Very roughly speaking, APC has had a few very broad generations of equipment
(I'm specifically referring to SmartUPS here):
1. Pale beige, all-square corners, faceplate is a decal. Extremely old,
doesn't even show up on their support site anymore. Lasts forever,
non-replaceable batteries, doesn't detect when they fail very well. I have one
made in the late '80s that still functions.
2. Beige, rounded corners, plastic shell faceplate that pops off to access
battery door. This is the "classic" stuff they made for ~10yrs. Best UPSes
ever IMHO. Actually incorporates several generations of hardware. Many of us
still have some of these in operation.
3. Black, but otherwise same faceplate. Superseded rapidly by:
4. Black, back to sharp corners on the faceplate but still with bargraph LED
indicators. Actually encompasses at least two distinct generations getting a
more squared-off and flatter look of faceplate as time went by.
5. Fancier panel indicators, starting with 7-seg LED through LCD.
Quality started to suffer in the late-rounded-corners-black-faceplate era
(which is what Colin's pic shows), in and around the time they stopped being
ridiculously profitable and subsequently got acquired by Schneider Electric.
Quality then remained sub-standard for about a decade, and has only in the last
~5yrs begun to approach historical levels again.
Understand, I'm not saying APC made crap for over a decade, but certainly they
stopped making the indestructible UPSes we'd all come to expect from them, and
still haven't regained that level of endurance even in brand-new product.
"They don't make things like they used to."
There were a couple of models in the early squared-off-black era that were
notorious for failure right after the warranty period expired, and a SU1500RM2
in particular mid-way through that period that is known to eat battery packs
every few months with or without warning. Naturally, this was sold in vast
quantities :-( and can still be found beeping in server closets around the
world. I know some of you have this particular model from that particular era,
you know the one I mean!
What I find fascinating is how the esthetic design goes in cycles - white (very
very early) to beige to black, sharp to rounded, and back to sharp...
-Adam
Colin Stanners <cstann...@gmail.com> wrote:
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