My battery exploded!

[ETS Jess]

while working on our communal moorings on Tuesday night, we were stopped in our tracks by an almighty bang. Looked around, couldn't see anything, then panicked thinking it was my (on board) washing machine. Nope. "Must have been in the woods" we said and then I saw the smoke coming out of my engine room!!

 

And this was the sauce of the bang! enjoy!

 

http://www.gandafitting.co.uk/images/j2

http://www.gandafitting.co.uk/images/j3

 

[Laurie Booth]

Scary !!

[MtB]

How exciting!

 

C'mon own up, you did it on purpose didn't you?

 

Odd looking battery though, being yellow. What is it?

 

MtB

[Stilllearning]

I hope it didn't make to much of a mess everywhere. (Probably did though?)

It reminds me of a friend years ago, a very well trained mechanic, who had become a car salesman. Came in to work in the morning, went to the workshop battery room to look at the battery he had put on charge the night before, and decided to put the heavy duty tester on it to see if it was taking a charge.....as he was putting the tester down on to the battery, he thought to himself " oh you plonker" as the gases ignited. He left the room in anorak and suit, both with nice new holes all over the place. The best bit was that all his colleagues (mechanics) were lying around outside, laughing too much to lend any assistance.

No, it wasn't me BTW

Have you any idea why your battery exploded?

Edited June 19, 2014 by Stilllearning

[Sir Nibble]

I wonder. Batteries I have seen before that have had gas explosions have been considerably more demolished than that. This is a sealed battery and I wonder if the pressure vent has failed and it's simply burst.

[FidoDido]

Doesn't look sealed to me..

 

I have one yellow battery and three black. Forget the brand, but all same brand and size.

[Grace and Favour]

 

Odd looking battery though, being yellow. What is it?

 

MtB

"It" is a mess, that's what it is.

[Rob@BSSOffice]

while working on our communal moorings on Tuesday night, we were stopped in our tracks by an almighty bang. Looked around, couldn't see anything, then panicked thinking it was my (on board) washing machine. Nope. "Must have been in the woods" we said and then I saw the smoke coming out of my engine room!!

 

And this was the sauce of the bang! enjoy!

 

http://www.gandafitting.co.uk/images/j2

http://www.gandafitting.co.uk/images/j3

 

 

Hi Jess

 

Oh how we feel for you. Big mess to sort out and batteries aren't cheap. The blessing is that you were not face down in the engine hole when it happened and you are able to tell us about it.

 

Would you be able to share what happened and the technical aspects (battery specs and charging methods). Had you checked the electrolyte recently?

 

If you want to share it in confidence, rather than broadcast it, you can use www.boatsafetyscheme.org/contact-us/contact-us-by-email

 

I have plans for a battery safety info page on the BSS website, so if we can learn more from your experience other people may also benefit and stay safe.

 

I hope you have been able to sort out some new batteries or can do in the very near future - and that everything else is OK/unaffected?

 

Kind regards

 

Rob

[Radiomariner]

I've seen explosion like this before. Much bigger battery for starting a large emergency generator. Cause was never fully investigated, but it was believed that the electrolyte level in the battery had been maintained at too high a level allowing part of a bus connecting the cells to corrode, eventually thinning enough so it ruptured like a fuse. Resulting spark ignited hydrogen. I always preferred the older batteries that had nice big solid connecting bus between cells on top of, rather than inside the casing.

[John V]

Few years ago, parked my car at a boat jumble. We just started to walk away from it when there was a loud "thump" and a cloud of steam rolled out of the bonnet. The top had blown off the battery, not quite as shattered as yours, it remained semi intact just with big splits along the top and down the sides. (as far as I remember it was not a "sealed" type)

The RAC came out and changed the battery and talking to the mechanic, he said that he came across a few every year.

[BGA]

I suppose you need to pressure wash everything to neutralise the acid which has presumably covered the inside of your engine bay

[Phil Ambrose]

To neutralise acid you should use something alkaline like bleach solution or best of all Sodium Bicarbonate because Bicarb will fizz on contact with acid so you know that when it stops fizzing the acid has been neutralised and Bicarb will not have an adverse effect on anything.

Phil

[mango]

To neutralise acid you should use something alkaline like bleach solution or best of all Sodium Bicarbonate because Bicarb will fizz on contact with acid so you know that when it stops fizzing the acid has been neutralised and Bicarb will not have an adverse effect on anything.

Phil

I suggest avoiding using bleach because this could generate chlorine, which is nasty. Use sodium bicarbonate as already suggested, or washing soda (sodium carbonate). Washing soda needs more care, such as eye and skin protection, but that's useful anyway when dealing with acid spills.

[ETS Jess]

Hi All.

 

It's been an exhausting experience, there's still work to be done but i'll bring you up to speed on developments.

 

So as you know one of the leisure batteries exploded. I'll give you a little background info if it will help.

My set-up was as follows :

I have 3 x leisure (12v 110amph, possibly Wetline brand) batteries in a box and in a separate box the other side there is 1 Starter. All in the engine room.

My 240v land line comes in at the back of the boat, and (I believe) splits off into 2, one cable running down the boat to the 240v sockets (washing machine, radio etc) and one cable running into a battery charger/power pack (Sterling Power Products I think its a ProCharge PT1210). That then charges the batteries when i'm moored with my landline in. Otherwise the batteries are charged via my engine alternator.

The starter battery is also connected to the 3 leisure (i'm not sure why, prob in case the starter goes down so I can start the engine with the leisures?)

On the 12v loom, I have the bilge pump, the lights in the boat, the fridge, the water pump and the shower drain pump.

 

We've established that the 3 leisure batteries have dead cells - they were checked 3 weeks ago with the hydrometer and 3 cells over 2 of batteries were in the white (fair) area, the rest were in the green. I assume they had deteriorated further. The previous owner of my boat (who still lives at the yard i'm moored at) recons the batteries are about 6/7 years old.

 

My neighbour, Neil, charged his (old) spare battery for me so I had some temporary power (for the fridge mostly) - i'll come back to this.

 

So, it blew up on Tuesday night. As I said the washing machine (240v) was running when it happened. When I saw the plume of smoke from the engine room hatch, I legged it down the gunnels, fire extinguisher in hand, only to find the latch had dropped down, locking the bloody thing. So ran back up the gunnels into the boat which was now full of what I thought was smoke, into the engine room, prepared to tackle a blaze. Tons of "smoke" but no heat or flames, got the latch up and doors open, my neighbour Andy, had come up the gunnels and was waiting at the stern, we assumed it was the engine so pulled all the floor panels up and that's when Andy's hand started to feel like it was burning.-And it clicked, it was the batteries - - and then it clicked we'd been breathing in hydrochloric acid fumes. We backed off and had a very quick think about what to do, Geoff, another neighbour fetched his paint mask for us and we went back in. The battery box was a mess. acid over everything, all over the inner keel, in the bilge, up the wall, every where. I think the engine itself has managed to miss it, luckily. Andy (who is my absolute hero) got the paint mask and went back in the engine room. We disconnected the 240v land line, hit the battery isolator switches. He unfastened all the battery terminals from all the batteries (covered in acid) and pulled the 2 good batteries out, then got a rope round the remains of the exploded one and he carried it (sloshing acid about over his legs!!) down the gunnels to the land. Geoff said we needed to rinse it all out, or neutralise it. Andy is a road worker and happened to have a load of cement lying about, which obviously contains Lime, an alkali, it was the only thing we had lots to hand to we covered all the acid with cement and went a for cuppa. We left all the doors and windows and hatches open and I stayed in Andy's boatmans for the night.

Next day, we went in worried about what we were going to find, and it was great! the lime had done a brilliant job, and it just flaked off with a scraper easy peasy. scooped it into a bucket. The acid had gone through some of the paintwork. we were scraping the cement out the battery box and the smell of battery acid was really bad again, we decided we had to take the battery box out and check under it. This seemingly simple job took almost 3 hours due to how it had been built. and low and behold it was a right state underneath. So we thew some cement on it and went for a cuppa. Chipped it all off again later and washed the entire engine room with soapy water. The acid had corroded patches of metal where it had sat under the battery box. This was really worrying as the battery box was sat on the Diesel fuel tank, but it seems solid still. We painted all the bare metal with fertan and i'll paint it with zink oxide on sunday.

 

And now the interesting part.

While looking at the battery box terminals, Andy (long suffering but very awesome) got a shock off them, dispite everything being turned off. Then another shock. Geoff had a poke about with a volt meter and traced it to the (isolated) starter battery. So we disconnected that. No more shocks from the leisure battery terminals. We plugged the 240v land line back in, fine, Geoff then turned the battery starter on and the bilge pump came on. But no batteries were connected... checked the fridge and the lights, everything was working, 12v and 240v. Then Geoff said it's prob best to not do that, as we weren't sure what voltage the battery charger was sending to the 12v stuff. So Neil brought his (old) spare battery round and we hooked it up to the terminals (charger turned off) and I had light and a cold fridge last night. I turned the Charger on today as the battery had gone flat(ish) over night to have a shower and after 2 minutes I could smell battery acid!!!!!!! Ran back to the engine room to turn the charger off and there is a little smoke coming out of the battery!!

 

So! is it the battery charger going wrong or is it just that the batteries are old??

I have ordered 2 new batteries for collection tomorrow morning, but I don't want to connect them up to the Sterling charger until I've had that checked. So i'll be charging then in Andy's shed for the next week.

 

And just a quick note - I know there'll be part of this you've read and though "Jesus! you shouldn't have done that!" including running into the smokey engine room and throwing cement about, but my boat is my home, and everything in my life is on it. I worked hard (3 separate jobs) for 2 years to afford just the deposit for that boat. If you're ever in that situation, where you think you're about to loose everything, im sure you'd do the same!

 

Oh, and Andy is ok, we hosed his legs down and he's none the worse. though his trousers disintegrated while at his friends house yesterday! We're both breathing ok now too, we were quite wheezy Wednesday and yesterday.

 

I'll keep you posted!

 

Jess

[smileypete]

Sorry to hear of your batt woes!

 

So! is it the battery charger going wrong or is it just that the batteries are old??

I have ordered 2 new batteries for collection tomorrow morning, but I don't want to connect them up to the Sterling charger until I've had that checked. So i'll be charging then in Andy's shed for the next week.

 

Depends, best to check the charge voltage with a multimeter, and check the charge current with an ammeter.

 

When a charger is switched on, the charge voltage should rise then level off at a constant 'absorption charge' level of 14.4V for normal leisure batts. If it's 14.8V it may be set wrongly, any higher and the charger is probably defective (some £££ chargers run an occasional 'equalisation charge' slightly above this level but no more than a few hours). After a few hours the charge voltage should drop back to a 'float charge' level of around 13.8V

 

If the charge voltage is OK, next look at the charge current, once the charge voltage has reached its 14.4V plateau, the charge current should slowly 'tail off' to a very low level over time. The level in amps should be less than 1 to 2% of rated batt bank capacity in Ah. If no ammeter is fitted, a handheld DC clamp ammeter is a good easy way to read the charging current, £25 online or £40 from Maplins:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...efLoc=1&_sop=15

http://www.maplin.co...ultimeter-n41nc

 

If the charge current stays above this level, that very likely indicates a failed batt that will be continually gassing explosive gases, due to a shorted cell, as well as heating the batt up and making the electrolyte levels drop prematurely. Without any ammeter you could peer into the batt cells to see which ones are gassing and which aren't, but after your experience I'm sure you're prefer not to!!!

 

For some good safety precautions for working on batts, plus a load of tech info, The Battery FAQ is well worth a look:

 

http://www.batteryfaq.org/

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited June 20, 2014 by smileypete

[MtB]

I've seen explosion like this before. Much bigger battery for starting a large emergency generator. Cause was never fully investigated, but it was believed that the electrolyte level in the battery had been maintained at too high a level allowing part of a bus connecting the cells to corrode, eventually thinning enough so it ruptured like a fuse. Resulting spark ignited hydrogen. I always preferred the older batteries that had nice big solid connecting bus between cells on top of, rather than inside the casing.

 

It's always puzzled me why batteries explode with ignition like this. Clearly different from the bursting due to blocked air vents, when the hydrogen ignites.

 

I think you may have explained what it is that ignites the hydrogen!

 

MtB

[ETS Jess]

Sorry to hear of your batt woes!

 

Hi Smileypete,

 

Thanks for that, i'll print your post off and take it back to boat, someone at the yard is bound to have the meters, fab advice.

 

Weekend update:

I bought the new batteries on Saturday, 2 x Lucas LX31MF 12v 110ah - I don't need 3 for my uses and I certainly can't afford 3! The guys at Midland Chandlers we're brilliant, though I think I shocked the nice lady who tried to help me put them in the car when I picked the pair of them up and flung them onto the back seat like they were made of polystyrene, lugging all these heavy batteries about for nearly a week, my arms have never been so strong and toned!!

 

I hooked one straight up to the boat 12v and the other went on charge in the shed, though battery number one is still going strong! Priced up a new Sterling charger while I was at the chandlers, another £400 (eeek!)

 

I'm yet to make my new battery box and paint the engine room, but I have running water and bright lights again so i'm a happy girl

 

Jess

[Phil Ambrose]

Hi Jess, checkout Electroquest chargers also Numax. 30amp with 2 outputs (domestic and starter) fit and forget. A number of forum members use them including me.

Phil

[smileypete]

Agree with Phil, for a boat on shoreline most of the time a 20A to 30A charger should do fine, here's a couple of links to the Electroquest ones:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FULLY-AUTOMATIC-5-STAGE-MARINE-BATTERY-CHARGER-12V-30A-/141043954256

https://electroquestuk.com/products/battery-chargers/12v-20a-fully-automatic-marine-leisure-battery-charger.html

 

The £££ high power chargers are only usually needed when living 'off grid' and charging batts from a generator, some people get a 'combi' which has inverter and charger built into one box.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[bizzard]

Batteries going off pop was quite common on cars of the early seventies or so when alternators came on the scene. The extra initial charging current seemed to take them by surprise. It seemed to only happen to posh cars with bigger macho alternators like Jaguar XJ6, Mercs ect. Those old batteries must have prefered the nice gentle dynamos.

Edited June 24, 2014 by bizzard

[ETS Jess]

Thanks Phil and Pete, I'll check that out

[Rob@BSSOffice]

Oh, and Andy is ok, we hosed his legs down and he's none the worse. though his trousers disintegrated while at his friends house yesterday! We're both breathing ok now too, we were quite wheezy Wednesday and yesterday.

 

I'll keep you posted!

 

Jess

 

Oh my, all our sympathies.

 

If you notice any further symptoms, get straight to the doctors and described what happened.

 

It sounds like the battery box saved you from a lot of further hassle

 

Thanks for sharing

[Radiomariner]

Andy's trousers falling apart brought back an experience I had as a young man. I managed to splash a very small drop of battery acid down the front of my uniform trousers. Just a tiny splash about 5mm radius. I immediately removed the trousers and plunged the affected area into a water filled hand basin and, let it soak about ten minutes. I thought that would have diluted the acid enough so as not to cause damage. About five days later, as I hitched up my trousers to sit down at the breakfast table the material just fell apart in my fingers, Every time I moved a bit of trouser material would rot away, An area of about a foot in diameter (the area I had soaked) just fell apart, revealing my leopard skin Y-fronts. I had to sit, with my napkin in my lap until everyone finished breakfast and left the dining saloon. Somebody saw what happened however, because some of the wives teased me about my Y-fronts until I left the ship months later.

[pquinn]

Andy's trousers falling apart brought back an experience I had as a young man. I managed to splash a very small drop of battery acid down the front of my uniform trousers. Just a tiny splash about 5mm radius. I immediately removed the trousers and plunged the affected area into a water filled hand basin and, let it soak about ten minutes. I thought that would have diluted the acid enough so as not to cause damage. About five days later, as I hitched up my trousers to sit down at the breakfast table the material just fell apart in my fingers, Every time I moved a bit of trouser material would rot away, An area of about a foot in diameter (the area I had soaked) just fell apart, revealing my leopard skin Y-fronts. I had to sit, with my napkin in my lap until everyone finished breakfast and left the dining saloon. Somebody saw what happened however, because some of the wives teased me about my Y-fronts until I left the ship months later.

Modesty and leopard skin y-fronts make strange bed fellows.

[MtB]

Had you shot the leopard yourself?

 

 

MtB