[TriLUG] recommendations for UPS 12V batteries?

[shay walters via TriLUG]

 > The batteries that lasted 10years were in a different UPS
 > that has 2 banks of 4 batteries outputting 48V. The ones
 > that lasted only 2 years were in an APC with 1 or 2 batteries.
 > I didn't know if it was the UPS or the batteries.

    In my experience, it's usually the batteries.  I expect that a larger
UPS would have better charging / maintaining circuitry than a smaller UPS,
but even with the smaller "throw-away" UPS's, most of the time when they
fail, new batteries will get them going again like new.   I've used Liebert
(Emerson now) and APC most often, and haven't really had anything to
complain about either brand in any of the sizes.
    If I have a choice, I'll use the full-time (online) models that are
running off the batteries all the time and use the incoming power to keep
the batteries charged rather than the offline UPS that switches on the
battery inverter when the power fails.  Most of the UPSs I have at home are
ones that were being discarded and replaced by customers when they failed,
and they often had the nicer full-time / online UPSs.  I got one once that
was a 208-volt 3-phase UPS that had 18 batteries (3 banks of 72 volts).  It
was being discarded by a hospital after only 6 months in service because
they got new equipment which had different power requirements.  I couldn't
use it, but I used the batteries out of it for quite a while.
    If you have a model that has loose wires connecting to the batteries,
watch the wires.  I had one once that the wire sprung loose when I was in
the middle of connecting the batteries and it touched something on the
circuit board and let out some of the magic smoke.  Most of the newer
models have some sort of harness or enclosure that makes the batteries plug
in as a unit and you don't have to worry about that, but they're more of a
chore to replace batteries because you have to disassemble the thing and
reassemble it with the new batteries, and the designers seem like they went
out of their way to make it difficult to get back together.   :-)  I'm sure
you know all this stuff, I'm just mentioning it for the benefit of other
people on the list who would benefit from knowing these things.

 > So all the batteries are the same then. ;-\ It might be the UPS
 > that's being nicer to the batteries.

Well, at least all the batteries that Interstate Battery sold.  :-)  The
ones from Amazon that I mentioned in my last message are AGM (Absorbed
Glass Mat) type.  I suppose that they have the higher amp-hour rating
because of the change in technology over the gelled electrolyte of older
batteries.

 > The Batteries Plus people are nice to me and I'm happy to support the
local
 > crowd. They're a bit more expensive than the Amazon ones, but that's OK.

That's why I had been dealing with Interstate, but they closed the store
that was close to me and moved across town making it over an hour round
trip to go there now.

-Shay