ONT Battery - If I don't use Verizon Land Line Services

[eh19446]

I don't use a Verizon land line phone -- I use my cell phones -- so from what I've read here the battery in the FIOS ONT does me no good during a power failure.

The current ONT battery is failing and triggering the alarms - why in the world do I need to replace it -- why isn't the ONT designed to go without a battery if I don't use it for phone service?    The cost isn't that bad, but it leads to more hazordous waste every few years and seems to be completely unnecessary.

[Anti-Phish1]

The backup battery will keep you internet and TV service up for a limited amount of time (~5min).

This will keep you services up during short power interruptions.

To answer your question, no you do't need to replace the battery. 

Simply disconnect it to eliminate the alarm

I have removed my battery, but have my BBU/PS plugged into a large UPS to keep services up during long outages.

[eh19446]

Actually, disconnecting the battery does *not* silence the alarms.  Looks like the only way is to replace the $%^#@ battery.

And you may be correct that the battery does provide for some TV and internet service during a power failure, but unless the wireless router, set tup boxes and TVs all have backups too  then there is no benefit to the ONT staying active.

Looks like just another bad decision by VZ  -- assuming that everyone has a landline phone.   AAArrrghhhh

[smith6612]

I wouldn't call it a bad design by Verizon. The ONT can be set to send power towards Internet or TV, whichever is more important to you if you do not have phone service. Think of the battery though as the only thing standing between the ONT and the AC Power if, say a brownout occurs in your home. It's a good idea to keep the battery in there in case the ONT actually needs to fall back for whatever reason. Brief power outages or power dips like that can cause some nice problems with Computer Equipment.

[drichard2]

I have the old copper wires for phone service and do not want to buy another battery.  (The last one lasted less than 6 months.)

Taking the battery out DOES NOT silence the alarm (contrary to VZ online help).

Pressing the Silence Alarm button for 20 seconds DOES NOT silence the alarm (contrary to advice from a VZ Chat session). 

Does anyone know how permanently silence the alarm without damaging the equipment?

[smith6612]

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@drichard wrote:

I have the old copper wires for phone service and do not want to buy another battery.  (The last one lasted less than 6 months.)

Taking the battery out DOES NOT silence the alarm (contrary to VZ online help).

Pressing the Silence Alarm button for 20 seconds DOES NOT silence the alarm (contrary to advice from a VZ Chat session). 

Does anyone know how permanently silence the alarm without damaging the equipment?

---

Have you had FiOS for only 6 months? Ask Verizon to send you another battery. I believe they warrant it for one year. A 6 month old battery, unless it's been sitting in a truck or warehouse for a few years shouldn't be dead already. They should last for years before getting to the point of needing replacement.

[drichard2]

I have had FIOS for several years.  The last battery was replaced by a VZ Technician.  The acid was leaking in the original battery.  VZ did not charge me for the service call. 

However, the new battery is aparently bad because the Replace Battery Alarm is sounding.  Since the online information regarding the BBU says that the alarm will be silenced when you remove the battery, I took it out.  The alarm continued to beep (on some time interval - about every 20 minutes).

During a VZ Chat session (regarding a different problem), I was told that the BBU alarm can be silenced by holding down the Silence Alarm button for 20 seconds.  When I do that, it works for about 24 hours.  Then the alarm starts up again.

Since I do not use FIOS for phone service, I simply want to permanently silence the alarm.  I would prefer to avoid opening the box to cut the wire to the speaker.  I would expect that there is some action that I can take would disable the alarm indefinately.

[prisaz]

Even if you do not have voice. The battery is required, and should not be removed, even though it only provides support for the phone when the power fails, it still retains power for the fiber line and or memory. If it is dead, disconnecting it should be temporary solution. If you have issues with your connection, and there is no battery, all the diagnostics information stored in the ONT will be lost during a momentary or brief outage, and determining why a connection is or has failed would be almost impossible. Even if I did not have a phone, I would still want a battery backing up the ONT. I also have a UPS for my ONT backing up the back up.

Most of the UPS batteries I have, last about 3 years or more. Several years is normal, but I have had them last much longer.

[lasagna]

With prisaz here ... you definitely should have the battery even though it's primarily for the phone service portion.  As someone suggested, using an extrnal UPS will work as well and in such scenarios I have heard the removing the battery and silencing the alarm will do the trick unless or until the UPS power is cycled.

I've had my current battery for over three years at this point and it's still going strong.  In general these things should last years and anything less than a year is usually covered by warranty from the battery manufacturer (Verizon will replace it if it's your original battery from the install and less than a year old and/or you buy the replacement thru them and it's less than a year old).

However, you can get the battery from a number of sources online or the local "battery warehouse" stores and usually less than half the price Verizon charges -- I bought one to replace a neighbors unit a few months back for about $19.  The only caution with online purchases is make sure the provider is reputable -- some sources have been known to sell old batteries removed from equipment or otherwise claim them to be "refurbished" (which you really can't do with seal lead-acid units unlike what you can do with regular lead acid batteries like car batteries where you can refurbish them by replacing the electrodes and changing out the acid -- which essentially only recycles the container).