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Joined: Sep 2000
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With Reference to otherwise fully serviced, apparently fully charged Graseby 500 voulmetric pumps, I have been asked to pose the question, does any other site find that if utilising the battery, eg for patient transfer, the Battery in the Graseby 500 Volumetric Pump will fail, sometimes within seconds, sometimes after five minutes, but without any warning, specifically after Battery Test has shown a full charge? This is the problem, not that they fail, but that the Battery Test can suggest full and satisfactory charge! Shouldn't an error be flagged?
On starting on there is no indication to warn of this.
Of course "no one else has this problem" ...

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Oh yes.

Depends on how the battery has been used/abused. Unless the battery can go through a full charge/discharge cycle I don't see how any indicator can predict the charge in a rechargeable battery. Some of the newer equipment takes upto 24 hours to provide battery calibration information.

I think that Graseby - 3M at the time of design - tried to steal a march on the competition by providing a battery indicator and validated it by allowing the battery to be run at max load for a short period of time before displaying the result in graphical terms. You'll always get those batteries that will tip over the edge a few minutes after the load test- usually the ones that have been neglected/abused.

I suspect the circuitry is fairly simplistic given the product has been on the road for some ten or more years.

Graseby I believe suggest the battery be replaced after 2 years but I have had the odd occurance when a pump has been retrieved with a near perfect capacity battery after 6 years!!

Brian


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We had the same problem, but got round it by replacing the batteries every two years and also when they came down for testing they were run on battery for a few hours during the rate check.

The voltage can be ok on the fluke but under load this fails. Dont think the graseby checks it under load, will have to look at the circuit diagram.

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This is one of a few serious issues we have had with this device.

The pump battery indicator indicates a full battery only to die minutes later. This has become a big problem for use in transport so we have dedicated transport pumps in the equipment library which are regularly checked and have their batteries changed during a PPM annually.

We had to change 64 batteries in 108 pumps about two years ago when we started to have complaints from the wards that 500s were dying minutes after being unplugged. Pumps that are not in use are soon collected and returned to the Equipment library to be put back on charge in the storage area.

The Service manual has now been amended to include actually running the pump for a given time rather than just an indication from the battery monitor ... a bit late now...- This is a routine test we had to include into our PPM schedule a long time ago.





Last edited by Rich H; 16/04/08 9:56 PM.
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We test the batteries on a battery analyser during the annual PPM; having seen batteries that failed to run the pump for more than a few minutes even though the battery indicator showed full.

Lee


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Yes, sadly this is a known defect ... and how "they" (Graseby, 3M ... whomever) have been allowed to get away with it all this time is just beyond belief! Not only is it an example of poor design (which is inexcusable in itself), it is then compounded by a policy of denial. But worse still, it shows (yet again) the absolute uselessness of the government agencies put in place to "regulate" this sort of nonsense. Bah! frown

Last edited by Geoff Hannis; 17/04/08 7:00 AM. Reason: Re-worked

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The battery test only indicates whether the battery has ANY charge in it, it is not an indicator of how much charge. This has been a known problem with the Graseby 500 for sometime.
It is essential that the 500s are kept on charge whenever possible and that this is incorporated in the training to the end users.


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One wonders why the manufacturer hasn't bothered to "update" the circuitry concerned. It's hardly rocket science, after all. Perhaps it's time we started (re)designing equipment ourselves! smile

PS: notice that I didn't suggest modification (...daren't even whisper that)!

Last edited by Geoff Hannis; 17/04/08 9:53 AM. Reason: !

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On the subject of modifications....

I suggested and designed a modification to cure the battery bolus problem with this device. No one at Smiths Medical returned my calls or bothered to reply to me by email which upset me a bit considering all the time I put into it on the recommendation of their service support manager.



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Good man, Rich! But why are we not surprised by that sorry (typical?) tale? frown


If you don't inspect ... don't expect.

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