Maintaining UPS/car batteries

[speedster_101]

@Smijaz
Thanks for telling me about the inner tube but how can it break? It is inside the tube?

[smijaz]

@Smijaz
Thanks for telling me about the inner tube but how can it break? It is inside the tube?

by hitting the outer one, glass against glass the weaker one goes bye bye.

[faizanahmad]

Today I have bought battery hydrometer from a battery shop (Opposite to Jahangir Balti Murgh) Saddar Rawalpindi.
Its Chinese and its price is 200 Rs. Its marked between 1100 to 1300

I got same one for 120Rs

[speedster_101]

I got same one for 120Rs

Lahore Lahore hai

[juadjee]

I got the same hydrometer for Rs. 100 Karachi wins! And yes, that is the right method, the tube inside should be floating and the water level will mark the gravity for you. Good work

[speedster_101]

I got the same hydrometer for Rs. 100 Karachi wins! And yes, that is the right method, the tube inside should be floating and the water level will mark the gravity for you. Good work

So it means that these hydrometers are not China made, they are Karachi made. Thats why cheapest in Karachi and then the rate start increasing with the height above sea level

[brownrose78]

brothers i have one battery wid ups b ut nowadays loadshedding @ peak so for better backup time i want to add 1 more battery( i mean 2 batteries of 200AH)

now tell me how to connect these 2 batteries

scenario1:
originally now from ups, red wire going to Positive terminal & black wire from ups going to -tive ter. of battery. simply.
Connect red jumper wire from positive terminal of battery 1 to +ve term. of battery 2
Connect black jumper wire from negative terminal of battery 1 to -ve term.of battery 2

scenario2:
originally from ups, red wire going to Positive terminal & black wire from ups going to -tive ter. of battery.
Connect red wire from ups to positive terminal of battery1 & black wire from ups to -ve terminal of battry2
then JUST connect jumper wire from Negative terminal of battery1 & connect it to positive terminal of battery2

WHICH IS CORRECT SCENARIO, TELL ME FROM NUMBER & can anyone tell which scenario is "series circuit" & which one "parallel"
is it cause any effect on ups charging if v connect it parallel or series & wat r the advantages & disadvantages of both OR IS 3RD METHOD TO JOIN 2 BATTERIES

i expect detail clarification sp. by talhawaheed bhai acc. to ur experience

[talhawaleed]

Dear Javad,

Javad, I hope your problem is solved after you have adjusted the cut off variable, you can also ask UPS guy to tell you about the variable so that you don’t have to take your UPS to him every time.

Dear brownrose78

ORIGINAL SENARIO:

First of all, after reading your message I am assuming that you UPS originally runs on one 12 Volts battery and you want to increase the backup time.

Now listen carefully and don’t screw this up.

Connect positive terminal from old battery to the positive terminal of new battery
Connect negative terminal from old battery to the negative terminal of new battery
Now you can again connect Red wire from UPS to positive terminal of any of the batteries
& Black wire from UPS to negative terminal of the same battery.

One more thing

1) If your old battery is already in bad condition then it can screw the new battery as well
2) Because you’re old battery may require more time to charge while new battery may require less time. Once connected in Parallel configuration then new batteries can experience over charging and will result in decrease of its life in longer term.

If you’re old battery is only a year old and has right specific gravity in all the cells then go for it.

[smijaz]

brothers i have one battery wid ups b ut nowadays loadshedding @ peak so for better backup time i want to add 1 more battery( i mean 2 batteries of 200AH)

now tell me how to connect these 2 batteries

scenario1:
originally now from ups, red wire going to Positive terminal & black wire from ups going to -tive ter. of battery. simply.
Connect red jumper wire from positive terminal of battery 1 to +ve term. of battery 2
Connect black jumper wire from negative terminal of battery 1 to -ve term.of battery 2

scenario2:
originally from ups, red wire going to Positive terminal & black wire from ups going to -tive ter. of battery.
Connect red wire from ups to positive terminal of battery1 & black wire from ups to -ve terminal of battry2
then JUST connect jumper wire from Negative terminal of battery1 & connect it to positive terminal of battery2

WHICH IS CORRECT SCENARIO, TELL ME FROM NUMBER & can anyone tell which scenario is "series circuit" & which one "parallel"
is it cause any effect on ups charging if v connect it parallel or series & wat r the advantages & disadvantages of both OR IS 3RD METHOD TO JOIN 2 BATTERIES

i expect detail clarification sp. by talhawaheed bhai acc. to ur experience

Ok, let me clear few things first

UPS are built according to the load they can handle and the equipment they are going to run from a specified DC source (battery). Usually we see a 12V (One battery) UPS ranging from 500W to 1KW and 24V (two batteries in series) UPS ranging from 1200W to 2000W.

Scenario 1 is parallel, which means you will add up the Amperes without adding potential difference i.e Volts. e.g. if u connect two 12V batteries of 150AH in this pattern you will get 12V but with a reserve of 300AH.
This scenario will work if you have a 12V (single battery) UPS But remember DONT use new batteries with old ones, it is the oldest saying in the book written on every battery operated gadget ever made.

Scenario 2 is series, which means you will add up volts without adding AH meaning 150AH will remain 150AH and 12V+12V will become 24V (correction by Fas133). Dont try this if your UPS is a 12V one it will fry it in no time. Also the old battery with new battery stuff goes here too.

[juadjee]

Dear Javad,

Javad, I hope your problem is solved after you have adjusted the cut off variable, you can also ask UPS guy to tell you about the variable so that you don’t have to take your UPS to him every time.

Talha, my UPS came back today after the correction and it is now showing the battery correctly as fully charged. It was indeed a fault with the UPS - needless to say our crappy mentality technicians who just want to change parts every chance they get and not look for the actual problem. Anyway, it's working well now so I am happy at the moment. Will soon procure a good quality meter myself and adjust the UPS as required.

Thanks for the help again.

[speedster_101]

Talha, my UPS came back today after the correction and it is now showing the battery correctly as fully charged. It was indeed a fault with the UPS - needless to say our crappy mentality technicians who just want to change parts every chance they get and not look for the actual problem. Anyway, it's working well now so I am happy at the moment. Will soon procure a good quality meter myself and adjust the UPS as required.

Thanks for the help again.

Also tell us about the battery backup time. Is it increased after the flushing?

[juadjee]

Also tell us about the battery backup time. Is it increased after the flushing?

I think i mentioned previously. Battery back up time has improved drastically - I'm not sure if my UPS was the main culprit here but the backup time was barely an hour - and I wasn't ready to believe this newly bought, higher AH rating battery would go out so quickly. But yes, the gravity for all my battery's cells was nill so that couldn't be good. I have so far tested it 2 hours on full load and it didn't give me any issues at all.

Will test again later.

[speedster_101]

^^^
Thats quite an improvement.

[talhawaleed]

Javad,

It’s good to hear that your experiment went well and your backup time has increased by 100 %. Once you buy a Voltmeter then examine the cut off Voltage by your own self.

This basically highlights that adjustment is needed at both the ends such as with batteries and UPS. Bad tuning of UPS can also screw your batteries like it was doing it by overcharging the batteries. Overcharging your batteries once you twice will not damage your batteries as compared to people who don’t realize that their UPS overcharges their battery every day either with high current or improper cutoff Voltage.

PRECAUTION AGAINT OVER CHARGING

If you feel that your UPS is over charging the batteries then take a immediate precaution by removing the battery caps. This would protect the batteries from turning into a bomb and obviously you have to call the UPS guy for proper inspection.

[fas133]

Ok, let me clear few things first

UPS are built according to the load they can handle and the equipment they are going to run from a specified DC source (battery). Usually we see a 12V (One battery) UPS ranging from 500W to 1KW and 24V (two batteries in series) UPS ranging from 1200W to 2000W.

Scenario 1 is parallel, which means you will add up the Amperes without adding potential difference i.e Volts. e.g. if u connect two 12V batteries of 150AH in this pattern you will get 12V but with a reserve of 300AH.
This scenario will work if you have a 12V (single battery) UPS But remember DONT use new batteries with old ones, it is the oldest saying in the book written on every battery operated gadget ever made.

Scenario 2 is series, which means you will add up both the amperes and volts meaning 150AH will become 300AH and 12V+12V will become 24V. Dont try this if your UPS is a 12V one it will fry it in no time. Also the old battery with new battery stuff goes here too.

In series only voltage is added up not current so in above scenario it would be 24V and 150Ah Storage not 300Ah.

[smijaz]

In series only voltage is added up not current so in above scenario it would be 24V and 150Ah Storage not 300Ah.

Correction noted with thanks.

[a_n_memon88]

I have few questions

1. As the plastic case of batteries is not transparent enough we cannot see the electrolyte from outside so how can we check the maximum and minimum levels
2. should a good ups cutoff charging once the voltage reaches 14/28v or it should cutoff at some point beyond 14/28v
3. My ups currently cutsoff charging at 28v but the battery barely runs for 1 hour with one fan and two lights my battery has had two heart attacks back so I think the problem is with my batteries. I have been using them since 27/7/2009
4. Now I have thought of replacing them so please guide me on what should be the good configurations for new batteries. I am currently using 130 AH batteries and thinking of replacing them with 135 AH ones. I will upload pics of my UPS kit so that you can properly elaborated what variables I have to control

[talhawaleed]

First of all, 1.5 years is a very less time for battery to die and as I have mentioned that this is a typical example of what is happening in every house. You also said that you had been careless about your batteries in past this means that you have allowed it to go dry or you had been topping it with tab water.

1) Remove the Top caps to observer the electrolyte level inside the battery
2) Buy a good quality hydrometer and report the specific gravity of each cell inside the battery as this would give a very good idea about status of your battery and then I would give you my opinion. Members have already posted the pictures of hydrometer in this thread and it must cost you Rs 150 to buy one.
3) Your CUT OFF Voltage is perfectly fine
4) Two 130 AH batteries are giving a very less backup time and if cells are not dead then I think they can be brought back to life using the procedure which Javad(juadjee) has already used and mentioned in the forum along with the results.

Once I will have these measurements then I would be able to provide a better opinion about your batteries. Rest cut of Voltage of your UPS is fine and also report the charging rate of UPS.

[a_n_memon88]

AOA

I have a gravity meter and voltmeter but do not have ammeter so I think I cannot calculate charging rate.

Today I checked gravity of my batteries and results were as follows

1st battery=5 cells 1280 and 1 cell 1200
2nd battery=3 cells 1150-1200, 1 cell 1280 and 2 cells 1200-1250

I think my batteries cells are damaged and I need replacement

[YamahaYB100]

AOA

I have a gravity meter and voltmeter but do not have ammeter so I think I cannot calculate charging rate.

Today I checked gravity of my batteries and results were as follows

1st battery=5 cells 1280 and 1 cell 1200
2nd battery=3 cells 1150-1200, 1 cell 1280 and 2 cells 1200-1250

I think my batteries cells are damaged and I need replacement

you cant change a singel cell from you battery you need to change the battery.