APC UPS Sealed Lead Acid Battery Replacement (RBC17) Expired

this advice does not help folks who want backup power for their network gear.

You can't just look at 9Ah, which only tells capacity but not current draw. Regular SLA battery is not suitable for UPS.

The higher VA the UPS, the higher discharge rate of the battery has to support.
The 1500VA Cyberpower UPS I have is using battery that support discharge of continuous 100A+ current.
Some reliable brand 12V 9AH high discharge for UPS costs $40+.

Other sellers just sell you some generic 12V 9AH without any specification sheet. You end up using battery that cannot supply enough power for your devices during outage and blame the UPS thinking your battery is new and good.

Most of those are garbage, tried and learned my lesson. They do not charge to the rated capacity and lifespan is short.

I strictly use CSB batteries now (most likely what this one is but with a markup for the APC sticker over it).

I've been buying 'generic' ones off EBay, and they run for ~5 years, which is in line with the lifespan I got out of the OE batteries that came with my APC UPSes.

You're not wrong, but you're also incorrect as this has been done. The bms takes care of regulation for you. Go YouTube it out Google it.

Want your mind potentially blown? Some of those models had a hidden programming mode. If you had an APC serial cable (which is wired differently from standard serial cables), you could use a serial console to put the UPS in programming mode and adjust certain firmware values, including the float voltage. Not all of them support it but I've successfully done it on several 1000VA+ Smart-UPS and Smart-UPS XLs. It did not work on an older Smart-UPS 700 from the 90's or any of the Back-UPS Pros I tried. I always decreased the value because these old models seemed to have high float voltages, sometimes in excess of 14V (per 12V battery). On the ones I could adjust, I'd dial it back until it hit 27.27V. Anecdotally, it seems like batteries hold up better when the float voltage is on the lower end (closer to 13.6V).

I'm not aware of Duracell manufacturing SLA batteries. I don't recall even coming across any bearing their name. As for the capacity, this form factor is used for batteries ranging from 7-9Ah. That Duracell would be the equivalent of the CSB GP1272 (general purpose 7.2Ah).

In my experience, most APC branded batteries are CSB brand but they use others as well. I've seen Panasonic, Yuasa, Long Battery, BB Battery, Vision, and probably a few others that I'm forgetting. What I've never seen are those cheap brands (including PowerSonic and Universal Battery/Universal Power Group). I generally stick to CSB, Panasonic (in the rare event I can find them at a reasonable price), or Enersys.

I am aware of the CSB HRL series but have not tried them yet. I have used Enersys DataSafe HX series, which is rated for 10 years but I didn't find them to hold up all that much better than the regular models. Funny thing is, I've had a few random CSB batteries from the General Purpose and High Rate series last a VERY long time (over 10 years). Right now, I still have one HR1234W hanging on that was manufactured in 2007! I'm not sure why this happens. Maybe they just sprinkle some pixie dust in the electrolyte occasionally.

A note on capacities, I find there's a lot of variance from one brand to another. In one of my experiments (many years ago), I bought new 12V 12Ah batteries from three different brands and compared the runtime under a 200W load. Here's the results:

Powersonic: 17:00
Panasonic: 21:30
Enersys Genesis: 23:30

I think that's a pretty stark difference. I can't seem to find the numbers but I'm fairly certain that the PowerSonic died first. I believe the Panasonic lived the longest. It's too bad I didn't also buy a CSB.

I'm planning on adding a secondary battery to my SUV to power a 1500 watt inverter. Would this battery work for that purpose?

You would want to keep it on a float charger (NOT a trickle charger) as they will self discharge. You would want to keep it in a basement or garage when not in use and on the float charger. "Battery Tender" is around $20 and would work, same one I use on my car in the winter. Of course you will lose power while swapping the battery, I think it is a bit excessive, makes more sense to get a larger UPS. You can daisy chain 2 UPSs also, but typically not recommended as the transfer load of one might overload the other. Have seen it done just fine though. When I had two UPSes I just spread devices out between the two of them so the load was about the same.

Depending on the model of UPS it is usually pretty simple, most don't need any tools, some maybe a screwdriver.

Can you keep the extra battery in your apartment and switch the ups battery with the other one once it runs out?

What's CSB stand for? thanks

It is a battery brand. Based in Taiwan.

Unfortunately my mind is not blown, that cable is always connected for outage detection and have been in that mode many times. On this model (and many others) adjusting the float voltage in the programming mode does not actually do anything, so have to resort to a hardware solution, in this case replacing a resistor with a potentiometer. I do go in there to reset the battery constant when I replace batteries though. I set the float via the POT to exactly halfway between what the batteries specify, which is usually around 13.5 to 13.6V (27 to 27.2 for my UPS which uses two batteries in series). Have to wait until the batteries are fully charged and levelled off to set it.

The only two I remember seeing are CSB and Panasonic (the original set in my 20 year old Smart UPS and some others). I doubt they'd use BB Battery as those I've found to be pretty bad, maybe someone had already replaced those, or maybe their newer/cheaper ones are using them. Also haven't seen Yuasa, that would be nice, those are some of the best you can get. I'm sure I saw 1 or 2 other brands at some point but it seems the last 10+ years have been pretty consistently CSB. In fact I found a couple of their cheap brick UPSes where they didn't even bother putting an APC sticker on the CSB.

Yes I did a similar test when I tried some generics and found they simply did not live up to their specs. Surprisingly, BB Battery, which I thought to be the higher of the generics, was one of the worst, but perhaps that stock had been sitting a long time. CSB came out in the lead obviously however I did not test Panasonic or Yuasa. Yuasa would probably have come out on top. Panasonic always had a lower capacity in the same physical size so CSB probably would have beat them there.

I have this old BACK UPS that takes 6x 1234W batteries and has incredible runtime, unfortunately not true sine wave so haven't wanted or needed to invest $150 in replacing all the batteries, I got the thing on clearance for $100 years ago. Back when they tried to sell black colored ones for home theater use. When I had a couple servers and a lot of network gear I'd use that one on the network stuff, but now I've downsized a lot and my single Smart UPS is plenty.

That's a shame. Some of the VERY old models came with potentiometers. Frankly, that's still better than nothing.



Just checked my archives. I've definitely seen a BB Battery come under the APC label. However, it was a long time ago and in a low end UPS (Back-UPS Office).

I've only seen one APC come with a Yuasa. It was back in the 90's and ironically it was in their absolute bottom-barrel model, the Personal Powercell 200. It was such a long time ago that the battery was actually made in the USA.



I could be slightly off but I believe Enersys and Yuasa are effectively the same company now.



What model is that? I've never seen an APC with that battery configuration. About a decade ago, there was some company selling damaged UPSs on eBay dirt cheap. Some had issues as minor as a missing faceplate. I think I paid less than $50 (with free shipping!) for a Smart-UPS 1000XL (same batteries as the 1500). Even better, I got ~3KVA Eaton Evolution for about $75 (I think the retail price was something like 2 grand). It was basically new but the front panel was broken (PCB included). I followed the traces and found which wires on the ribbon cable connected to the power button. I jumped them and found that the unit was otherwise fully functional. Unfortunately, a UPS like that isn't really meant for home use and there's no way I would have been able to stand the sound of the jet engines (fans) in it. However, it was still a worthwhile purchase because the battery cartridge contained 6 CSB HR1234WF2 batteries. I ended up using them as replacements in other UPSs. Only one is still alive but that's quite impressive, considering they were manufactured in 2007.