06 pm

MG> Hopefully, some of you are using Riello UPS and, even more hopefully, a MG> few will be using the small Riello Sentinel Pro 700

What do you think of the Riello?

I'm in the market for a UPS now and after education. Would want it to protect something like this:

• Broadband connection + Firewall
• 1 x Wireless hub
• Synology NAS
• Intel NUC (VM server)

Is this feasable in the consumer UPS market? How long would the batteries typically last?

Thanks,

Tristan.

Re: Re: Slightly OTT : Riello UPS By: Martin Gregorie to Tristan Greaves on Sat Feb 19 2022 10:18 am

MG> Its well made and has done exactly what I wanted it to up until this MG> point. Its original set of batteries have lasted 7.5 years.

This is great information. Thanks for taking the time to share it!

Tristan.

Post a picture?

Theo

Hello Tristan!

Saturday February 19 2022 08:00, you wrote to Martin Gregorie:

MG>> Hopefully, some of you are using Riello UPS and, even more MG>> hopefully, a few will be using the small Riello Sentinel Pro 700

I use a APC 1000kv Smart product that has a USB connector to the computer connected and using apcups software under Linux which is free software.

There are multi sockets at the back but I use a 5 way socket block which is in two rows with the 13A plug swapped over to the one supplied with the UPS and this is a kettle male type that just plugs in to the UPS. The computer has a kettle ended plug cable that is connected direct to the UPS.

Kit connected is :

1. Medium to Large tower with 5 - 6 drives, 3 120/160mm fans plus CPU fan and

1. 23+" monitor

1. DECT phone
2. ASUS RT82U router
3. Virgin media router acting as a modem only connected to the ASUS.
4. Lan switch.
5. Hive Wi-Fi hub connected to the router.

The printer is NOT on it.

This gives me around 50 - 80 minutes of power but is set by s/w to shut the system down when it reaches 25% battery power which allows for up to 5 minues battery power to shut all down therefore retaining a minimum of 20% battery remaining.

Battery life - that does depend on frequency of being on batteries only for the battery lifetime but should be 5 - 8 years. I have a spare battery pack bought for another UPS that did not require changing so I do a live swap out every 6 months or so with the active battery pack in the UPS.

This means I undo the front panel and then remove two screws and lift off the metal cover, disconnect the two terminals, remove current battery and swap over the other one reconnecting the terminals and close up - all while still running the systems.

The space batteries come from a battery specialist in Enfield who I have used for years for around 35 pounds and often just drive down to pick them up but they delivery for not much more.

The batteries even come with instructions on a CD to help the inexperienced to do the swap outs.

This is over half the price as from APC and is the same battery they sell - There a very limited list of battery manufacturers so the OEM suuliers tend to use the same baranded batteries.

The 1000kva UPS is over 10Kg and the weight goes up a lot as the capacity increases mostly owing to more batteries in the units which takes up most of the weight.

The UPS's when kept under light load and mine is around 16% should last between

As you can see the battery swap out can easily be done by a user with a bit of light electrical knowledge as the batteries are low power and voltage and even on the large UPS's say of 2 - 3Kva only use 48 Volts.

The Riello brand comes from Italy via a UK distributor/agent and seem to be of a very similar nature and as I have used a few (major) brands over the years (20+), they all seem to be of a similar nature with ease of replacing batteries.

To get these UPS's - the last lot I bought was actually via Ebay but have bought even from Amazon - though not often - I do look for the best pricing delivered and a 1000 smart would be looking to pay say between 300 - 350 at most NEW. Avoid 2nd hand and even then, assume that the battery needs replacing soon or now.

As stated above the UPS I had was a 2 -3 Kva which gave me over 2 hours of power supply which covered all but the most silly and rare power cut. Thing weight a ton and needs two people to move it let alone carry it.

The 1 or 1.5kva is a good compromise for both price, weight and power duration with the 1kva the best of deals around.

You must get a smart one with a cable connection to a computer to power down when battery gets low (in my case 25% allowing another 5 to fully shut down the systems.

Hope this all helps,

Vincent

Hello Ahem!

Saturday February 19 2022 15:59, you wrote to me:

If it was young why not ask company for a warranty replacement ?

If it was over the term, i.e., over say 5 years it is overdue a replacement but it does look like a duff battery. Or did you use it with a high load or differing power kit ?

Biggest failure type in my experience was failure of the main board and APC when asked for a replacement said they do not have any.

My current batch of their kit will be the last if I have a similar event and response or I will give the board to some one with the right kit to trace the fault - I have for a long time got rid of such equipment - wife and space, downsizing house.

Vincent

Hello Ahem!

Saturday February 19 2022 18:46, you wrote to me:

Yes, does sound like it got well and truly cooked. Possibly over heating.

These warn climates areas can do that :)

Vincent

Its well made and has done exactly what I wanted it to up until this point. Its original set of batteries have lasted 7.5 years.

The only thing I'm unhappy about is the complete lack of instructions for replacing the batteries: them saying, in effect, "all users are stupid and will kill themselves if we let them open the UPS and swap the batteries, so we won't tell them anything about how to do it" is, IMNSHO wrong. Issuing warnings is fair enough, but making it effectively impossible to replace the batteries without a visit from a service agent isn't.

That said, the bigger Riellos have their batteries in separate modular units which can be daisy-chained to handle arbitrarily long power outages and, presumably, these ARE user-maintainable since there are only low voltage DC batteries and a bit of wire and connectors in them.

The unit I have (the smallest capacity Riello UPS) uses a pair of Yuasa

At the time I bought it, the other UPSs on the market were either more capable than I needed or only capable of powering a single device, such as a PC, long enough for an orderly shut-down, i.e. around 5 minutes max.

Posted.

On a sunny day (Sat, 19 Feb 2022 12:50:37 -0000 (UTC)) it happened Martin Gregorie snipped-for-privacy@mydomain.invalid wrote in <suqp2t$r1q$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

The onses you cannot unscrew, type: 9610-CRV in google Most hardware stores have those I have a set like that:

The bottom screws are Torx by the look of your photo. Impossible to determine the size but sets of screwdrive bits which include Torx are easily available from your local hardware store.

Over here most of the TORX sets give sizes in Tnn numbers. Do you know what Tnn size 9610-CRV would match?

I've looked at what's available locally and notice that most sets don't have anything with a lower code than T08 or T09,

According to my Moore & Wright calipers, the distance between opposite 'star vertices' on the Riello screws is 2.26mm, so would that be a T8 TORX key?

On a sunny day (Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:53:42 -0000 (UTC)) it happened Martin Gregorie snipped-for-privacy@mydomain.invalid wrote in <sur09m$r1q$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

When I measure the T8 I get about 2.26 mm, but the tips are a bit conical shaped.

But google is your friend:

On the set I have, the lowest is T5 and the highest is T20 Very useful set, see that sort of screws more and more. I ordered mine online from a big local store, was here next day.

I had one of those - or one very like it once. One day everything went off and there was a bad smell from the UPS. On inspection the batteries had swollen so much that the frame was embedded in the battery case in places. I'm still contemplating a replacement.

Oh it was far from young, and I should almost certainly have been keeping a weather eye on the batteries and contemplating replacement for a couple of years or so before it died - but I wasn't it had become part of the furniture unregarded and trouble free until ...

It is worth buying a set that includes Torxes rather than just the one, because there may well be other sizes inside.

A set like this is relatively inexpensive and handy to have around:

Theo

Noted with thanks - chickened out doing anything today (Saturday) because weather, and helping troubleshoot pages in a Microsoft-based website. Give me Apache any day. But did manage to research TORX wrench sources. I was quite surprised how few TORX tool sets don't go below T9.

Hello Martin!

Sunday February 20 2022 01:13, you wrote to Theo:

Could be a thing for your location (NZ ? ) I have from 35 down to 7 but that and previous two are 'very' small, is the screws on the UPS any where near that small ?

If so they really do not want you to get in it :(

May time for a change of brand as there must be a lot of different one's covering 640 - 750Va around from 60 pounds in the UK from the likes of many as well as Ebay, Amazon etc but be warned they are dumb - don't talk to a computer in some cases.

Vincent

Hello Andy!

Sunday February 20 2022 15:38, you wrote to me:

I cheat - I keep then within the box / case they came in.

I also have some small sized one's with their own handle etc but these are for micro working - my eye sight at that level how ever is a different kettle of fish and that with new vari-focal very fancy Essilor varilux lens.

That said it takes me around two hours to read the Daily Telegraph which is a full sized news paper.

Must try and find a large (12+" square) magnifier - my Dad had one off the front of a very old b/w TV (going back to the 60's) he used originally for reading maps when he was studying to become a LICENSED London taxi driver - long gone (the magnifier I mean) :(

Vincent

Hello Martin!

Sunday February 20 2022 17:54, you wrote to me:

....

Is that Essex?

If so I used to live in Roydon but go back often so I could drop in these small Torx driver heads.

Drop me a email vbcoen <at> gmail . com

.. and yes I started in DP in the early 60's with 1401, 7094 and a little later

Now well retired but still programming mostly in Cobol.

Vincent