UPS battery life and maintenance

Batteries are the part of a UPS most likely to let you down. A little care keeps runtime predictable.

What shortens battery life

Most UPS use sealed VRLA batteries that last around three to five years. Heat is the biggest enemy: every extra few degrees of ambient temperature roughly halves service life. Deep, frequent discharges also age cells faster.

Keep them healthy

Mount the UPS in a cool, ventilated spot, avoid overloading and let the unit recharge fully after an outage. Management software can log battery health and warn you early.

Test and replace

Run periodic battery tests and replace strings before they fail. On larger systems, hot-swap batteries let you change them without dropping the load.

See the software FAQ for monitoring and the glossary for terms.