Apc Br-1500-IN gives no back up or less than 3 min backup time,just 5 months old...

[Anonymous user]

Hello guys,my apc ups started to malfunction from yesterday like it gives no back up or shows 1-2 min backup time, which was 60-70 min when it was working fine,this happened when main power went and generator power kicked in and an Led with Avr shown after changing the socket the led went off but battery was completely drained out,but its always been plugged in,if main line fails we have backup generator to automatically  supply line so my ups is almost online for about 90% of time it takes about 6-7 sec for generator power to kick in sensitivity was kept on high setting,now i have removed all the load from surge protector socket just cpu alone is connected the display shows 75 watt and just 1-3min back up time,the ups had been only 5 months old,i havent contacted customer service yet,thinking of i could solve with your guys help..BW6RO6qo0sS5aisjA0QOVQ%3D%3D&Rest-Api-Key=d3Bhc3F1aWw6NjM3MzU2MWEtNzYzMC00OTc5LTkyMTAtOTJjYTU0NGEwZWFl.jpeg QTYY6CafYPnSPXFZnzOX5Q%3D%3D&Rest-Api-Key=d3Bhc3F1aWw6NjM3MzU2MWEtNzYzMC00OTc5LTkyMTAtOTJjYTU0NGEwZWFl.jpeg DC6%2BZ6C6c2WtmZfdtjyvZw%3D%3D&Rest-Api-Key=d3Bhc3F1aWw6NjM3MzU2MWEtNzYzMC00OTc5LTkyMTAtOTJjYTU0NGEwZWFl.jpeg 97Vkc27p2I1UPc%2BVqwE%2B3Q%3D%3D&Rest-Api-Key=d3Bhc3F1aWw6NjM3MzU2MWEtNzYzMC00OTc5LTkyMTAtOTJjYTU0NGEwZWFl.jpeg %2BhiQWGjbvPBh9lRIwy6Juw%3D%3D&Rest-Api-Key=d3Bhc3F1aWw6NjM3MzU2MWEtNzYzMC00OTc5LTkyMTAtOTJjYTU0NGEwZWFl.jpegwhen i ran self test with power chute software it shows everything is working fine,even for a low grade ups the battery last for atleast a year, i suspect its something else and i cant figure it..pls help me guys..TY

[BillP]

Can you provide the first six digits of the UPS serial number to help verify age? You may have gotten it 5 months ago but perhaps the battery is older.

[Anonymous user]

Sure mam heres the details..

Model No: Br1500G-in
Sr.No :E21434011129

Older batteries ? That makes sense,but still battery came fitted with the device in the box it was not seperate...

FYI i spoke to customer care rep on the phone, he said this model needs to be switched off when not in use atleast for 7 hours, i use it online 24*7 and always plugged in coz cant afford to power off the pc due to high time work,during night hours i put constant downloads, today i have switched off the ups and disconnected all loads and left it plugged in as he recommended for 12 hrs .... but still power chute reads only 12-14 min back up with fully charged battery with no load connected.. Pls refer the attached images.. Thank You for you response Mam..

[BillP]

A UPS is designed to stay on all the time so I am not sure why someone would tell you to turn it off when you're not using it. 

Keep in mind the estimate in PowerChute for runtime is just that - an estimate. You should validate the amount of on battery runtime that you get and to be sure there is nothing interfering, unplug the USB cable from the UPS and let it run until it turns off. (You may want to use a non-critical load for a test like this rather than your computer.) This will help identify how much runtime you are getting without any software interference and also could help with a calibration. If it is still reported incorrectly, this may calibrate the runtime reported value as well.

I suggested a battery issue because yes, the battery comes with the UPS, but if it had been sitting on the shelf for a while before you purchased it, perhaps the battery was older and end of life. From the serial number you provided, I am guessing it is from 2014 but the serial number looks a little off for the first two characters. Not sure if you can double check it.

If none of this works, the first recommendation would be that your local support try a new battery in the UPS.

[Anonymous user]

I exactly asked him the same question, he said this not an online ups its a line interactive ups which means i have to switch off to make it get charged,i know the answer was pretty dumb still i dint wanna fight for a nut answer and not get help,instead i called them today again gave my ref no...and finnally they gave me a service apointment to my place by their engineers within 4 working date...

also today i tested the ups with no load,it was shocking to see the ups started with 12 min approx with 100% charged battery and started to self discharge by itself  and within 1-11 min time it was exhausted completely and shut off with a beep...

am also guessing this issue is similar to one of the recent post here something mentioned like battery constant and hyperterminal but,am no expertise in this field so i didnt wanna try something am not familiar with...

pls refer the attached pic mam...

[BillP]

Hmm. On the serial number, I am concerned this could potentially be conterfeit or something. Did you purchase it from an authorized reseller? The serial number is not in the correct format...

Also, battery constants are not applicable to Back-UPS products.

And yes, I completely disagree with the information you got on charging and how that works. I understand you didn't want to fight though which makes sense.

[Anonymous user]

Am sure the product is 100% genuine not because i bought from Amazon.in,but the seller i bought from is like a Authorised distributor to the city or something like that in large scale,i went to their warehouse for replacing a bad unit and pick it up by myself,i saw they have this huge collection of APC products i mean all types of ups i think including the ones that looks like a refrigator,dvrs,cpu cabinets and like huge power distribution box..so am dang sure these guys dnt mess around with fake products,if you suspect this could be a counterfiet then those customer service reps would have found out its a fake product right? once i gave the serial no they gave me my own informations like my address, purchased date,from who, by what, i was stunned how did these guys know all this, i havent even registered the product...

is there any other way to tell if batteries are dead like using multimeter, load tester on battery terminals?

and what is that avr led mean, everything happened only after it lit ...are power geneartors are bad for ups we use 150kVA genset which supply 415vAC and yes there are lots of time power spikes during switch over but can it be affecting the ups?

[BillP]

Just because they have many UPSs does not mean they are genuine  and yes, I would think your local tech support would notice a problem with the serial number but I cannot be sure since I am based on North America and don't know who you're dealing with over in India. 

AVR is automatic voltage regulation and boosts or trims the voltage if the incoming voltage is too low or high respectively. This is done using an internal transformer rather than going to battery power and using up your battery and shortening the life (if it happens too frequently). AVR is intended to kick in for short events of too high/low voltage. If you have a constant issue and boost or trim is always on, then that is not really good and the root cause of an input power problem should be investigated.

UPSs can be used with generators assuming the power from them is not constantly "dirty" causing the UPS to go to battery and AVR 24/7. Depending on what the generator is specifically doing and how "dirty" the output power is, then yes, it could potentially damage the UPS or shorten its life if it has to be used more often. These are electrical components and moving parts that have a design based on a typical operating environment and constant AVR and constant to/from battery switching could affect the UPS lifetime.

You can measure the DC voltage on your battery with a voltmeter but I doubt it will tell you anything. The UPS "sees" the battery which means it has an acceptable voltage. Good voltage on a battery does not necessarily mean it is good. If you research lead acid type batteries, you'll see this mentioned in various white papers, whether APC or other vendor white papers.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

If What you say abt generator is true am going to get a 3-4Kva 415VAC 3 phase wide range stablizer and connect the ups to it  ensuring ups and other devices gets safe input and regarding the ups issue,the engineer showed up today and replaced a new battery but even after replacing it showed the same values 12min, then he connected the ups to his windows xp laptop,and ran a self test and while running he hit the replace battery date numerous times untill the ups display showed up the correct value, i dnt understand why does he have to use the date on 2003,he have set his laptop on this date, so the message pops ups and says battery replacement date on 2003 and he hit yes...and the ups showed the estimated min to 41-42 i have conneceted a 50inch led tv to it...

and i asked him abt the replaced battery if they were good, he replied its good,and said its a calibration error and it can be  caused again in 6 months i was like ,i asked him what should i do if the problem repeats he said book the complaint again  he or some one will be there to correct it..

now the ups is running fine and thanks a lot for your Advice Angela...now you may close the thread Mam...

[Anonymous user]

Voltage reading of any battery will tell you the charge state eg. fully charge 13.8V, somewhat discharged 10.8V. 

This doesn't answer the problem original poster is experiencing. I'm actually having the same more or less the same issue with the same model unit. I'm hoping to expand on the topic and thus our collective knowledge and hopefully we arrive at a working conclusion, better yet solution. 

Voltage reading only tells you percentage of charge, full or otherwise. It doesn't tell you the capacity of the battery. So how does the UPS  determine how much runtime is left in the battery. I'm asking this very question. In this writing I'm going to try answering it to the best of my knowledge about battery charging/discharging. I'm not a qualified engineer in this field but I have quite some experience working with rechargeable batteries and a few "intelligent" battery chargers. 

An intelligent battery charger/discharger measures various parameters among which is voltage, current and time. 

Given any battery, in any unknown charge state, the charger will first charge it, lest it's empty which could damage the battery if discharged, until voltage reading gives it a "signal" that battery is fully charged. I will elaborate on this later. It then stops the charging, reads the temperature, wait to cool down then starts the discharging process. At this stage, the micro-controller inside the charger keeps track of voltage, ampere and time. At the end, it is able to determine the capacity and calculated runtime of the battery. It may go on to charging state again till full as a "second opinion" In the reverse logic. 

As to how a charger determines if the a battery is full at charging time here's one of the many methods. The charger takes reading of the voltage while charging. Voltage rises as battery is charging. At the peak of its capacity, voltage drops at a fraction of a volt. This is what the charger reads as signal to stop charging. It may go through a few iteration of reading this to make sure the battery is peaked off. This method is known as delta-V. 

I'm not sure if APC UPS employs the same method. 

I just got my APC unit too I have not applied this knowledge to investigate the issue at the time of this writing. 

Cheers.