BX1500M poorly-designed battery connector

[ScratchMonkey]

I just bought a BX1500M to protect my home servers. I've used other APC products to protect my systems at the office and have done many battery replacements. I've been designing electronic systems for about 40 years.

As instructed, I flipped over the battery and it failed to seat. I pushed harder and it suddenly popped into place. I then powered up the system and the battery showed empty and refused to charge. I googled for similar issues and found my problem in a Reddit post: The spade lugs in the battery's connector get pushed back into the plastic and don't engage with the matching receptacle in the UPS. I got some needlenose pliers and pulled the lugs back out. I inserted the battery, plugged in the UPS, and saw on the display that I had a full battery. The first time I did this and flipped the UPS upright, the battery dropped a fraction of an inch and disengaged the connection. I tried again, inserting the battery more slowly, felt it engage, and set the UPS on its feet. It's now powering my system (router, switch, burglar alarm, and mini PC). I'm worried that the connection isn't solid and might overheat. I can't really inspect it since it's buried from view and the lugs might still be pushed back and barely connect. There should be something behind those lugs to hold them in place. This could be plastic inserts against a hard stop behind the lugs that are placed as the batteries are assembled. 

Here's the Reddit post with a photo of the battery's connector and the lugs pushed back.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1iw146l/is_this_apc_ups_bx1500m_battery_broken_prong

[Teken]

I would suggest you return the unit and purchase another APC model.

As you noted there are thousands of threads that reference this exact problem and poor design. 🤢

I can assure you upon the next RBC change you’ll be left with an active fault / error code the RBC isn’t detected or present. 🤦‍♂️

At that point the UPS will surely be out of warranty and you’ll need to repair it yourself or buy a new system do to poor design.

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