Pro tip: Check your backup battery terminals before a storm hits

Had a call last Tuesday in a house over by Riverview where their panel went dead during a heavy rain. Customer was panicking because their whole system just stopped. I get there and pop the cover on their Vista panel and sure enough the battery terminals were crusted over with corrosion so bad the backup wasn't connecting at all. Must have been sitting like that for months. I cleaned them up with a wire brush and some baking soda paste which took maybe 10 minutes but the real fix was replacing that battery with a fresh 12v 7ah. The homeowner told me it had been chirping low battery for weeks but they ignored it. Has anyone else run into this where the corrosion just sneaks up on you especially in humid basements?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.troy21d ago

I mean isn't it 12v 5ah for Vista panels mostly?

felix_lane9921d ago

Yeah 12v is right for most Vista panels. The 5ah will hold up fine for a basic setup but if you've got a few zones wired in you might wanna bump to a 7ah just for some extra headroom. I've swapped a bunch of those out and the 5ah works fine til you add more than like 4 sensors or something.

robin_roberts843d ago

Three out of the last four basements I've been in this month had the same issue with terminal corrosion on backup batteries. It's like humidity just eats away at everything down there, and people don't think to check their panels until the power goes out. @felix_lane99 mentioned the 5ah vs 7ah thing, which is a good point, but honestly the corrosion is what kills you first regardless of capacity. I started keeping a little spray bottle of distilled water and baking soda mix in my truck for exactly this reason, saves a lot of time on the cleaning step.