4 Main Benefits of Preventative UPS Maintenance

Our fully trained UPS engineers operate UK-wide 24/7/365 days a year installing, maintaining, and repairing Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and their supporting battery systems.

The overwhelming majority of the systems that we encounter are well designed and installed but unfortunately, we do come across a large number of systems that have not been regularly maintained and serviced in accordance with the manufacturer recommendations.

Preventative UPS maintenance is crucial for ensuring the reliability and performance of your backup systems. Therefore, we strongly recommend that all systems are supported with a service and maintenance plan.

In our latest blog article, our technical director Tony Quince discusses the main benefits of conducting regular UPS servicing and maintenance.

Stay ahead of the curve and safeguard your critical systems with regular servicing and maintenance. Check out our blog to learn more!

One of the most significant benefits of regular servicing and maintenance of a UPS is that it helps identify and address potential issues before they cause system failures which could affect even the most thorough business continuity plans.

By being pro-active in addressing problems, the reliability of a UPS significantly increases and ensures that the UPS is in optimal working condition - reducing the risk of unexpected downtime and potential data loss.

During a routine maintenance visit, a factory trained and experienced technician will typically inspect the following UPS components to identify any signs of wear, damage, loose connections, or other anomalies.

• UPS batteries
• AC and DC Capacitors
• Fans
• Printed Circuit Boards
• Cables and Connectors

Our engineers provide a full status report on the overall UPS health. We then inform the customer as to the condition of the UPS using our RAG (Red, Amber, Green) alert system.

An in-depth check of the batteries is essential to any service plan. The supporting battery strings are a critical component of any UPS, providing the backup power needed during any unplanned power outages, surges, or spikes. Regular maintenance and early detection of failing batteries is crucial to ensuring the reliability of your UPS installation.

Dust and debris will often accumulate inside a UPS unit over time, potentially causing overheating by blocking air flow grills and reducing cooling fan performance.

Our maintenance plans will always involve a thorough cleaning of the internal components to help reduce this risk.

Similar to any computer, a UPS uses complex software to monitor all aspects of the UPS performance and keep systems online.

As part of our authorised partnerships with the major UPS manufacturers we work with, our engineers have access to all the latest software updates and will ensure that your UPS is operating on the very latest firmware revisions.

This will enable the UPS to communicate effectively and respond to power events as intended.

As a UPS unit ages, key components that are important to the operation of the UPS degrade and can potentially cause a system to fail.

Components like AC & DC capacitors, fans etc. all have a manufacturer recommended working design life and should typically be replaced every 5 to 7 years, depending on the make and model of your UPS.

Timely replacement of these components during the maintenance cycles within your UPS service plan will greatly reduce the risk of a preventable failure.

As you can imagine, with anything that has many critical components, scheduled servicing and maintenance by a fully trained UPS engineer will help extend the life of the UPS by addressing issues that contribute to wear and tear over time.

One of the most critical components of a UPS is its supporting battery system which is fundamental for power to continue running in the event of a mains disturbance.

As with batteries used to power hundreds of household items, over time UPS batteries degrade, losing their capacity and ability to hold a charge.

Our flexible and wide range of onsite services include battery testing, monitoring, and, if necessary, battery replacement (either individual battery strings or complete replacement).

By including these extra services to a maintenance plan, you can ensure that your UPS batteries are always in good condition and extend the overall lifespan of a UPS by preventing any unnecessary battery failures.

To go one step further and provide maximum reassurance that the UPS works at its most efficient, we believe load bank testing should be an essential part of any service and maintenance schedule.

Carrying out regular load bank testing allows us to safely simulate how your critical power systems will perform in the event of an unplanned mains disturbance or complete power failure.

The ability to apply full load to your complete critical power infrastructure allows you to test your UPS to the full capacity for which it was designed and test every part of the system.

Input supply breakers, switchgear, and the correct operation of your UPS performance will be scrutinised and checked. There really isn’t a more thorough way of testing your systems in a safe and risk-free manner.

UPS batteries will, of course, be tested regularly as part of any standard maintenance plan. However, load bank testing provides the ultimate assurance that your systems will operate correctly in the event of a power disturbance and truly extend the lifespan of any critical power backup systems.

The location and the conditions that a UPS is operating in will eventually affect how long the UPS will last. Monitoring and maintaining the environment where the UPS is located, such as temperature and humidity, can also contribute to extending its lifespan.

UPS units tend to perform optimally within specified temperature and humidity ranges. Avoiding extreme conditions can prevent premature wear and tear on components, especially batteries and fans.

By addressing the above through regular preventative maintenance, you can ensure that your UPS operates at its best for as long as possible. This not only saves you money on premature replacement but also provides continued protection for your critical systems and data.

One of the most obvious benefits of regular maintenance is that it can help avoid costly emergency repairs or complete replacements. We truly believe it is more cost-effective to invest in a preventative maintenance plan than to deal with any unexpected failures.

As our sales director Adam Baverstock discusses in our Why do you need a UPS blog article, demand for ‘clean’ power continues to increase across all businesses and with mission critical activity so heavily reliant on ‘always on’ systems, Uninterruptible Power Supplies now play an even more important and significant role in keeping businesses running.

With the primary purpose of a UPS to provide backup power during electrical outages, regular maintenance helps ensure that the system is in optimal condition and works as intended.

By preventing unexpected failures which result in unnecessary downtime, maintenance plays a key role in reducing any associated costs, which can be substantial in terms of lost productivity due to phone lines down, revenue from lost business, and potential data loss.

Without regular servicing and regular health checks, UPS systems are more likely to experience sudden failures or breakdowns. Preventative maintenance helps avoid emergency breakdown repairs which can be costly, especially when they involve out of hours engineer visits and emergency call-outs.

Most service and maintenance packages can be tailored to deliver the perfect contract to protect your business. At Specialist Power we offer guaranteed 4 hour (or better) response contracts for an engineer to be on-site in the event of an emergency, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our dedicated service team will provide regular maintenance schedules to suit your requirement and visits can be planned during normal office hours, at weekends or overnight to ensure minimal disruption and risk to your critical power infrastructure.

UPS systems are operational 24 hours a day and thus consume a significant amount of energy, even when they are not actively providing backup power. Regular maintenance includes efficiency checks, ensuring that the UPS operates within its specified efficiency range.

Optimising your UPS efficiency will certainly save your business’ electricity bills. In cases where an old inefficient UPS installed, replacing that system with the latest technology UPS in the market can pay for itself in a very short period of time.

UPS maintenance offers multiple cost-saving benefits by preventing downtime and protecting critical systems and data. Whilst maintenance does have added costs to a business, the long-term savings and risk mitigation it provides, outweighs any costs from a UPS failure and replacement.

Knowing that your UPS is well-maintained and regularly serviced will give you the peace of mind that when your UPS is needed, it will perform as it should – to protect your critical power systems and provide uninterrupted power.

This is becoming more important as businesses across all sectors are now so reliant on a consistent and stable electricity supply to keep technology operational 24/7/365.

Computers, phone systems, and many other pieces of electrical equipment require continuous power to maintain productivity and efficiency.

Any unexpected shutdown or disturbance in the electricity supply can lead to potentially damaging disruptions, and the resulting downtime and data loss can cost businesses thousands of pounds a minute in sales or hours of lost productivity.

Having the correct preventative maintenance plan to support a UPS will help avoid any significant financial losses associated with downtime.

By identifying and addressing any potential issues before they become serious, regular maintenance allows an organisation to be proactive and not reactive to minimise any risk. This gives you the reassurance that the UPS is less likely to fail should it need to transfer to battery power during any power issues.

We hope from reading this you will have a better understanding of what is involved with a UPS maintenance plan and appreciate the importance of making sure you have suitable cover to keep your UPS running at its most efficient and understand that help is at hand if things do go wrong.

Our services are used in 1000’s of businesses across the UK and our engineers have been delivering UPS service contracts across all the major UPS manufacturers such as Riello UPS, APC by Schneider, Eaton, Socomec, Vertiv, for over 20 years.

Contact us today to find out how we can help with your UPS service and maintenance needs.