Today I’ll quickly walk you through the steps on how to change the battery in a battery backup system, UPS or uninterruptible power supply. We’ll also look at which battery to select.

As you may recall, I use a couple UPS units to backup my security camera system, including one PC, 2 NVRs, a PoE switch and my Starlink router and dish. The normal lead-acid battery in a UPS lasts about 5 years. Lithium-ion will get you around 8-10. In any case, when I plug in my UPS, it just screams at me. There is also an “Over Load” error on the screen. When I connect it to the PC software over USB, CyberPower PowerPanel Personal, I get no error, but the UPS drops off and the computer cannot see it.

The model I have here, is CyberPower’s 850AVR. The battery compartment is located here on the bottom. On the 1500, there is one screw to remove and the front slides off. Let’s jump into a time-lapse. The battery can only slide half way out when connected. Remove the 2 wires with a little wiggle. Here is a close of up of original battery.

When ordering a replacement, I used Amazon. I had it the next day and it was within $30 US. You don’t need to buy the CyberPower or APC branded batteries. The Mighty Max, PowerStar and EnergyKing are all perfectly fine. Just make sure the specifications are the same, or very close. That includes battery’s dimensions, like you see here. The voltage will be 12 and between 7 and 10 ah or amp hours. Ensure your new one is a high-rate charge and discharge cell. Lastly, I don’t recommend switching battery types unless you have experience in this area. So, if your current battery is lead-acid, then don’t switch to lithium. Battery links are in the description, so make sure to check those out.

Ok, we’re going to fast forward this again. Let’s get that new battery in place, connect the wires and replace the cover. Now when I plug the unit back in, it says “Normal” I also see 100% capacity and 85 min of runtime. On the PC, when I run the self-test, everything looks great and I have almost 100 minutes of runtime here.

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