Brand new UPS burning eyes

[Jism]

It's that time of the year again... I bought a reasonable 360W UPS just to backup power my PC. It is a line interactive one with a single 7A 12V battery. The age of the battery is approx 9 months so i assume it has been in the stores for that duration. However once i installed it, i can sense the light sensation or burning in my eyes again, i can just sniff not a rotten egg smell in particular but something is just off. I understand that a UPS is constantly trickle charging that battery which on it's end ( a sealed one ) seems to give off tiny bits of hydrogen gas. If i stick around long enough, i can absolutely feel it.

So i have 2 options, just toss out the UPS as a whole, no longer F with it, or i box in the UPS and have that ventilated in a different space. With this there is a less risk for me when things seem to go bad. It's not a defective battery, it upholds exactly the amount of time running a hair dryer with heating 2 out of 3.

Maybe i'm too sensitive for it, i have no clue.

 

[R-T-B]

I would expect the battery being bad before the UPS, but could be either honestly. Your eyes certainly should not be watering like that.

 

[Jism]

Some time ago, i also used a 2KVA UPS for inside the house and to protect or at least power my PC during power outtage. One of those battery's went bad and 3 days straight i was sitting with stinging eyes thinking i have some sort of infection while in reality it was the battery to begin with. Since then i sworn off the use of UPS within a closed space, but i really needed one since the power cut out 2 times now.

The battery seems fairly new, perhaps due to it's storage it had to be charged back and "dumped' some hydrogen, i have no clue. I have a seperate space with it's own ventilation, which i'm thinking to cross wires through. This way that even if the batt goes bad or maybe is bad, i won't be suffering from it myself.

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

Seems like trouble.

There is a certain smell with newly warm power equipment, but it shouldn't be causing physical discomfort.

 

[AsRock]

It's new ?, some times they do stink a while. And it's to do with the plastic used.

Always go with well known brands too.

 

[A Computer Guy]

It's that time of the year again... I bought a reasonable 360W UPS just to backup power my PC. It is a line interactive one with a single 7A 12V battery. The age of the battery is approx 9 months so i assume it has been in the stores for that duration. However once i installed it, i can sense the light sensation or burning in my eyes again, i can just sniff not a rotten egg smell in particular but something is just off. I understand that a UPS is constantly trickle charging that battery which on it's end ( a sealed one ) seems to give off tiny bits of hydrogen gas. If i stick around long enough, i can absolutely feel it.

So i have 2 options, just toss out the UPS as a whole, no longer F with it, or i box in the UPS and have that ventilated in a different space. With this there is a less risk for me when things seem to go bad. It's not a defective battery, it upholds exactly the amount of time running a hair dryer with heating 2 out of 3.

Maybe i'm too sensitive for it, i have no clue.

The seal or casing of your battery is probably broken somewhere. I recommend getting that unit out of your living space and exchange out the air to get rid of any toxic fumes. This happened to me once. I bet closer inspection of the battery might reveal where a crack in the battery is but take reasonable precautions while handling including being in a ventilated space.

The unit that I had that problem the battery was both bulged and cracked resulting in the whole rotten eggs, burning eyes, and feeling sick before I realized what the problem was.

... it upholds exactly the amount of time running a hair dryer with heating 2 out of 3 ...

I thought that's a big no no with UPS devices along other loads such as space heaters.

 

[maxfly]

Unplug it and return it ASAP. That's not normal for a NEW unit in any way shape or form. Where from and what brand are you buying? I have never in 25 years of using and installing every size and brand UPS under the sun, have ever heard of what your describing from a brand new unit.

Something is very very wrong with your supplier if you have received two janky units with the same symptoms. And it's not your job to troubleshoot their garbage. Get rid of that thing.

 

[VuurVOS]

Which brand UPS did you buy? I read simulair stories about APC Easy UPS BVX***LI and APC Back-UPS BX***MI series. Because of that I chose not to buy APC and bought a CyberPower UPS instead.

 

[Jism]

It's new ?, some times they do stink a while. And it's to do with the plastic used.

Always go with well known brands too.

after reading last night over several places, this might be the culprit.

When it's turned on, that transformer is getting warm, thus vaporizing anything related to the plastic which causes that fume.

Ive left it on in a ventilated space now, and the odor is a lot less.

 

[Space Lynx]

It's that time of the year again... I bought a reasonable 360W UPS just to backup power my PC. It is a line interactive one with a single 7A 12V battery. The age of the battery is approx 9 months so i assume it has been in the stores for that duration. However once i installed it, i can sense the light sensation or burning in my eyes again, i can just sniff not a rotten egg smell in particular but something is just off. I understand that a UPS is constantly trickle charging that battery which on it's end ( a sealed one ) seems to give off tiny bits of hydrogen gas. If i stick around long enough, i can absolutely feel it.

So i have 2 options, just toss out the UPS as a whole, no longer F with it, or i box in the UPS and have that ventilated in a different space. With this there is a less risk for me when things seem to go bad. It's not a defective battery, it upholds exactly the amount of time running a hair dryer with heating 2 out of 3.

Maybe i'm too sensitive for it, i have no clue.

I bought a 1500 UPS from Costco one time, and it just had a really terrible plastic smell, couldn't stand having it in my room. I never even plugged it in, boxed it up, and got a refund. I just couldn't stand the smell. Also, I have had my power go out maybe 15x in total in the last 20 years, and my computer always booted back up just fine with no memory loss every single time. Not sure if I just been super lucky, or if in actuality a UPS is really not needed for most casual users like myself.

 

[Jism]

It just takes one second, where your drive, cache or whatever is writing and the power cuts out, to have data loss. I want to work with things like supreme cache which stores everything in RAM for later writeback but with random power loss this is utterly dangerous as data corruption might happen.

It is or was indeed, the terrible plastic smell that just left a stinky odor for 1 to 2 days. I might as well remove the battery from the unit, and point a space heater for half a day at it. Whatever is in there that it's worked out and i can start using it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Unplug it and return it ASAP. That's not normal for a NEW unit in any way shape or form. Where from and what brand are you buying? I have never in 25 years of using and installing every size and brand UPS under the sun, have ever heard of what your describing from a brand new unit.

Something is very very wrong with your supplier if you have received two janky units with the same symptoms. And it's not your job to troubleshoot their garbage. Get rid of that thing.

They probably have a bad batch or rebox the units as no defect new.

Also batteries can suffer from thermal run-away, the galaxy S7 got exposed in the media for it (swelling-fires)

 

[Jism]

Battery removed, left the enclosure to be toast by a space heater for at least 45 minutes, all the fumes seem to be gone, re-installed battery again, installed the thing onto the wall, and now it's functional as it should with no odor, fumes or weird smells. I can use writeback caching now in a proper way.

It was the plastic, and when you google i was not the only one. They don't burn in the devices anymore it seems.

 

[R-T-B]

after reading last night over several places, this might be the culprit.

When it's turned on, that transformer is getting warm, thus vaporizing anything related to the plastic which causes that fume.

Ive left it on in a ventilated space now, and the odor is a lot less.

Yeah, that could be it. Eyes watering seems a bit excessive but it could just be an individual sensitivity thing. I'd be lying if I said there was absolutely no odor with a new unit, it just usually dissapates to a non issue rapidly.

 

[JIWIL]

It's mostly a sensitivity thing methinks. All the UPS's I've used over the decades (about 10) have had a strange sulfuric/chemical smell for the first week or so.. to varying degrees. I've never experienced burning eyes though.