Matrix 5000 Smartcell (not XR) one cell smells, is hot, and has deformed batteries!!

[BillP]

I entered the server room today to find that one of the smartcells in my Matrix 5000 smells, is hot, and has deformed batteries!!

It was the last cell in the series.

I quickly placed ups in bypass, and removed the cell, then placed the unit back online.

BOTH smartcells were professionally rebuilt and factory reset, and had been fine since then, but in the last 48 hours, this happened.

Anyone ever heard of this?

[BillP]

I entered the server room today to find that one of the smartcells in my Matrix 5000 smells, is hot, and has deformed batteries!!

It was the last cell in the series.

I quickly placed ups in bypass, and removed the cell, then placed the unit back online.

BOTH smartcells were professionally rebuilt and factory reset, and had been fine since then, but in the last 48 hours, this happened.

Anyone ever heard of this?

[BillP]

Where were these batteries from? It sounds like batteries from the vendor that rebuilt and reset the unit?

You could have measured the voltage on this SmartCell or it could have just been a bad cell. I was thinking potentially a charger issue so if the voltage was super high, then that would be a concern or the bad cell depending on the quality of the battery itself.

[BillP]

The batteries were from BatteriesPlus and the brand is "Werker".

Two cells were rebuilt at the same time, and these two were the only two attached to the unit.

Only one of the cells had the problem and it was the last one in the series.

The other is fine.

This APC unit is the same one that had the problem listed in the following post:

Matrix 5000 faulty battery alert comes and goes constantly in new smartcell.

According to the  logs, the unit started to alert that looked like this:

08/18/2013	16:01:12	UPS: An external battery pack was installed.
08/18/2013	16:00:57	UPS: An external battery pack was removed..
08/18/2013	16:00:10	UPS: Restored communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:59:40	UPS: Lost communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:58:38	UPS: An external battery pack was installed.
08/18/2013	15:58:23	UPS: An external battery pack was removed..
08/18/2013	15:57:37	UPS: Restored communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:57:06	UPS: Lost communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:55:49	UPS: Restored communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:55:34	UPS: Lost communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:55:03	UPS: An external battery pack was installed.
08/18/2013	15:54:48	UPS: An external battery pack was removed..
08/18/2013	15:53:00	UPS: Restored communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:52:45	UPS: Lost communication with the battery packs.
08/18/2013	15:51:59	UPS: Restored communication with the battery packs.

Just horrible crap happening to this cell for some reason.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[BillP]

Those types of alarms could occur with low battery voltage. If there was a bad cell, it could've dipped.

If you just have the "good" Smartcell connected, do you see this type of behavior?

[BillP]

Correct, everything is working as expected/is normal with the remaining smart smartcell connected.

[BillP]

That's right, as I first stated, this is not an XR unit.  I know they are not supposed to be rebuilt. but never had this issue after having done several of these.

[BillP]

OK - missed that in the title. Or maybe I remembered but someone else asked me and I forgot

[BillP]

Is that SmartCell that was just re-worked under warranty? Beyond checking the charging voltage to make sure the UPS did not damage good batteries, not much we can do as far as I know.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

I forgot - is this a SMARTCELL or SMARTCELL-XR? SMARTCELLs are not supposed to be opened up and repaired so if that's the case then