• Lead acid battery tester

    From Carlos E.R.@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 15 11:04:45 2025
    Hi,

    I bought yesterday a battery for my UPS at a shop that specializes in batteries. I had my old battery there, so to get the same type, and I
    asked the chap if he had a voltage meter. Something like that, he said.
    He brought out a special meter with huge clamps, attached it, and said
    the batter had 13.6 volts. Then he tested "load" and said said the
    battery gave out only 20 out of 100. I don't know what he was actually measuring, some time of current over a resistor measurement, I suppose.
    It is adjusted for the size of battery.

    Do you know what meter could be that thing?

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.

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  • From Liz Tuddenham@21:1/5 to Carlos E.R. on Tue Apr 15 12:55:49 2025
    Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

    On 2025-04-15 13:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

    ...

    However, it is usually a good enough indicator for obvious cases of
    dying batteries that collapse after a few tens of seconds or boil-up
    under heavy load.

    That's the case, the battery went down fast. The UPS software had the
    time to send me an alert email, but the event did not get written to
    disk logs. The battery would make 2 years in service next august.

    I would have expected a much better lifetime than that, Does the
    charging system follow the battery manufacturer's guidelines?
    Continuous trickle charge can ruin a battery that isn't designed for it,
    some batteries thrive on an occasional discharge and re-charge.

    Battery technology is extremely complex. There are so many ways of
    killing a battery; 'good practice' consists of juggling them to give the
    best compromise.


    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk

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  • From Liz Tuddenham@21:1/5 to Carlos E.R. on Tue Apr 15 12:30:05 2025
    Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

    Hi,

    I bought yesterday a battery for my UPS at a shop that specializes in batteries. I had my old battery there, so to get the same type, and I
    asked the chap if he had a voltage meter. Something like that, he said.
    He brought out a special meter with huge clamps, attached it, and said
    the batter had 13.6 volts. Then he tested "load" and said said the
    battery gave out only 20 out of 100. I don't know what he was actually measuring, some time of current over a resistor measurement, I suppose.
    It is adjusted for the size of battery.

    Do you know what meter could be that thing?

    There are car battery testers that almost short-circuit the battery
    through a convoluted strip of metal which acts as a load resistor to
    simulate the current drawn by a starter motor. They incorporate a
    voltmeter so you can watch the terminal voltage fall on load.

    It sounds as though the voltmeter in your case was calibrated with some arbitrary scale of 'goodness', based on 100% for a battery in perfect condition. The actual voltage drop will depend on many things, such as
    the battery capacity (which yours was compensated for) and the ambient temperature, so interpreting the readings calls for a degree of
    awareness and skill that most mechanics don't have.

    However, it is usually a good enough indicator for obvious cases of
    dying batteries that collapse after a few tens of seconds or boil-up
    under heavy load.


    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Carlos E.R.@21:1/5 to Liz Tuddenham on Tue Apr 15 13:38:47 2025
    On 2025-04-15 13:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

    ...

    However, it is usually a good enough indicator for obvious cases of
    dying batteries that collapse after a few tens of seconds or boil-up
    under heavy load.

    That's the case, the battery went down fast. The UPS software had the
    time to send me an alert email, but the event did not get written to
    disk logs. The battery would make 2 years in service next august.

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Roger Hayter@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 15 13:37:03 2025
    On 15 Apr 2025 at 12:55:49 BST, "Liz Tuddenham" <Liz Tuddenham> wrote:

    Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

    On 2025-04-15 13:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

    ...

    However, it is usually a good enough indicator for obvious cases of
    dying batteries that collapse after a few tens of seconds or boil-up
    under heavy load.

    That's the case, the battery went down fast. The UPS software had the
    time to send me an alert email, but the event did not get written to
    disk logs. The battery would make 2 years in service next august.

    I would have expected a much better lifetime than that, Does the
    charging system follow the battery manufacturer's guidelines?
    Continuous trickle charge can ruin a battery that isn't designed for it,
    some batteries thrive on an occasional discharge and re-charge.

    Battery technology is extremely complex. There are so many ways of
    killing a battery; 'good practice' consists of juggling them to give the
    best compromise.

    The brand leader American UPS company used to be noted for overcharging its sealed lead acid batteries (to be kind it could be called getting the maximum spec from the batteries) which probably shortened their life and there were published circuit board mods to stop it doing so.


    --

    Roger Hayter

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  • From Carlos E.R.@21:1/5 to Liz Tuddenham on Tue Apr 15 18:35:12 2025
    On 2025-04-15 13:55, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
    Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

    On 2025-04-15 13:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

    ...

    However, it is usually a good enough indicator for obvious cases of
    dying batteries that collapse after a few tens of seconds or boil-up
    under heavy load.

    That's the case, the battery went down fast. The UPS software had the
    time to send me an alert email, but the event did not get written to
    disk logs. The battery would make 2 years in service next august.

    I would have expected a much better lifetime than that, Does the
    charging system follow the battery manufacturer's guidelines?
    Continuous trickle charge can ruin a battery that isn't designed for it,
    some batteries thrive on an occasional discharge and re-charge.

    That's a good question without an answer. It is a black box. I don't
    know what it does. Ok, it is a commercial UPS. I have found that some commercial UPS take care of their batteries better than others.

    Another possibility is that the battery is lower quality, being no-name.

    This UPS is a Salicru "UPS Soho+". The other one I have is an "Ellipse
    1000", from Eaton, and this one is good.


    Battery technology is extremely complex. There are so many ways of
    killing a battery; 'good practice' consists of juggling them to give the
    best compromise.

    Trickle charge in a traditional lead acid wet battery just "evaporates"
    the water in the electrolyte (ok, it produces some hydrogen). You just
    have to replenish the water periodically. But on these "new" gel types,
    the battery dies.

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.

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  • From Ralph Mowery@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 15 15:26:14 2025
    In article <d2k1dlxcgk.ln2@Telcontar.valinor>, robin_listas@es.invalid
    says...

    Hi,

    I bought yesterday a battery for my UPS at a shop that specializes in batteries. I had my old battery there, so to get the same type, and I
    asked the chap if he had a voltage meter. Something like that, he said.
    He brought out a special meter with huge clamps, attached it, and said
    the batter had 13.6 volts. Then he tested "load" and said said the
    battery gave out only 20 out of 100. I don't know what he was actually measuring, some time of current over a resistor measurement, I suppose.
    It is adjusted for the size of battery.

    Do you know what meter could be that thing?

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.




    If that was a 12.5 volt battery (6 cell) his meter should not show 13.6
    volts if it was correct . However the testers will put a heavy load on
    the battery and it should not drop but maybe 2 to 4 volts depending on
    the tester and the load it puts on the battery.. The less the better.
    If it drops more than that the battery is on its way to going bad.
    Simple volt meters tell almost nothing about a battery. They often have
    the rated voltage without a load. They must be put under a load. The
    more the voltage drops for the same type of battery the worse it is.

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