Help, Battrery explosion

[Dr Bob]

1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Ah now that's useful to know Dr Bobski.

Was it you who calculated the volume of steel a litre of battery acid will dissolve ages ago in a similar thread? 

If not could you have a stab at it please? I have no eye deer how to go about it.

No,  not me, I was at home watching banana splits.

Not a clue how to work it out. Just experience of reactivity of acids on things. It will be all about Acid concentration and mols. Never very good at inorganic chemistry. Also remember getting battery acid all over my triumph spitfire. It was still there 5 years later.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Dr Bob said:

No,  not me, I was at home watching banana splits.

Not a clue how to work it out. Just experience of reactivity of acids on things. It will be all about Acid concentration and mols. Never very good at inorganic chemistry. Also remember getting battery acid all over my triumph spitfire. It was still there 5 years later.

 

Ok my bellringing teacher is a chemistry whizz. He blows stuff up for the govt apparently. I think he wears a white coat and big glasses at work. I'll seef he has any eye deer. 

[rusty69]

21 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Ok my bellringing teacher is a chemistry whizz. He blows stuff up for the govt apparently. I think he wears a white coat and big glasses at work. I'll seef he has any eye deer. 

Is his name Bob double double toil and trouble? 

[MtB]

8 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Is his name Bob double double toil and trouble? 

 

Nope...

[Richard10002]

1 hour ago, Nick D said:

Ok, so I need to get a multimeter then, or will this meter on my control panel tell me the same info?

re the sparks, I perhaps should have been clearer. This only happened when I was undoing and trying to reconnect the batteries after disconnecting the blown one.  They don't spark normally!

You need to get a multimeter, and a NASA BM2, (or similar). The multimeter will allow you to measure voltages and resistances in all kinds of places. The NASA BM2 will tell you instantaneous battery voltage, instantaneous amps flowing as a charge or a discharge, and cumulative Amp Hours used or put into the batteries - very simplistic, but good enough to start with.

The State of charge reading on the NASA is pretty much useless.

You should fully charge your batteries daily if possible, and every 2nd day if not. Any longer than that, (e.g. once a week), you seriously risk sulphation and short life. Some will disagree, but there are threads on here which support this.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Richard10002

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Nick D said:

I have a volt meter on my switch panel and occasionally the inverter beeps and I switch it off or run the engine.  Is there anything else I should be doing?

Well waiting until the invert bleeps probably means they are discharged to low and I take it you have no way of telling when they are fully charged, If thats the case you may have problems knowing if you can survive with 4 batteries. 4 Fully charged batteries should give you about 210 Ah before they need fully charging again, 5 would take that up to 260 ish Ah but if your batteries are 2 years old and you run them too low and don't fully recharge them you will have no where near that capacity.

[Nick D]

14 hours ago, matty40s said:

If the batteries are flooded cell and have caps on them I would check water levels in all cells. If the inverter/charger is equalising the batteries regularly or at too high a voltage, this may have depleted the water in more than just the one battery and that was just the first one to go.

So, I have opened the caps on the batteries and they all have water in them above the plates (probably to a level of about 5mm over the plates). Is this sufficient or should I top up more?

[Sea Dog]

6 minutes ago, Nick D said:

So, I have opened the caps on the batteries and they all have water in them above the plates (probably to a level of about 5mm over the plates). Is this sufficient or should I top up more?

Perfect. Check regularly and keep that level using distilled water when necessary.

[Bod]

Multi meters

https://www.clasohlson.com/uk/UNI-T-UT203-Clamp-Multimeter/36-4718?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlK25qqrG2gIVCPEbCh2ONg_NEAQYAiABEgKZQvD_BwE

This is one I have, and well worth the money.  It will read DC amps with the Clamp meter, many won't, be careful!

There are cheaper meters, which are more basic, but the ability to read DC amps is really useful, when you don't have to break the wire.

 

Bod

[cuthound]

Late to this thread, but I spent most of my working life maintaining, commissioning, designing or managing the installation of power installations with lead acid batteries.

Spilt sulphuric acid was always dealt with by sprinkling sodium bicarbonate powder onto the spillage. The resulting paste can then be swept or scooped up with a dustpan and brush.

[Tony Brooks]

21 hours ago, Richard10002 said:

You need to get a multimeter, and a NASA BM2, (or similar). The multimeter will allow you to measure voltages and resistances in all kinds of places. The NASA BM2 will tell you instantaneous battery voltage, instantaneous amps flowing as a charge or a discharge, and cumulative Amp Hours used or put into the batteries - very simplistic, but good enough to start with.

The State of charge reading on the NASA is pretty much useless.

You should fully charge your batteries daily if possible, and every 2nd day if not. Any longer than that, (e.g. once a week), you seriously risk sulphation and short life. Some will disagree, but there are threads on here which support this.

You know what I am going to say -

Used - yes,

Supplied to the battery - yes,

Put into the battery (as in actual charge) - in the vast majority of cases no, at best a very rough estimate.

[Nick D]

22 hours ago, Richard10002 said:

You need to get a multimeter, and a NASA BM2, (or similar). The multimeter will allow you to measure voltages and resistances in all kinds of places. The NASA BM2 will tell you instantaneous battery voltage, instantaneous amps flowing as a charge or a discharge, and cumulative Amp Hours used or put into the batteries - very simplistic, but good enough to start with.

The State of charge reading on the NASA is pretty much useless.

You should fully charge your batteries daily if possible, and every 2nd day if not. Any longer than that, (e.g. once a week), you seriously risk sulphation and short life. Some will disagree, but there are threads on here which support this.

From all this, it's obvious that I need to get a multimeter and get better at managing my batteries and I will do this when we get back to base in two weeks. However, as a rule of thumb, if I am running the engine for about 4/5 hours or day, would this normally be sufficient to charge the batteries?

[ditchcrawler]

40 minutes ago, Nick D said:

From all this, it's obvious that I need to get a multimeter and get better at managing my batteries and I will do this when we get back to base in two weeks. However, as a rule of thumb, if I am running the engine for about 4/5 hours or day, would this normally be sufficient to charge the batteries?

Its probably the best you are going to manage. realistically. I look for 3 to 4 hrs per day.

[casper ghost]

I made the mistake of having a battery charging in the garage, and without thinking I was grinding just outside with the door open, there was an almighty bang.. Very Very loud. A grinding spark must have reached the battery, it blew 2 sides off the battery and covered the charger in acid and ruined it... I cleaned it all up with just water, but it did eat into the concrete floor a little.. The neighbours came running round to see what it was..

Casp'

[WotEver]

8 hours ago, Bod said:

Multi meters

https://www.clasohlson.com/uk/UNI-T-UT203-Clamp-Multimeter/36-4718?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlK25qqrG2gIVCPEbCh2ONg_NEAQYAiABEgKZQvD_BwE

This is one I have, and well worth the money.  It will read DC amps with the Clamp meter, many won't, be careful!

There are cheaper meters, which are more basic, but the ability to read DC amps is really useful, when you don't have to break the wire.

The 210 has the edge on the 203 and it’s also cheaper here:

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNI-T-UT210E-True-RMS-AC-DC-Current-LCD-Diaplay-Digital-Clamp-Meter-A7I3/152979133798?hash=item239e445566:g:iSYAAOSwM91aaaWA

[TheBiscuits]

5 minutes ago, WotEver said:

The 210 has the edge on the 203

Except for higher DC current measurement, where the 210 is only rated to 100A (the 203 is rated for 400A)

And we usually figure Watts / 10 for rule of thumb, so a 3kW 12V inverter should be drawing around 300A fully loaded.

[WotEver]

1 minute ago, TheBiscuits said:

Except for higher DC current measurement, where the 210 is only rated to 100A (the 203 is rated for 400A)

And we usually figure Watts / 10 for rule of thumb, so a 3kW 12V inverter should be drawing around 300A fully loaded.

Good point. 

Buy both!

[Chalky]

On 18/04/2018 at 10:29, MoominPapa said:

baking soda (bicarb) if you have it, then rinse with water. Otherwise just rinse with water. Hoses are probably less at risk than metal parts.

If they’re automotive grade hoses designed for under bonnet use (and made to oem spec) then they’ll be unaffected by the acid. It’s one of the standard chemicals that under bonnet parts have to survive without damage.

[IDS]

Don't forget the humble Hydrometer. Cheap as chips, easy to use, and gives a good idea of the state of charge of a lead acid battery. A bit more tedious than just reading a meter, but you get to know your batteries well, cell by cell, if used regularly.

[cuthound]

10 hours ago, IDS said:

Don't forget the humble Hydrometer. Cheap as chips, easy to use, and gives a good idea of the state of charge of a lead acid battery. A bit more tedious than just reading a meter, but you get to know your batteries well, cell by cell, if used regularly.

Don't forget to take the batteries temperature and apply temperature correction if you want accurate results though.

[blackrose]

I had a small battery leak overnight due to overfilling a new start battery and then charging. There was a puddle of liquid this morning and although it is acidic it can't have a very low pH as it didn't even lift the paint under the puddle. Anyway, I've mopped it up and I'm off to but some sodium bicarbonate to flush a bit through the area of the wooden battery box it leaked through. After flushing, could I just leave the bicoarbonate where I can't get access to mop it up?

[Nick D]

I did. Am sure it will be ok

[blackrose]

I've just bought some bicarbonate of soda from wilko in powdered form. It's 100% sodium bicarbonate so how many heaped tablespoons to say 500ml of water? 

[Nick D]

2 or 3 should be ok. Stir it well

[blackrose]

Thanks