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FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 10:38 am
by CountryBoy
I have had my FIOS telephone and internet hookup for 3 yrs. and love it. Today a Red light and beep started up which called for a replacement battery.

When I called Verizon/FIOS the guy said to just unplug it and put the plugs back in at the battery box, and it should reset with no problem. I did so and it is running fine with no red light.

Question: when my time for battery replacement comes what should I get to replace this 12 volt - 7amph battery? On Amazon I can get a new one for $18 and at Radio Shack it costs $39.00. However, cheaper is not always better.

Does anyone know the most reliable brand to get? Verizon orders from Asurion.

And should I order it now in anticipation of inflation and keep one as back up or will it run down in power while on the shelf?

Thank you.

cb

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 11:14 am
by Rob5TCP
If you don't have POTS telephone service the backup battery is pretty useless. I have VOIP from Verizon. The backup will keep up internet and TV. However, unless I have batteries for my TV and computer (I do for my computer) the backup is essentially useless. When my battery dies (I also have it 3 years), I will just disable the red light. If you have POTS service you might want the battery - I believe this is the battery from Verizon.

https://teleproducts.verizon.com/fios/i ... layDetails

There is some debate on whether the battery needs to be replaced even if you have VOIP phone service. The battery also holds all your settings.
I may just hook up an old UPS to it when the battery goes.

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-Inter ... d-p/378555

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 11:32 am
by Bogle101
I don't understand the question. Order it now in anticipation of inflation? Are you suggesting you should order something now that costs twenty bucks for fear the price will increase to twenty five bucks in a few years?

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 11:41 am
by Rob5TCP
The debate has nothing to do with inflation. It's whether the basic system, even with VOIP, benefits from having the battery backup (IE settings of the unit).

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 11:54 am
by CountryBoy
Clarification:
1-this is not a debate but rather an exploration of how to handle a FIOS situation where the battery is entering end of life and can die at anytime..
2-i do not have VOIP but rather FIOS for my internet and telephone only. I believe I still have a copper line out there together with the fiber optic for my telephone service.

Thanks.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:03 pm
by Rob5TCP
Your telephone service is either copper or FIOS.
If regular telephone service, your battery will give you a few hours of phone service after the electricity is lost.
If you have FIOS/VOIP phone service, then your phone will go dead unless your modem has a battery backup.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:07 pm
by otbricki
Batteries have a finite storage life. Don't buy one until you need it.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:10 pm
by prudent
I buy mine from the local Batteries Plus store. There might be cheaper ones out there but I like to buy local and they'll take your old one for recycling. My understanding is that the battery backup only runs the telephone, not anything else. It's there as a safety net so you have a few hours of phone service even if your power is out. But remember to have a hardwired phone as well!

The first time my unit started to beep, pulling the wire and plugging it back in worked for about a month before it started to beep again. Plenty of time to buy a fresh battery when you need one.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:18 pm
by Malvern
I've had success recharging my battery. I've done this twice. The first time it bought me about a year until it needed recharged.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 2:21 pm
by frugaltype
Rob5TCP wrote:Your telephone service is either copper or FIOS.
If regular telephone service, your battery will give you a few hours of phone service after the electricity is lost.
If you have FIOS/VOIP phone service, then your phone will go dead unless your modem has a battery backup.
I know more than I ever wanted to know about this, because Verizon has been harassing the copper landline people like me in my community to change to FIOS.

At least in my area, for FIOS people, once the power goes down, their Internet is down. There are a few hours of battery backup for regular phone service. The customer has to replace the battery once it is dead, and the customer has to bring back online the FIOS box after power failures.

If Verizon succeeds in doing away with copper (which normally stays up in power failures) in my area, I'm going to Cox, primarily because I'm annoyed at Verizon, but also because Cox maintains their home boxes, including battery replacement.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 7:36 pm
by otbricki
frugaltype wrote: At least in my area, for FIOS people, once the power goes down, their Internet is down. There are a few hours of battery backup for regular phone service. The customer has to replace the battery once it is dead, and the customer has to bring back online the FIOS box after power failures.

If Verizon succeeds in doing away with copper (which normally stays up in power failures) in my area, I'm going to Cox, primarily because I'm annoyed at Verizon, but also because Cox maintains their home boxes, including battery replacement.
I switched to Cablevision VOIP because my Verizon copper landline degraded to the point where I could not reliably place a call on it, and requests to have it fixed were ignored. During the two weeks following Sandy my Cablevision phone service was out 11 days even though I had a generator. My next door neighbor who also has a generator has FIOS which was working the entire time.

My cell service was out for 3 days following the storm as well. The news broadcasts stated that 40% of the cell towers and about 25% of the copper landlines were out.

Verizon is not repairing any of the flooded copper landlines post Sandy because they claim it's not economical. People who don't have Voip or cell service are getting stationary phones that have a wireless transceiver as an alternative to copper.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:00 pm
by dm200
frugaltype wrote:
Rob5TCP wrote:Your telephone service is either copper or FIOS.
If regular telephone service, your battery will give you a few hours of phone service after the electricity is lost.
If you have FIOS/VOIP phone service, then your phone will go dead unless your modem has a battery backup.
I know more than I ever wanted to know about this, because Verizon has been harassing the copper landline people like me in my community to change to FIOS.

At least in my area, for FIOS people, once the power goes down, their Internet is down. There are a few hours of battery backup for regular phone service. The customer has to replace the battery once it is dead, and the customer has to bring back online the FIOS box after power failures.

If Verizon succeeds in doing away with copper (which normally stays up in power failures) in my area, I'm going to Cox, primarily because I'm annoyed at Verizon, but also because Cox maintains their home boxes, including battery replacement.
We have Verizon, copper wire, POTS at home. It is a regulated service and they can not just change it at their whim, as they can do with FIOS. When your power goes off, with copper wire, as long as the phone is working, you have electricity to power the phones. Verizon wants to "upgrade" you to FiOS, rip out the copper wire to your house. Then you are stick with FiOS and you only have phone service, in case of the power going out, as long as the battery lasts.

I also, part time, manage a small organization, in its own, small office. We have business DSL and one Verizon phone line -- very satisfactory and the price is right. BUT I get a call every 7-10 days from Verizon trying to get us to "upgrade" to FiOS. They are very persistent, do not always tell the truth and are very ill-prepared when they call. While I like the Verizon service, because of the relentless and repeated calls, I now HATE VERIZON. They seem to go out of their way to piss me off! Companies, I thought anyway, wanted happy customers, BUT the Verizon business model seems to be to hound the crap out of your customers and make then hate you.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:22 pm
by Rob5TCP
I took the VOIP line partly because they gave me a better rate when I did. Plus it has one important feature.
Whenever a call comes in, it immediately sends me an email. I no longer have to check for messages, I know
which client has called. And frequently the calls are messages left by robo callers. It saves me from a lot of wasted
time.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 9:43 pm
by dm200
Verizon is not repairing any of the flooded copper landlines post Sandy because they claim it's not economical. People who don't have Voip or cell service are getting stationary phones that have a wireless transceiver as an alternative to copper.
If the "copper wire" phone service is regulated by the state, I thought that meant the service had to be offered. Can Verizon just quit offering it whenever and wherever they choose? Or is that a state by state issue?

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 9:43 pm
by dm200
Verizon is not repairing any of the flooded copper landlines post Sandy because they claim it's not economical. People who don't have Voip or cell service are getting stationary phones that have a wireless transceiver as an alternative to copper.
If the "copper wire" phone service is regulated by the state, I thought that meant the service had to be offered. Can Verizon just quit offering it whenever and wherever they choose? Or is that a state by state issue?

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 9:43 pm
by dm200
Verizon is not repairing any of the flooded copper landlines post Sandy because they claim it's not economical. People who don't have Voip or cell service are getting stationary phones that have a wireless transceiver as an alternative to copper.
If the "copper wire" phone service is regulated by the state, I thought that meant the service had to be offered. Can Verizon just quit offering it whenever and wherever they choose? Or is that a state by state issue?

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 8:27 am
by frugaltype
otbricki wrote: I switched to Cablevision VOIP because my Verizon copper landline degraded to the point where I could not reliably place a call on it, and requests to have it fixed were ignored. During the two weeks following Sandy my Cablevision phone service was out 11 days even though I had a generator. My next door neighbor who also has a generator has FIOS which was working the entire time.

My cell service was out for 3 days following the storm as well. The news broadcasts stated that 40% of the cell towers and about 25% of the copper landlines were out.

Verizon is not repairing any of the flooded copper landlines post Sandy because they claim it's not economical. People who don't have Voip or cell service are getting stationary phones that have a wireless transceiver as an alternative to copper.
In my area FIOS phone and Internet went out due to Sandy. Copper was out, but not for as long. Verizon's policy here is not to repair copper problems. However, they are claiming many more problems than exist, presumably to justify doing away with copper. For example, they told me that there had been several problems a year with my line, but when I talked to a nice actual repair guy as opposed to their phone people, he said the only problem was in 2006 due to a loose outside wire plus a brief outage due to Sandy because some of the copper system goes through something or other powered by power company power.

Our cell service was working.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 8:31 am
by frugaltype
dm200 wrote: If the "copper wire" phone service is regulated by the state, I thought that meant the service had to be offered. Can Verizon just quit offering it whenever and wherever they choose? Or is that a state by state issue?
I have not gotten a clear answer to this for my state, Rhode Island, but it seems that the local PUC may allow them to discontinue it. A Verizon area manager told me that they will have to give at least thirty days notice in writing to the customer.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 8:36 am
by frugaltype
dm200 wrote: I also, part time, manage a small organization, in its own, small office. We have business DSL and one Verizon phone line -- very satisfactory and the price is right. BUT I get a call every 7-10 days from Verizon trying to get us to "upgrade" to FiOS. They are very persistent, do not always tell the truth and are very ill-prepared when they call. While I like the Verizon service, because of the relentless and repeated calls, I now HATE VERIZON. They seem to go out of their way to piss me off! Companies, I thought anyway, wanted happy customers, BUT the Verizon business model seems to be to hound the crap out of your customers and make then hate you.
Exactly what is happening here, plus they show up unannounced at the door of homes saying they are going to change you over to FIOS. I've sent them away 2-3 times. I live in a small community with a lot of relatives here, so we know they are doing this to all the copper customers here.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 9:04 am
by CountryBoy
Spoke with Verizon today and they advise that if my battery runs out that I will lose all telephone and internet services. I am currently on fiber.

Question: when my time for battery replacement comes what should I get to replace this 12 volt - 7amph battery? On Amazon I can get a new one for $18 and at Radio Shack it costs $39.00. However, cheaper is not always better.

Does anyone know the most reliable brand to get? Verizon orders from Asurion.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 9:34 am
by frugaltype
CountryBoy wrote:Spoke with Verizon today and they advise that if my battery runs out that I will lose all telephone and internet services. I am currently on fiber.

Question: when my time for battery replacement comes what should I get to replace this 12 volt - 7amph battery? On Amazon I can get a new one for $18 and at Radio Shack it costs $39.00. However, cheaper is not always better.

Does anyone know the most reliable brand to get? Verizon orders from Asurion.
What do the reviews say on amazon? I have found them useful, except for the rather obvious bogus ones. If they're decent, I'd go for the lower price.

Update: Here is a useful looking thread: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21697542-Dead-battery

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 9:46 am
by otbricki
frugaltype wrote: Exactly what is happening here, plus they show up unannounced at the door of homes saying they are going to change you over to FIOS. I've sent them away 2-3 times. I live in a small community with a lot of relatives here, so we know they are doing this to all the copper customers here.
One of their additional tactics is to permanently disconnect your copper line when you connect to FIOS. So there is no going back.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:16 pm
by CountryBoy
Getting back to the OP and the battery itself...

I spoke again with Verizon and they advise me that if the battery dies I will lose all internet and telephone connection.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:38 pm
by CountryBoy
So I went in the forum thread referred to above and found:
http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-7ah-se ... ry-f2.html
which is the right size and all but it is rechargeable.

Do other people have experience recharging their telephone battery?
http://www.batterymart.com/p-xciter-5-s ... arger.html

The prices seem reasonable in both cases.

Thank you.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 2:09 pm
by EternalOptimist
I had this problem with Verizon and fixed it myself easily. Basically, I unplugged it from the electrical current then opened the cover and unplugged the inside wire. I let it stand for ~5 minutes, then put both plugs back in which essentially rebooted it. This was a couple of months ago and it didn't need a new battery. Good luck

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 2:49 pm
by CountryBoy
EternalOptimist

Yes, I have done that and all is ok. My question concerns the next step when a batter is needed and how to go about it....see above.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 9:35 pm
by gurujji
CountryBoy wrote:Getting back to the OP and the battery itself...

I spoke again with Verizon and they advise me that if the battery dies I will lose all internet and telephone connection.
Long time back , when battery went bad, Verizon replaced the battery for free; used the "switching to cable" mantra ! good luck.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 10:10 pm
by LadyGeek
CountryBoy wrote:So I went in the forum thread referred to above and found:
http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-7ah-se ... ry-f2.html
which is the right size and all but it is rechargeable.

Do other people have experience recharging their telephone battery?
http://www.batterymart.com/p-xciter-5-s ... arger.html

The prices seem reasonable in both cases.

Thank you.
Back on-topic... I just replaced my Verizon FiOS battery, as it was 6 years old. What happens when it goes bad? Your backup unit will start beeping an alarm, that's about it. Just press the button to disable the alarm and get a new battery - you'll have plenty of time to get one. Do you need to buy one in advance? No, they have a shelf life. What about recharging an old battery? No. The alarm goes off because the battery is too old to hold a charge, just replace it.

Here's the scoop: How do I Order, Replace and Dispose of my Battery Backup Unit (BBU) battery?
Can I buy a replacement BBU battery from outside sources?
The Verizon-supplied battery is designed specifically for use with FiOS service. While you can buy a battery from outside sources, use of a battery other than a 12-Volt 7.2Ah SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery is strongly discouraged since other battery types may impact the performance of your service(s). Verizon is not responsible for any damages resulting from the use of an improper battery.
Translation: Buy any battery that matches the form, fit, and function of the original. Cheaper is fine as long as it says "12 V 7.2 Ah" - it's a drop-in replacement.

By dumb luck, I had an extra (new) battery for my UPS that wasn't worth returning. So, my battery performance was indeed impacted - I have 20% more talk power (The Amp-Hour rating was higher). :) OTOH, I would not pay more for this, it was just a matter of having the battery on hand.

Be sure to recycle the old battery. You should get recycling instructions with the new battery.

BTW, EternalOptimist's problem was with the Optical Network Terminal (ONT), i.e. what the battery is powering. Unplugging the unit and disconnecting the battery performs a hard reboot "Ctl-Alt-Del" and fixes most quirky problems you may be having. It's not related to the OP's question about battery replacement.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 4:12 am
by manyness
The ONT battery does NOT preserve your "setttings". Those are received each power up.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 5:12 am
by dratkinson
My neighbor said it was easy to change the battery (12V, ~7-8Ah, SLA) for their home security system. They were getting email notifications to do so.

Took old battery to local Batteries Plus, bought a new one, and turned in the old one.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 12:42 pm
by dm200
otbricki wrote:
frugaltype wrote: Exactly what is happening here, plus they show up unannounced at the door of homes saying they are going to change you over to FIOS. I've sent them away 2-3 times. I live in a small community with a lot of relatives here, so we know they are doing this to all the copper customers here.
One of their additional tactics is to permanently disconnect your copper line when you connect to FIOS. So there is no going back.
Absolutely! Plus, with the copper wire gone, you can't go to a competitor's copper wire service either.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 4:45 pm
by CountryBoy
LadyGeek,

Thanks so much for the info; greatly appreciated. And I definitely learned from the demonstration video clip.

cb

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 8:14 pm
by Bob B
This is what I used for my FiOS battery replacement:
http://www.apexbattery.com/gs-battery-p ... ttery.html
Has been trouble free.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 7:22 pm
by CountryBoy
Bob b

Wow! That is an incredible price. So seriously...........what did you do with the old battery..honestly now.

cb

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 8:48 pm
by Bob B
CountryBoy wrote:Bob b

Wow! That is an incredible price. So seriously...........what did you do with the old battery..honestly now.

cb
Honestly...I took it to work and put it in the battery recycle bucket. When the pail is full, it is sent to a state certified recycler/reclaimer. Lacking that option, I would have saved it for one of my county's quarterly electronic recycling events. I think some of the big box retailers have battery recycling bins available.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 4:11 am
by dratkinson
CountryBoy wrote:Bob b

Wow! That is an incredible price. So seriously...........what did you do with the old battery..honestly now.

cb
The auto center where I buy my car batteries will accept any lead-acid battery for turn in. They get a credit (or something like that) for each. Doesn't hurt to ask yours.

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 7:08 am
by rustymutt
Replace the battery with the lowest costing one you can find. You might even check Bolgehead's Amazon.com site for this battery.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... %20battery

Re: FIOS Battery Replacement

Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 9:15 am
by CountryBoy
Thanks for ideas on the disposal thereof; most appreciated. I will ask around.