New XS 1300VA with Dirty Battery

[Anonymous user]

I just purchased, unboxed, and set up an APC Battery Backup XS series 1300VA. The battery in it was in upside down and had some sort of white debris and drops (just a few small drops) of some liquid on it. I cleaned it with a paper towel, and it seems to be charging fine. Are these shipped with refurbished batteries? Should I be concerned with the condition of the battery as it came out of the box? The box and inside packaging did not seem to be tampered with and the inspection tag was intact with everything marked passed.

[Anonymous user]

Any signs of corrosion?

[Anonymous user]

I don't see any signs of corrosion around the terminals or around the seal. However, I'm not sure what the stuff was that I wiped off. It didn't look like normal battery corrosion.

I think I'm going to try to take it back to OfficeMax tonight. I'm not sure how cooperative they will be. I should have taken a picture of the battery before cleaning it up. I didn't think too much about it when I unpackaged it, but the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me and made me uncomfortable with using it. It was quite a mess. It looked like it had been sitting on the floor of a warehouse for some time. Little pieces of debris on it and those few drops of some type of liquid. Couldn't have been water or it would have dried long ago.

[Cap1_apc]

Hello,

Can you re-inspect the battery again? Make sure there isn't any liquid or white residue. It's tough to say if that was just packaging material...but there shouldn't be liquid. These units are sold with brand new batteries, provided you purchased from an authorized reseller.

To be safe you may want to call APC to get the battery exchanged under warranty.

[Anonymous user]

I inspected the battery again. I do not see any white residue or liquid remaining. However, when I took the battery out of the unit to connect it, there was definitely white residue and two or three drops of liquid on it. I have no idea what the liquid was. I wiped all that off before I installed the battery. When I just now inspected the battery again, it definitely does not look new. There are several scratches in its plastic. The rest of the unit looks fine. No error messages from the unit, and it seems to be functioning. Although I'm a bit concerned about hooking anything up to it.

The unit came from OfficeMax. As I said before, there was no visual sign that the package had been opened. It was taped shut at the top, and when I removed the tape, some of the box's printing came off with the tape. So I think it would have been obvious if it had been previously opened and returned. The inspection sticker says September 2007, so if the battery was leaking, it seems it would be more obvious than what I observed.

However, it also doesn't seem like it should have come from the factory this way if units are shipped with new batteries.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Bruce,

Let us know if there was a problem with swapping it at Office Max. If there was, contact APC support as Cap1 suggested, and the replacement will be taken care of. This isn't something that should go unattended.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

All good advice. Due to a nasty winter storm here in Ohio, I haven't had a chance to take it back to OfficeMax. I do think I'll have a bit of a battle with them since I cleaned up the battery. In hindsight, I should have let it be and immediately taken it back. It doesn't look bad now, except for several surface scratches. Those were on it straight out of the box.

I need to decide now whether to take a chance on another unit or whether to ask for a refund.