[Idrees]

Yesterday July/18/2009 I bought a Lead Acid (non-maintenance free) battery of 150Ah and 12 volts of size which is used in buses, but this one is specially for Inverter (USP is written on it's top). The warranty card I had with this says that gravity of each cell should be 1.250. So I checked each of the 6 cells today i.e July/19/2009 and found that these cells have gravities 1.7, 1.6, 1.7, 1.7, 1.6, 1.6 and the electrolyte is too much above normal level. The dimensions of this battery are Length=49.5CM, Width=17.5CM, Height=21.2CM. I've also attached pictures of the battery (Exide company i.e. Home) and the battery is showing 17.1 Volts instead of 12 Volts. Exide company claim that this battery is specially made for UPS (inverter) and has thick plates which I don't know exactly as some shopkeepers say that no matter what the battery will last for 1 year only.
I am using this battery in home for my inverter (Inverex) of 600Watts. The shop from where I bought this battery charged the battery for 2 hours and 30 minutes only for the first time and told me that charging of only 1 hour is required for the 1st time when electrolyte is put in the battery (lead acid) which I think they are lying may be to save their electricity bill. I took the battery and connected to my inverter (people in our country (Pakistan) usually call it UPS). As soon as I connected the battery to the inverter, the inverter started charging the battery for some time (don't know how much) and then stopped charging. When electricity was gone, the 3 fans (80watt each) and 4 energy saver bulbs (13watt each) were functioning O.K. After 1 hour electricity supply was back and my inverter charged the battery for 2 hours and some minutes.
Please tell me whether it is normal that my inverter is charging battery for 2 hours or is it so that the shopkeeper didn't charged my battery for 16 hours for the first time.
Please tell me what to do, shell I give this battery back to the shopkeeper to charge it again for 16 hours.
Before this battery I had 2 small car batteries of less than 70 Amp hour batteries and they were connected in parallel to my 600 Watts inverter for 1 year and the inverter charged them in 35 to 45 minutes only.

Please tell me what to do do now i.e.

1- Shell I give it back the shopekeeper and tell hime to recharge it again for 16 hours or more
2- Whether to change the gravity of electrolyte.

1- Also can you please tell me how can I calculate that for how long this battery will work.
2- Also how can I maintain it so it'll work longer.

I'll be very thankful for your reply.