Another Battery Fire in AT&T's Network

An anonymous reader writes "AT&T has disclosed another fire started by one of the 17,000 Avestor batteries in its broadband network. The first fire caused a violent explosion in suburban Houston. This second incident occurred just 20 miles away."

Comments

Wow

[Durrok]

From TFA: "Outside of these two incidents, there have been no similar incidents involving these batteries," AT&T's spokesman writes via email.

Anyone else read ".... YET" in that sentence. I'm hoping they are doing further testing in whatever conditions these batteries were in that made them explode. TFA did not mention anything but then again it is light reading.

Re:Wow

[gratemyl]

Don't be silly - nobody would make an unreasonable conclusion that this was a terrorist attack - after all, everybody knows that Al Qaeda planned this attack so carefully that nobody would notice.

Re:Wow

[grumling]

If they were within 20 miles of each other, I'd look at the other ones nearby and find out who installed them. Maybe the contractor needs a little more training, maybe they got a bad batch of batteries.

It is likely they were installed by the same group of people (person?), and if they (he) didn't know what he was doing, it may very well happen again. It is also likely the batteries were all part of the same batch.

Did Anyone

[phoenixwade]

The two batteries referred to were housed in two different VRAD cabinets, 20 miles apart, in the same city within a few months of each other. But, the carrier says, apart from those two batteries, all else is well. In its statement, published earlier today, AT&T said "the battery design was sound, as were the safety features," and concluded that "the risk of hazardous failures with this battery is as low, if not lower, than the risk with alternative batteries, which are used by other telecommunications and cable companies in similar applications." Really? the ubiquitous SLA has the same track record? What a crock 'o poopie. Another one of those "I think I'll pull statistics out of my ass and spout them off" moments....

What I can't figure out is why they aren't using SLA's in those cabinets in the first place. They are, by far, the most common battery in use in almost every application. The advantage is that SLA's are safe, predictable and cheap. The disadvantages are volume and weight, but in a stationary cabinet that shouldn't make a difference.

Doesn't surprise me....

[LWolenczak]

It really doesn't surprise me. Sealed cell VRLA Battery + High Temperatures (Summer) + Hydrogen creation inside battery from the Water/Acid mix + brown out causing battery to be utilized = practical bomb. I had one cook off in a generator this week. One of my data center generators went to start up for its weekly exercise this week and it never started, but one of the batteries exploded. It didn't lead to a fire, but I'm sure it would have if it was in a more confined space.

Re:Why that kind of battery?

[zeromorph]

You have to distinguish between two types of lead-acid batteries and then the whole thing is not that optimal anymore.

With wet-cell lead-acid batteries you'll get evaporation and resulting loss of capacity. Beside that you have a precipitation of lead(II) sulfate that can ultimately kill your battery.

With maintenance-free (sealed) batteries like Valve Regulated Lead Acid batteries you do not get these problems but you could get thermal runaway and they do explode. Gel-batteries are less inclined to explode but especially older ones do that too.

On the other hand lithium metal polymer are said to "have service lives as long as 10 years, under ambient temperatures from -40C to +65C."

Re:So that's what happens if you run Windows Embed

[X0563511]

You could try cracking a joke that had something to do with the article, or at the very least to a comment.

That post was a waste of all our time, and a moderators mod points, and your Karma.