[Ramsagar]

I've upgraded from Microteck to Amaron Sinewave BH950Amp inverter last year.
Now my battery is an old flat 120Ah Power zone(Amaron) which doesn't last for more than 20 minutes during power cuts.

Please advise the best Tubular battery between 150Ah to 200Ah.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

My typical 150 AH Luminous set is almost 3 yrs now in Pune, and never ever the water level went below the threshold for all the indicators.

My Luminous Zelio 1100 inverter had the first issue & repair after 3 yrs.

I noticed if any high power devices are connected like Immersion heater / Vacuum cleaner and electricity goes off, inverter switches off itself and beeps till I turn off that device, post which the inverter will turn back on. However this time It didn't turn on and was unable to take the slightest load, giving a warning of 'btp' which means mcp tripped although it wasn't. Called the Luminous helpline and technician was at my place the text day.

He opened the inverter and found the burned connector as shown in picture. He said its common issue if inverter is overloaded. The repair costed me 400 as its out of 2yrs warranty. He tried to upsell me an annual mountainous plan costing 1.2K/2K for 1-2yrs respectively. This I found very high, costing almost 20% of inverter price/year.

So far happy with Luminous support & the repair cost. Learnt lesson the hard way. Although all 16A plugs are not connected with inverter, some rooms have 10A plugs only which I need to use. Now I am putting inverter in bypass mode while using those devices and turning back on once my usage is complete.

[Peet Stop]

Hi R2D2,

Your posts have been incredibly useful, thank you. May i ask how much did the ILTT 26060 220AH and the IMTT 750 cost you? I'm looking to buy either the optimus 2800 2.5 KVa or Microtek Jumbo 3000+ 2.5 KVa and 2* 200 AH Batteries, I'd like you opinion and recommendation on this please.

Thanks.

[Peet Stop]

Originally Posted by R2D2

An update - I had a proactive replacement of my inverter batteries done. The Exides were very much functional though not operating at peak efficiency drawing quite a bit of power to charge up resulting in inflated energy bills as shared earlier.

Well, it so happens that the IT750 ie the 200 AH Invatubular batteries are not being manufactured and there's no stock in the Company..checked with 2 dealers and both confirmed this. They're available online but I was sceptical of receiving old stock. As an option I was offered the Exide IMTT2000 200AH which is the Invamaster that I held in consideration when both dealers told me to consider the Luminous 220 AH batteries that were at a slightly lower price than the IT750s that I had.

Kept an open mind and was informed these are 'low maintenance' batteries requiring a top up every 6 months or thereabouts that too in heavy load shedding areas. That clinched the deal because, TBH, it was getting to be a pain to top of DW in the IT750s every 2.5-3 months. And @samfromindia's feedback on TBHP was helpful (thanks man) & convinced me.

So the dealer sold me a the ILTT 26060 220AH batteries. I have realistic expectations from this set @ 5-7 years and not expecting the same extended life span as that of the Exides. These offer a 36 month replacement guarantee and 24 month prorata while the IT750s are now 48 month replacement and 18 prorata translating to a better warranty coverage by Exide.

So here's to a new journey!

Originally Posted by Peet Stop

Hi R2D2,

Your posts have been incredibly useful, thank you. May i ask how much did the ILTT 26060 220AH and the IMTT 2000 cost you? I'm looking to buy either the optimus 2800 2.5 KVa or Microtek Jumbo 3000+ 2.5 KVa and 2* 200 AH Batteries, I'd like you opinion and recommendation on this please.

Thanks.

I think i didn't use the quote tool correct, so I'll do it once more, R2D2 and guys, between Okaya 210 AH, Luminous ILTT 26060 220AH and Exide IMTT 2000 200 AH which one do you think i should go for. I also plan to buy Microtek over luminous, 2.5 KVA Inverter, what are your thoughts guys?

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by Peet Stop

I think i didn't use the quote tool correct, so I'll do it once more, R2D2 and guys, between Okaya 210 AH, Luminous ILTT 26060 220AH and Exide IMTT 2000 200 AH which one do you think i should go for. I also plan to buy Microtek over luminous, 2.5 KVA Inverter, what are your thoughts guys?

Did you finalized any inverter and battery? My 7 year old luminous 150AH battery died. Electrician informed that Luminous inverter is also gone. I am yet to decide on replacement. If you went ahead, which one you picked up?

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Did you finalized any inverter and battery? My 7 year old luminous 150AH battery died. Electrician informed that Luminous inverter is also gone. I am yet to decide on replacement. If you went ahead, which one you picked up?

How can both die at the same time

Maybe you can consider a smart wifi connected inverter this time.

[Peet Stop]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Did you finalized any inverter and battery? My 7 year old luminous 150AH battery died. Electrician informed that Luminous inverter is also gone. I am yet to decide on replacement. If you went ahead, which one you picked up?

Well Yes, it's incredibly hard to make a decision when you don't have comprehensive information for the product you are looking for, most sellers bash companies which they don't sell and the brands change the products, names and line up so often that you don't have a clear record to come up with a conclusion. So what I did is found some people who Repair inverters and buy scrap batteries, one turned out to be an old friend actually, learned that the simpler the inverter, the less chance of it breaking down and a good one should have a MCB + Change Over Switch, also learned that Microtek has cheaper and easily available spares than anyone else and because I use their stabilizers, i know they have proper direct company owned customer service network - So bought a 2.5 KVA 24V Microtek Jumbo, made a decision with the information i had.
Few more things to note, Microtek was the only brand to mention efficiency of their Inverters, that counts for something I guess + my technician friend mentioned that due to easy and cheap spares availability, they have more experience repairing out of warranty microtek products and they use Microtek products themselves.

Now for the batteries, this was even more confusing because the whole of the industry is shrouded in the mystery and veil of Replacement warranty + Pro Rata warranty, Weight of the lead plates , legacy names like exide etc,. The one thing I found out is, the better the purity of the lead used and more the dry weight of a battery, the better it is, my initial thoughts were to buy the highest replacement warranty battery that i can afford but any replacement warranty above 48 is prohibitively expensive, especially since i was looking for 200AH batterie. My previous battery was Exide Inva tubular, which was the best 8 years ago, now the 150AH and 200 AH costs too much over the other brands(especially the 200)nwith the same replacement warranty, which is the only warranty that counts. They say if the Replacement warranty is 48 Months then the batteries would last 24 month more, a rule of thumb used by scrap battery dealers, there's always exceptions of course.
So I shortlisted Luminous and Okaya, Luminous is owned by Schneider Electric now, so their Inverters must be reliable but they have too many features to go wrong with in the models i was looking for, even the charge Amperage selection was digital rather than the simple logic Switching used by Microtek. Their batteries have pretty good reputation now, even better than exide according to some but it was expensive too and they wouldn't negotiate on the price very much, even after i quoted prices mentioned here for their batteries.
Also because I found the district level stockist for Microtek or to be precise the Okaya Power group (which owns Microtek and Okaya, the Okaya battery brand, atleast in Tamil Nadu is an up and coming name but i was assured by my friend that they weren't lesser to Luminous in any way and that it's dry weight price in scrap market comes close to the Inva tubular) I got a good deal from the stockist for 2x 210 AH 48 Month Full Replacement warranty + the Inverter, which at the least saved me 5000 in total compared to going with luminous.

TLDR - Bought Microtek Inverter and Okaya 48 Month Full Replacement warranty Battery.

[bejoy]

Not really a battery question, but inverted related. Any recommendation for a retrofit solar conversion kit for inverters? I have a Luminous 12V 800VA inverter and would like to have a solar panel installed. At least if it can reduce the trickle charging consumption, I would be happy. The EB power is more or less stable in my home. Also I may have to connect wires of length 20m to the panel from the unit.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Peet Stop

TLDR - Bought Microtek Inverter and Okaya 48 Month Full Replacement warranty Battery.

Sorry about the delay in response to your query thing is I logged in after several months. Glad to see you finalised your battery and inverter set. Hope it lasts a long time.

On an aside here's an update about my 6 month old 220AH Luminous battery set. These things dont' consume water as frequently as the Exides did but to be fair they are new and of a relatively new generation. I guess changes in plate chemistry have resulted in lower water consumption much like we experience with car batteries. I need to call the dealer for a top up although I am tempted to do this myself. Getting the dealer involved only so that there's a record of maintenance and there's no chance of the warranty being invalidated due to uncrecorded water top ups.

In a nut shell..so far so good...happy with the much lower water consumption. But then after experiencing Exides that lasted over a decade my expectations are way lower with other batteries.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by R2D2

In a nut shell..so far so good...happy with the much lower water consumption. But then after experiencing Exides that lasted over a decade my expectations are way lower with other batteries.

Well this is in line with my experience on the post below. Now on 4th year.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadge...ml#post5558843 (Inverter Batteries)

Topping up water doesn't involve breaking any seal and Luminous only encourages user to check and top-up as DIY. Experienced Luminous service as well when my Inverter was repaired. Call center was responsive and technician resolved issue without much delay. Only thing they will want to upsell maintenance packages like I described in Inverter repair post.

https://youtu.be/TyUnWGTfNio?feature=shared

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

Well this is in line with my experience on the post below. Now on 4th year.

The dealer asked me to wait for a few days as his people were busy and I didn't bother thereafter.

I topped off the water after about 6.5 months. Took about 3 litres. They are pretty thirsty! But to be fair these batteries had their water levels lower than the level in the pic in your May 2023 post. Some cells had the indicator at red.

I am thinking of getting a new more powerful inverter with better quality output. Thinking of a 2 KVA as that one also takes 2 batteries.

The question is which one should I buy? Luminous or Microtek?

PS - I saw that video some days back before I topped off the water. Strangely he removes the level indicators to top off DW/DIW. The problem with doing that is you won't know how much to fill and could easily overfill the cells. So I unscrewed the yellow flush caps with a Rs 2 coin and topped off the water stopping when the indicator hit the top of glass tube. A bit over filled yes but the hot season starts in a few months from now and I just wanted to avoid another top off till mid to end June.

[rakesh_r]

I need to transport an Amaron tall tubular 200 Ah Inverter battery from Pune to Kerala, would be carrying it in my Gurkha. The major challenge is, its too damn heavy plus I am a bit skeptical on Acid spillage and damaging the floor.
Can I drain off the water from the battery and transport it dry? Would this damage the battery by any chance?

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

Can I drain off the water from the battery and transport it dry? Would this damage the battery by any chance?

If you have to transport it, then make sure the electrolyte is not drained. Plates exposed to the air get damaged as do those exposed to hard bumps.

I wouldn't transport a set of batteries long distance especially the KL stretch in a Gurkha which probably has hard suspension.

[Funny]

Battery gurus, is it ok to run the inverter in UPS mode always? How does one decide about the mode to keep the inverter in? I have read about the basic differences like switching time, battery cycles etc but haven't got a clear idea about it yet. Will keeping the inverter in UPS mode deplete the battery life sooner? If so by how much percentage?

And if the inverter is kept in W-UPS/Normal/Eco mode then does it cause TV and Router to reset during the transition?

[ColAjayDrives]

Originally Posted by Funny

Battery gurus, is it ok to run the inverter in UPS mode always? How does one decide about the mode to keep the inverter in? I have read about the basic differences like switching time, battery cycles etc but haven't got a clear idea about it yet. Will keeping the inverter in UPS mode deplete the battery life sooner? If so by how much percentage?

And if the inverter is kept in W-UPS/Normal/Eco mode then does it cause TV and Router to reset during the transition?

Yes, it's ok to run always on UPS mode. In such an eventuality, the usage of the capacitor bank is higher. They are built to handle such loads.

As regards TV and router resetting, that will depend on the type of TV and router; I suggest you can experiment it by switching off the mains for about 10 seconds.