A week or so ago, the exhaust cutout stopped working. I thought maybe a wire had broken, but hadn’t gotten around to checking Tonight, I got the multimeter out and verified that I do, in fact, have power all the way down to the motor (well the connector outside of the motor). Since I just bought this thing a few months ago I called Summit up to see about a warranty. The tech was helpful, and immediately volunteered to send me a shipping label so I could return it. I asked to cross-ship the part, and that was also fine. So, I’ll have a new cutout probably Thursday, and it won’t have cost me anything but a few minutes of time to replace the thing (it’s just three bolts).
I approve of Summit’s return policy. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to exchange things, and it’s always gone smoothly. Summit Racing rocks.
Update: the new cutout arrived on Thursday, two days later. It bolted right on and worked fine. Yay Summit!
So,I’ve got this UPS that’s about 15 years old. It hasn’t worked for a while. Tonight, I came across an extra battery that exactly matched the specs for the original. I installed the battery, and lo, it actually turned on. I was excited.
Then the UPS failed its self-test and when I unplugged the UPS, the alarm went off and it switched to battery power. “Cool”, I thought – “this is how it’s supposed to work”. For a moment.
There was almost immediately a really loud bang, a bright flash, and more buzzing. I quickly yanked the wire from the battery, and surveyed the scenario. The circuit breaker on the UPS had tripped, and a semi-big disc capacitor had exploded.
So, I guess I’ll call to see if the lifetime equipment protection warranty covers this. Seems plausible, if unlikely…
Update: As it turns out, the BackUps VS450 has a two year warranty. Because mine was manufactured in 1996, that warranty has long since expired. :) Apparently it would’ve been covered if I had it plugged in and the damage came over the power line, but not if it damaged itself. That’s peculiar, but I suppose acceptable. Maybe I can solder a new capacitor in place, reset the breaker, and magically have things work again… We’ll see.
