Replaced UPS battery... how to recharge?

After 4 years my APC UPS BR900 battery was done, so i ordered a new one and replaced it.

Now, the battery states 'charge for at least 16h before use' but... how do i charge it?

Just place it in the UPS and turn it on without any devices attached?

Can't find anything about charging a new battery in the manual?

Just turn on the ups. Attach your devices after the battery reaches a full charge.

It's been switched on for about an hour now, and i just saw the first notch of the battery appearing, so it is charging

It's been switched on for about an hour now, and i just saw the first notch of the battery appearing, so it is charging

Most UPSs are quite slow to recharge.

It's been switched on for about an hour now, and i just saw the first notch of the battery appearing, so it is charging

 

Most UPSs are quite slow to recharge.

By design i think too.. better for heat (or lack of) and battery longevity.

Strange. It charged for over 24 hours, its at 100%.

Normally, it showed about 40-50 minutes of battery time with unraid running, now... just 4 minutes? How is that possible? Load is 22%, 123W. Model is a BR900. And no, its not running on battery but on mains.

Solved... turns out you need to replace the battery date in the UPS itself after the battery is changed ... This is done through a terminal session (over rs232!!!) on older UPS's or by performing some complex lenghty idiotic battery calibration procedure from within powerchute software on win xp

A little googling showed that there is also a nifty linux util called 'apctest' which we can run on our unraid machine, and with a simple menu option you can change the battery date, and... now my battery time is 90 minutes again (for an idle machine)!

I've downloaded it from here:

ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/grant/pkgstat/20040716.0710/leftovers-sun4u/usr/pkg/sbin/apctest

All you need to do is disable the apcupsd and run this

2015-03-27 21:08:54 apctest 3.14.10 (13 September 2011) slackware
Checking configuration ...
Attached to driver: usb
sharenet.type = Network & ShareUPS Disabled
cable.type = USB Cable
mode.type = USB UPS Driver
Setting up the port ...
Doing prep_device() ...

You are using a USB cable type, so I'm entering USB test mode
Hello, this is the apcupsd Cable Test program.
This part of apctest is for testing USB UPSes.

Getting UPS capabilities...SUCCESS

Please select the function you want to perform.

1)  Test kill UPS power
2)  Perform self-test
3)  Read last self-test result
4)  View/Change battery date
5)  View manufacturing date
6)  View/Change alarm behavior
7)  View/Change sensitivity
  View/Change low transfer voltage
9)  View/Change high transfer voltage
10) Perform battery calibration
11) Test alarm
12) View/Change self-test interval
Q) Quit

Select function number: 4

Current battery date: 09/24/2011
Enter new battery date (MM/DD/YYYY), blank to quit: 03/27/2015

Apctest is actually part of the apcupsd plugin, so you don't need to download and install separate package ;-)

I searched for it in /etc/apcupsd and other places, but could not find it...

Hmmm. I am using unraid b614b with the latest upcups plugin. Maybe it depends on versions then.

Ah... found it in some sbin directory... not being a linux guy i have no idea where to look. But you are right, it was there already.

Still, i think it is very weird that you have to use a program to reset your battery date

You would think the UPS actually calculates the time left based upon load, battery capacity and other measurements... not from some date you can change manually... what a joke.

You would think the UPS actually calculates the time left based upon load, battery capacity and other measurements... not from some date you can change manually... what a joke.

They are not so out to lunch as you may think. 

Age of your batteries is a factor when determining available run time. 

That said, if you abuse your batteries (i.e. completely discharge them on every use, or leave them in a discharged state for an extended period) your battery life will be much shorter.  Best practice is to discharge them no more than 50% and recharge them ASAP when power returns.

Well, the way resetting the battery date changes the runtime from 4 minutes to 90!!! minutes, indicates that the UPS bases its battery runtime calculation upon it almost solely. That can't be good...it should be a factor, not the main reason to base the runtime on.

Yes there are many factors that affect run time.  But APC does not go into the detail required to give a better estimate.  The only way they can even tell there was a change of batteries is by you setting a new battery date.

And they still will have no idea what condition the batteries are actually in.  At best they can measure what battery voltage/current is and what the load voltage/current is.  There is no magical dipstick telling them how much power the battery is capable of supplying at any point in time.

Have you run a load test?  Set up a dummy load (incandescent light bulbs, whatever) to  simulate your actual load and test it.  The accuracy of most consumer grade UPS units can vary.  If you have a voltmeter, clamp amp meter and/or kill-a-watt and know how to use them - do it.

If they say you have 90 minutes run time, then your load should be about 70 watts.  Is it?

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=Br900

The numbers in their chart are they expect with a new, fully charged battery.

YMMV.