Mysterious Surrette Behavior [RE-wrenches]

[Phil Undercuffler]

Hi Ray, 

I wanted to get Surrette's opinion to best answer your concerns, but
unfortunately it's Victoria day in the land up North, so here I go, swinging
at it alone...

In discussions with other battery manufacturers, I've been told that the
primary cause of battery failure out of the gate is when the cell gets
formed in reverse--in other words, somewhere along the line the cell gets
built backwards.  The cell will take an initial charge, will show up as
"normal" on the factory floor, but will fail after a short period of time.
However, the battery shows near normal voltage until after it is placed in
service, which makes it difficult to catch before installation.  This is
definitely an issue of lack of quality control, but it doesn't appear to be
the problem at hand.

As I now understand it, cells showing 0 volts on arrival are primarily a
result of a short between the plates.  Shorts between plates in new
batteries are generally a result of shipping and handling, not
manufacturing.  (older batteries have numerous ways to show 0 volts, but
that's a different story ;-)).  

Therefore, it appears the best protection against this type of failure is to
measure the voltage of every battery before signing the bill of lading, and
checking again after making the trip to the client's site.  (In addition,
taking a hydrometer reading of every cell and noting that in the client's
file would provide a great baseline for future reference.) 

The lead time in getting a replacement is due to the fact that these
batteries are made to order--there aren't pallets of them sitting in
someone's warehouse.  The good side of that is that you'll always have fresh
product.  The flip side is, when these problems do occur, someone's got to
make a replacement cell.  Surrette offered to ship the replacement with our
next order, so that we could get the cell here at no charge to you.  We
pushed that order forward, so that it would leave their factory as soon as
your cell was finished.  We did check about UPS'ing a dry cell direct to
your site, and to no-one's surprise, it's expensive.  Lead is still heavy.
Sorry.  

I really admire and want to promote your dedication to finding the best
whole-life solutions for your clients, and I hope that your experience with
what may be a freight damaged battery does not sour your belief in what I
believe is otherwise a great choice for your clients.

Phil


Please note new phone extensions
 
---------------------------------------------------------
Phil Undercuffler
Technical Service Manager, ext. 0741
Conergy, Inc.
1730 Camino Carlos Rey Suite 103
Santa Fe NM  87507 USA
Tel 505-473-3800 ext 0741
Fax 505-473-2134
www.conergy.us
---------------------------------------------------------
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Walters [mailto:walters at taosnet.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 9:54 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Mysterious Surrette Behavior [RE-wrenches]

<snip>  They shipped us a brand new 
cell that  was 0 volts.  Its hard to catch an under performing cell, but 
0 volts right out the door? Thats seriously bad QC, and I and my 
customer are paying for it: not Rolls and not Conergy. <snip> And lets add 
$200 shipping to expedite the replacement a  couple of weeks?.

Ray Walters
ray at solarray.com
NABCEP, RPCV, BSME


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