UPS Asking for me to replace the battery, but the battery seems fine.

[Anonymous user]

I have a Back-UPS model XS 1500G, and there is an "X" flashing on the LCD screen, and I'm getting emails from it telling me that I need to replace the battery. I'm confused by this, because according to the UPS, I have 44 minutes remaining on the battery. That's certainly enough for me! I'm trying to figure out if there something in the logic that's broken here, or maybe there's a bug in the firmware or something? This is really annoying me, because one day when the battery really does need to be replaced, I won't know whether or not to believe it at this point.

This has happened once before but the notice went away after a power-cycle.

Below is the output from the email it sent me.

Subject: upsmon UPS battery needs changing NOW.
 
upsmon UPS battery needs changing NOW.
 
APC      : 001,038,0985
DATE     : 2016-05-18 13:57:09 -0400  
HOSTNAME : upsmon
VERSION  : 3.14.12 (29 March 2014) debian
UPSNAME  : upsmon
CABLE    : USB Cable
DRIVER   : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2016-04-12 20:47:41 -0400  
MODEL    : Back-UPS XS 1500G 
STATUS   : ONLINE REPLACEBATT 
LINEV    : 119.0 Volts
LOADPCT  : 15.0 Percent
BCHARGE  : 100.0 Percent
TIMELEFT : 44.5 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 7 Percent
MINTIMEL : 5 Minutes
MAXTIME  : 0 Seconds
SENSE    : Medium
LOTRANS  : 88.0 Volts
HITRANS  : 139.0 Volts
ALARMDEL : No alarm
BATTV    : 27.0 Volts
LASTXFER : Automatic or explicit self test
NUMXFERS : 3
XONBATT  : 2016-05-10 18:52:01 -0400  
TONBATT  : 0 Seconds
CUMONBATT: 16 Seconds
XOFFBATT : 2016-05-10 18:52:08 -0400  
LASTSTEST: 2016-05-10 18:52:01 -0400  
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x05000088
SERIALNO :   
BATTDATE : 2015-05-19
NOMINV   : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts
NOMPOWER : 865 Watts
FIRMWARE : 866.L8 .D USB FW:L8
END APC  : 2016-05-18 13:57:10 -0400  

[BillP]

Hi,

The warning is triggered when a self-test fails. The test switches the unit to battery to test with the attached load. The battery voltage shown looks good. You should kill AC to the UPS with the load and check the battery voltage. If it drops drastically that indicates a bad battery pack and it should be replaced. If it does not then you should brain dead the UPS to reset it. 

to brain dead 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]

Thanks for your reply. I did what you asked and as I type this, it seems fine - but I'm not 100% trusting it since I've seen this problem come and go before. Hopefully your reset trick is what it needed. I'll keep my eye on it.

Before I reset it, I captured the stats while it was running on battery. The results are below, in case any of the stats point to anything (you did mention battery voltage).

----------

APC      : 001,037,0918
DATE     : 2016-05-19 21:05:03 -0400  
HOSTNAME : upsmon
VERSION  : 3.14.12 (29 March 2014) debian
UPSNAME  : upsmon
CABLE    : USB Cable
DRIVER   : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2016-05-19 21:01:06 -0400  
MODEL    : Back-UPS XS 1500G
STATUS   : ONBATT
LINEV    : 0.0 Volts
LOADPCT  : 3.0 Percent
BCHARGE  : 98.0 Percent
TIMELEFT : 114.2 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 7 Percent
MINTIMEL : 5 Minutes
MAXTIME  : 0 Seconds
SENSE    : Medium
LOTRANS  : 88.0 Volts
HITRANS  : 139.0 Volts
ALARMDEL : No alarm
BATTV    : 24.9 Volts
LASTXFER : Low line voltage
NUMXFERS : 2
XONBATT  : 2016-05-19 21:04:03 -0400  
TONBATT  : 60 Seconds
CUMONBATT: 218 Seconds
XOFFBATT : 2016-05-19 21:03:46 -0400  
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x05060010
SERIALNO :  
BATTDATE : 2015-05-19
NOMINV   : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts
NOMPOWER : 865 Watts
FIRMWARE : 866.L8 .D USB FW:L8
END APC  : 2016-05-19 21:05:03 -0400  

[Anonymous user]

Unfortunately, my UPS is at it again. Exact same issue. It's e-mailing me telling me I need to replace the battery. This is really annoying me, because when the day finally comes where I really do need to replace the battery, I doubt I'm going to trust the UPS as I am getting false alarms again (this is the third episode) and I haven't had this UPS for a year yet. The latest output is below.

---

Subject: upsmon UPS battery needs changing NOW.
 
upsmon UPS battery needs changing NOW.
 
APC      : 001,038,0985
DATE     : 2016-07-05 04:13:08 -0400  
HOSTNAME : upsmon
VERSION  : 3.14.12 (29 March 2014) debian
UPSNAME  : upsmon
CABLE    : USB Cable
DRIVER   : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2016-05-19 21:05:33 -0400  
MODEL    : Back-UPS XS 1500G 
STATUS   : ONLINE REPLACEBATT 
LINEV    : 120.0 Volts
LOADPCT  : 14.0 Percent
BCHARGE  : 100.0 Percent
TIMELEFT : 46.4 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 7 Percent
MINTIMEL : 5 Minutes
MAXTIME  : 0 Seconds
SENSE    : Medium
LOTRANS  : 88.0 Volts
HITRANS  : 139.0 Volts
ALARMDEL : No alarm
BATTV    : 27.0 Volts
LASTXFER : Automatic or explicit self test
NUMXFERS : 6
XONBATT  : 2016-07-04 19:12:47 -0400  
TONBATT  : 0 Seconds
CUMONBATT: 19 Seconds
XOFFBATT : 2016-07-04 19:12:56 -0400  
LASTSTEST: 2016-07-04 19:12:48 -0400  
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x05000088
SERIALNO :   
BATTDATE : 2015-05-19
NOMINV   : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts
NOMPOWER : 865 Watts
FIRMWARE : 866.L8 .D USB FW:L8
END APC  : 2016-07-05 04:13:09 -0400  

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thank you, they're going to replace the battery.