When Your CyberPower UPS is Out of Warranty You are Out of Luck

According to CyberPower support when your CP UPS is out of warranty your only options are:

1. Recycle and replace the UPS. It's totally up to you if you want to stick with the CyberPower products of switch away in hope of better luck next time.
2. It may help in some cases to try and replace a battery that you can only purchase from a third party supplier.

How would you know if purchasing a battery might help revive your UPS? Well, you'll need to be brave and open it up and do some research. If you don't feel like digging in the guts of an electrical device, this options is not for you and you may stop reading and go on with the option # 1 in the above list.

For the brave and technically savvy souls keep reading.

The only case when it does make sense to replace a battery is when the battery has gone bad but everything else in the UPS works properly. Specifically, what should be working is the battery charging. If the charging does not work, the UPS is out of comission, see the option # 1 in the above list.

To figure out if the charging still works, open up the ups by removing the screws on the back and separating the case in half. Make sure the UPS is disconnected from the mains power. This will give you access to the battery. Locate the battery's terminals and measure the voltage with a multimeter.

Remember, the battery is DC and it has voltage indicated on the side so set your multimeter accordingly. In my cases I only dealt with the 12V batteries but I've read that it could also be 6V or more than 12V, so make sure.

If the the battery's voltage is significantly lower than nominal voltage, for example ~3V for a 12V battery, chances are the battery is dead and you may want to explore option #2 in the list above (after verifying that the charging is working). If its voltage is lower than it should be but still close enough to nominal the chances are the charging IS NOT WORKING.

Now, the next step is a bit more elaborate and could be dangerous. A disclaimer, that if you execute steps below, you do that entirely on your own risk and you take full responsibility for anything that may happen  during that execution.

In short, you need to measure the voltage on battery wires (not on battery terminals) when the UPS is connected to the mains power. You need the battery be disconnected while you measure the voltage. If the voltage is slighly above the battery's nominal voltage, the charging IS WORKING and you can go ahead and replace a battery if you wish so. Otherwise, the charging IS NOT WORKING and your only option is # 1 in the list above. For example, for a 12V battery the charging voltage is expected to be about 14V. If it's considerably lower or close to zero, it means there is no charging.

In some UPS models the charging system detects a bad battery by its low voltage and does not turn on. In such scenarios the only way to verify that the UPS's electronics is in working condition is by attaching a good battery. If you have an available rechargable battery of the same chemistry and nominal voltage in good condition you might consider using it for testing the UPS on your own risk.

Thanks for reading and hope that was helpful. If not, my apology for have wasted your time.