[Nut-upsuser] Eaton 5PX 3rd party batteries

[Harlan Stenn]

Jim,

On 11/12/2024 11:54 PM, Jim Klimov wrote:
> Sounds like great advice, thanks!
> 
>    Would you care to post it to the NUT wiki or in-source FAQ document 
> (or can I)?

Please feel free - I'm still massively swamped with my "day job" 
opensource project, and I wrote the following when I needed a five 
minute break where I thought I might also do something positive for others.

I'm happy to poke at it later, too.  I do like wikis...

>    Probably the meaningfulness of specific company names is too 
> geographically and temporally limited, however the technical part is 
> universally applicable.

I understand, and I also like the idea of people being able to "rate" 
various suppliers, as shipping either way is generally Expensive, and 
takes time.  And I know having a list like this will cause drama.

Would it be miserable to have a table where folks could rate their 
experience with a vendor, and also have a column for the "service area"?

H
> Jim
> 
> 
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2024 at 6:08 AM Harlan Stenn via Nut-upsuser <nut- 
> upsuser at alioth-lists.debian.net <mailto:nut-upsuser at alioth- 
> lists.debian.net>> wrote:
> 
>     On 11/12/2024 10:58 AM, Dan Langille via Nut-upsuser wrote:
>      > Hello,
>      >
>      > nut recently told me that the batteries need replacing in my
>     Eaton 5PX2200RT (ups) and 5PXEBM48RT (external battery pack).
>     According to my notes, it has been just over 4 years since I
>     installed them. Looking at on-line sales, these seem to use
>     batteries in a pre-packaged plastic shell. I don't recall if that's
>     what's in my units or not.
>      >
>      > Do you have any experience with replacing / filling such shells
>     with 3rd party batteries?
> 
>     I have never had to replace batteries in an Eaton anything.
> 
>     I hope the following is both correct and useful.
> 
>     I have replaced a fair number (probably around a hundred) batteries in
>     other UPSes and devices (like a Fuji X-Ray machine that takes 16
>     12VDC at 22AH batteries).  That's over 200VDC at a Significant current
>     (the
>     batteries claim 12V, but they are charged to over 13V).
> 
>     I like batteries from RaionGroup.com or batterywholesale.com
>     <http://batterywholesale.com>.
> 
>     There are some other companies out there that I will never buy from
>     again.
> 
>     I try to get high-rate batteries, and they are harder to find.  As I
>     recall, one should avoid "deep discharge" batteries for UPSes.  A deep
>     discharge battery is great for constant load stuff (like wheelchairs,
>     golf carts, etc) but UPSes need "shorter" bursts of lots of power.
> 
>     I read the spec sheets and order the heaviest batteries I can find.
>     More lead means heavier batteries, and longer life.
> 
>     I check each battery's initial voltage.  I have a note that says I
>     expect at least 12.9V, but I haven't had a chance to verify this lately.
> 
>     I check the spec'd net weight of the batteries with the actual
>     weight of
>     each arriving battery.
> 
>     Every battery I have received from the above 2 vendors has had a gross
>     weight clearly above the spec'd net weight of the battery.  Yay.
> 
>     Every battery I have received from at least one other vendor has had a
>     gross weight of at least 10% UNDER the spec'd net weight.  I have
>     immediately called for an RMA of these, with varying degrees of success
>     in their return.
> 
>     Oh, at least one vendor has offered both "regular" and "high rate"
>     batteries, I ordered the more expensive "high rate" batteries, and what
>     was delivered was "regular" batteries.  When I asked about this, they
>     said something like "we don't get the high rate batteries anymore" and
>     they had no answer for why they still showed and charged me for the
>     high-rate batteries when they knew they didn't actually have them.  The
>     RMA process here was ... bad.
> 
>     Anyway, when I have a set of replacement new batteries, I then:
> 
>     - put each battery on a charger for several hours
>     - rotating thru the entire set at least twice
>     - then I take my bench supply with a (self-made) octopus cable
>         with individually-fused "hot" wires, and starting at .1V over the
>         average voltage, start adding batteries in parallel, waiting for the
>         current draw to reduce to a trickle.  Once all of the batteries are
>         connected in parallel and drawing a trickle, I start bumping the
>         voltage by .1V until I get to either 13.5VDC (or the published
>         trickle charge voltage) and I let this sit there for a day.
> 
>     When all the batteries are "balanced" in the parallel string, I then
>     install them into the battery tray(s) or directly into the unit.
> 
>     Sometimes I will take the "old" batteries and run them thru the above
>     process to see if they will "recondition".  Sometimes we will use these
>     for lighting or other non-UPS tasks.
> 
>     H
> 
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