Purchased multiple Smart-UPSes, one has ancient manuf. date and battery is already past replace date?

[TanerH]

Hello,

I just purchased three Smart-UPS devices - one 750C and two 1500C's.  While the 750C and one of the 1500C's had reasonable manufacture dates, the other 1500C has a manuf. date of "Aug 19, 2016", and states "replace battery by "May 27, 2021". (!!)

These were all purchased via the "APC Store" on Amazon (cf. https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/127BCCE4-EDD6-4FE9-AC3D-8E1531BED572 ).

I also noticed that during initial boot, the setup wizard did not ask me for the current date (whereas the other 1500C and the 750C did ask me, one was almost spot-on, the other was off by a month-ish). 

Can anyone either reassure me that this battery will actually last ~4-5 years (which is what the 750C and the other 1500C says - "replace by April 2028"), or do you suggest I contact APC(?) about this in some way? 

I feel like I might have somehow gotten a refurb or something?  Sort of disappointing.

Thanks,

-Taner

[LarryK]

Despite being the "APC" page, various organizations sell the devices and Amazon ships them.

You'd have to take this question up with the actual seller. 

[TanerH · Accepted solution]

I actually ended up contacting APC support and resolving this (for the most part).

Based on the unit's serial number, it was actually manufactured in 2022, even though the unit self-reports as 2016 for some reason.

The battery was actually manufactured in 2023, and so it's brand new.

I had to go through a few "brain dead reset" procedures for the UPS, and unplugged/replugged the Battery (or just used the battery disconnect on the back - much easier) in order to correctly set the "battery start date".  The reason I needed to do several was because the input would "time out" as I was scrolling from some date in 2016 and trying to reach 2023 (it goes ONE DAY AT A TIME).  So I had to do it in 3 steps.  For some weird reason, this unit would only ask me once for the "new date" after telling it "yes" to "is this a new battery?" after reconnecting it.  I had to do a Brain-Dead reset after each to slowly progress things.

Now, the unit is all green in SmartConnect and correctly reports a sane battery replace date.

I am still mildly concerned that the unit is reporting a 2016 manufacture date, and also curious why it claims it's on the latest firmware when they OTHER 1500C just updated to a new version.  I'm still waiting to hear back from APC support on that.

[CourtKPrin]

I had a similar issue with a SCL500RM1UNC purchased via CDW this month. The serial number didn't match what the sticker or box showed. The NMC showed an old manufacturer date (2018?) for the UPS too. I contacted support, tried the factory reset of the NMC, but ended with an RMA. I'm guessing there are some manufacturing issues.