When it comes to buying batteries for your critical systems, its important to know what your buying in order to protect your critical systems. As far as batteries go, we are speaking about the sealed lead acid type, otherwise known as maintenance free, commonly used in computer rooms. Here is what we have found after twenty-six years in the business and I’m saying that actually doing it myself…

1. Manufacturers don’t always tell the truth

Manufacturers and stocking resellers will tell you that a battery can be sitting on a shelf for one year without any noticeable loss. Let me just say that’s a bunch of %*#@.

2. Quality Control can be an issue

Another issue out there is their quality control. I just received two orders at my Easton, PA warehouse and each one had a bad battery. These were batteries with date stamps no older than six months. On-Line Power refuses any batteries that are over six months old because we have learned better. On-Line Power receives its batteries per customer order, we then conductance test each one as well as load test as necessary. Finally, we finish up by charging each battery for 72 hours. This protocol helps us to weed out possible future failures.

3. You need to conductance test

When On-Line Power tests batteries in the field, we know what conductance reading each battery should have. I have certain battery manufacturers that I no longer buy from because of inadequate readings. There was one manufacturer in particular who’s one-year old batteries were reading as if they were three-year old batteries. I knew that *&%#*%! was going to fail sooner than later. I think they were selling general use batteries as UPS batteries.

4. Thermal Runaway

These same batteries have thermal runaway problems as well. (Lets just say I’ve had to use a crowbar on more than one piece of equipment) The batteries swell from overcharging as the cells short out. Its best to have some sort of maintenance program to find batteries that can swell and/or just fail before they damage your equipment or leave you in the dark.