Smart-UPS 1400, strange behaviour, what is going on?

[Anonymous user]

Couple of issues I've noticed:

1) I installed a new battery a few weeks ago (old one was completely dead), just recently I ran the runtime calibration through the Powerchute software, load on the UPS at the time was about 34%. Much to my disappointment, it only lasted about 10 minutes before ending the runtime calibration, and now the Powerchute software says I only have 9 minutes of backup time, this is with a 36% load only! At 45% it's even worst: 6 minutes and the battery LEDs start flashing. I would have expected the runtime to be much better than this especially with brand new batteries. Why is this?

2) Second thing that caught my attention, after the UPS returned to mains power following the runtime calibration, it switched back and forth between AC and battery for a period of a few minutes. About 1-2 seconds on battery, then about 10 seconds on AC, and all over and over again, with the time on AC getting progressively longer until eventually it stayed on AC power. This behavior can be reproduced, if I unplug it and let it run on battery for a couple minutes and plug it back in, it will do the same thing. Is this normal behavior? Some kind of self test or something?

Thanks in advance for any help/insight regarding these two issues.

Message was edited by: TheMG

[Techie_apc · Accepted solution]

TheMG,

The battery constants give the battery status via their life expectancy. If the battery ages and is “exhausted”, the constant is overwritten. The management software calculates the runtime of the UPS with these constants.If the battery is now replaced, a self test must be done with the new batteries. Through it, the red battery replace indicator goes out and the battery constants should be reset to the standard settings. This does not occur in some cases. Therefore, the constants must be reset manually. Please call in the APC Customer Care Center at 1-800-800-4272 as they can walk you through the steps to adjust the battery constant manually.

Regarding the second issue, I recommend you to adjust the UPS sensitivity to Medium or Low and check if the same situation persists. Click here to know the sensitivity adjustment procedure.

I hope that this helps.