Your UPS Maintenance Questions Answered – PART ONE
Your UPS Maintenance Questions Answered
Stop wasting time endlessly searching for answers to your UPS and battery maintenance questions. We’ve compiled the most frequently asked questions about UPS maintenance so you can quickly find answers, tips and actionable insights and learn how to optimize your systems for maximum reliability and avoid costly downtime.
This FAQ is part one of a two-part series answering important questions that focus on preventative UPS maintenance, signs of potential issues, replacement schedules, common causes of failures, maintenance budget planning and more.
Our expert-created FAQ is a go-to resource to find answers to your questions about UPS maintenance so you can be prepared and focus on what matters most. If you don’t see your question here, fill out our form and we can contact you to help provide the answer you need.
Let’s dive in.
General UPS Questions
- Why is it important to have preventive UPS maintenance?
Preventive UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) maintenance is crucial for ensuring the reliability and longevity of your UPS system. It helps ensure the system is always ready to provide backup power when needed and extends the life of the equipment.
Here are the main reasons why it’s important:
- Avoids Unexpected Downtime: Regular checks catch potential issues before they cause a failure, reducing the risk of costly outages.
- Protects Critical Equipment: A well-maintained UPS can effectively protect connected devices from power surges, spikes, and outages.
- Extends Equipment Lifespan: Preventive maintenance helps batteries and internal components last longer by ensuring they operate optimally.
- Improves Efficiency: Clean components and updated firmware help the system run more efficiently, saving energy and reducing heat.
- Ensures Compliance: Some industries require power backup systems to be regularly maintained to meet safety or operational standards.
- Cost Savings: Catching issues early often means cheaper repairs and avoids the high cost of emergency service or equipment replacement.
Quality Uptime is here to support you with expert, customized UPS and battery maintenance, allowing you to focus on other critical aspects of data center management, especially when you’ve got limited time and team bandwidth.
We can help you reclaim your time and regain control. Our team has decades of training and experience and they are ready to help you.
- How often should UPS systems be maintained?
The exact frequency depends on the system type, environment, and criticality, however UPS systems should be maintained on a regular schedule. Typically this includes monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks.
Monthly tasks involve visual inspections and recording readings, while quarterly tasks include more thorough inspections and battery maintenance. Annual maintenance involves a comprehensive system assessment and cleaning.
Proper maintenance of your UPS systems is essential to keep your mission critical facilities running smoothly, preventing costly downtime and potential data loss.
With Quality Uptime’s team of experienced technicians, you can trust us to provide comprehensive maintenance solutions that ensure the health of your UPS and battery systems, and guaranteed uptime.
- How does preventive maintenance benefit my UPS system?
Preventive maintenance keeps your system reliable, safe and cost-efficient.
There are several benefits of preventative maintenance:
- Improves Reliability: It ensures your UPS is ready to respond instantly during a power failure, reducing the risk of downtime.
- Extends Component Life: Regular inspections help detect and fix wear and tear before it leads to failure, especially in batteries and capacitors.
- Reduces Emergency Repairs: You avoid costly, last-minute service calls and system replacements by catching issues early.
- Maintains Performance: Clean, calibrated components and system updates help your UPS run more efficiently and protect connected devices better.
- Warranty Compliance: Some manufacturers require routine maintenance to keep warranties valid for battery systems.
- Enhances Safety: It minimizes fire risks or electrical hazards from overheating parts, battery leaks, or faulty wiring.
- What is the lifespan of a typical UPS system?
Industry standards tell us the lifespan of a typical UPS system ranges from 5 to 15 years, depending on the type, usage, environment, and how well it’s maintained.
Here’s a general breakdown:
- Small/home or line-interactive UPS: 3 to 5 years
- Medium-sized (for small business/server room): 5 to 10 years
- Enterprise-grade or industrial UPS: 10 to 15 years (with proper maintenance)
Keep in mind however, batteries inside the UPS usually last 3 to 5 years and often need to be replaced before the entire unit does.
With regular preventive maintenance, clean environments, and proper load management, you can push your UPS closer to the higher end of its lifespan, and your “time hero” from Quality Uptime can help you along the way.
- How do I know when it is time to replace UPS and battery systems?
A good rule of thumb is to replace the battery if it’s aging or underperforming. Industry standards recommend full battery replacement if more than 10 percent of the total number of jar failures have occurred, but you should consider replacing the entire UPS if it’s nearing the end of its lifecycle and showing multiple issues.
At Quality Uptime, we will work with you to create a customized plan for UPS maintenance which will include recommendations for not only extending your UPS unit and batteries, but also equipment replacement and upgrades to improve efficiency and capacity based on your evolving needs.
When considering replacements, we take into account:
- Calendar Life Cycle: Based on the installation date and manufacturer’s recommended lifespan.
- Preventative Maintenance Conditions: Technicians may detect anomalies during inspections, such as batteries dropping below 50 percent capacity.
Keep in mind battery replacement is usually every 3 to 5 years and entire UPS replacement is usually every 7 to 15 years.
- How often should I replace my UPS batteries?
Generally, you should replace UPS batteries every 3 to 5 years, but the exact timing can depend on many factors such as the type of battery, conditions, proper maintenance over time and more.
Here are general lifespan ranges by type of battery:
- Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA): 3 to 5 years
- Flooded Lead-Acid: 10 to 15 years, but needs regular maintenance
- Lithium-Ion: 7 to 10+ years
Even if your UPS is still working, aging batteries cannot be trusted during a power outage. It’s safer to replace them proactively than wait for failure.
- What are the signs of potential issues in a UPS system?
Spotting early signs of trouble in your UPS system can prevent unexpected downtime and costly damage.
It may be time to replace UPS batteries or that there is an issue if you see signs such as these and others:
- Noticeably reduced runtime or shorter-than-usual runtime during power outages
- Frequent or excessive UPS battery-related beeping or warning alarms; frequent error messages on the UPS display
- Batteries fail self-tests
- Batteries are over 3 to 5 years old (VRLA)
- Physical signs of wear (swelling, leaks, corrosion)
- UPS not transferring to battery mode during outages
- Inconsistent output voltage or flickering connected devices
- Unusual noises like buzzing or clicking
- Overheating or constant fan operation
- LEDs showing warning or fault codes (usually red or flashing amber)
You always need to be aware of these signs and more, so that you are never caught off guard and your uptime isn’t compromised.
Reality is it can be very challenging to stay on top of all the steps needed to maintain your UPS and battery systems. That’s why Quality Uptime is here to help with regular inspections and testing to catch signs of potential issues before they become catastrophic.
- What are the most common causes of failures in UPS systems?
UPS systems can fail for various reasons, but most failures trace back to common causes that routine testing and environmental checks, such as what Quality Uptime will provide, can catch early.
Here are some common causes of failures you should be aware of:
- Battery degradation: Battery failure is the #1 cause! Batteries degrade over time and are sensitive to heat, overcharging and deep discharges. A bad battery means a useless UPS, even if everything else works.
- Lack of regular maintenance: Skipping regular inspections means minor issues go unnoticed until they cause downtime.
- Overloading the UPS: Connecting too many devices or exceeding its rated load can lead to shutdowns or reduced performance, and it can overheat internal components. This can shorten battery life.
- Environmental factors (e.g., temperature, humidity): Heat is the enemy of batteries. High temperatures (above 77°F / 25°C) can shorten battery life. So can poor ventilation or dirty environments.
- Age of Components: Capacitors, fans, relays, and internal boards degrade over time (typically 5 to 10 years). Even if the UPS still turns on, it may not perform properly under load.
- Why is OEM-agnostic service important?
Juggling multiple OEM maintenance contracts can be inefficient and a huge drain on you and your staff time. Quality Uptime provides service for all OEM makes and models. Here’s why this matters:
- Simplified Management and Cost Savings: One point of contact for all your equipment, regardless of brand. We can also recommend the best fit for your needs and often offer more competitive pricing.
- Expertise Across Multiple Brands: You get unmatched comprehensive service and highly tailored maintenance plans, testing and upgrades specific to your environment.
- Flexibility: An OEM-agnostic approach allows for easier migrations and replacements. Plus you’re not locked into just one UPS brand or vendor for support. Whether you have APC/Schneider Electric, Eaton, Vertiv, Tripp Lite, or others, Quality Uptime’s skilled technicians can handle them all.
- Nationwide Coverage: You get consistent, single-source UPS maintenance programs to manage your entire critical power infrastructure. We have nationwide coverage and can respond quickly in emergencies.
With Quality Uptime and our OEM-agnostic capabilities you can streamline your operations and free up resources and time so you can focus on other strategic initiatives. You get more control, better pricing, and greater flexibility, which is especially useful for diverse or growing IT environments.
- How can we improve our UPS maintenance budget planning?
There are a couple of ways to be more efficient and effective in budget planning for UPS and battery systems maintenance.
- Tracking and Analyzing your UPS Performance Over Time: This is useful to identify trends and make informed decisions about maintenance and upgrades. Quality Uptime will provide comprehensive maintenance reports so that you can establish a system for tracking the trends.
- Tailored Maintenance Plans: Having a tailored plan and not a “one-size-fits-all” approach ensures you are not paying for services that you don’t use. Unlike popular OEM’s, we offer customized service agreements to our clients based on their exact needs. We can also assist in forecasting future maintenance needs and potential component replacements, allowing for more accurate budget planning.
- Consolidating Service Contracts: This simplifies invoicing, service scheduling and budgeting across the board. With Quality Uptime, we can manage multiple UPS brands across locations and provide a streamlined approach that saves you time and money.
With Quality Uptime, you can optimize your UPS maintenance program, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency. We can help you reclaim your time and regain control, allowing you to focus on other critical aspects of data center management.
Stop wasting time, money and resources. Let Quality Uptime take your UPS maintenance to the next level.
Download our new Annual Checklist to Maintain Uptime – the one list to save you time organizing your UPS maintenance plans.
