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That repair job at a dentist office in Phoenix taught me to always carry a backup power supply
Got called to fix a server at a dentist office last Tuesday in Phoenix. Their UPS was beeping and I figured it was just a bad battery, but the whole unit was dead. Had to drive 45 minutes back to my shop to grab a spare and lost half the day. Now I keep a decent APC in my truck for situations like that. Anyone else keep a backup power supply handy for emergencies?
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lucaslee1mo ago
Oh man, that's the kind of day that makes you want to throw your toolbag into the sun. I've been there. Here's something nobody brings up though - those dental office power supplies are usually undersized because nobody thinks about the x-ray machine's startup draw. When that thing fires up it can spike 3x its running load and trip a cheap UPS into bypass mode. Your backup APC might not even help if you don't check the rated wattage against the actual startup surge. Learned that one the hard way at a chiropractor's office where their backup kept failing but only during adjustments. The equipment wasn't even the problem, it was the sudden draw pulling the UPS down.
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claire_wells871mo ago
Throwing your toolbag into the sun" - yeah, I feel that deep in my bones. Never thought about the x-ray startup spike like that though, that's a nasty hidden trap.
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danielw8819d ago
@lucaslee brings up a solid point about startup surges. Had the same issue at a small medical clinic here. Swapped their old UPS for one rated for double the expected load. Fixed the random shutdowns completely. Now I carry a power meter too. Lets me check the actual draw before anything fails.
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