Question Weird APC UPS issue

[Texas Kelly]

I have two APC BE550G UPS devices for my equipment - one for my primary desktop PC and the other for my home server and NAS. In the last couple of days, I've been seeing some strange behavior from the latter one where it alarms randomly, and in one instance forced a shutdown on the attached devices after only a couple of minutes. I've been keeping the APC monitoring tool open to see what it reports, and it seems like what's happening is that the UPS thinks that the battery has become disconnected for a very brief period of time - usually no more than a few seconds but sometimes as much as a few minutes.

Does anyone know if a problem like this typically points to a problem with the UPS itself or with the battery? The battery was replaced about two months ago, so this shouldn't be a lifespan issue (the batteries typically last about 2 1/2 years pretty consistently), and it also shouldn't be that the cable has actually come loose since there were no problems following the battery replacement until this weekend. I always keep a spare battery on hand, but if the problem here is more likely the UPS itself, I'd have to purchase that now, so I'd appreciate some direction here. (I'm also curious if I could work around the problem in the short term by removing the USB connection to the UPS from my server.)

 

[hedwar2011]

1) How long have you had the particular unit installed that is signaling issues? Not the battery but the entire unit.
2) Was the battery you replaced it with an after-market, 3rd party, replacement or direct from APC?

 

[punkncat]

I would run a load test on the replacement battery to see if there is a problem with it.

Aside from that it may be worthwhile to use a "wall" power meter to see if the load on your server and NAS has gone up (due to various factors) and surpassing the APC ability to power it. 550 isn't much...

It also appears that unit has an indicator LED on the back, is it lit?

 

[Texas Kelly]

1) How long have you had the particular unit installed that is signaling issues? Not the battery but the entire unit.
2) Was the battery you replaced it with an after-market, 3rd party, replacement or direct from APC?

1. The newest one of the two units is about seven years old (purchased September 2016). I know it's out of manufacturer warranty at this point.
2. I typically purchase genuine APC batteries from 3rd party retailers. This one would have been purchased from Amazon in May 2022 and kept in storage until needed. (I always keep a spare on hand and restock it immediately once I need to use it to avoid downtime for my equipment.)

 

[Ralston18]

Regarding:

"two APC BE550G UPS devices for my equipment".

Although it entails a bit of risk one thing to consider is to swap the batteries between the two UPSs.

Determine if the problem stays with the UPS or follows the battery.

Just a thought.

 

[punkncat]

^Something I would point out about the above comment.

These backups use Sealed Lead Acid batteries that have a lifetime of about 5 years from manufacture. This is due to the process that produces electricity in them physically consumes the plates inside. Purchase of these to store is a super bad idea in that you are basically having these go bad waiting to be used.

In my own experience either this will be a fairly common 12V battery or two in a small adapter block, or simply connected by bladed connectors, which I suspect this one is. You will note that the side of the battery will have a value such as 12V7Ah and also need to pay attention to the dimensions of the battery. (if it will fit, you can always use batts with larger Ah, but not less)
Go online and select a quality replacement at the time that you wish to replace them. Don't wait for failure, do so on a schedule. I recommend no later than ~4.5 years. Your statement that you are only getting 2.5y use indicates that you either have significant power reliability issues, or are buying aged batteries from the getgo.

 

[bill001g]

Not very many options. You kinda need to hope it is just a bad battery in some way. UPS itself is not something most people have the tools or the skills to repair themselves. Not sure you can even get parts even if you could figure it out.

 

[Texas Kelly]

I would run a load test on the replacement battery to see if there is a problem with it.

Aside from that it may be worthwhile to use a "wall" power meter to see if the load on your server and NAS has gone up (due to various factors) and surpassing the APC ability to power it. 550 isn't much...

It also appears that unit has an indicator LED on the back, is it lit?

Not sure how to run a load test. I'm skeptical that a changing load would be a factor because there hasn't been any changes to what's plugged into this UPS since I added the NAS in early 2021, and it's worked normally all this time up until now. The indicator LED is green when the alarms aren't occurring and between the last two alarms, more than 20 hours passed where the UPS functioned normally. I originally thought that a surge or a wiring problem in the wall was to blame, but then I caught the error message about how the UPS couldn't find the battery.

 

[punkncat]

Not sure how to run a load test. I'm skeptical that a changing load would be a factor because there hasn't been any changes to what's plugged into this UPS since I added the NAS in early 2021, and it's worked normally all this time up until now. The indicator LED is green when the alarms aren't occurring and between the last two alarms, more than 20 hours passed where the UPS functioned normally. I originally thought that a surge or a wiring problem in the wall was to blame, but then I caught the error message about how the UPS couldn't find the battery.

There is a meter/tool for it, but read my reply in #6.

 

[Texas Kelly]

Go online and select a quality replacement at the time that you wish to replace them. Don't wait for failure, do so on a schedule. I recommend no later than ~4.5 years. Your statement that you are only getting 2.5y use indicates that you either have significant power reliability issues, or are buying aged batteries from the getgo.

I'm definitely more inclined to blame power reliability versus buying aged batteries. As I previously noted, I'm buying the manufacturer-recommended replacement battery model, there's zero indication that the batteries I'm receiving are anything other than brand new, and the lifespan has been consistent despite having made purchases from multiple reputable 3rd-party vendors (Amazon, Newegg, B&H, etc.) Obtaining a replacement battery at the time of failure isn't acceptable to me because it means that my equipment stays down while I wait to receive the battery, and there are other indicators that the wiring in my apartment is in far from ideal condition, but having my entire apartment re-wired is a massive expenditure I can't afford. (I have to replace LED light bulbs with some regularity - they usually start flickering after a few years - and additionally, I needed to adjust the sensitivity setting of the APC PowerChute software down to Medium because the UPSes kept tripping on from electrical noise while on High.)

I'm fine with the lifespan I'm getting from these batteries in general; I just want to know whether this behavior is generally indicative of a battery failure or a device failure and address from there.

 

[Texas Kelly]

Not very many options. You kinda need to hope it is just a bad battery in some way. UPS itself is not something most people have the tools or the skills to repair themselves. Not sure you can even get parts even if you could figure it out.

I'd just replace the UPS if the UPS itself is the problem rather than the battery.

 

[punkncat]

Most batteries of this type will have a date code stamped into them from manufacture. You don't have to be using them, they degrade naturally as a part the way they work.

Given the pricing on models of this level of output, I think your above comment is probably worthwhile. May be worth checking with another battery first.