HKPolice
join:2002-08-09
Scarborough, ON | reply to TSI Marc
Re: TekSavvy Down
Battery blew?? Why wasn't it changed regularly  |
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TSI Marc
Premium,VIP
join:2006-06-23
Chatham, ON | *shrug*
whatever it is. It's not good.
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TSI Marc - TekSavvy Solutions Inc. |
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MikeGeiger
join:2008-05-27
Ottawa, ON
| reply to HKPolice
Batteries were replaced earlier this year... I was checking the maintenance slips on those very cabinets last week.
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»ServerNorth.net »Mike.Geiger.ca »LHNet.ca »ThePackets.net |
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EG
The wings of love
Premium
join:2006-11-18
Union, NJ
| reply to HKPolice
said by HKPolice  :Battery blew?? Why wasn't it changed regularly Why assume a lack of maintenance right away ??
Maybe there was a malfunction of the re-charger and it overcharged/overheated the battery/s ?? |
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DKS
Damn Kidney Stones
Premium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON
clubs:
 ·Bell Sympatico
| said by EG :said by HKPolice :Battery blew?? Why wasn't it changed regularly Why assume a lack of maintenance right away ?? Maybe there was a malfunction of the re-charger and it overcharged/overheated the battery/s ?? There is anecdotal information that there has been a smell of burning electricals at peer 1 for a long time.
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Need-based health care not greed-based health care. |
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TheMG
join:2007-09-04
Edmonton, AB
·TELUS
| reply to EG
Meanwhile in Alberta not even a hiccup on my connection.
said by EG :Why assume a lack of maintenance right away ?? Maybe there was a malfunction of the re-charger and it overcharged/overheated the battery/s ?? Is that just rumors or an actual fact from an official source that the batteries were at fault?
Anyways, I do believe the batteries for these large UPS units are lead-acid batteries (just like in your car). Those do not burst into flames when overcharged, they start spitting acid and hydrogen gas. Though with the amount of ventilation, it's unlikely hydrogen could have accumulated enough to burn/explode.
More likely there was an internal fault in the actual UPS. At the power levels we're dealing with here (several hundred kVAs) we're talking serious arcs, arc flash, and vaporized metal.
Anyways, I've seen the insides of such a UPS in person. Scary stuff, even just the sheer size of the bus bars!
Another fact many people don't know: the batteries are not normally in the same cabinet as the UPS. There's a separate cabinet for the batteries alone, which can often be in a totally separate room from the UPS itself. |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC | I believe that pretty much all UPS batteries are lead acid. In fact, my consumer grade APC unit is lead acid; all of APC's stuff is. |
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Davesnothere
join:2009-06-15
| Battery Types
It's my understanding that they are a variant of Lead-Acid called a 'Gel Cell' battery and are supposed to be completely 'maintenance free' (cannot top up the electrolyte as it is not a free flowing liquid), unlike some lead-acid car batteries which were also known as 'maintenance free', though Could be topped up if you pried off some covers believing you needed to.
Those car batteries are now are called 'Low Maintenance', due to changes in / enforcement of consumer laws, I believe. |
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jfmezei
Premium
join:2007-01-03
Beaconsfield, QC
·ELECTRONICBOX
1 edit | Many moons/centuries ago, I visited the Bell CO on Belmont street in Montreal. They still have crossbar equipment feeding McGill university back then. (this was one step ahead from the first generation rotary switches, and the first to support touch tone). And they still had one rack of rotary (step by step) switches, but they had just been made offline and not yet removed).
They had a large portion of a floor dedicated to batteries. They had semi transparent plastic enclosure, and you could see bubbles flowing up between the metal plates inside. Pretty neat sight.
When I worked for a bank, I did see their turbine generators on the top floor, but I don't recall their batteries. (that would have been about 10 years after visiting the Belmont one). When I visited the Whitehorse CO in 1989 they had more modern equipment there. (and got to meet some of the operators, some of whome I spoke t later on when making calling card calls  |
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Thane_Bitter
join:2005-01-20
London, ON
·Bell Sympatico
| reply to EG
Re: TekSavvy Down
It could happen, here is an example of a battery issue in a APC smartUPS UPS (I think it’s the 2200 model, the pic looks identical to one I have...minus the damage  ). The right most battery has broken internally (short, overcharged, or just plain broke) and had been generating gas for some time. SLA batteries do have a vent valve that is designed to release the excess gas; however nothing is 100% reliable. It failed as well and the preasure built up over time causing the cell to swell up. Assuming the rest of the UPS is unaffected you have to disconnect everything and remove the top cover do remove swollen batteries (a rackmount UPS with batteries in it is a very heavy thing to move).
»farm3.static.flickr.com/2291/226···f4_b.jpg |
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Davesnothere
join:2009-06-15 | Interesting.
I have encountered some smaller APC's where the battery had swelled to the point that it had to be Pried out. |
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HeadSpinning
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON
| said by Davesnothere :Interesting. I have encountered some smaller APC's where the battery had swelled to the point that it had to be Pried out. Pregnant batteries in APC UPSs is a common problem.
I had always supsected they're running the float voltage too high. A few years ago, I was at a lunch seminar and was seated at a table with one of the founders of APC, and he basically confirmed (without actually saying it...) that some units have a problem with float voltage regulation, that might cause battery failure. |
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