I replaced the battery simply because it was over 3 years old. It would still keep my two Dell PC's online for about 23 minutes during a power outage. All the PC's in my business are protected by APC backup power supplies and have never had any problem w/ any of the 3 I own.
I have been using APC back-up products for years. I have some back-up units that are over six years old and still going strong. This back-up started giving me low battery warning after four 1/2 years. Ordered new battery online and it arrived withing a few days. Battery was easy to change and system is now back up an running. Old battery is easy to dispose of at any Staples store.
I bought 3 of the RBC33 batteries for 3 XS1500 units I bought only 2 years ago. The batteries don't last the estimated 3-5 years. All 3 units displayed the replace battery light within 2 weeks of each other.
Fast delivery of the product. Very easy to take out old battery and install the new one. Anybody can do it. Have always used APC products and I'm very impressed by the company. I also love the fact that you can return your old equipment/battery with their prepaid UPS label. Way to go APC!
One of the reasons I've switched entirely to APC is that it's easy to replace batteries and keep going. No exception here. In fact, I didn't even have to shut down the computer or the UPS, since my XS1500 allows for a hot-swap.
My battery pack needed replacement. I used the online ordering, and it arrived well packaged in a very timely manner. It was easy to install the replacement battery. APC provided all I needed to return ship the used pack back to APC to be recycled. Super!
Battery replacement was easy (2nd time). Only issue is the disposal of the old battery. In the past a label was provided to return the old battery. Now we're pretty much on our own for the disposal. So far I've not found anyone locally who will take the battery to dispose of it.