I used to insist that once a quarter - if a tech was visiting a site - they
took an extra half hour – pulled the power and logged cell voltages every 5
minutes for at least 15 minutes in an onsite logbook. Bad cell will show up
pretty quick.
Then send the results to the office where they can note in a master log book
when the last battery test was done. Ditto for reading the hour meter on the
generator to make sure it was doing its exercise cycles properly.
From: Lewis Bergman
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 11:06 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Sealed or flooded batteries for DC backup?
Yea, but at the cost of those plus the size I can pay someone to drive once a
year and do it. Although if I were to do it again I think I would just put in
bigger conditioned cabinets so I could put whatever I wanted in there.
On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 12:04 PM <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote:
That is what I like about the BC-2000 telemetry module that you can install
on the eltek/valre modular rectifiers.
Scheduled or manual load testing and graphing over the network. You never
have to leave your chair to test all of your batts.
From: Lewis Bergman
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 11:00 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Sealed or flooded batteries for DC backup?
AGM still needs an annual check if you want your sites to stay up. We
started a maintenance routine after we got caught with our pants down. We load
tested them once every year and always ended up replacing 4 or 5 across all the
sites. Maybe 50 or so sites or roughly 100 batteries. So maybe a failure rate
of around 5%. Maybe I was just buying crappy AGM but they weren't cheap.
On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 10:20 AM Christopher Tyler <ch...@totalhighspeed.net>
wrote:
On a side note, most AGM batteries are also DOT approved (at least the
Northstar brand is), so you can "legally" carry them in your vehicle without
worrying about hazmat.
--
Christopher Tyler
MTCRE/MTCNA/MTCTCE/MTCWE
Total Highspeed Internet Services
417.851.1107
----- Original Message -----
From: ch...@wbmfg.com
To: af@afmug.com
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 10:16:31 AM
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Sealed or flooded batteries for DC backup?
AGM are great, unless you are cheap...
From: Jeremy
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 9:07 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Sealed or flooded batteries for DC backup?
Gave up flooded years ago. Had a few sites where the APC exploded the
batteries. Even when that didn't happen, I got tired of the yearly battery
check and fill at all the sites. When I started my own company I switched to
AGM and never looked back. They are amazing. Also, we don't use APCs anymore
except at a couple of large sites where we use the 3000XL, which has a much
better charging system.
On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 6:38 AM, David M <dmilho...@wletc.com> wrote:
there is always an evaporation issue with flooded..
They have to be maintained on a regular schedule in order to have
extended life beyond 5 yrs
AGM/GEL expensive but reliable with little maintenance. Give em a good
home and little venting and get
7 to 10 with those.
On 1/4/2018 3:47 PM, Robert Andrews wrote:
Sounds like a problem with the Charge controller being incorrectly set.
If this is on-grid, I would lower the voltage the charge controller is
maintaining and make sure it is set to NOT do any equalize cycles.
Then flooded should be better. Of course if the environment is causing
evaporation that is a different problem.
I didn't find telecom batteries were worth the expense. So if I dumped
wet, I would probably go with sealed Marine..
Best,
Robert
On 01/04/2018 01:38 PM, TJ Trout wrote:
I have been really liking flooded batteries over the last 10 years or
so because I am able to service the battery and extend the life but I am
finding that on sites that I forget to add distilled water at least twice a
year sometimes the batteries dry out due to the charge controller over gassing
the batteries.
Right now I'm trying to decide between Walmart deep Cycles, rack
mount telecom batteries or just sealed RV Marine deep cycle batteries.
What is the best bang-for-the-buck currently considering the life
span and capacity ?
Thanks
TJ
