[sumannandy]

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

+ 1 to that !! Tell me about it, its becoming a nuisance & there's no standard time for the power cut too !!

3-4 hours power cut is not acceptable.

I am also going to buy an inverter. Based on the review, I will probably go with Sukam pure sinewave inverter. The dealer is quoting me around 6.5k for the inverter, 500 Rs. more than non sinewave version.

I had similar problems in my PC. In my case I was using a UPS, but the UPS would not automatically switchover to inverter when there was no power. The inverter used was not a sine wave. They changed the mode of the inverter to UPS mode and it solved the problem temporarily.

[tj123]

Originally Posted by khoj

@Chipz


Regarding the cost, the last ones I bought were the Sukam pair of 150AH @ 7800 each and the Xenon 160AH semi sealed was somewhere around 5.5K, I have no idea what a same rating tubular would cost but I still would not buy a tubular for indoor use.

Hi , can you please let me know what is semi sealed battery . Can water be added in Semi Sealed ones ..have a doubt.

[shajufx]

Originally Posted by gopalnayak

I would recommend going for a good SMPS for the PC. Most SMPS sold locally do not provide the much needed holdup during UPS switchover. Please get a branded SMPS with about 20ms holdup time and your issue should be solved. I had a similar issue and change of SMPS did the trick.

Any idea how to find out what type of SMPS is in my unit right now ? Please give me some specification of what you have bought and the price, it would lead the way.

[DieselFan]

I am using SuKam sine wave with Base terminal tubular batteries 160 AH.

Semi sealed batteries what is that?

I have either heard of fully sealed no maintenance batteries or batteries that do need maintenance. If the requirement is for a backup power of 800W and/or longer duration (>3 hours) tubular is the only solution. All maintenance free batteries break down within an years time.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by tj123

Hi , can you please let me know what is semi sealed battery . Can water be added in Semi Sealed ones ..have a doubt.

Semi sealed is a term coined for batteries that may require a top up but only once in an year or two instead of regular top ups as required by the tubular or other normal batteries. Shield and Xenon from Amaron are examples of this kind. In fact I never topped up the shields even once in the 5 years that I used them and the Xenon bought last year has not shown any drop in the water level as yet.

Originally Posted by DieselFan

I am using SuKam sine wave with Base terminal tubular batteries 160 AH.

Semi sealed batteries what is that?
See above

All maintenance free batteries break down within an years time.

Myabe you have had a bad experience with SMF battreies. My experience on the other hand has been quite satisfactory, see my post#38 on page 3 of this thread.

[f1head]

Just my 2 paise here, I have had an invertor at home for 12-13 years. I have tried all types of batteries, Exide, local ones, manufacturer recommended etc.

But one battery takes the icing here, my last batteries were AC delco, at that time I had not even heard of the company but dad knew about it. We bought the AC Delco batteries and they lasted us a good 7 years. For 7 years they worked flawlessly and anyone who has an invertor, especially the old types like me would be able to appreciate the quality of the battery.

Last year, the batteries finally lost juice and we replaced them with AC Delco again

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by shajufx

My Home UPS is APC HI 800 SQBT which was installed on 2nd April 2009. It has the Prestolite battery. APC gives a 2 year warranty on the UPS and 18 months warranty on the battery. Thats answer to few posts above on the warranty part.

I have the same ( the battery is 120 one though) , guess its 30 monthd old. Now a days battry backup is pathetic. I booked service twice to check the backup issue. Twice they said battery dint have enough water !

Today we had an hour powercut and again the backup was bad. I checked battery now and the water indicator are below 'red' indicator mark. Seems I need to fill 'water' up. How can I do this? Do I need to buy distiller water for battery or use home made ?

[f1head]

Originally Posted by jkdas

I have the same ( the battery is 120 one though) , guess its 30 monthd old. Now a days battry backup is pathetic. I booked service twice to check the backup issue. Twice they said battery dint have enough water !

Today we had an hour powercut and again the backup was bad. I checked battery now and the water indicator are below 'red' indicator mark. Seems I need to fill 'water' up. How can I do this? Do I need to buy distiller water for battery or use home made ?

use distilled water preferably, hard water can cause problems. We also add RO'ed water to it sometimes, but distilled water is the best.

[ElantraGT]

Originally Posted by jkdas

I have the same ( the battery is 120 one though) , guess its 30 monthd old. Now a days battry backup is pathetic. I booked service twice to check the backup issue. Twice they said battery dint have enough water !

Today we had an hour powercut and again the backup was bad. I checked battery now and the water indicator are below 'red' indicator mark. Seems I need to fill 'water' up. How can I do this? Do I need to buy distiller water for battery or use home made ?

Jkdas this time around you fill it with distilled water. During checkups I have seen them using less than 2 Litre of distilled water to do a topup. But when i checked the level after they left, i found that there was only 1/4th of water in the cells . It took close to 5 litres to fill the 6 cells to the prescribed levels.

I am sure you knew this but for the benefit of everyone prolonged use of batteries without distilled water will damage the cells and it will cause the battery casing to expand which results in bulging of the casing.

[Chipz]

Originally Posted by jkdas

Today we had an hour powercut and again the backup was bad. I checked battery now and the water indicator are below 'red' indicator mark. Seems I need to fill 'water' up. How can I do this? Do I need to buy distiller water for battery or use home made ?

dont use home made water. use battery water only. If during the service they have filled the water to top and now you are seeing less water, then there might be some problem with the inverter charging. is the battery hot to touch. if the battery is overcharged the water gets dried up quickly. you fill water in all cells and check after some days. If the problem persists check the inverter since your batter is out of warranty

[mvnr06]

Hello,
We are looking for an inverter... inquired about the price for sukam and xenon, with the same price tag (around 16K) distributor is offering Sukam 800VA with 150 powerbank battery and Xenon 800VA and 160 battery (Inverter/battery-Rs14500+installation-500+trolley-1500). Need to wait one month for trolley for Xenon unit.

Which one should be better... both of them are pure sine wave models. The backup will be primarily used for fans/lights and (might be) TV (for children).

One more clarification, One of the sales person told me that the power consumption will be less for Plasma/LCD compared to CRT based TVs. Is this true?

[Chipz]

Both sukam and xenon are good, but I am not quite sure about the battery they are providing. How much months warranty are they providing for the battery. The more the warranty period, more the peace of mind. Try to find some branded battery (not sure about powerbank). and if possible go for FULLY TUBULAR BATTERY. I think for the price you described, you are getting semitubular or inverter battery. Fully Tubular batteries have good life, more than 5-6 years if you maintain it well.

Originally Posted by mvnr06

One more clarification, One of the sales person told me that the power consumption will be less for Plasma/LCD compared to CRT based TVs. Is this true?

Ya the power consumption for Plasma and LCD is about half that of CRT based TVs, and there is no starting current surge like in CRT TVs. Sometimes your inverter goes into overload mode when you start the CRT TV while on backup. LCDs have no such problem.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by mvnr06

Hello,
We are looking for an inverter... inquired about the price for sukam and xenon, with the same price tag (around 16K) distributor is offering Sukam 800VA with 150 powerbank battery and Xenon 800VA and 160 battery (Inverter/battery-Rs14500+installation-500+trolley-1500). Need to wait one month for trolley for Xenon unit.

Which one should be better... both of them are pure sine wave models. The backup will be primarily used for fans/lights and (might be) TV (for children).

One more clarification, One of the sales person told me that the power consumption will be less for Plasma/LCD compared to CRT based TVs. Is this true?

Originally Posted by Chipz

Both sukam and xenon are good, but I am not quite sure about the battery they are providing. How much months warranty are they providing for the battery. The more the warranty period, more the peace of mind. Try to find some branded battery (not sure about powerbank). and if possible go for FULLY TUBULAR BATTERY. I think for the price you described, you are getting semitubular or inverter battery. Fully Tubular batteries have good life, more than 5-6 years if you maintain it well.

Ya the power consumption for Plasma and LCD is about half that of CRT based TVs, and there is no starting current surge like in CRT TVs. Sometimes your inverter goes into overload mode when you start the CRT TV while on backup. LCDs have no such problem.

I am using both Sukam(1400Va)and Xenon(800Va) and both are good products. In your instances the choice should be based on the battery quality(80% weightage) and the service backup(20%). Here, Xenon is a much better battery than others on the market for inverter usage unless you are thinking about picking up Sukam's fully sealed maintenance free battery,which from the prices in your posts does not seem to be the case.

I would stay away from tubulars and the like, I do not like having a battery indoors which I know needs topping up all too frequently and gives off fumes. If you are willing to invest the extra amount I would strongly recommend the Sukam Maintenance free battery. I myself use two of these on the 1400 Va inverter and if not then go with the Xenon and definitely not the tubes and all others. The benefits are not obvious upfront but over the long run your body will be thankful.

As for the trolley it does not make a difference what trolley is used. I could not get a Xenon trolley for 2 months so went out and got another one from Sukam. The batteries are standard size and the inverters are only a few cms here and there dimensionally and the trolleys are big enough to accommodate all makes.

[rrswift]

@mvnr06
I have been using the 800VA Xenon sinewave inverter with 160AH battery for the past 18 months without any issues. It also powers my 40" LCD. I was able to use 2 Fans for about 8 hours when there was a electrical problem in the main swithboard of the apartment building.

[Chipz]

Originally Posted by khoj

I would stay away from tubulars and the like, I do not like having a battery indoors which I know needs topping up all too frequently and gives off fumes. If you are willing to invest the extra amount I would strongly recommend the Sukam Maintenance free battery. I myself use two of these on the 1400 Va inverter and if not then go with the Xenon and definitely not the tubes and all others. The benefits are not obvious upfront but over the long run your body will be thankful.

Khoj; it is a vast topic to talk about the advantages of disadvantages of tubular versus other batteries.

the batteries are not meant to be used in the living or bed room. They must be placed away like under a staircase or in the store room where there is ample air to dissipate the fumes from the battery. The fumes topic is just a ploy by the industry gaints to sell off other sealed batteries with less life. If the place where the battery is situated is well ventilated, then this small amount of fume is harmless.

The tubular batteries need topping just after 3 of 4 months during power cut. then also it is mostly a 1 Liter bottle of water it needs worth only rs 10.

The tubular batteries can have a life of 6 to 8 years and they give good performance even after 4 years of usage. Whereas the sealed batteries performance degrades as time goes by.

a 100 aH battery should power a 100 watt bulb for about 10 hours, or 500 watt bulb for 2.5 hours or near this value. The tubular battery usually gives about 2.15 hours backup at 500 watts. The sealed battery cannot keep up with this performance.

And what about repairs. is it able to repair a cell of sealed battery. a tubular battery cell can be replaced easily (though this would reduce the life).

I just mean that if we are spending our hard earned money, why not buy the best in the market, with the most life. This is just my opinion.
Thanks