SMART-UPS not holding a charge

[Anonymous user]

I'm not a technically knowledgeable person, so please bear with me and my questions.

I have this model: APC Smart-UPS 1500VA USB - UPS - 1500 VA - external - UPS battery lead acid - 8 output connector(s) - SUA1500

I can't remember when I bought it, but I replaced the battery at least twice, in September 2010 and December 2012. I bought American Battery Company RBC7 batteries from Provantage.

We have a lot of thunderstorms in our area, so power glitches can be frequent. A week or so ago, there was a very brief power glitch -- not more than a couple of seconds -- and the UPS immediately lost its charge and my computer abruptly turned off. I let the UPS charge up again (all Battery Charge lights on, and the ONLINE light on). A couple of days later, another power glitch caused the UPS to lose its charge again, and the computer to shut off.

I've seen no sign that the battery needs to be replaced again, so I'm wondering if something's wrong with the Smart-UPS unit itself? Up until now, it's always worked as expected -- a power outage would give me adequate time to shut down my computer properly (with the UPS beeping until I turned it off).

Are there simple tests I can run to figure out if I need a new battery or a new UPS? Right now, the UPS is still plugged in (and completely charged), but I've temporarily plugged my computer into a lesser UPS that is not a permanent solution.

FWIW, I haven't added any new equipment to the load on the UPS. I've had the same computer and monitor for years.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions. Please let me know if I need to provide more info.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi Marlene,

Did the UPS beep or make any tones at the time the UPS turned off?

What I think we can try is to put a non critical load on the UPS and pull the plug from the wall and see what happens and if it reacts the way it did with the computer. You can also hold down the "on/test" button with that load and see what happens too during the UPS self test. The UPS self test compares the battery voltage drop while on battery with a load. This is not a 100% full proof way to detect every type of battery failure so you could have a battery issue that has not triggered the UPS self test to fail.

December 2012 would be 2.5 years so it could certainly need a new battery based on usage, where the UPS is located (well ventilated, cool ambient temperature, etc?)

[Anonymous user]

Sorry for the very long delay in responding. I can't remember if the UPS beeped when it shut down -- I think it did.

I had unplugged it, but for testing purposes I plugged it back in to let it charge. What happened was that the unit got VERY hot -- I could smell it when I walked into the room, and it was very hot to the touch. We immediately unplugged it and moved it out of the room. It took some time to cool down (several hours at least). 

I didn't make any attempt to test it after that.

Does overheating indicate either that the unit itself is failing or that it's just the battery? Money is an issue these days, so I don't want to buy a new battery unless there's a good chance it will fix the problem.

But I need to make a decision soon -- right now I don't even have a surger protector in use. I have been temporarily using a small, secondhand UPS unit that failed a couple of days ago.

If I need to buy a new unit, how do I determine which one I need?

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

Running that hot and taking hours to cool down usually means that the batteries have vented electrolyte and swelled up. Once it has cooled down and you have everything unplugged, you can try to get the old batteries out (follow the instructions for the RBC [replacement battery] for your UPS model). Sometimes the batteries have swelled so much that you have to disassemble the UPS (not supported or recommended by APC) to be able to get them out.

Sometimes batteries just fail that way (even though they're not supposed to). Other times, it is because the float voltage has drifted out of calibration and the UPS is trying to charge them even though they're fully charged. Unfortunately, you can't tell which it is until you put a set of working batteries in. And you can end up with a nice set of batteries and a bad UPS.

I discussed some of the trade-offs between replacing the batteries and buying a whole new UPS in another forum thread here. [Edited to fix link.]

If you do replace the batteries and have a DC voltmeter, you can check the float voltage after the batteries are fully charged. You normally want to see between 13.6 to 13.8 volts per battery. So a 2-battery UPS would be between 27.2 and 27.6 volts. There are a couple UPS models that use a combination series/parallel battery configuration, so if you get a wildly incorrect number (like half the voltage you expect) with fully-charged batteries that is probably the reason. If the float voltage is out of spec, you can adjust it with an unsupported-by-APC procedure. Just do a web search for "apc float voltage".

Of course, if the unit is in warranty just have it repaired / replaced and don't bother with any of the above.

For sizing a UPS, you can get a rough idea of the power requirements by adding up the wattage of each device you're going to plug into the UPS. This will usually appear on the device itself (it may say something like "300W" or it might say something like "120V 2.5A" and you multiply the 2 numbers together to get wattage). Add them all up and get at least the next size up of UPS. A UPS with a larger size will provide a longer runtime. However, this does not translate across product lines (in other words, a SUA1000RM1U and a SMT1000 won't have the same runtime even though they're both 1000KVA units). Another alternative is to use the APC UPS Selector.

[Anonymous user]

I checked with my husband, who did the actual cabling/uncabling/removal stuff, and he said the unit wasn't cooling down (it felt hot and smelled like hot electricals) after we unhooked it, so he removed the battery. That's when the unit cooled down. He didn't have any trouble removing the battery.

I followed your link, but it took me to a page discussing buying/selling used equipment.

I bought the unit in 2004, so I'm assuming it's way out of warranty. The last battery I bought was -- I think -- American Battery Company RBC7. Is there a different brand of battery I should consider (if I decide to try a new battery before buying a new unit)?

We do have a DC voltmeter, FWIW.

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

Sorry about the bad link. It should be fixed now.

When he removed the batteries, were the batteries hot, or something else in the UPS? If they were both hot, which cooled down first?

I don't know that I would try to put new batteries in an 11-year-old UPS. Normally (depending on temperature and number of transfers to battery) the original battery will last around 3 years. The first replacement will give you 2 to 3 years, and then things start going downhill, ranging from the UPS failing to work at all, to perhaps a year of battery lifetime. That's just my experience as an end user.

APC recommends using genuine APC batteries, which come with all of the miscellaneous parts (cables, trays, fuses and so forth) to simply slide the old one out and the new one in. There are substantial cost savings to be had if you buy bare batteries from a distributor. I wouldn't pay extra for a set of batteries from a company that uses the APC part numbers and has a confusingly similar name.

Before you buy any replacement batteries (APC or other), read the corrected link in my first reply. It should take you to an article here where another user was in the same situation, bought a new battery, and the UPS still didn't work so now they have a good battery and no working UPS to put it in. 

[Anonymous user]

3 seconds ago (in response to Ivan)

Dear sir i have 2 apc RT-6000 UPS with APC ATS these two UPS are getting input voltage from ATS where ATS giving output to other devices in my server room like , Servers, switches, routers etc. as recently we have changed ups batteries and still showing error "UPS batteries Discharge" also on ATS i have selected preferred source to None and sensitivity level high and frequency deviation to wide. 

issues are as below

1. when main power shifts to generator it show event "battery discharge"

2. Showing 100% load on one UPS -A blinking all 5 batteries light on front panel of UPS _A  also showing error                          "battery soon exhausted" 

3. on UPS B event occurred continuously "Battery "discharge condition"

as discussed above i have installed new batteries and set frequency sensitivity level from low to medium and to high prefered source to A or B and None , frequency deviation level from wide , medium etc after dowing all things i have still recieving above discuss events

kindly resolve my issue as all data center is at risk please... 

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

I would suggest opening a new topic as you're asking your question in a topic marked "Solved", so people may not notice it. The "Post a New Discussion" button is sort of hidden. I've circled it and pointed to it with a red arrow in this picture:

 

Please provide the exact model number(s) and serial numbers of the units involved (on the barcode label, usually on the back of the device). Feel free to xxxx the last few digits of the serial numbers if you're concerned about posting them. If you have a management card in the UPS(s), the event log and other data would be useful.

You can also contact local support in Pakistan by clicking here and using the drop-down selector to pick Pakistan. That should give you:

+ 971 4 7099333
10:00AM-7:00PM (Monday-Thursday)
10:00AM-7:00PM (Friday)