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39 year old flooded batteries

syclonedriver

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May 16, 2021
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I thought some of you might find this interesting.
Here are a few pictures from work.
The big square batteries are 3900 amp hour @ an 8 hour rate. The round cells are 1680Ah. String C was manufactured 03/1982. The key to battey longevity seems to be:
1. Starting with quality cells.
2. Shollow depth of discharge.
3. Temperature controll.
4. Maintenance.

I discharge test them every year. The large square cells put out just over 500 amps. The round cells put out an average of 180 amps per string. There are 5 strings total. The newest round cells are from 2007.

This plant is almost always in float at 52.80 volts. Never the typical 3 stage.
 

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I have a lot of experience with the Powersafe AGM cells but not the flooded variety. The are definitely sturdy beasts!
 
If it was lead acid, it helps to have pure lead $$$. Not the recycled contaminated stuff.

Are you sure these aren't Edison cells, Iron , Nickle, Alkaline?
 
If it was lead acid, it helps to have pure lead $$$. Not the recycled contaminated stuff.

Are you sure these aren't Edison cells, Iron , Nickle, Alkaline?
Bell cells. Differently lead acid. I think the older ones are lead antimony and the newer ones are lead calcium.
 
Who gets to water these bad boys? How often do they really get used?
I get to water them, they don't need that much.

They don't get a lot of use. If the commercial power goes out and the generator/ATS fail for some reason the batteries are in use. They are always connected to a charge source and a load.
 
I'm assuming these aren't all connected to an AIMS inverter? LOL
 
That office does have a large floor standing inverter but it has very little load on it. 99% of the equipment runs on 48 volts DC.
 
Awesome. Just shows what proper maintenance, batteries designed for this application, *and regular testing* can achieve.

It's too bad that most consumer lead-acid cases arent see-through to see sulfation from improper charge / maintenance!

Nice work - keep it up.
 
How can lead last that long? I have always been told they will only last about 5 years!
 
I have a lot of experience with the Powersafe AGM cells but not the flooded variety. The are definitely sturdy beasts!
Amazing pics. Old skool but well cared for and doubt still up to the task.

I've picked up 8 x 12V 190Ah Powersafe AGMs which came out of a data centre are going to be servicing my off-grid home backup system. I load tested the first four and they were perfectly fine. I haven't load tested the next four, yet to add those but will do soon.
 
How can lead last that long? I have always been told they will only last about 5 years!
That's for consumer-level starter batteries. Even less with improper maintenance.

You'd be amazed at how much more life you can get out of even consumer-level lead-acid if the 4 tenets mentioned in the first post are followed. Usually they aren't. :)

These are professional ups style batteries that are designed on purpose to sit around for decades. But they too need to be watched over and maintained which they are.
 
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