[HH] Chrome Battery

[Tom Metro]

Jack Coats wrote:
> I have been buying refurbed UPSes and (new) batteries from
> 
>    http://www.refurbups.com/
> 
> The prices seem good, but other may be better.

Decent.

For a commodity 12V 7AH battery, you can find them for as little as $16.
But you can fit an "upgraded" 9AH battery into the same space, and
Chrome is selling those for $18.50.

RefurbUPS priced the replacement battery at $19, and says it "Consists
of (1) 12V7A." So it's the stock 7AH version.

Shipping can really kill you on these literally heavy-as-lead batteries.
RefurbUPS charges a fair $7.70. Some vendors, like Chrome, provide free
shipping. (Not sure how, while also keeping prices low. I've had problem
with some budget battery vendors poorly packing the batteries, resulting
in shipping damage, but Chrome has gotten positive reviews in that regard.)

For a laugh I had previously looked up the price of the official APC
part. They want $83 lists, and was discounted at a retailer to $71.
Pretty ample margin to cover warranty, support, repackaging, and recycling.

Clearly from the pricing RefurbUPS is using compatible batteries and not
the official APC packaged product. Which they do clearly disclose in the
text, but they stick a big APC logo next to the picture of the battery,
which is a bit misleading.


> Shipping normally comes UPS, and it is reasonably quick.  If you order
> UPS, the batteries are always shipped separately, at least in my
> experience.

Acronym overload. Is that "if you order an uninteruptible power supply,
the batteries are shipped separately?"


> When I worked for a bank, we ordered replacement batteries from APCC,
> and they had 'free recycling' ... I take batteries to a local
> BatteriesPlus store and they do recycling for free.

Some towns will accept lead acid batteries.

The batteries are actually valuable to recyclers, and you can get some
money for them - as opposed to paying to have them recycled - under some
circumstances.

For a while VIP Auto parts stores would pay (I think $10 credit) for
traded-in motor cycle and lawn tractor batteries, and some UPS batteries
overlap.

 -Tom