Changing one battery.

[Olly]

Koreano , This is what the Team posted in 2012 :


“Give it a try - one battery - if the other fail make sure you keep the new one but I dont think the others will fail. At one year old the characteristics of the the batteries will not be much different.
There is another side to this discussion. I have found that "Electricians" will recommend replacing all four since this is a safe and lucrative bet on their part. Four new batteries - RD$20000, fitting etc say Rd$3000 - everybody happy - you bet!! Electrician then sells the three "good " Batteries he has just taken out for RD$ 2000 each = RD$6000 , and the scrap battery for RD$700 - Not bad !!!

Happy customer, RD$9700 for the job! Happy "Electrician" - an interesting "SCAM" !!!

This is still the case !

Olly and the Team

 

[TP666]

A battery load tester should be used== Useless get a Solar Tester

 

[Olly]

TP^^^ ,
Here is a typical Battery Load Tester : Battery Load Tester (fy-64d) - Buy Battery Tester,Load Tester,Battery Analyzer Product on Alibaba.com


Olly and the Team

 

[Olly]

TeePee666 ,
Are you an Electrical Engineer ? We have consulted with the Electrical Engineer on the Team and we are surprised at your dislikes?

Can you give us a reason ! What knowledge do you have that you dont want to share with DR1 and the OP


Olly and the Team

 

[Criss Colon]

Koreano, if you only have two batteries in your "Bank" I would just buy two new ones.
Don't forget the old ones are worth about 7 to 800 pesos each as "scrap"!!!!
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[Xavier_Onassis]

I have seen inverters running on two 12v batteries. does this depend on the invertor?

 

[chic]

Crap...
I have to stop asking at my place.

Again I have asked if there's place where I can buy one used and some said MUST change all and other group said buy two. Again no result just going on and on about who is right and wrong...
They have just wasted all my time...
It's probably too late to buy it today but I told the guy to buy two.

it is better luck if the wife buys them out of her money.....they will last longer...got to do with a womans touch....good luck

 

[Koreano]

I am going to stop asking opinion at work, just give out orders.... I just ordered my a here at work just look for one replace it and if this doesn't work, I will change all four. Just with in hour they came back with different quote from yesterday. Someone in Moca will exchange old one for $1000RD. Too cheap and sounds too good to be true. The guy is giving me three month garentia but I guess I will go and check it out. If it's less then two years old i am going for an exchange.

Just a thought...
Do they recondition the battery? Awhile back I came across Mercedes batteries need same treatment as topping it off from time to time and I regularly replenish the water and other post about reconditioning battery. Wouldn't this be the better way to go?

 

[Koreano]

it is better luck if the wife buys them out of her money.....they will last longer...got to do with a womans touch....good luck

My wife has no interest or has concept of saving money so she probably buy all four plus new invensor along with it....
Of course it will last longer...

 

[Criss Colon]

Most invertors I am familiar with,work on multiples of 12 volts.
You can use 2.....6 volt batteries, or more, in pairs of 2, or use one, or several 12 volt batteries.
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[Olly]

Koreano, Go with the offer of one battery in exchange- They get about 700Rd$ for the scrap battery and you are paying 1000RD$ - so they get about 1700 RD$ .- Thats about right.

Olly and the Team

 

[Koreano]

Most invertors I am familiar with,work on multiples of 12 volts.
You can use 2.....6 volt batteries, or more, in pairs of 2, or use one, or several 12 volt batteries.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Thanks for the info CC. At the time we put this in, a guy in our company said 4 is a MUST for our inversor but I am not 100% on that. And since we live in 24 hour zone our power only goes out 2-3 times a week for less then 4 hours at time and in rare cases 6 hours+. I gave it a thought and I think I can live with 4 that gives me good 5-6 hours right now but 2 with less then 3 hours is no go for me even our inversor supports two.

Koreano, Go with the offer of one battery in exchange- They get about 700Rd$ for the scrap battery and you are paying 1000RD$ - so they get about 1700 RD$ .- Thats about right.

Olly and the Team

Thanks,
I already had mine taken out, bought it in for exchange. All I have to do now is call the guy for exchange...

I will let you everyone know how it goes....

 

[windeguy]

TP randomly doesn't like posts. I just ignore him.

I will make one suggestion: One of the reasons the odd battery goes bad, is because you have different levels of charged being put together.

They all have to be fully charged before they're hooked up, or you'll have three batteries at one level of charge with the odd one out having a different charge.

That leads to overcharging the one while the other three are getting up to full charge. Overcharging a battery is a great way to ruin it. I think that's where the "don't put new with old" comes from.

If they are all fully charged when they are joined together, it should lessen the "blow" to the new one.

While adding a fully charged battery could lessen the blow for the first discharge cycle, that is not what causes the problems.

The problems happen because as batteries age they build up larger and larger internal resistance to the flow of current. The plates in lead acid batteries get a build up of sulfates and became less efficient, have a higher resistance and a lower capacity. Putting in a new battery with lower resistance causes the batteries to heat up because you are passing a high current through a high resistance and that heats up the batteries like space heaters. That heat build up is uneven in the old batteries versus the new one. Excessive heat kills lead acid batteries quickly.

 

[Koreano]

After my guy checking the battery. It turns out battery is still good. He is telling me that inversor capacity might be too small at 2.5k for my use, he wants to change it with 5k capacity. Could it be the inversor needs to be serviced?

Learning about this stuff as I go...

 

[chic]

My wife has no interest or has concept of saving money so she probably buy all four plus new invensor along with it....
Of course it will last longer...

its a good concept and have a good time for a few nights...before and after the purchase... she will be on best behavior to get them? and happy whence they arrived.

 

[windeguy]

After my guy checking the battery. It turns out battery is still good. He is telling me that inversor capacity might be too small at 2.5k for my use, he wants to change it with 5k capacity. Could it be the inversor needs to be serviced?

Learning about this stuff as I go...

What are you running of the inverter?

 

[Koreano]

What are you running of the inverter?

The usual.

Fridge: Support - Side by Side RS261MDWP | Samsung Refrigerators
Ceiling Fans with lights: We have 5 but use less then 2 at times.
Lights Only: 8 (off most of the times)
TV: Old 40" Samsung LCD.
Running machine: 1 but mostly not used during outage.
Rice Cooker: 1 (A must for most of Asians) Something similar to this: Amazon.com: Cuckoo Rice Cooker | CRP-G1015F (Ivory/Red): Kitchen & Dining
others: Claro Modem/Cable box.
14" laptop: 1
Other techie stuff: couple of tablets and phones being charged at times
The guys here are saying the Refrigerator always use a lot of power but I think rice cooker use as much too. But I don't know Water pump is connected but I have switch to turn it off and it's set to off most of the times.

 

[windeguy]

A 2.5 Kw unit should be enough for what you have. I have two normal sized refrigerators, up to 3 fans, 2 TVs, a laptop or two, cable modem, wireless router, and various lights on a 2.5 KW inverter without problems.