Maintaining UPS/car batteries

[talhawaleed]

I colleague bought 12 liter distilled water from company "Valley .... they are in I-9 sector. rate is pretty cheap !
12 Liter 200 rs .... they have outlets in saddar pindi and bohar bazar ....
I will check it in a day or two by boiling to see impurities and update inshallah !!!!

VALLEY ULTRA DISTILLED WATER - Islamabad - Health - Beauty - distillation of water

Nice share, as I will try to visit them to get distilled water and also rates seems very reasonable.

[stonedsaint]

Nice share, as I will try to visit them to get distilled water and also rates seems very reasonable.

Boiled 1 liter to approx 20 ML !!!! still no impurities found, no whitish salts or anything !!!! looks good to me !!!!

[car_bus2008]

I have been using this UPS which i bought 6 months age and believe me Mashallah se it is working perfectly and powering my 7fans and 5 Energy savers and giving me a backup of 4 hours with 2 135AMP Volta batteries.

I think i purchased a good UPS.

Before i was using DESI UPS and my new batteries were black from inside.And the new UPS doesnot boils batteries and charging is at 10Amp.And since the day i attached this new UPS i never topup water in batteries it is same like 6 months before.

[mac148]

Assalamoallaikum all.
Today i have performed a flush on my one year old osaka 175 amp battery.
Got the electrolyte from Pyro.. It cost me Rs. 750 for 24 bottles of 500ml each. Used Around 10 bottles for the flush. These days situation of loadshedding in my area is bit better. 3 hour loadshedding at night time which used to drain my battery in last hour of loadsheding. I have checked my parameteres of specific gravity of fully charged batteries which were same in all the cells i.e. around 1.20. Hoping that flush will help in increasing the backup time. Learnt alot from this thread... I am hopeful that after all the periodic checking of charging voltages and current amperes and cut off values of UPS along with battery's specific gravity, this year i dont have to replace my battery... Inshallah i Will update regarding the results of my flush.

P.S. pyro peopel are really helpful andprofessional in delivering the electrolyte. One can get it delivered at home or any place of convenience. I checked the specific gravity of electrolyte in each bottle I used. It was exactly 1.250...

[talhawaleed]

Boiled 1 liter to approx 20 ML !!!! still no impurities found, no whitish salts or anything !!!! looks good to me !!!!

once water start to boil then start counting the time for next 10-15 min while it continues to boil so. let the water cool down and stay in same container for few hours so that you may see impurities settling at bottom. you will definitely find many, try to separate that and then you can use this for preparing the electrolyte. much better option then Tab water used by battery shops and worked well for me in past once i did not had the access to distilled water to prepare the electrolyte.

[talhawaleed]

I have been using this UPS which i bought 6 months age and believe me Mashallah se it is working perfectly and powering my 7fans and 5 Energy savers and giving me a backup of 4 hours with 2 135AMP Volta batteries.

great, you could also have achieved the same results from desi UPS.

I think i purchased a good UPS.

Before i was using DESI UPS and my new batteries were black from inside.And the new UPS doesnot boils batteries and charging is at 10Amp.And since the day i attached this new UPS i never topup water in batteries it is same like 6 months before.

Try to measure the cutoff Voltage and determine the charging rate in start, in between and before end. Not much of the rocket science, this UPS maybe branded and variable would be setup perfectly well from factory. You could have done the same on desi UPS provided you knew your way around. Also, quality of electrolyte in batteries also makes a lot of difference. Looks like, you now have the good combination of both.

[talhawaleed]

Assalamoallaikum all.
Today i have performed a flush on my one year old osaka 175 amp battery.
Got the electrolyte from Pyro.. It cost me Rs. 750 for 24 bottles of 500ml each. Used Around 10 bottles for the flush. These days situation of loadshedding in my area is bit better. 3 hour loadshedding at night time which used to drain my battery in last hour of loadsheding. I have checked my parameteres of specific gravity of fully charged batteries which were same in all the cells i.e. around 1.20. Hoping that flush will help in increasing the backup time. Learnt alot from this thread... I am hopeful that after all the periodic checking of charging voltages and current amperes and cut off values of UPS along with battery's specific gravity, this year i dont have to replace my battery... Inshallah i Will update regarding the results of my flush.

P.S. pyro peopel are really helpful andprofessional in delivering the electrolyte. One can get it delivered at home or any place of convenience. I checked the specific gravity of electrolyte in each bottle I used. It was exactly 1.250...

Good job, re-verify the charging rate, consider the formula AMP-HR rating/10, don’t let the charging rate exceed this formula, Cut off Voltage properly setup and you are good to go. Also, Due to extended load shedding, Voltage on battery terminals should not drop below 10.4 or 10.3 Volts each and UPS should shut down before it hit so. This way, you will ensure that during extended load shedding batteries are not abused. You should have asked pryo chemicals to extend their service to other cities as well.

[mac148]

Good job, re-verify the charging rate, consider the formula AMP-HR rating/10, don?t let the charging rate exceed this formula, Cut off Voltage properly setup and you are good to go. Also, Due to extended load shedding, Voltage on battery terminals should not drop below 10.4 or 10.3 Volts each and UPS should shut down before it hit so. This way, you will ensure that during extended load shedding batteries are not abused. You should have asked pryo chemicals to extend their service to other cities as well.

Yeah I have adjusted my ups to cut off at 10.5 volts... These days I rarely touch that mark...Is it normal for the specific gravity to fall immediately after flush???? Mine are giving lower values in all cells... Before flush when I checked from Pyro packaged bottle it was 1.25 and after flush and fully charged battery its 1.20.... I haven't have a loadshedding after flush... I hope few discharge and charge cycles bring the things back....

[car_bus2008]

Try to measure the cutoff Voltage and determine the charging rate in start, in between and before end. Not much of the rocket science, this UPS maybe branded and variable would be setup perfectly well from factory. You could have done the same on desi UPS provided you knew your way around. Also, quality of electrolyte in batteries also makes a lot of difference. Looks like, you now have the good combination of both.

Mashallah say now i have the best UPS.My whole family is happy.

[talhawaleed]

Yeah I have adjusted my ups to cut off at 10.5 volts... These days I rarely touch that mark...Is it normal for the specific gravity to fall immediately after flush???? Mine are giving lower values in all cells... Before flush when I checked from Pyro packaged bottle it was 1.25 and after flush and fully charged battery its 1.20.... I haven't have a loadshedding after flush... I hope few discharge and charge cycles bring the things back....

C.G will be ok after few cycles of charging and discharging.

[whiteangel]

I seem to have a problem with one of my batteries. This is a 150Ah Exide battery which is less than an year old. I have two UPSs each connected to a separate battery. During a routine check I found that the Exide battery was excessively hot I checked the charging voltage and it was 19 amps. I thought may be the problem is with the UPS so I disconnected it and connected the battery to the second UPS, I measured charging voltage and it was also measuring around the 18 amp mark. I checked the battery voltage and it was a little over 12 volts. I thought there is something wrong with the battery.

So I decided to do a flush, flushed with water and topped up the battery with Pyro electrolyte and then I put the battery on slow charge (2 Amps) using an external battery charger. I monitored the battery voltage after every 6 hours or so. After two days of slow charge, the battery voltage does not go beyond 13 volts. Sometimes it drops to 12.7 volts. When I check the specific gravity, it varies between 50% charged and 70% charged. If I put the charger in automatic charging mode, the battery starts overheating.

I am not sure what the problem is with the battery. Can this be fixed or do I need to get a new battery?

[Ishtiaq778]

did u check gravity b4 flushing??

[umans]

I seem to have a problem with one of my batteries. This is a 150Ah Exide battery which is less than an year old. I have two UPSs each connected to a separate battery. During a routine check I found that the Exide battery was excessively hot I checked the charging voltage and it was 19 amps. I thought may be the problem is with the UPS so I disconnected it and connected the battery to the second UPS, I measured charging voltage and it was also measuring around the 18 amp mark. I checked the battery voltage and it was a little over 12 volts. I thought there is something wrong with the battery.

So I decided to do a flush, flushed with water and topped up the battery with Pyro electrolyte and then I put the battery on slow charge (2 Amps) using an external battery charger. I monitored the battery voltage after every 6 hours or so. After two days of slow charge, the battery voltage does not go beyond 13 volts. Sometimes it drops to 12.7 volts. When I check the specific gravity, it varies between 50% charged and 70% charged. If I put the charger in automatic charging mode, the battery starts overheating.

I am not sure what the problem is with the battery. Can this be fixed or do I need to get a new battery?

In this scenario, i think gravity should be checked before flushing to detect some obvious bad cell. If difference of gravity is significant between 1 or more cells, they considered as bad cells which are non repairable. Flushing will work only if all cells are in good condition.
In your case i think there is a bad cell which is not letting the battery to obtain desired voltage so UPS keeps on charging and battery becomes hot.

[Ishtiaq778]

In this scenario, i think gravity should be checked before flushing to detect some obvious bad cell. If difference of gravity is significant between 1 or more cells, they considered as bad cells which are non repairable. Flushing will work only if all cells are in good condition.
In your case i think there is a bad cell which is not letting the battery to obtain desired voltage so UPS keeps on charging and battery becomes hot.

u r right dear, that s y i asked question about gravity, u replied what i was seeking, thanks

[talhawaleed]

I seem to have a problem with one of my batteries. This is a 150Ah Exide battery which is less than an year old. I have two UPSs each connected to a separate battery. During a routine check I found that the Exide battery was excessively hot I checked the charging voltage and it was 19 amps. I thought may be the problem is with the UPS so I disconnected it and connected the battery to the second UPS, I measured charging voltage and it was also measuring around the 18 amp mark. I checked the battery voltage and it was a little over 12 volts. I thought there is something wrong with the battery.

So I decided to do a flush, flushed with water and topped up the battery with Pyro electrolyte and then I put the battery on slow charge (2 Amps) using an external battery charger. I monitored the battery voltage after every 6 hours or so. After two days of slow charge, the battery voltage does not go beyond 13 volts. Sometimes it drops to 12.7 volts. When I check the specific gravity, it varies between 50% charged and 70% charged. If I put the charger in automatic charging mode, the battery starts overheating.

I am not sure what the problem is with the battery. Can this be fixed or do I need to get a new battery?

Don’t you think 19A and 18A are way to high for 150 AH battery as formula says its AMP-R ratings/10 and we know once they write Excide 150 then actually AMP-HR rating is lesser then that.

[whiteangel]

Don’t you think 19A and 18A are way to high for 150 AH battery as formula says its AMP-R ratings/10 and we know once they write Excide 150 then actually AMP-HR rating is lesser then that.

I know it is too high, but since I have an imported UPS, I cannot manually adjust the charging rate. But the UPS is not supposed to charge at 19 Amps all the way. These days since there is no loadshedding my other battery (Osaka 200AH) which is attached to the second UPS always reads 13.76 volts and the UPS is automatically on trickle charge. (less than 1 amp charge current).

The way the UPS works is that normally it is supposed to charge at full rate for a couple of hours (only when the battery is completely flat) and then it reduces the charging voltage. The nominal charging voltage is about 7 Amps. Cut off voltage is 13.75 volts. But since the battery never goes over 13 volts the UPS continues charging it, which overheats it. The UPS is fine because I attached it with the second battery for a few days and it has been working fine. However the battery has been exhibiting the same symptoms after checking it with two different UPS and also an external charger. So I guess the problem is with the battery.

Is there a way to recover from this situation or do I have a dead battery on my hands.

[talhawaleed]

I know it is too high, but since I have an imported UPS, I cannot manually adjust the charging rate. But the UPS is not supposed to charge at 19 Amps all the way. These days since there is no loadshedding my other battery (Osaka 200AH) which is attached to the second UPS always reads 13.76 volts and the UPS is automatically on trickle charge. (less than 1 amp charge current).

The way the UPS works is that normally it is supposed to charge at full rate for a couple of hours (only when the battery is completely flat) and then it reduces the charging voltage. The nominal charging voltage is about 7 Amps. Cut off voltage is 13.75 volts. But since the battery never goes over 13 volts the UPS continues charging it, which overheats it. The UPS is fine because I attached it with the second battery for a few days and it has been working fine. However the battery has been exhibiting the same symptoms after checking it with two different UPS and also an external charger. So I guess the problem is with the battery.

Is there a way to recover from this situation or do I have a dead battery on my hands.

I that case, you need to look into manual and see AMP-Hr rating of battery, the company has recommended for the unit.
Charging rate is high at initial stage so you can expect a problem, it may recover or may-not. Best, is you can attach two batteries in parallel as it would double the backup time and charging rate will fall in spec.

You need to keep an eye on specific gravity and look for a variation, good cells will have good c.g and bad will show different readings. Variation between two different will tell the entire storey.

[whiteangel]

I monitored specific gravity after flush after allowing sufficient time for charging and there is not much variation between the cells. I think your suggestion about connecting batteries in parallel is a good idea. I will do that and see how it responds.

[nasirjavaid]

Can anyone tell me how many liters of electrolyte are inside a 165 amp battery? I have a Phoenx 165 battery and want to flush it so need the idea of how much water and acid I will be needing.

Also I think it is good idea to fill it using Pyro electrolyte instead of making my own electrolyte from acid-- dangeroud-- so can I get the location from where I can buy pyro electrolyte in Lahore?

Thanks

[race_addicted]

@talhawaleed! your article is very informative but too lengthy. Can you please summarize in few lines ?