APC UPS Maintenance

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Ever have a beeping in your office and can’t find the source? We had this happen the other day and it drove us a little crazy. The beeping wasn’t very loud, but it repeated about eight times, then paused for a few minutes, and started up again. At first we thought it was coming from a truck with an automatic backup warning system, but after a hearing it a few times we knew it was coming from inside the room…but where???

Was it a low-battery alert from one of the watches? Perhaps a reminder from an app on the phone? Nope. Turns out it was the “time to replace the battery” signal from the UPS! This is something which happens only 3-4 years so it was understandable that no one recognized the sound. Also, the unit was under one of a desk in the office which muffled the alert, making it not so localizable. Would be nice if there was an app for this 🙂

Having done this battery replacement a few years ago, one would think it would be easier the second time around. And it would’ve been, if we’d ben able to remember how to do it. Specifically, how to open the UPS case. Fortunately, we had documented the process on RDM!

The battery replacement steps were quite simple actually, once we saw how to open the front panel. The only thing of note was we needed to reuse the existing cables and hardware and to install the new batteries in the same original configuration.

This is where the term “Plug and Play” came from…everything was color-coded and the plugs were designed in such a way that it was next to impossible to connect it wrong. A few minutes later the UPS back on line and charging….ready for the next brown/blackout.

Where do we get our replacement batteries? ReplaceUPSBattery.com. They come  in pairs and are cheap enough that we would recommend replacing them both at the same time. All of the replacement UPS batteries sourced by  ReplaceUPSBattery.com feature Absorption Glass Mat (AGM) Sealed Battery Technology, and meet or exceed the original manufacturer specifications regarding quality, durability and performance. Additionally, all their UPS batteries are UL (Underwriters Laboratories) certified.

Having a UPS may seem unnecessary to some for a home office, until an unexpected power glitch messes up a download, or worse…crashes the drive in the middle of backing up your data. It is cheap insurance, maintenance is simple, and definitely worth the effort. Don’t come crying to us if your system got fried due to a surge or a brown-out. You have been warned advised.