cashregisterguys.com Blog

What happens when your power fails. Well with most cash registers, nothing happens (at that point). Cash Registers are ROM based and designed to store the current transaction you were working on when the power failed. When the power supply is restored the cash register will probably be right back to the spot the power fail happened.

However there are some major problems that often occur when the power fails. Cash Registers come with rechargeable batteries that store your program and sales data when power fails. That is a great feature, as long as the battery is good. Register batteries are often only good for 3 to 5 years (some less) so when you have a brief power failure you will loose everything in the register. If you have a bad battery it will do you no good to re-program the register until the battery is replaced. Most cash register batteries, are not the typical AA battery, but rather soldered in units. You could expect a charge of $200.00 to $500.00 for a battery replacment depending on your make and model and if you take the machine in or have a tech travel to you.

If you do have a power failure, unplug your cash register and do not plug ity back in until the power has been restored. This will keep the register from being damaged due to a spike in power (yes, I have seen them blown up).

And to wrap this up, when you store a cash register for more then a couple nights it should be plugged into power. It does not need to be turned on, just plugged in. We get calls every summer from people that say “It worked when we stored it last winter”, well now you know why it no longer works!

TCRG

Cash Registers do benefit from a Surge Protector. Keeping Spikes and Surges from going through your machine can improve the life of a register. A decent Surge protector will cost from $50.00 to $125.00 dollars. I’m not talking about a cheap plug strip. If your register is having data issues then it was probably damaged from an electrical problem. So no the salesperson is not just trying to get you to spend more. And by the way a good life span for a register is about 5 to 7 years. Anywhere around there you got your moneys worth. I have seen registers well taken care of last for 10 to 15 years.

TCRG