The best way to simulate a power failure

[BillP]

Hi, we had 3 batteries fail in our Symmetra unit a few days ago, after an outage. Ejecting them and putting them back in fixed them.


We do want to simulate a power failure, just to see how true the 1hr 55min runtime is on the display.

Is the best way to do a 30-60 min test to just flip the input circuit breakers to off? and then back on again once we want to put power thru to the UPS?

Our UPS is hardwired into the wall, and we would have to access the building power area to actually turn off the switch (which we dont have access to directly).

Thanks,
Dekkar

[Anonymous user]

Your Symmetra detected the bad battery modules when it tried to use them during your power failure. Ejecting and re-inserting them causes the Symmetra to think they're new (or at least different) battery modules. It will probably re-detect them as bad when you do the power failure test.

If you bought all of your battery packs at the same time, it is quite likely that the other modules are of an age where they should be replaced as well because they may start failing soon. You can check the serial numbers on all the battery modules to see if they start with the same 4 or 5 characters, or post them here and someone from APC may be able to look them up - I'm just another end user. I have a Symmetra with 12 SYBT2's and after replacing all of the batteries around 4 years ago, they are now starting to report failures. It started a few months ago, and I pulled those modules out. Some more failed, and I pulled those out, and so on. I'm down to 6 modules now and have new batteries for all 12 on order.

One way to detect some (but not all) pre-failing battery modules is to touch the outside of the module (not by the connector, of course!) and see if it feels hot to the touch.

[BillP]

yes, i agree with terry. generally reseating batteries that 2-5 years old is not a good idea cause they will just fail again during a UPS self test. you should check the age and it is likely if they are all the same age, that they all actually failed or are of reduced capacity.

you'd probably want to check into replacing all of them if they are 2-5 years old instead of discharging them and potentially wasting the capacity they have left while you are pursing new batteries.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi guys, they failed again.


I did flick the input circuit breaker switches (in a very nervous state) and the UPS just switched onto battery mode..


The 1:55 hrs went down to about 60 mins in the first 30 mins...... and then kind of steadied out, I presume that in the first 30 mins the batteries failed etc etc which resulted in reduced runtime.

I'll arrange to get the faulty batteries replaced. We had them all replaced around 2 years ago.


Thanks,
Dekkar