Dr. Cheap's House of Hacks

UPS Mega Battery

Circa 2003

I have a UPS that is half dead, and doesn't fare well during power outages. I figure the battery needs to be replaced since it's close to 4 years old now. So where to get a battery for an older UPS? I couldn't find this model anywhere, and a new unit with the same short run time would cost me over $100. This is when I remember seeing some larger batteries at EPO (EPO Rocks!). I walked in, and there was a special on a 26Ah battery for only 30 bucks. Mine was something like 8Ah, what a deal this was -- until I went back to the battery section...

This behemoth is what I ended up purchasing, all 51Ah of it, for only 50 bucks! It's big, it's bad, and it's RED (whatever that's worth).

I cannot stress the size of this beast enough...here it is next to my original battery. It weighs about 40 lbs!

After a lengthy charging cycle this battery will pretty much run forever. The limiting factor at this point is the temperature of the inverter in the UPS. When it gets too hot, the unit shuts down automatically.

Stay tuned for a "UPS Ventilation Hack" in the future.

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