[khoj]

Chipz, Please see my view points in bold within your post below

Originally Posted by Chipz

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

Agreed

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.

Hey man, do not butt your head against the wall, the wall wins everytime. Trust me I have been there.
Fumes are a realty though not obvious for a single battery in an open space, a closed space is a different environment and a different story all together. Visit a battery mfg, plant and you will realize the impact of fumes.

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.

Even a tubular will lose performance as time goes by. Are the numbers above based on actual observations/experiences. Please see my earlier post on this thread, I think it is #38. On an average I have got more than 5 years of life from the SMFs that I have used thus far. Which is great and the best thing is that the SMF simply drops dead no degradation in performance, just sudden death.

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 strongly believe that batteries should not be opened anywhere else but in either a recycling unit specific to batteries or in the manufacturing unit for recycling/disposal/R&D etc. If you can, you should visit one of the many battery repair/ manufacturing locations that abound in all of our cities, it is a snapshot from hell.

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.

Agree with you once again and it is nothing but a difference of perception. I perceive the SMF to be the best followed by shield/Xenon etc followed by the Tubulars and others. Your perception is the other way round and that is quite all right. We are all wired differently and correct in our own right.
Thanks

[Twiny]

Looking for powering up one Ahuja Amplifier(Power consumption: AC:250VA / 12V DC: 5A) for max 5hrs.
Which one is a good portable battery. Need to carry it to 2 diff locations occasionally

[Chipz]

Originally Posted by khoj

Chipz, Please see my view points in bold within your post below

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.

Hey man, do not butt your head against the wall, the wall wins everytime. Trust me I have been there.
Fumes are a realty though not obvious for a single battery in an open space, a closed space is a different environment and a different story all together. Visit a battery mfg, plant and you will realize the impact of fumes.

you have mistaken khoj, it is not me banging the head. it is the customers who buy sealed batteries and after 5 years it just drops dead.

ya fumes are reality for battery manufacturing plants and closed plants, I have gone there, and ya you do get a cold after visiting there, but who is talking about them. I was talking about ventilated staircase and store room

Originally Posted by khoj

Even a tubular will lose performance as time goes by. Are the numbers above based on actual observations/experiences. Please see my earlier post on this thread, I think it is #38. On an average I have got more than 5 years of life from the SMFs that I have used thus far. Which is great and the best thing is that the SMF simply drops dead no degradation in performance, just sudden death.

ya a tubular battery does lose performance as time goes by, but they do not just drop dead. You dont just one day get up and find your sealed battery dead, the backup degrades over time. It is just that customers do not check the backup. and finally one day when there is a longer power cut, they realize they have no backup. It is very good of you to get 5.5 years average life from your battery. it is your observation. and what I said was my observation.

Originally Posted by Chipz

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.

Ya the above facts are not theory, but practical fact and experience. (by 2.5 hours I mean 2 and a half hour, dont mistake it for 2 hour 50 minutes)

Originally Posted by khoj

I strongly believe that batteries should not be opened anywhere else but in either a recycling unit specific to batteries or in the manufacturing unit for recycling/disposal/R&D etc. If you can, you should visit one of the many battery repair/ manufacturing locations that abound in all of our cities, it is a snapshot from hell.

I agree with your view. batteries should be opened by experienced personel where they can be repaired. Changing a cell of a 100 ah battery just cost 1000 rs. When compared to the cost of a new battery lots of customers prefer this. There are placed where batteries are serviced, I have visited various battery service centers and various small scale battery production centers, If that is what hell looks like, I am happy to go to hell (I know I will anyway).

Originally Posted by khoj

Agree with you once again and it is nothing but a difference of perception. I perceive the SMF to be the best followed by shield/Xenon etc followed by the Tubulars and others. Your perception is the other way round and that is quite all right. We are all wired differently and correct in our own right.

Well for me it is the other way round. for me first for inverter and ups is fully tubular, second the semitubular, sheeted tubular, inverter battery, and the like, third is the sealed and last the automotive.

These are just my experiences.

[khoj]

As I said before the wall wins every time.

We have posted our point of views now let the guys decide what they want to buy.

[Chipz]

Ya the wall wins only if the head bumps itself. It is the head which has to decide. Let the guys decide.

[Gansan]

What is this about fumes emanating from battery? My inverter trolley is placed in our living room and contains one 800 VA battery. I am aware the acid can cause some fumes, but thought one single battery in a well ventilated room did not matter much. Do I have reason to be worried?

[Chipz]

Gansan; you have a 800 VA inverter, the battery might be 100 ah of 150 ah. This battery in a WELL VENTILATED room will not be a reason to worry. You can read this thread to gain a better picture.

[Gansan]

@Chipz
That is correct, it is an 800 VA inverter with a 150 AH battery. The main switch board is in the living room in all our apartments, and we all have the inverters directly under the switch board. It is a fairly large 12 Ft by 24 Ft room, so I did not think anything about this issue till now.

[mvnr06]

Thank you all for the inputs ... Based on the inputs and with my preference, we are planning to go with xenon

Originally Posted by 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.

Hey rrswift, can you please provide me the contact no# of the dealer in HYD to discuss and buy. The dealers I checked with most of them are in suburbs and I live near by Ameerpet, Hyderabad (the only reason for this is to get assistance from them if there are any problems other than onsite support from the Co.)

[Chipz]

Any thing greater than 12 x 12 with good ventilation is good. yours is more than enough. Take this worry out of your head.

[Raccoon]

I'm very surprised to read all this about frequent topping up. You guys should mention the brands which require such frequent top ups. Like I'd mentioned earlier, our Amaron Shield hardly requires topping up even once a year.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

I'm very surprised to read all this about frequent topping up. You guys should mention the brands which require such frequent top ups. Like I'd mentioned earlier, our Amaron Shield hardly requires topping up even once a year.

I agree. I check my Amaron Shield once in two months, and it takes very little or no top up at all.

[Chipz]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

I'm very surprised to read all this about frequent topping up. You guys should mention the brands which require such frequent top ups. Like I'd mentioned earlier, our Amaron Shield hardly requires topping up even once a year.

Originally Posted by Gansan

I agree. I check my Amaron Shield once in two months, and it takes very little or no top up at all.

Is not both these contraindicated. Tubular batteries need checking water every 3 months, but mostly it needs topping up only once in 6 months (you may not even be needing to top up in a year sometimes). It is advisable to check every 3 months because repeated charging and discharging cycles like during power cuts, can cause the water to evapurate pretty fast. If the battery plates are not wholy submerged in the acid, then they will become hard (it cannot be reversed) and the backup is reduced. so it is advisible to check every 3 months. Similar is the case with semitubular and automotive.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Chipz

Is not both these contraindicated. Tubular batteries need checking water every 3 months, but mostly it needs topping up only once in 6 months (you may not even be needing to top up in a year sometimes). It is advisable to check every 3 months because repeated charging and discharging cycles like during power cuts, can cause the water to evapurate pretty fast. If the battery plates are not wholy submerged in the acid, then they will become hard (it cannot be reversed) and the backup is reduced. so it is advisible to check every 3 months. Similar is the case with semitubular and automotive.

Add the hot climate of Chennai to that! That is why I check once in two months. And I don't think the Amaron Shield is a tubular battery.

[Chipz]

Amaron Shield is a semitubular battery. So it is more important to check the water level since semitubular batteries get damaged easily when the water level is low, but this is not the case with tubular.