Just bought 2 of these monsters..

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Willy

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.. and it's a good thing buddy lifted 'em into the back of my rig cuz, at 100+ lbs a pop.. my popped back would've gone 'snap-crackle-POP!'. Guy in Abbotsford B.C. is selling a bunch of them via Craigslist (and his buddy on the island) for $150 per, or $100 if buying 6 or more (that's something like $70-$100 USD). They're from a giant server UPS and are about 3 years old. Couldn't resist and he's sellin' em like hotcakes. Has about 60-70 left, so anyone living nearby should grab 1 or a bunch. ..Willy.  Capture.PNGDSCF6113.JPGDSCF6109.JPGDSCF6110.JPGDSCF6112.JPG ps.. anyone have experience with this brand?
 

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Telco batteries have been somewhat popular for a while now. They are not the same as a high end AGM but they certainly can do the job. More like a AGM with flooded characteristics in charge rates.

As far as big batteries suck to move, I agree. I can't wait to get the Lifelines in place and bolted down for the last time.
 
In short, what is it about those batteries that would make them highly desirable -- unusually high number of potential cycles?

Vagabound
 
Vagabound said:
In short, what is it about those batteries that would make them highly desirable -- unusually high number of potential cycles?

Vagabound

 Supposed to have around a 10 yr lifespan, able to be discharged ridiculously low hundreds of times without issue, and are 'sealed'.. so no real worries about off-gassing or leakage. Problem with them is the spec sheet where it doesn't list conventional A/h, just wattage/temp. It would be nice to know how it compares to other batteries in regards to A/h, though most seem to think it's around 130-140 A/h. ..Willy.
 
Willy

Compare by weight. if they weigh as much as a Grp 31, then they will have similar ratings.

These batteries were not meant to be cycled like we do our marine, AGM and golf cart batteries. They were meant to sit for years until called apon and then puke up the power along with many others with a power outage happens. After that they are allowed to recharge for as long as it takes.

They also have charge rates similar to a FLA rather than a premium AGM. That's one of those things that won't matter to most of us since producing that kind of power while mobile is near impossible. even more so with a large bank. I can run 1000w of solar and the generator pushing the converter too and not even get close to the minimum C rate of my bank. The max is over 3000 amps and pretty hard to do even on the grid.

These batteries come in all shapes and sizes depending on what cell tower is being refitted. Most are used, some are new but the price reflects it too.
 
There's another person selling AGM's on Craigslist here and THOSE batteries have an A/h rating of 160.. and weigh the same as mine. Also, the literature for my pwhr12500w4f's claims that they can be discharged 100% more than 260 times. ..Willy.
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These used UPS AGM batteries are certainly good for house battery duty.

Some of them might not do very good under high inverter loads,  some others are as good as the regular AGMs in this department.

One can get an indication either way by how fast voltage drops under high loads, in excess of 70 amps per battery.



Many are batteries designed to power cell phone towers and such in a power outage, and they get replaced at a set time, even if the power never went out and the batteries were never even cycled, but held at their float voltage the whole time, the latter being very easy on them and they retain a large part of their original capacity.

On some other RV forums their owners are very satisfied with them and are often called used telecom batteries.

Their condition at the time of purchase is likely affected by how many power outages they endured where they were deeply cycled, and the average temperature of the storage building where they resided, and of course how long they resided there.

Some of them seem to not be able to accept high recharge amperages, which is a trait commonly touted as a big advantage to AGM, in some uses, like when one is spinning an powerful alternator very quickly for limited duration to return as much charge as possible in limited time.

I do not really know what little idiosyncrasies they might have as to ideal recharging, or how to determine when they are full and reduce voltage from absorption to float.  Most AGMS are considered full when the amps required to maintain absorption voltage taper to a certain amount.  Lifeline dictates 0.5 amps per 100Ah of capacity at 14.4v and at 77F.

Northstar Odyssey and Deka AGMS indicate 0.3 amp per 100Ah at absorption voltages of 14.4 to 14.7.

Seeming to find these recommendations from the telecom battery manufacturers is also not readily apparent, but like any deeply cycled lead acid battery, recharging to full as soon as possible, as often as possible, will increase the total number of cycles and the total AMP hours the batteries are able to deliver before capacity diminishes to the point where one removes them from service. 

If I were to obtain some of these tellycom batteries, I would drain them to about 12.0 volts and recharge them at 20 amps per 100Ah of capacity upto 14.4v, and then  hold 14.4v until amps taper to 1 amp (per100ah of capacity), while looking to see the amount of temperature rise and to see if the sides of the casing were bulging outward.  No bulge and no obvious temp increase, I would then continue to hold 14.4v until amps just no longer dropped any further, and use that number of amps at absorption voltage as the determinant for full at that same temperature from then on out.

Another 50% discharge and similar recharge might behave a bit different too depending on the battery and its usage in the time it spent as a UPS battery.

Obviously this takes effort and special equipment, but I personally would not just rely on resting voltage to determine when the battery is indeed full.  Different batteries and different temperatures and different charge rates will greatly affect what voltage is held and how long it takes for surface charge to subside.

Much easier to just ensure they spend a few hours at 14.4v each recharge cycle, and they last however long they last.

They should provide good service as long as they get to full charge once every 10 discharge cycles.
 
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