My UPS' exploded! - Apparently Overloaded?

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GazWrack

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Can someone with knowledge about these things help me out please -

I bought a UPS in January and last month it exploded during a load-shedding session.
The supplier I bought it from picked it up and took it to the the OEM for repairs and today got back to me saying that the power transistors failed, apparently due to overloading, and had to be replaced.

I can't see how this happened.

The inverter is a 2kva Inverex and it has 2x 102ah 12V batteries.

When I tally up all the things I had plugged in at the time I get a total load of 660W.
This includes the PC, radio, 2x LCD monitors, speakers, router, and LED desk lamp.

How was it overloaded? It is supposed to have a red light that flashes and a buzzer that sounds when it's overloaded, but neither of those two warnings went off...
 
It's always a good idea to unplug your UPS from the wall during load shedding. The mains current when electricity is restored is well known for blowing up UPSs. Same for fridges and other electrical items you don't want to explode.
 
The UPS was plugged into a surge protector. (But I get your point)
The explosion happened during the load shedding though.
 
Problem with electronics is incremental damage. Like a small hole in a dam getting bigger over time. The damage to your capacitors could have happened during previous load sheddings.
 
BTW there are many electronic killing issues that surge protectors can't deal with.
 
If they repaired it, it probably wasn't your fault. But ye I can only guess incremental damage.
 
You don't mention a laser printer but it's inadvisable to use these with a consumer UPS due to initial current draw when printing.
 
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