Wednesday, April 12, 2006

How to test your APC UPS Battery.

The first step is to get a hairdryer out, plug it into the back of the APC UPS unit. Unplug all other outlets being used by the unit, then turn on hairdryer. Remove cord from wall outlet, if unit continues to work it should between 3-4 minutes before the hairdryer stops working. Anytime less than that its safe to say you need a UPS battery replacement.

Come back, more details to come

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The average hair dryer is 1000 watts. Many smaller UPSs are 400-500 watts maximum output. Do you think it is wise to have a 400W UPS drive a 1000W hairdryer, even for a few minutes?

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

That's 1000 watts on high. Use a lower setting and you're only testing for a short period of time, most units(UPS) are somewhat under rated. The Units are also protected from overload-----circuit breakers.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it a bad idea to unplug the UPS as a test because it removes the ground connection? I've always been told to trip a breaker to remove power, leaving the grond connection intact.

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

Yes, it removes the ground and it would be a better idea to kill the breaker, but I don't feel it puts anyone in jeopardy.

Anonymous said...

Ahh,

I'm in Australia, My two APC UPS Units have piggyback type plugs in them, not the normal three pin plug that is on the end of a Hairdryer, so, this test doesn't work here.

ANy other ideas?

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

Australia,

You can trip the circuit breaker , works the same as pulling the AC plug.

Anonymous said...

The best way to do it is to purchase an A/hr tester for 12 volt batteries.

Then you take out the battery and run the A/hr tester against the battery.

If the label on the battery says X number of Amps/Hour, and the tester says anything under that. The battery is bad.

UPS' tend to go bad in two ways: 1) The battery is bad 2) the UPS is bad and destroying batteries

UPS' tend to go bad because they are overloaded and this fries the circuits / batteries.

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

YES, but the tester is a added expense, that not everyone can afford.

Unknown said...

If the braker goes out the UPS won't keep the PC working, but if I just unplug the cord from the wall it keeps going. Why? is this problem with battery or with the electronics of the UPS?
Thenks

Anonymous said...

Couldn't you just pull the plug and see how long your computer keeps running?

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

Yes, but if it's has no run time left on your batteries, you'll have a hard shutdown on your computer/server and can damaged your equipment, is it worth the risk?

Anonymous said...

This TEST is OK to see if the battery is functioning, but how do you test the charging circuit to ensure the UPS is providing a charge to the battery?
I put a new battery in my UPS 3 months ago and the power went out yesterday and my equip shutdown.....I would like to validate BOTH.

Anonymous said...

Use a laptop instead of a desktop PC or server. It's risk free since when the UPS battery runs down, the laptop will let you know that it has switched to its own battery.

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

Great idea, but laptop draw is much less and not enough to load the UPS.

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

To: This TEST is OK to see if the battery is functioning

I would need to know how long power was off?

APC UPS Battery Expert said...

renegade83 said...

If the braker goes out the UPS won't keep the PC working, but if I just unplug the cord from the wall it keeps going. Why? is this problem with battery or with the electronics of the UPS?
Thenks

Answer:
Loss of Power(AC) should make the ups switch to backup either way. check the power with breaker off @ the plug(AC).