Hacker News Reader

Comment by wtcactus | Hacker News Reader

Anedoctaly, just last month, my APC UPS started complaining that the battery was dead.

I bought a 3rd party battery replacement (12V), opened the unit (which is not made easy by APC) and was getting ready to replace the batteries, when I measured the current and it was 12.5V. The replacement one, measured 12.3V

I still have no idea why it's complaining the battery is going bad.

View on HN

Battery voltage does not accurately reflect capacity. Only a load test will determine battery health. Much like a body of water can be silted up and shallow, a battery will accumulate internal damage that prevents it from providing sufficient power while under load.

The new battery may not have arrived fully charged. If it has been installed for a little while and given a chance to charge fully you should measure a voltage greater than 12.6. (disconnect battery and let it rest a few minutes before testing). If the voltage is below 12.6 you might have gotten a dud. Do a load test on the UPS to see how long it can power something like a 100 watt incandescent bulb.

Thanks for the explanation, I will try that.

That's a well-known problem with APC UPSes using non-APC batteries. The simple physical solution on one of my 1500s (that does not disrupt power to the clients) is to hold down the power button for about 10 seconds. It will beep, then beep again, at which point you can release the power button. If, after a clunking noise, the display still shows the same battery problem, repeat the procedure and it should go away until next time, whenever that may be. I have apcupsd running on a Raspberry Pi via USB and configured it to send a text to my mobile when the battery complaint happens so that I can perform the button hold solution. So far the periodicity is about a month between such events. I dislike having to do all this, but it is not a show stopper.

Run a load calibration and then if it's one with a network card, go hop in and change the battery install date.

I manage a fleet of 100+ APC, Tripp-Lite, and Xtreme Power UPSes and they all suck on the network management side of things. APC tried/is trying to get away from their NMC cards and sell you on SmartConnect (their bullshit cloud management product), the Xtremes are some random Taiwanese ODM that are hot garbage, and the Tripp-Lites are just miserable UX to deal with.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com