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Dan CraciunFlag for Romania

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Procedures for preventive maintenance of UPS and generator

Hi,

Anyone can share procedures for preventive maintenance of UPS and generators?

How often to test, what to test, how to test it and where to document the test schedules and results.

Thank you.
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John Tsioumpris
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I guess the best way is to contact the technical department of the Vendor of the UPS..
They will/should guide you to the proper actions to ensure the good condition of your UPS
And if you can run some diagnostics by yourself is not that bad ....i don't know what size is your UPS but connecting a large electrical load(within its specs)  will give you a pretty good idea of its condition
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I'm not interested in running diagnostics by myself.
I need procedures so I can train maintenance personnel to do it. And to check if they've done it.

The UPS are generic and in a country where a support contract is not available.
All UPS are different and may have different ways to do diagnostic.  If you are talking about small UPS, such as APC 500kvayou will have to rely on the test button which is located on the front panel of the UPS to do testing/diagnostic.

For medium to large UPS, there will still be the test button but if the UPS is purchased with a Network Management Card you can login to a web management page and run diagnostic from there.
Then only the product manual can give you any guidelines...but UPS are depending on batteries and batteries have a tendency to fail right when you need them...thats why you need some more targeted guidance...and also trust me for sure generators also have the same tendency....for hilarious reasons...like a bad air filter...
Thank you for your responses.

The UPS have a web interface. And I use Nagios to monitor them.

I probably was not clear enough:
I need procedures for physical maintenance of UPS and generators.

Stuff like
- check batteries for corroded connectors and leaks
- measure the ground connection to check it's correct
- unplug from main electrical and check how long until it reaches 80%/60%/40%
- etc

I already have a checklist, but I don't like being a wheel-inventor.

If someone who works for a datacenter or some other large-ish 24/7 computer center can share their procedure for generator and UPS maintenance, that would be great.
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John Tsioumpris
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Thank you.

So basically you're saying that
1. you don't have any procedures and
2. I should rely on common sense.

Anyone else has some written procedures they can share?
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The UPS on sites are Riellos.
As I said, there are no available support contracts in that country. And their site is not very helpful on preventive measures.
Basically it says: pay us and we'll take care of it. Unless you're in a place where we're not. In that case, good luck.

I've mashed together some common sense rules, time will tell if they are enough.

Thank you.