Battery maintenance schedule

[Palletjack]

Looking to write a procedural sheet for battery inspections in substations.
What do you guys do monthly? annually? Etc
How often you equalize? Clean or wash down the batteries to wash off the residual acid from the top vents when equalizing?



We load test ours every three years through an outside vendor, but our monthly needs attention.
I’m also looking to buy the guys a good hydrometer that data logs.
They are getting specific gravity readings, and I just found out the temp measurements they are recording is ambient, rather than cell temp.

 

[sushilksk]

For flooded cell monthly gavity measurement of each cell, individual cell voltage after putting on load for ~15 min, Discharge test on C/10 after 3 years. Taking cell temperature for each cell is tediuos job. it takes time to settle thermometer to exect temperature, so not being done.

 

[thermionic1]

Anton Parr makes a datalogging device that does temp (of sample) and sp. gr. I think its called DMA 35. It come with our Albier Battery test set.

 

[low1]

We use the Anton Parr and the Alber analyzer. We have a visual inspection weekly as part of our weekly plant checks, voltage checks monthly, integrity inspections (essentially a more thorough visual) every 3 months. Full maintenance (SG, analyze) annually. We do equalize on demand (only if required as a result of poor readings or analyzing results). I want to say we do load testing every 4 years.

 

[wbd]

start with reviewing the manufacturer's manual and also the IEEE standards on batteries. I don't remember the std number as it has been a number of years since I dealt with batteries but there may be a inspection sheet in those that you can use.
At the nuclear plants I worked at we used the DMA 35 that came with the test set but there are probably other makes that will record, SG, temp, in a reading to download as well as other features.

One monthly reading that alot people don't do is to measure the ac ripple at the battery terminals. I believe the limit is 5 mV but that should be in the manufacturer's literature. High ac ripple can lead to battery heating and is indicative of the filtering caps in the battery charger failing.