Can I use a BX 1500LCD without the battery pack?

[Anonymous user]

I have a ruptured battery. The UPS was working in non-battery mode and with the beep disabled. Tonight I opened it up to see what kind of battery I need. One of the two batteries in the pack is ruptured. I'm guessing that is the faulty battery. I will probably just buy one 12v 9ah battery to replace the ruptured one, since the whole UPS is only a year old. But whenever I have purchased batteries like this, the terminals are always wrong. So I would like to take the battery to a battery store and get the right one.

So my question:

Can I use the UPS with everything plugged into it, but without the batteries? Will it just work as a fancy power strip or does it require the battery?

Thanks.

[BillP]

if the UPS is only about a year old then the UPS and its battery should be under a warranty. i believe with this particular model, you can turn it on without a battery but you'll get a constant battery disconnected message via the LCD and/or software if you're using that. i dont have this model to test but worst case, just try to turn it on without the battery connected and worst case it will just not turn on. if it turns on, you can use it with no battery though if you don't mind the disconnected battery message. also, don't be surprised if it turns off once in a while due to power blips or other issues where the battery back up functionality would normally intervene.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks. It seems to be working fine without the battery. I am aware of the risk of dropout in cases where battery operation would normally kick in. I have two of these units sitting side by side, backing up one point of sale workstation in my store. We have a lot of power problems and this allows us to finish out a day of work in the case of a complete outage. I moved the computer and monitor to the UPS with the good battery, so that brownouts and such won't crash the system. I should be able to put the new battery in next week sometime. We should be fine until then.

Warranties can be an indicator of the manufacturer's confidence in the product, but some companies still build shoddy products and just build the cost of warranty replacements into the sales price. I think APC fits into the latter category where batteries are concerned. Their batteries rarely last more than a year or so, and these lead acid batteries should last 3-5 years. That's how long I usually get on the replacement batteries. I really ought to just buy good batteries when I buy a UPS and toss the OEM ones. I wish they sold them "batteries not included".

One more thing: the rupture apparently spewed out some pretty hot gasses when it occurred because the plastic lining of the battery compartment was all bubbled up along the line of the crack. The battery also bulged outwards at that end. Interestingly, the battery read 25-point-something volts when I measured with my VOM, but the UPS correctly reported it as dead on the front panel.