Anyone know of any vendors that will accept old UPS hardware? I have a dead rackmount APC UPS and battery expansion pack that is too expensive to ship, and APC’s Trade-UPS program is not economical at all for me.
I also have five large (40lbs+) UPS batteries that need recycling. Is there some place local these can be brought to, even for a fee? (I am local to the Metro Detroit area)
Not sure where you are located but there are a lot of places to recycle batteries. You can use this also.
If your UPS is dead because of dead batteries, you could probably install new batteries and get it going again. But if you aren’t comfortable with electrical then it might not be worth it to you.
I’m in the Ann Arbor area. Nah, the UPS isn’t dead just from batteries – it has an internal failure of some sort and will not even boot up or provide power, and it’s out of warranty. I replaced it with a refurbished one of the same model from excessups.com (awesome vendor BTW… but they want nothing to do with individuals shipping them hardware; they normally do all their inbound refurbs by the truckload on their own).
My experience with most battery recyclers is that they want nothing to do with giant/heavy lead batteries from a UPS but I will give this one a try, thanks.
Then there’s the question of what to do with the dead UPS and battery pack… I suppose I could take 'em to an electronic waste collection event or a dump that recycles electronics. I’d be willing to sell it dirt cheap if someone was looking to turn it in on an upcoming Trade-UPS upgrade (they do accept dead UPSes, but not the external battery pack chassis).
Talk to a automotive battery recycle company, lead acid battery tech is treated the same at the places I have taken them to.
I have been paid a very small amount per pound to recycle them.
We get $0.25 per pound for lead acid batteries at the scrap metal places. The UPS itself has a bunch of copper in there, but it needs to be stripped, don’t expect much money for it at a metal recycler but most will take it and pull it apart.
Electronic recyclers will normally take this type of stuff too. Just pull the batteries and through them in a box and scrap them out, then recycle the electronics.
Last alternative, post a free ad on Facebook Marketplace and a scrapper will have them gone in a day.