Openings Battery Back up compartment

[Dinodad]

My low battery light and occasional beep says it's time to replace the battery.  Before I can do that I need to know how to open the battery compartment.  I had VZ Tech support on the phone coaching me but there is no obvious way to open the battery compartment that is visible to me.  The compartment is alleged reserve hinged which makes sense but I can't even get a fingernail the door to open it.  Any suggestions.  (By the way the reserve power for the hard wired phone worked during Irene and the Snow outages.

[th3rtythr33]

Pull the tab really really hard. That's how mine opens. Apparently, it's necessary that I slam my elbow into my water heater every time I want to see the battery. 🙂

[Dinodad]

Thanks- sorry I did not reply sooner.  What tab?  Where is it located?

[gmacdowall]

I just successfully did this today, thanks to the generous instructions in other posts. I got the battery online from Amazon but actually from vendor Bedford Power.

 12V 7 Ah Sealed Lead Acid Backup Battery Replacement for Verizon Fios Systems 12 Volt ...
   $17.90

It was very difficult to open the panel, especially since mine is not like any of the pictured examples. Mine looks like this:

Start prying on the lower left hand side of the top panel. It will feel like it's going to crack. Eventuall the top snaps and it swings open on the hinges that are on the right-hand side.

The white strip on the right side of the battery snaps back easily and it slides out. The harness stays on the battery and unplugs itself from its one connection.

As another poster mentioned, you will need pliers to get the harness off the 2 connectors so you can put it on the new battery. As soon as I put the new battery with the harness attached to the connectors back in, and plugged the harness back in to the connector, the battery low light went off.

I don't have fios phone so this whole ordeal was a complete waste of time and money. Had to listen to the crazy beeping for about a month until I had time to order the battery. My smoke detector battery low sound is not half as annoying. Ridiculous that you can't just disable the alarm.

[tocuin]

gmacdowall

Thanks for the explanation and pictures.

One broken fingernail (Down to the bloody quick!) later and I resorted to the Dandelion Digger as a mini crowbar. (I guess the deep freeze didn't help.)

tocuin

[ElizabethS]

As this thread is now over two years old, it will be locked in order to keep discussions current. If you have the same or a similar question/issue we invite you to start a new thread on the topic.

[foxygm]

My battery back-up compartment is the old model that was originally installed when Fios was first available.  There is not a tab to pull to open the compartment.  How do I get this thing open????  My frustration with Verizon is incomprehensible and this is the icing on the cake.  Please help asap.  Thanks!

[foxygm]

I figured it out.  My box has a hinge on the left.  On the lower right there is a spot where you must push in to relase the door.  It is not marked, but if you rub your finger in the area, you can feel a change in the surface.  Once it is pushed and held in, it will open.

Thanks.