What does end of life look for with an APC UPS battery?

[Anonymous user]

I've got a BR1500 that's been in constant use for about 5 years, generally with a 400 watt load and few power interruptions. The battery is rated for 3-5 years, which I assume to mean the battery is near the end of its useful life.

The manual says that I'll need an RBC33 replacement, and that the BR1500 will start alarming one minute out of every 5 hours when the battery is nearing end of life.

Is there good reason to replace the battery before the UPS alarms, just based on the 5 years elapsed? It's still lasting through the occasional brief power outage or voltage drop, which is all I ever see around here.

Will the battery have started a precipitous decline around the time it alarms, or can I assume that I've got time for a mail order replacement once the alarm starts?

Message was edited by: brian.mcgroarty

[BillP · Accepted solution]

in most circumstances, the replace battery alarm that you speak of should start alerting you when the battery is about a month away from becoming total toast. depending on environmental conditions and battery usage over the past five years, this window could be a little shorter but usually it is not. the self test compares the voltage drop versus the load while the UPS is on battery against an internal table on the UPS. if the voltage is out of range, then the alarm becomes present, indicating the battery should be replaced. as i mentioned, in most circumstances, this is usually gradual - where the battery will alert you and then most likely fail completely around a month later.

i would probably just wait for the replace battery alarm to notify you that its time to replace the battery. the only issue is that you'd have to deal with the replace battery alarm once every five hours until you replace the battery. as i eluded to, each situation is unique and there is a very slim chance that you'd have less time between the alarm and complete failure.