I ordered a replacement battery for my APC 550 BackUPS. The one I ordered was 12v 7.4ah just like the original but the one that arrived was 12v 9ah. Sounds better to me but is there a problem with replacing a battery with 7.5 ah with one that has 9 ah?
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Bigger replacement battery in UPS
- Thread starter hogmash
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newtekie1
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Most likely there won't be a problem as long as they are the same physical size.
However, a higher ah battery takes longer to charge, and can cause the charging circuit to get hotter.
However, a higher ah battery takes longer to charge, and can cause the charging circuit to get hotter.
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For the record, I almost always order larger batteries than what came with the UPS originally. So if my UPS originally came with 12V 7.4Ah cells, I certainly would replace them with 12V 9Ah cells.
The most important thing is to ensure the voltage is the same. Next, make sure the terminals are the same size. See F1 vs F2 terminal connector size. There are simple adapters but the battery compartments in most UPS leave little to no room for adapters. So best to ensure you get the right size from the start. And as newtekie1 noted, the physical size of the battery itself matters too. Most are "about" the same size.
As far as the charging circuit getting hotter - that "should" not happen. And even if it does, it will only be for a short time until the cells take on enough charge from a nearly discharged status. And in any case, the charging circuits "should" never "over" heat because even cheap UPS have thermal and excessive current protection features built in. This is because it is not uncommon for SLA batteries to develop internal shorts when they fail. Such shorts would result in excessive current demands on those charging circuits.
This is why you can put a tiny "trickle" charger on a big car battery (which use the same "sealed lead-acid" technologies as UPS batteries) and not burn up the charger.
I did say "should" not and "should" never because I am assuming the UPS and cells are in proper working condition.
The most important thing is to ensure the voltage is the same. Next, make sure the terminals are the same size. See F1 vs F2 terminal connector size. There are simple adapters but the battery compartments in most UPS leave little to no room for adapters. So best to ensure you get the right size from the start. And as newtekie1 noted, the physical size of the battery itself matters too. Most are "about" the same size.
As far as the charging circuit getting hotter - that "should" not happen. And even if it does, it will only be for a short time until the cells take on enough charge from a nearly discharged status. And in any case, the charging circuits "should" never "over" heat because even cheap UPS have thermal and excessive current protection features built in. This is because it is not uncommon for SLA batteries to develop internal shorts when they fail. Such shorts would result in excessive current demands on those charging circuits.
This is why you can put a tiny "trickle" charger on a big car battery (which use the same "sealed lead-acid" technologies as UPS batteries) and not burn up the charger.
I did say "should" not and "should" never because I am assuming the UPS and cells are in proper working condition.
That's because it is. In other applications, the larger Ah rating could support larger loads. In the case of a UPS, you get longer battery run times. That's a good thing.
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I always felt that the batteries were being hard hit on full load (330W for you so maybe 30A) so the higher capacity version can probably deal with this better.
As long as its the same battery type and voltage the UPS won't know the difference. I think I did the same thing with the first UPS I bought; a APC UPS 350VA thinking it was good for 350 watts.
I would say the biggest thing is make sure you get a battery from a quality manufacture.
I would say the biggest thing is make sure you get a battery from a quality manufacture.
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Should be fine as long as the connections are the same. Like @newtekie1 said the only concern would be heat, but APC is a decent brand so it shouldn't be an issue.
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No problem at all, even the size should be identical. Did that for all of my UPSes. I have an old Sven Reserve 800VA, a generic 650VA (Powercom, I think) and a pair of APC RS1000, all currently equipped with locally manufactured 9Ah cells - no problems in 5+ years. The only downside for me personally, is that the manufacturer dropped warranty from 24 to 12 months, but so far neither died before its time.
Charge current isn't much higher, so you won't overload the circuitry. For UPS batteries it's around 10% of Ah rating, so 0.7A and 0.9A respectively, which makes very little difference both in terms of load and/or charging time.
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Well, the Ah rating should not be smaller than the originals. Larger is fine, but smaller will reduce the load capacity when the UPS kicks over to battery power. This is not a problem for the AVR (automatic voltage regulation) feature, but it could result in the UPS failing to hold up power to the connected electronics during a full outage.