battery question

[Buzzard]

I searched the Fix-it forum for help with this question,but no help, My camper is a 2006 Fleetwood with the "toy hauling deck" on the front. My boss at work said he had a deep cell battery he would give me if I did a little welding for him. I mounted a new battery case on the deck right behind the propane bottles and hooked the batteries up parallel. When I checked the CCA of the new battery I seen it said UPS 350. A little research I found out UPS means uninterrupted power flow,used a lot on government defense sights etc in case of power outage. Did I donate a little welding for a battery I can't use? I need someone with more  electrical smarts than me to answer this. The battery is brand new and was being used on a generater to start it to power his house in case the power goes out. Thanks in advance.

[abbear]

I did a google search and found a wide variety of ups 350 batteries.  One in particular said it was a 12v 7.5 amp hour sealed lead acid battery which sounds pretty close to what we use.  I think that we need a little more help on just what exactly does the battery say on it as far as volts and amp hours and what do the terminals look like?  Do you have it hooked up already?

We do have some electrical wizards here that should be able to help you out !

[austinado16]

I think the important thing when hooking multiple batteries together is that they are all identical and the same exact age.  Otherwise, they try to level each other out.  So your really good battery is drawn down by the not so really good battery.....whichever that might be.

If you want to use this "new" battery, maybe it would be better to simply have it as a backup that you can switch to when your other battery becomes low.

[AustinBoston]

I'm with Austinado16 on this one.

My advice is to not connect batteries together unless they are the same type, capacity, age, and manufacturer.

And like Austinado, I would suggest either just using it as a backup or setting it up so you can switch between batteries when needed.

abbear: Are you sure you have a 7.5 amp hour battery?  That's not much of a battery.  OTOH, it is what I would expect if it's only purpose was to power breakaway brakes.

Austin

[wavery]

A UPS battery is used to give computers (and other electronic devices) temporary power, in the event of a power outage. I have one of those on each of my 3 computers and one on our LCD TV.
http://batterysupplyco.com/index.html?ysmchn=GGL&ysmcpn=ups+battery&ysmgrp=ups+battery+group&ysmtrm=ups+battery&ysmtac=PPC

A 7.5A battery will run your lights for a few hours and that's about it. You can buy those batteries on eBay for about $25. I bought one a few months ago.

They come in large enough size to run your camper lights for (100 AMP) hours but they are certainly not designed as a starting battery for anything.
 http://batterysupplyco.com/12ce100.html

They are also designed to take a very low rate of charge. Don't try to put your regular battery charger on it because you may burn it up.

As stated earlier, don't hook this thing up to your camper battery.

[abbear]

I
 
 abbear: Are you sure you have a 7.5 amp hour battery?  That's not much of a battery.  OTOH, it is what I would expect if it's only purpose was to power breakaway brakes.
 
 Austin

I wasn't talking about my battery - I was referring to the only battery I came up with in a google search that looked like it could be close to what he was asking about.

If this was just to start his friends generator I don't think it would have to be very big - but I am still confused as to why a ups battery for a generator?

[wavery]

I wasn't talking about my battery - I was referring to the only battery I came up with in a google search that looked like it could be close to what he was asking about.

If this was just to start his friends generator I don't think it would have to be very big - but I am still confused as to why a ups battery for a generator?

Actually, as long as it is not used repeatedly and the generator isn't very big or diesel, it may do just fine. The nice thing about those batteries is that you can keep them on a little mili-amp charger and they will stay at full charge for years, with no maintenance.

You know those auxiliary jump starters that you can buy at Costco:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11112764&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|3960|21273|49392&N=4014145&Mo=1&pos=2&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=49392&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10614-Cat21273&topnav=
All they have in them is one of those little UPS batteries. I jump cars here at my apt building with the one that I have had for 7 years. I replaced the battery last year.

[mike4947]

UPS and those jump start packs use AGM batteries. They should NOT be used with any open wet cell battery. They take different charging voltages and what charges a open wet cell fully with destroy an AGM battery.

Here's a few links for an education on batteries and 12 volt systems:
 
http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm
 
http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volta.htm  page two
 
http://www.batteryfaq.org/
 
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

[Buzzard]

Thanks for all the replys. I'll just keep the battery as an emergency back up. I think Wavery hit the nail on the head. The generater it was used for is a propane powered generater. I presume that is eaisier to start than a gas powered one. Happy I only trickle charged it. Thanks again,Buzzard