How old is too old?

[Anonymous user]

I have a number of BX1500, that I have been faithfully replacing batteries in over the years.  One has recently been 'clicking' and flashing the red battery replace light a few times a second.  It stops when I removed the battery, and now only provides power over the surge ports. (so much for hot swapability?) 🙂

Whilst I had them on a few computers, at this point I use them in one rack and on A/v equipment mainly.  laptops and batteries reduce the dire need for ups.  

Trying to get a new 1440VA UPS seems to far exceed the 65 dollars for new batteries. (probably b/c the new backups seems to have less features and upgrading to a smartups adds a good bit of coin.

I cannot complain about the amount of service these have given (nigh on 15 years maybe) but curious is I should replace soem new batteries this time, patch in larger batteries where the BR14BP slides in, open it up and replace some Caps.  But I am not sure if it is worth it, or how to tell if it helps.  the information out on the USB is not comprehensive, unless there is a tool better than I have.

thoughts on giving these 5 a makeover?  any reason to say the electronics are degraded, or way to determine how much?

thanks!

[Anonymous user]

I'm not sure what APC's official figures for UPS product lifetime are, maybe 5-10 years? In my own personal herd of APC UPS products, I've got a 30 year old (10th week of 1987) APC 1200VX, many Back-UPS units from the early to late 1990s, and many late 90s/early 2000s Smart UPS (750-2200VA, tower and rack mount) still going strong to this day. By way of this empirical evidence, I'd have no hesitation to keep a unit in relatively non-critical service for as long as it works properly. Obviously, everyone has to decide for themselves how much risk they're willing to live with. That said, none of mine have ever let me down.

(I always put a unit through a series of tests at each battery change and make sure it's still working in all modes of operation. For this I have a variable autotransformer to simulate low and high line voltage, several hundred watts of light bulbs for load testing, scopemeter, and so on.)

If you had any other model than the BX1500, I'd readily recommend changing the batteries, doing a load test and calling it good for another several years. Unlike any other APC product I've ever owned, my success rate with these has been nonexistent. Every unit I've owned or come across has failed. Most of them quit working when they wouldn't switch to AC line power after powering up. One lost a surface mounted voltage regulator that powered most of the logic within and left it dead.

It wouldn't be a good idea to retrofit the BX1500 with external batteries because its charging circuit is not fully isolated from the AC powerline. Of course, the usual disclaimers apply (strongly) about overloading the inverter, which isn't really meant to run for an extended period of time, and certainly not at anything like full load.

Most of the Back-UPS series can power up without a good battery installed, but some must have a good battery in place just like most of the Smart-UPS models before they will power up. I'm not 100% sure about the BX1500, but I think it might be one such unit.

apcupsd, which is available for many different operating systems, can coax more useful information out of almost every APC UPS ever made.

If you don't need things like network manageability, the Smart-UPS "C" models (units whose model numbers begin with "SMC") are simpler and less expensive than their full-featured Smart UPS counterparts while still having a true sinewave output (750VA and larger models).

There are also a great many secondhand Smart-UPS models on the market that have been "refurbished" to varying degrees. At the very least, most of them come with new batteries and some degree of warranty coverage from the seller. You could also buy one in need of batteries for pennies on the dollar and get replacement batteries yourself.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

William,

Took a few days to reply, to do a bit more testing on the BX in question.  As they have the same battery as many of my other devices, (alarm, Fibre DMARC, Animal fencing (yes I am the stereotypical US sort working in IT and dreaming of the farm).) I took the opportunity to swap in some batteries.  

The system would not stay on the mains power with fresh batteries that do work in another BX and other systems. So I'll say its Kaput.  I'll open it up and see if I can see the matter but mainly as a learning exercise.  The other BXs I have will function without a battery - and hot swap perfectly fine. 

I don't have a full scope, but will put them through paces to see how they react, I am always curious hot to test the clamping or TVSS functions.  That the main reason I have these still around, my main line in is 125.x/250 Volts, which seems to wear out components hoping for 110.

Any suggestion on good places to obtain refurbed units? I'll look for a new 'C' unit for critical stuff in the Rack, but based on your and other's input,  I will start switching these out.  

Thank you again and Happy new year!