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I sure could used some help on this subject. The office complex we leased last year has a Best 5.3KVA UPS system hirewired into our electical service for the server room.
Age is unknown but the batteries died (bone dry). Since I could get deep cycle marine batteries with same specs at Walmart (except they are not spill proof) for about $450 less guess what we did?
Since these are not spill proof and the UPS is located in a utility area we just left the front cover off and now have the 48 volt pack (4x12v)sitting in front of the unit with the cables connected the same. Actually I went back and got 115 AH batteries instead of the standard 75 AH rating.
My question has more to do with the charger. Now that we are thinking outside of the box  we could build another 48 volt bank and connect it in parallel with the first bank to double our run time.
Will the charger handle this is our question? If the extra load on the 48 volt charger will only mean it will take twice as long to recharge in the event of power outage that is fine? If it could make the charger exceed its rated output and kill the charger then adding the second bank would be a big no no?
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Realman, Walmart carries one for about $80-90 that is good for 700 W cont or 1400 W surge that you just clip to your battery post. If it did what you wanted you could then hardwire it and have it with you at all times if you could get it mounted where no rain could get on it. It would be nice when you were broke down on the back 40/400 ect and could look up 2 or 3 banks of 250 watt work lamps.
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After a lot of research and talking with US Battery it seems like charging in parallel only means the charge is split between the batteries there for increasing the time required to bring the batteries to a full charge. I guess lead-acid batteries are not of much interest to most as long as their car starts. Actually I found learning about deep cycle batteries to be interesting. The typical deep cycle battery is good for about 300 recharging cycles and only reach full output ability after 20-50 cycles. That means most will die of old age before they ever reach full potential. I am glad people are not that way.
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I have another question related to my first one. In checking I learned it was OK to install another 48 volt battery pack in parallel so I purchased 4 more identical deep cycle batteries and all dated Mar 04. In initially charging each one on a 12-volt charger before connecting them to make the 48-volt pack I noticed something that I do not understand. On one battery the charger will taper down to 2 amps, two will taper to 3 amps and one will only taper down to 4 amps. Can someone explain this? Batteries connected in series need to be identically in function.
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Thanks guys. I am going to try the 24-hour trickle charge. This site really has knowledgeable members. This morning I lost a neighbor of 40 years in a house fire but I will read in more detail the post to my question. He was near the point of death from ephemera but the entire attic was involved before they knew the house was on fire. His wife lost some hair but made it out. She and a nearby son just could not get him out of a window but the fire department arrived and kept the fire from his body. If you are planning to build and like me have (or may have) mobility issues look at having an outside exit from your bedroom. Batteries are still on my mind but my day would have been better if my neighbor had had an exit door in his bedroom.
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Battery charging update. I tried the trickle charging idea and it worked. As a reminder from my post above I had 4 deep cycle identical batteries that would stop taking a charge at 2, 2, 3, and 4 amps on the charger meter.
First working with the battery that would stop taking addition charge at 4 amps I would knock off the surface voltage by using about a 500 watt load for 1-2 minutes (700 watt inverter running some lights and fan) and then trickle charge for about a day. Repeat knocking of surface voltage and to regular charge, then repeat the trickle/full charge cycles.
The first time it would still drop down to only 4 amps when fully charged. It went to 3 amps after the second set of cycles and went all the way to 2 amps after the third cycle. I will try this a few more cycles to see if it will approach Zero but first I am working to see if I can now get the two batteries that were only dropping to 3 amps down to 2 amps so I have 4 batteries stopping at the 2 amps point.
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As a follow-up I have not yet connected the second set of batteries for my office 5.3kVA UPS but I have been able to get all 4 conditioned by trickle charging as mentioned above to stop charging at the 2 AMP reading on the scale now when doing a full rate charge by working with them individually using a 12 volt charger. Soon I will use them to build another 48-volt pack that will be connected in parallel with the other 48-volt pack. Below is what a tech from another forum had to say about adding the second 48-volt pack in parallel. Remember all 8 batteries are new, the same brand and same specs and from Wal-Mart.
Other forum reply:
No, the battery charger will not exceed it limits. The added 48 v pack will not cause undue hardship, but will require slightly more than twice the time to charge. "Slightly" due to the added internal resistance of the added batteries. Run time will basically be doubled
Before you add an another set, check the batteries are not excessively "gassing", produced by excessive charging voltage. This should not be an issue due to the circuitry was designed for sealed batteries. Simple remove the cell covers, you should not see gas bubbles, maybe occasional small bubbles are OK, large and numerous bubbles, are not good, in a fully charged battery set. The room these batteries are in should have a small amount of air exchange, all open cell batteries do produce a small amount of hydrogen gas, (from first hand experience, it is explosive). As long as they are not contained in an airtight room they are safe.
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