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yothenberg
Asked: 2009-05-18 09:45:07 +0800 CST

Replace a UPS battery or buy a new UPS?

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Is it worth buying a replacement battery for a UPS or better to buy a completely new UPS? I have heard a UPS is never the same after the original battery dies and is replaced.

Is it OK to use a third party after-market replacement battery or should you always go with the original manufacture's replacement battery?

My question is specifically about the APC XS 800 (a small business/home UPS) but I'm interested in your thoughts about UPSs in general.

ups

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I've never heard about replacing a battery causing the UPS to never be the same. The only UPS units that I've ever seen are just sealed lead acid batteries that wouldn't cause issues with the UPS electronics unless they weren't specced right (proper voltage and amperage rating). I've used APC and third party batteries and had luck with both. The third party batteries are generally cheaper so that is the way I would go. You don't need to replace the UPS unless there is something inherently wrong with the UPS electronics.

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  2. I would say that it's definately worth buying a replacement battery. Not to mention is probably better on our environment if you're only changing the battery and not the entire unit.

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  3. We've replaced the batteries in our oldest UPSes 3 or 4 times, and I don't see any reason not to keep them going for a while longer. These are a 5U form factor, 3000VA, 120V input and since it doesn't look like they're available any more, I hope they keep running for a while.

    We have about 8 of the smaller 1200-1400 VA SmartUPSes and over the years the electronics on 2 of them have failed, but other than that we've replaced the batteries in those a few times as well.

    I've bought 3rd party SLA (sealed lead acid batteries) for my electric bike, but it never occurred to me to look for UPS batteries from those suppliers. Next time we need replacements, I'll look into it. As far as I know, there aren't a lot of secret design techniques for SLA batteries, so I'd expect batteries with the same ratings to be just as good no matter where you buy them from.

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  4. Industrial UPS usually cost 2 times more, seems logical that they would last longer. APC's web site says to change your UPS if its 5+ years old. i've seen a few forum where people replaced capacitors and MOV's to squeeze more time out of their's, but i wouldn't try if you've never had basic electronic training.

    If the 5+ years old seems a bit early for an equipment that cost so much, its probably a conservative estimate of when the caps are going to start failing.

    I've had just one cap fail on my APC Back-UPS XS 1300, and my PC's power supply failed just after a few repetitive power drop out. (That's usually when you figure out you have a problem with your UPS right?)

    i'm more of an hobbyist though but i think that even if the repetitive switching from inverter to main, along with a bad cap, could've caused my issue, its also possible that a simple surge got through to my equipment. i'm also wondering if the switching itself could've caused a surge, i might eventually buy a Probe 100 Plus from Powertronics so i can detect a failing UPS in the future.

    MOVs being what they are, sacrificial surge protector, you might want to look for a Series Mode Filter to protect your UPS from surges as well. i've been looking at the products from Zerosurge and the technology looks pretty nice. I'm also replacing my UPS, i'm not taking any chances...

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