Backup Power Supply . . .

We use ATT Uverse for our land line telephone and DSL connection to the Internet.  When we signed up yea years ago they included a battery back up system so when the power is out the telephone will continue to operate.

Well the other day the power supply died, that it had a red light on it.  That meant the internal battery had died.  Thus either the whole assembly needed replacement, or a trouble call to ATT or perhaps I could replace the battery.  Of course, there were no instructions given with the device.  So I unplugged it and the phone quit as well as the internet quit.  The modem was of course dead.

I unplugged the power supply and it was weighty which indicated to me it had a battery in it.  I moved it over to my desk/work station and opened it up.  It did have an access door and sure enough it had a 12 volt sealed lead acid battery in it.  I extracted the battery and did a search on Amazon and found maybe a dozen replacement batteries at price ranges from $17.95 to $40.00.  I ordered up the $17.95 unit, free shipping but had state tax included so it was about $19.40.  That was okay.

But it was going to take a week or more to be shipped.  Well the unit had a switch on it and I had turned it off when I moved it over to my desk.  So I hooked it all up again, plugged it into the modem and turned it on.  And it worked except I got a red light as there was no battery in the unit.  It worked just fine, powered up the modem and we were in business.  We just did not have a back up for a while.

The new battery arrived a while ago.  Perfect fit.  I hooked it up, installed in the unit and installed the cover door and plugged it into the modem.  I had not unplugged it from house power, but did turn it off to install the battery, a safety thing to me.  Once the battery was installed and the switch turned on it showed a green light and the modem came back alive.

So we were without a land line phone for about five minutes.  And the Internet connection came right back up.  I filed a three month warranty with the "MightyMax Battery" company via the internet.  I suppose the new battery should last maybe another five or so years like the original one.  No matter I know how and where to get a replacement battery now.