This battery lasts the life of the router under the operating environmental conditions specified for the router, and is not field-replaceable.
But who determines its lifespan?
Knowing there is a battery set to fail and I can't simply replace it makes me physically uncomfortable. Enough so that I'd rather it not have RTC.
Thanks Cisco.
There doesn't need to be a separate access panel. It can just be in a normal battery holder like so:
Replaceable CR1225 in Cisco 1802
Considering it's something that generally runs 24/7 for years, it may still be a good idea to clean out dust from the device when possible. That's also an opportunity to replace the RTC battery, assuming it's replaceable.
Oh, hey, it seems Cisco even used to provide some Li batteries until 2017.
Also, not all businesses need the networks up 24/7. There may be plenty of time for down time for maintenance.
The eos on that 1802 was 2018. They stopped selling batteries for it a year before it stopped being supported. They claimed in that bulletin it was because of the shipping restrictions on batteries (which I believe!) too, so that might have had something to do with the series of decisions that led to soldered in batteries.
I didn’t even think of shipping restrictions making it prohibitively expensive to ship replacement batteries. That’s a good one.
Since you’re the op, how do you handle soldered in batteries? As you might expect from my replies, I just unsolder em (with a bench supply tacked in to keep power going to the circuit) and put in a replacement. Usually I don’t even put in battery holders, just another soldered in cell of the same type.