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Amp hour ratings for APC UPS systems

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bcass1

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I have a APC BX800 UPS Unit. The battery is kaput. There are 2 batteries inside wired together in series. I think in series. I want to buy new batteries on ebay. I see several brand x and several OEM APC batteries. The OEM are of course more expensive. My question is about the amp hour ratings. The brand X are from 7 to 9 amp hour ratings. Most of the OEM batteries do not list their amp hour ratings but by asking I have been told that they are 164 amp hour rated. This seems like a hell of a big difference for a battery the same size and about the same weight. What's the difference and is it worth spending over 2 times the amount to replace with OEM batteries except to extend the warentee on the unit.

Thanks
 
I've got 2 APCs, the older one doesn't seem to charge batteries anymore, so retired it. Been through a few batteries, and most anything that will fit in the case, will work just fine, if the rating is reasonably close. You can use a single 12volt, in place of the two series 6 volts (like I'm currently using). I you go with a lower rating, you'll have a shorter backup time. Have read about a few people using boat batteries (won't fit in the case though), but the APC will get hot after a while, if the power it runs off the battery a long time. Potential fire hazard...
 
The APC battery pack you have consist of two 12 volt 7.5 AH batteries configured in series. Once you peel that tape off, that is what is in there. Peel carefully and you can reuse it or get some good cellophane packing tape. I buy my batteries from Batteries Plus locally and just make my own packs for my APC units. I like batteries plus simply because they are local and convenient. If I get a bum battery, a return is easy.

RRon
 
I repurpose 'weak' car batteries to run the UPS....the batteries are free and they have many amp hours left in them, more than the original gel cells. Only good for non mobile use though. An 11 plate auto battery can have have up to ten times the power of the regular APC batt.
During hurricane season it can run a fan or a fluorescent light & radio for 2 days!.
 
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It is likely 164 amp-minutes.. 164AH would be A quite large truck or golf-cart type battery.. And golf cart batteries (at ~70lsb each) average around 120-140AH for nice ones.
 
Hi,

Batteries like these that are of the same chemistry tend to be the same size if they are rated the same in ampere hours. Thus, the size says a lot about the capacity. Find one the same size (length, width, and height) and you have the same capacity.
Of course you have to get the voltage right too though, so you have to check the voltage rating of the old batteries first. As someone else pointed out, if they are 6v each and wired in series then you can probably get away with one 12v but if you want to stay the same you would have to keep the same batteries exactly.
 
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