"Batter Replaced" notification received, along with other emails. Battery or entire UPS is the culprit?

[pkokkinis]

I have almost all my email notifications turned on. For the past few months, I keep getting automated emails that my ups is "On Battery", then a minute later, "No Longer On Battery".  Later, I'll get an email that says "Battery Needs Replacing", then I'll get the email that says "Battery Replaced". This Smart-UPS X1500 is in a locked server room only I have access to. What's going on? Yes, the ups is old and is on its second OEM battery replacement. Should I get another APC battery for it, or replace the ups altogether?

[Teken]

The battery is rated for 3-5 years of service life based on usage, temperature, and environmental conditions. The cells are designed to endure 260 full depletion cycles when new.

If the power quality is poor in your region the UPS will try to compensate using the AVR circuit. If the AVR is not able to compensate for the dirty power it will go into battery only inverter mode to provide a clean sine wave to the connected loads.

If the upper and lower transfer voltage is set too narrow it will also make the UPS go into battery only inverter mode.

You can adjust the power quality and transfer (upper / lower) voltages to something you believe is acceptable.

Changing both will extend the battery service life while trading off lower / higher voltage (sag vs rise).

While adjusting the power quality from normal to the other two selections will allow dirtier power to be accepted by the UPS.

Dirty power can be input voltage, rapid voltage swings, frequency drift, to higher THD. 

Making these changes will result in less email notifications too! At the end of the day if the batteries are more than 3 years old replace them!

Ensure you update the battery replacement date, initiate a self test, and complete a battery calibration with at least 30% load attached.

Doing the above will reset the internal counters, adjust the charging algorithm, and provide the most accurate operational runtime to be displayed on the LCD / NMC.

Lastly, a hardware refresh should be well defined in your organization. The mean average is every five years for small units. Larger rack mount units 5-10 years based on environmental factors and usage.

20 KVA and above run until expired or where new technology makes sense to save on energy costs, battery maintenance, replacement, and operational runtime such as using LiFePO4 cells.