Greetings,

I figured this would be the best place to ask, as there is a wealth of knowledge in this forum and community. A while back I had the opportunity to pick up a couple of server chillers towers and several UPS of various sizes from a pharmaceutical laboratory. I had reached out to a couple of companies that purchase these type of units, but none had shown any interest.

All of the UPS were in good working condition upon receipt, and was told from the company CIO that the chillers were fine/operable upon being decommissioned a few years ago.

I was wondering is there a decent resell market for these types of items, or would I need to keep a lookout for something much more substantial in size and/or quantity (if it is even feasible). I primarily scrap most everything I run across but have had some luck in reselling some more up-to-date computers to a local shop, but this is something I am unfamiliar with apart from just tearing it down.

Here are a few pictures and links for reference. Any tips, comments, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks Again




https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/ACRC5 ... v-50-60hz/

https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/SURTD ... se-to-120/

The short answer: not really.
UPS units, if they work, are useful to have and utilize, but like any other battery, they lose their effectiveness over time. For these reasons, businesses are hesitant to buy used units, among other reasons. Would you buy a used car battery from a guy without knowing how long it has been used?
In my experience, most mid sized to large businesses that utilize server equipment will use a third party to manage their equipment, i.e. repairs and upgrades. If you were to obtain a server from one of these companies, you'll likely have a dead one, a legacy one, or one that they simply did not have the energy to trade back in for a credit on a new one (or one that the third party didn't even want).
That said, the interest is in super new equipment and super old equipment to maintain legacy servers.
There are companies that will purchase your server crap, but they generally offer pennies and want you to have multiple skids, but it's worth a phone call or two to verify what you have.
As far as chillers, it's kind of the same deal, but more specialized. They are essentially big AC's and die after a few years, like your window unit at home. Even if yours blow cold, who knows for how much longer.
Tear down the chillers and scrap your batteries. Maybe you can retrofit one of those chillers to serve as a kegerator.

I wouldn’t discard UPS so quickly.
One common trend is to pull the batteries from Working units and sell the case and board, without batteries.
Depending on the model and options I’ve watched them go for $20+ easily enough.
If it has an rs232 Jack you have an easy sell. Always, regardless of age. Something that was once common on every UPS is now only found on enterprise level equipment. But the method is still popular with many millions of techs out there.

I’ve walked into server rooms with a 1980s UPS units and some voltage kits using gel batteries and an iPod touch to run whole server racks’ shut down safety.
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Coolers are a rather unique issue. Most are designed for specific equipment.
Generic rack coolers are easy to sell. Especially in the wrong category on ebay. Place them in home audio or video, not computers servers. Clean working rack coolers are popular at the moment for higher end home theatre users as long as they conform to standard rack units (1u, 2u, etc).

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As with anything, if you feel the juice is worth the squeeze, do some research and determine the second hand market in your area.
For me, nobody buys them in this area to repurpose, with the odd exception of people living off-grid, although they typically seek larger, more marine type batteries.
UPS units are so cheap that they have gone the way of flat screen tv's: you used to be able to make a killing when the getting was good salvaging PS boards/inverters for a decent amount of cash. Now, you can buy a new TV for $50 bucks and nobody cares about repairing them.
Could you sell a UPS shell sans battery? Sure. But the people seeking such an item are cheap, and cheap people typically don't like to pay up.
If you had enough of them, like multiple skids, that may pique the interest of a larger company that deals with second hand ups battery replacement and sales, if such a company exists.

You make good points.
Again I mention the key thing is a live kernel and a serial controller and port.
That’s where the money is.

Today a dumb or generic usb ups is $20 with a 12 hour quarter-load. But add a live kernel (which is free to implement) and the price jumps to $50.
Sadly the ability to find a live kernel (Unix or BSD or Linux) and a serial controller with an RS-232 port is now purely enterprise level kit.

the market is small: old small businesses, retro computing, … but includes the smart home marketplace as well.

Is it worth it? That’s up to to holder. $5-$10 base is a small amount for a lot of boxing work.
Find those gems though (there are a lot of them out there) and it’s a quick sell. Not a lot of money but a quick sell.

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I appreciate the replies.


I went ahead and scrapped everything out. Combined with some other items, I should have a decent a decent load to my local yard (despite prices being low),and will save any boards for my next Boardsort run.

I think from doing some digging most companies were looking for 10KVA or larger units (preferably) before they would consider any purchasing. These were not up to size.

You were spot on about the third-party management handling everything. Makes sense although it hadn't crossed my mind initially.

Thanks.