O wrote:

Suggestions please.

Run, do not walk, to the nearest trash bin and toss that thing out, all of
it, the batts, ups, everything.

Those things are total junk.

I bought around 10 of those (apc xs1500/bx1500) back when they came out
(2005?) and none of them are still around.

Half of them, when the time came to do something (like supply backup power),
arc'ed like a lighting strike, released the magic smoke and went dead.

The others that didn't have that feature, ate batteries like candy, I don't
think any lasted 2 years. As you noticed, there are two batteries taped
together and are somewhat bonded by a plastic frame and more tape.

There is nothing special about the batteries, like you, I replaced/rebuilt
the carrier with ones from amazon (and a few from Microcenter) but like the
originals, the lifespan was incredibly short.

I ran across a web site a while back where someone analyzed that series and
discovered its the self-test killing the unit off. Instead of running the
self-test every week to 10 days, that test runs every 24 to 36 hours and
those short tests, after just a year, already killed off 50% of the usable
life. After 14 months, the battery is practically useless (at 35%) and
pretty much DOA at 18 months.

Add in the fact that the battery pack is wedged into a metal chamber with
little to no air flow, it's just not a well designed ups.

http://www.pcliquidations.com/p15050-apc-back-ups-xs

If you look at the picture, on the front where the red APC letters are, that
is actually a door that slides down. I think those were the first consumer
level ups's that had "user replaceable batteries" and they designed the
cabinet for safety when being replaced (thus the metal battery chamber).

Those batteries are $35-$40 each and what I'm saying is, that ups is not
worth the $70-$80 and your time to rebuild the pack assembly. It's probably
not going to work when you need it anyways.

Piece of ****.

-bruce