Mark-Rodgers

CyberPower CPS650SL = CRAP

I bought a Surge Protector / UPS used at a garage sale for $5 last summer. I intended to use it for a tower site, to provide backup power in case of a power failure, so I dont have to drive to reset a PC and radios.

Since I am getting everything ready for the tower site this week, I grabbed the unit from my garage and went to test it. Upon plug in and power on, all I get is 3 beeps. I’m guessing that this is due to a dead battery, which I expected. I know that lead acid batteries don’t last long when discharged, and I planned to replace it with some external wiring and a large gel-cell or car battery, for much longer backup time.

I took the unit apart to remove the battery and charge it externally. Unfortunately it is too far gone to bring back to life for another project. It wont get more than a few volts. As I was looking at how it was built and the surge circuit, I noticed there isnt a traditional surge circuit. The only thing I found is a 15amp resettable circuit breaker on the hot wire of the main plug. I also noticed that the hot wire coming in had a few stray wire strands and is very poorly soldered to the  circuit breaker. Luckily this was the only poor connection I noticed, but if one of these wire strands touched the transformer for the power inverter, it would be totally unprotected.

Usually in a decent surge protection circuit you will find components like Metal Oxide Varistors (MOVs) that will protect your stuff from voltage spikes. This unit doesnt even have one on the main line. I do see some in the circuit for the power inverter for backup, but they dont do anything when its running normal off the main AC line. I have seen better protection in cheap $10 units from China. I guess the only “surge” protection they offer is if your equipment draws over 15 amps. Hey, guess what, your house circuit breakers do the same thing.

Their website claims that it has $100,000 protection and all sorts of other sales marketing crap, but the truth lies in the dead /burnt computer, laptop, TV or whatever you have that suffered from a surge from the power company.

In my opinion the CyberPower CPS650SL unit is a joke and I would NOT trust it to protect anything.