Joy! Replacing Dead Batteries in an APC Battery Backup

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Last week my UPS gave up the ghost. Before you feel bad however, note the APC Back-UPS XS 800 did not go quietly into that Ballard night, it beeped incessantly until I unplugged it. (I’m sure that’s good practice for a valuable piece of tech, but it just doesn’t make me want to plug it in again…ever.)

rbc32

I was dismayed to see replacement batteries at APC’s site for my model ran $79.99, which is frightfully close to what I paid for the whole unit in the first place. Other retailers online ranged hugely in price, and frankly most of them didn’t look like the kind of economic endeavors I like to share my credit card with.

I took a chance and headed down to Fry’s, knowing they stocked at least 20 different APC UPS models. As soon as I tracked down an employee in the UPS aisle and asked him about battery replacements…well if I’m to speak kindly this would be a deer in headlights scenario.

I poked around the store and found something that looked like what I needed, but it was in the home security aisle. Luckily, I brought the APC battery down with me, so I brought the dead battery into the store for reference. (Note this is a good idea right up until you find yourself hauling 24 lbs of batteries around a giant electronics store.)

12v7a-batteries

After deconstructing the APC “RBC32″ I found out that two common 12 volt 7.0 amp batteries sandwiched together with APC’s wiring harness worked perfectly, and saved quite a bit of coin. Each battery from Fry’s was $26, so right off the top I saved $28, and that’s not including shipping which is substantial for 12 lbs of batteries.

In Conclusion

Don’t buy overpriced APC brand replacements or pay a ton to ship heavy batteries, just pull apart your original, save the wiring harness and find something compatible in town. The re-wiring is self-explanatory and you’ll save a lot of coin.

Heck, you might even get a charge out of it.

Note
The only thing this technique doesn’t account for is battery recycling—Fry’s won’t take your old batteries, so you’ll have to find another home for them—preferably not in a landfill.

5 Comments and Counting

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  1. rod gozzinyah left this comment on April 21, 2009 at 12:50 am

    am so happy to find someone so concerned with replacement costs of batteries. while searching for deals on APC Back-UPS XS 800’s, would you mind keeping your eye out for a deal on #U812 hearing aid batteries for me? sincerely Rod.

  2. Alex left this comment on April 21, 2009 at 1:05 am

    Sure Keith, will do.

    Smartass.

  3. Dave left this comment on July 11, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    How did you wire those up? My ups wires were corroded, i have since added new ends but not sure how to hook them back up, I have a RED, Black and Yellow wire – does the red got red on one battery and the Black go to the black on the other battery with the yellow connecting the remaining two terminals on each battery?

    Please advise

  4. Alex left this comment on July 13, 2009 at 9:43 am

    In short, the two batteries need to be wired in series and not in parallel. One black lead from one battery feeds back into the UPS, one red lead from the other battery leads back into the UPS. The yellow wire connects the two batteries into series.

    If the waters are still murky, I’d search for your UPS models instruction manual online.

  5. 3d tvs left this comment on July 16, 2010 at 11:10 pm

    Thank you for the tip ahead of time. ;)

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