Lack of quality control from manufacture to recycle

The battery supplier, maintenance provider and warrantor are rarely one and the same – resulting in:

• Zero accountability for maintenance obligations
• Batteries being installed and forgotten
• Potentially hazardous conditions

No pre-installation testing

• Variable production, storage, transport and installation practices affect battery performance and life expectancy
• Batteries installed as defective create surrounding degradation (a bank is only as good as the weakest battery)
• If testing is done, only voltage and impedance is measured – unfortunately, these are lagging indicators and only identify already failed batteries

Significant risk period between the warranty end date and replacement date

The IEEE standard 1188 defines “end of useful life” for a UPS battery as the point when it can no longer supply 80% of its rated capacity in ampere-hours, and that when your battery reaches 80% of its rated capacity, the aging process accelerates and the battery should be replaced.

• Load tests can no longer be taken to full DoD due to integrity concerns
• Increased risk of shorting, corrosion, over-volting and thermal runaway

Eventually, the risk outweighs revenue spend and panic buying ensues, driving the costs even higher

Additional 50% to 85% loss of asset value

• Individual batteries replaced in post warranty period are discarded when the complete bank is replaced

Load testing is intrusive and damaging

• Battery life span is shortened with every load test
• It is time consuming and downtime equals risk to client
• It does not identify individual battery state of health

Premature replacement

• Some installations are replaced every 5 years to mitigate “run to fail” risks
• This results in unnecessary waste of 40% to 50% of the asset
• If maintained correctly, these assets could safely perform for an additional 50% to 100% service life
• Premature replacement does not resolve the problem posed by lack of knowledge of individual battery state of health

No proactive maintenance procedures

• There are no accurate and effective testing and maintenance practises happening in battery environments today
• All maintenance procedures are reactive