Back-UPS XS 1500 uses and depletes Battery when plugged in

[Anonymous user]

One of my APC UPSes is a Back-UPS XS 1500, It's old but has worked fine until today. It has a relatively new APC replacement battery (less than one year).

We had a brief power fluctuation (not a complete outage) today and the unit flipped to Battery only, gave off alarms, and I waited for it to simply switch back online. Everything else not plugged into it was still powered, but the UPS ran down until its battery was used up.

I have two newer APC units in other rooms, one of which I plugged into the same circuit. It worked fine.

I have the manual and I checked the Transfer Voltage and Sensitivity Adjustment. It was already set to low but I set it to Medium and tried that. It failed, so I then set it back to low. No change in behavior.

I am not getting a red battery warning but whenever I plug it in and turn it on, I get the green online light blinking for a few seconds, then the battery light comes on while the green light blinks, then the green light stops but the yellow battery light remains on. The alarm starts a few seconds after that. So its not recharging. I assumed there's a problem with the battery but I see no indicator light for that condition.

Looking through the forum and the manual's troubleshooting guide, I haven't been able to find anything specific to the pattern of indicator lights I'm getting besides the adjustment mentioned above.

Anyone have a suggestion what it might be?

[BillP]

Hi,

Try resetting the unit. It could be an internal fault.

To do this, follow the below procedure; 

1: Disconnect any attached load.

2: Unplug the UPS from the wall socket.

3: Disconnect the UPS' internal battery.

4: Push and hold the "On" button on the UPS for 5 seconds

5: Reconnect internal battery.

6: Plug UPS in to known good power source.

7: Turn UPS on.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

The reset steps looked promising but after I did the procedure and plugged it back in I got a red light for a moment (that was new) then the flashing green online light but then it went back into the same old Battery yellow light and alarm.

So either the battery is kaput or the UPS is kaput. Since it's the only UPS I have that uses that particular battery, its not worth trying a new battery and discoverng it's the unit.

It was great while it lasted - I'm guessing I have had it at least ten years.

@ Bill - Thanks for your suggestion.