Battery placement still gets ignored on old panels

Last month I went to swap a DSC 1864 in a house over in Tulsa and found the backup battery jammed sideways against the transformer. The panel was from 2009 and the date code on the battery said 2016, so it ran that way for 7 years. Guys, you have to keep that battery upright and off the board, the acid seepage ruined the whole main PCB. Does anyone else walk into these older residential jobs and spend the first 10 minutes just fixing mounting mistakes before touching the wiring?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan5931d ago

Did you catch that article in Security Sales about how most panel battery failures trace back to install issues, not the battery itself?

william8162d ago

Seven years sideways and the board is toast. That battery probably thought it was a freaking lawn mower engine with all that vibration, just leaking acid everywhere like it was doing its job. I swear the worst part is the zip ties, they always use the tiny ones that snap the second you look at them, then the battery flops around like a fish. Try explaining to the homeowner why their "new" panel needs a new board because some guy in 2016 thought gravity was optional.