APC Smart UPS 3000 XL UPS, run on partial battery pack?

Hello:

I've got a Smart UPS 3000 XL (rack mount). The batteries are going on 5 years old, so I would like to recondition them with a separate battery conditioner. I pulled the battery pack and noticed that it has two 48V battery arrays connected in parallel (4 12V batteries for each of the two arrays, for a total of 8 batteries). Will it hurt anything to remove one of the arrays (4 batteries), and run the UPS on the remaining array of 4 batteries? It will take the conditioner about 3 weeks to complete so I want to make sure this won't harm the 4 batteries left in the UPS unit for this amount of time. This should maintain the 48 volts, but I'm assuming that the total runtime on battery will be lower, which is not a big deal at the moment. I just want to confirm that this won't cause the UPS to overcharge or do anything to the 4 remaining batteries since 4 are missing. I noticed that when I removed the 4 batteries, the battery meter on the front of the UPS unit was at 3 out of 5 bars, then the next day it was at a full 5 out of 5 bars.

Thank you for your help!!

--
Chris

Assuming that the bank is fed from a smart charger, it won't do any harm to remove half the capacity for a while. Your batts and charge circuit will get a bit more exercise and your reserve time will drop should the power go out, but a reduction in voltage would do more harm than a reduction in amp*hours.

Besides, unless you are using it in an off-grid application, the UPS should be redundant anyway, no ?
Or do you need it to condition the line voltage as well ?

Hello and thanks for the response. I've gone ahead and removed half of the batteries and everything seems to work fine while I condition the other half. I believe having two banks in parallel gives it longer runtime, if the power goes out. This model of UPS also allows for additional banks to be attached externally, so I'm guessing that it will just allow more connected in parallel. Thank you for the feedback!