This reply was originally posted by c on APC forums on 8/14/2012
Thanks for the info. I called the help line and they advised that the software and LCD display may be inaccurate (?) and the best thing is to do an actual test by pulling the plug out of the wall.
So I tried this. First of all I got an immediate pop-up from PowerChute trying to put my machine into hibernation. I suppose I have a setting for it to do this when there is 5 minutes to go (or less). Anyway, I hit cancel and waited. After 5.5 minutes the LCD and the software were saying 0 battery capacity and I got another pop-up saying that the power was about to go and the machine shutdown. I don't know if there is a cancel option there too, but it shut off my machine as I was re-plugging the UPS back in.
I don't know which of 5.5 or 7 minutes is the correct answer since I'm not prepared to actually let my machine crash through lack of power, despite the help desk's advice.
Another data point, though, is that the 'time on battery' is reported as 11min30seconds, and this corresponds to a real power-outage, my test, plus a couple of other short 10-20 sec tests. I'd conclude that the total run time on batteries is indeed about 5.5 minutes.
The help desk person told me the run time - for 190W load - should be 9 - 12 minutes.
My conclusion is that the UPS is going back to the store as DOA. 5.5 minutes is not good enough.