The Importance Of Battery Testing

Have you ever had one of those days when you are running late and jumping in your car only to find it won’t start because of a dead battery? I mean, sure, there were warning signs, but you thought, “I will just check it later.”

Now imagine your entire network fails during a significant storm with commercial power outages. The backup batteries failed because you thought I would check them later. This leaves you with outages to your valued long-time customers.

To think the battery failure could have easily avoided this with a simple battery maintenance program performed at each location in your service area where backup batteries are deployed. But, unfortunately, your network is only as strong as the weakest link.

Let’s face it. Most companies will overlook this due to budgetary restrictions and putting money toward other parts of their network. But you can potentially cost yourself more money overall by putting this off today.

What is battery maintenance? Establish a game plan that you follow at least once a year by visiting each location that batteries are in use. Doing this will potentially save you thousands of dollars, as well as peace of mind that your network is strong and in working order.

What are some of the best ways to implement a battery maintenance plan?

• Inspection of each battery, looking for cracks or bulging.
• Test the voltage of each cell with a voltmeter to see if the cells are in range per the manufacturer’s specifications. These should not be too high, nor too low.
• Use a battery tester, such as Midtronics, that each cell is tested with and given an estimated percentage of the battery life.

The best way to avoid outages is a good maintenance program and to follow it every year. This can prevent outages, as well as prevent thermal runaway. When batteries are in such poor condition, they fail.  This can cause a fire hazard resulting in more money being spent on replacing equipment and the central office.

Repeatedly, we see folks who say we just replaced those batteries not long ago only to discover time has slipped and they are past their life cycle. The key to avoiding this is keeping good records and following a good battery maintenance program every year. This, in turn, will save you money, as well as time overall by preventing unwanted outages.

For products that can assist in creating a testing system contact us.