APC (UPS) How Long Before Battery Replacement

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I have the dreaded peep-peep battery life end warning this morning
Annoying in that I did not get an e-mail from the APC as I do every month with a health check - investigations in progress.

Anyways, the battery has lasted just over 5years so not bad as APC say up to five years.
I’ve ordered a new one from APC Schneider & it should be arriving in a few days

My questions to APC UPS users -

  1. what battery life have you experienced
  2. did you get any warning that the failure warning was coming
  3. have you found a way to turn off the warning beebs, my phone & broadband are powered from the UPS.
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Hi Mike,

We used to use small 240V 1ph APC UPS units at work and I would say that 5 years is typical (possibly even good) for usable lifespan.
I can’t say how to disable the beeper, ours were in a cupboard and we had to fit additional remote alarms so that we could hear them!
I guess you could trace the circuit in side and cut the connections to the noisy transducer!
We also found that the electronics in several of these units failed prematurely.

Even the large 400kVA UPS units which we specify for clients generally only have projected 10 year battery life and many aren’t allowed to reach that point before battery replacement, (8 years being common).

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OK, it seems the unit doesn’t connect to Powerchute so can’t communicate & look into what is possible. I suspect this is because the battery fail has been triggered.
Whatever I have to go away for a few days in the next hour so it’ll all be off anyhow & hopefully the new battery arrives on schedule. When I get back I will rig a temporary power supply to silence the beep & get the rest up & running

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I’ve used an APC UPS since 2010.

I’m on my second unit (first unit replaced last year).

The first battery lasted until 2013 when it was replaced. As I recall it failed suddenly and I got a warning light and email message.

I replaced the battery and things were fine until last year when the unit failed to switch on - or rather it switched on then switched off again. Apparently a common fault due to failure of a capacitor on the PCB.

Instead of messing about I took it to the tip and bought a new one which has a smaller capacity but is still sufficient to do the job.

Hope that helps.

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Some of the APC’s have a night mode where you set the silent hours. If you have this you should be able to manipulate it to silence it.

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Hi @Mike-B
Well, my APC Smart 750 doesn’t do that well, but I am probably working it too hard and not enough cooling airflow.

It was bought (reconditioned unit but with new &AH batteries) and served a single NAS - a ReadyNAS Duo with 2x1TB, which became 2x2GB. The 2x1GB going into USB enclosures and used with an old Linkysys NSLU2 unit.

First set replacement batteries was March 2013 (so 3 years use), by which time there a new main NAS (ReadyNAS Ultra2+/Pro2 with 2x4TB then 2x6TB, a backup NAS (ReadyNAS Ultra2 with the 2x4TB and the original ReadyNAS Duo with was max’ed at 2x2TB.

Second set of replacement batteries was Feb 2016 with 9AH units (just under 3 years), by which point the UPS was in a cabinet with all the NAS units and subject to a lower airflow than before, but it needed to be tdied as it all couldn’t be hidden anymore, as a 4 NAS unit setip, with 3 RAID1 volumes (8-9 spinning disks).

Batteries had to be replaced again in Sept 2017 (18 months later) but the main volume now 2x8TB, baclup 2x6TB (2x4TB now used as off-line backup), but also powering the NUC used for ROCK.

Just replaced again in April 2019, again only 18 months later). Main volume is now 2X10TB, backup NAS has volume 2x8TB) and the 2x6TB now unused - must get an USB enclosure for those.

So expecting late 2020 to have to replace again.

Unfortunately, there is no further room in the cabinet for a bigger UPS and obviously limited air-flow, and the summer seem to be getting warmer.

In terms of alerts - no, no Email, just a red lead and a continuous beep.

I use ups-trader.co.uk and buy the cells, transferring the connector assembly - see https://secure.ups-trader.co.uk/17-individual-cells

Simon.

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