Most people tend to associate a lead acid battery with an automotive battery and hence end up using automotive batteries for UPS & inverters leading to problems.
The two applications are vastly different from each other.

Automotive Lead Acid batteries:

These batteries are used for starting an engine which requires a very high current for a few seconds. Once the engine starts a small current is used for ignition and lighting and the battery is already charging in parallel. Hence the automotive batteries are designed with thin flat plates that are designed to provide high current discharge for a very low duration. The plate thickness is typically below 2 mm. However the containers are very robust since they are mounted in moving vehicles and should withstand jolts and severe vibrations.

Industrial Lead Acid batteries:

These batteries are designed for variable and extendable loads and are hence more complex in design than automotive batteries. The different types of Industrial Batteries are

• Flat Plate flooded batteries : These are typically used for inverters.
• Tubular Plate flooded batteries : These are used for inverters, UPS and Solar applications
• SMF VRLA Batteries : These are sealed maintenance free batteries used for UPS, Telecom & Solar applications. ‘VRLA’ stands for ‘Valve regulated lead acid’. In sealed batteries, due to chemical reactions inside the battery gases are formed. Sometimes due to over charging, more gases are formed that needs to be released from the battery container. This is done by using valves that release under a certain pressure. Otherwise the batteries will explode.