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Bear in mind that acid and steel don't mix well!

Having said that, our battery is on the bottom shelf of a steel shelf unit, with the inverter above it. I always meant to buy a rubber mat to put it on, but the piece of wood seems to have become permanent.

I was using Amaron Tall Tubular 150Ah battery since 2013. Since there are no major powercuts in Chennai, I could not gauge the battery backup recently. Last week the battery could not sustain a 30 min outage. Promptly went to a nearby store and bought a new one of the same make and model. It cost me 11,000 including buy back.

Dear Bhpians,

Trying to purchase a inverter battery in Chennai, as a replacement for my existing (SF Sonic PBX 1500T flat plate battery - 12V 150Ah 24 months warranty) which powered us almost 5 years

For the new battery,
I am almost settled that i will buy reputed brands (Either Amaron or Exide - if you think i am falling into a pit, pls advise)

My mind is leaning towards Amaron from my experience of their car batteries - but shop keepers tell me that the Amaron recharge cycle is low compared to Exide.

So resorted here to get your feedback on the following areas. Based on probing the products with dealers around i find the competition is between

• Amaron AR150TN54 - 150Ah 54 months warranty, and
• Exide Inva Master Tall Tubular 1500 - 150Ah - 54 months warranty

Following are my queries

1. Do we have members / friends who have personally used either of these ? if yes pls share your experiences
2. The note about the charging cycle being better in Exide and hence will last longer - is that true in this case ?
3. Any other areas / pointers that i should watch out for before finishing the purchase ?
4. For Exide the water level and holes for the gas to escape is clearly defined in the pictures (below)

Exide Inva Master Tall Tubular 1500 - 150Ah - 54 months warranty:

but for Amaron not able to understand where the water level indicator will fit (below) - pls help to understand this as well

Amaron AR150TN54 - 150Ah 54 months warranty


From the instructions are we to understand the water leveller will be fitted after removing the flat panels on both sides ? If so, then in the instructions why do they mention to remove the panel and fill water every 3 months !

We have Exide IT 500 at home which we bought in April 2014, yes 2014.
Which looks like this and came with 48 months warranty. The model you posted comes in red and with 54 months warranty which I think Exide upgraded the range.
We used the battery with Microtek pure sinewave inverter, we have a family of three and for our usage i.e. 2 fans, 2-3 LED bulbs, TV/laptop, it worked like champ. For period 2014-17, we faced out power outages, on our usage pattern, it triggered low battery alarm only for once. After 2017, power supply improved a lot so we would witness supply for more than 20hrs a day, The battery is still doing fine for us even in 2021, the only issue it faced is that out of 6 cell, one got damaged, which didn't leave any significant drawback on the backup but on small power cuts or small discharge cycles, the battery can't attain full charge voltage so inverter keep charging it, it can't detect wheather battery is full charged or not.
So if you ask my opinion, I'll go with Exide. Even today if I am to replace my inverter battery, I will replace it with another Exide.

Coming to Amaron battery, one need to pop open the cover to fill the water.
Here is a YouTube video for the same.

https://youtu.be/VGrqaJXbZMw?t=59

Exide industrial batteries are one of the best in the world. So go with Exide tubular batteries.

Ok, let me give you a true experience.

My Invatubular batteries were purchased in Apr 2013 along with a Microtek sine wave 1.5KVA inverter.

So, they, and the inverter which needed a cooling fan replacement, are over 8.5 years old now and still working pretty well, a battery replacement MAY be required next year when they turn 9 assuming they last another 4-6 months.

What do they need to work well? Like other flooded batteries, just regular distilled water topups assuming your inverter is charging them at the correct voltage/amp recommended by Exide which is ~13.7v and about ~0.5-1A float charge

Does that sound good to you? :)

Thanks for sharing your experience :thumbs up

The water should not be filled to its brim right ? or else it will overflow when charging since there is no gap for the gases to escape.. Any idea how to find what is the space required to be left empty ?

Yes, water shouldn't be filled to the brim, some gap must be left, and I think the level indicator provided can be used to check levels on others cells as well, so the water level must be between top and bottom level indicator. IMO, the particular battery is poorly designed, functionality is compromised for the looks. Maybe the local dealer would be able to explain it better. However, from safety point of view, you can leave 1-1.5 inch gap between the water level and the brim. You can also purchase a battery tray, which is inexpensive, it will collect all the overflow water and won't let it damage the floor.
The tray looks like this
https://www.amazon.in/s?k=battery+tr..._ts-doa-p_2_10

I have been putting off the decision to connect a UPS at home, since Chennai was not impacted much with power failures.

Now a days I have been having frequent power failure and with WFH this causes mores issues. Many a time the failure has been in the middle of a call, and then had to apologise for it.

So I have now decided to go for Luminous and narrowed down to Cruze+ and iCruze. Though the iCruze does save on 1 battery, found a lot of negative feedback on Amazon and Youtube, especially with consistent delivery.

Has anybody here used the iCruze, if so did you have any issues with it, especially in terms of reliablity. Also have you been able to get a wifi dongle and have it connected?

Any other suggestions regarding Luminious in general, especially their customer service? How does the Luminious long Tubulars Batteries compare with Exide long tubulars ?

There a few things that you have to consider before getting an inverter.

1. Most important is that batteries take 10-12 hours to fully charge at an optimum rate. If power outages are of short duration and every five to six hours, then it is fine, else the batteries will not have time to charge fully.

2. The capacity (AH) is rated at 10 hour discharge. Shorter time reduces the capacity. For example a 200 AH battery will deliver only 50AH for 2 hour discharge.

3. The KVA rating of inverter is just that. The watts delivered may be any where between 70% and 80% of rated value.

4. Inverters rarely go bad, and normally last a decade or so. It is only in case of bad luck that you will need service backup.

5. The charging capacity of an inverter is dependent on the number of batteries (and their AH) it supports.

So the number of batteries and the KVA of the inverter have a direct bearing on the above points.

If you want the batteries and the inverter to last longer, choose the capacity for 10 hour discharge rate for the batteries and at least 50% more capacity than you have need for.

Thanks for the inputs.

Most of the 4KVA Inverters uses 4 batteries ie 48 volts, while the icruze uses 3 batteries ie 36V. Just wondering if these guys have optimised the process to the level where they could reduce 1 battery or is ther any othe caveat!

Dont find much of an input on this aspect. While I like the fact that I can reduce 1 battery, I am not sure what is it I am compromising!!

More batteries means more available power.

You can a single-battery 12v inverter: it's all I've ever had and has been good enough for me. It runs lights and fans and my computer+monitor. It does not run the fridge.

^^ During times of intermittent power outages inverters with multiple batteries may not reach optimum recharge. It may be Ok for offices etc, which will have generator back up.

It creates a problem even for single battery inverters. Such a situation prevailed for a while in Chennai during 2007-08 and I had an Usha inverter with fast charging capability. It will recharge up to 70% in short time. But the downside was the battery will not last long.

I am not an expert, but this is how I understand this:
Higher voltage (more batteries) for the same load is more efficient. There is less loss and the DC wires can be thinner since current is lesser (for the same load).

Let us say I have a UPS with two 200AH batteries, and another UPS with four 100AH batteries. Both has the same capacity at 400AH.

But for the same load, the UPS with four batteries will be more efficient since it is at a higher DC voltage.

We have a 800 VA Surya Home Inverter paired with a 65 Ah C20 Tubular Battery manufactured by a local agency, Integrated Systems. The battery is estimated to be at least 4+ years old. Don't exactly know when it was bought since we moved in only 3 years ago


Whilst we experience infrequent power outages, of late we notice that when the supply is down the battery runs down within a few minutes. On checking, the readings on the display window are as under:

Heat = 039 to 042 C;
Battery V = 014.4 V;
AC IN = 235 V;[/FONT]
Charge Mode = Usually 2 and sometimes 4 and
CHAR AMP = 002 A

Based on the above readings, I believe that the battery needs to be replaced . Is that correct? Or do I need to carry out some further checks? If so, what do I need to check?

In case we do need to replace the battery, can we upgrade the battery to 100 Ah or 135 Ah so that more appliances and lights can be switched during an outage? I mean will an upgraded battery work with the existing Inverter.