Help, Battrery explosion

[nicknorman]

Personally I would make it thicker, more of a paste. Then you have less water sloshing around and more active ingredient. In itself the bicarbonate isn’t corrosive or anything.

[Nick D]

I think it depends how easy it is to get to.  When it happened to me I sprinkled neat powder in those places I could get to and a solution to those areas that weren't accesible

[X Alan W]

On 18/04/2018 at 11:14, Nick D said:

Here's another picture. It's completly exploded.  What should I look for in the others and how should I get rid of the acid? Btw, the boat is about 2 years old

Usually the out come of a charging /gassing batt & an external spark in the vicinity ignites the acid vapor

[blackrose]

2 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Personally I would make it thicker, more of a paste. Then you have less water sloshing around and more active ingredient. In itself the bicarbonate isn’t corrosive or anything.

Ok that's what I was concerned about. I made it as concentrated as I could and added 3 heaped tablespoons to about 300ml of warm water. But it seems like only a certain amount will go into solution because although I stirred and stirred there was about a tablespoon left at the bottom that wouldn't dissolve. 

 

It's difficult to know how much sodium bicarbonate to put down there but if you're sure it has no corrosive properties of its own then I'll put some more down. It was fizzing and I guess it only does that if it comes into contact with an acid. 

[blackrose]

By the way, is it possible to get fittings to connect the battery overflow to a tube? Then I could just put the tube into a container. My trojans have never overflowed but my yellow topping up bottle obviously put too much into the new Yuasa start battery. 

 

I'll post a picture of the overflow... 

[blackrose]

By the way, is it possible to get fittings to connect the battery overflow to a tube? Then I could just put the tube into a container. My trojans have never overflowed but my yellow topping up bottle obviously put too much into the new Yuasa start battery. 

 

I'll post a picture of the overflow... 

Ok I've just squirted another 200ml of bicarbonate down there including inside the ply battery box so it should follow the same path as the acid. I've also put some nappies down there to soak up excess liquid. 

 

This is the overflow of the start battery. How can I connect it to a tube? 

 

 

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

Ok that's what I was concerned about. I made it as concentrated as I could and added 3 heaped tablespoons to about 300ml of warm water. But it seems like only a certain amount will go into solution because although I stirred and stirred there was about a tablespoon left at the bottom that wouldn't dissolve. 

 

It's difficult to know how much sodium bicarbonate to put down there but if you're sure it has no corrosive properties of its own then I'll put some more down. It was fizzing and I guess it only does that if it comes into contact with an acid. 

Yes it only fizzes in contact with acid. I’d use a paintbrush and squish it around until there is absolutely no more fizzing.

[AndrewIC]

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

Ok that's what I was concerned about. I made it as concentrated as I could and added 3 heaped tablespoons to about 300ml of warm water. But it seems like only a certain amount will go into solution because although I stirred and stirred there was about a tablespoon left at the bottom that wouldn't dissolve. 

 

It's difficult to know how much sodium bicarbonate to put down there but if you're sure it has no corrosive properties of its own then I'll put some more down. It was fizzing and I guess it only does that if it comes into contact with an acid. 

Solubility is 96g/l at room temp, density is about 1.2g/cm^3, so that's probably a saturated solution.

[cuthound]

17 hours ago, blackrose said:

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? 

 

When i worked with batteries many moons sgo, we just sprinkled the sodium barconate powder onto the spillage until it stopped fizzing, then scraped it up before washing the area with copious amounts of clean water.

 

 

13 hours ago, blackrose said:

By the way, is it possible to get fittings to connect the battery overflow to a tube? Then I could just put the tube into a container. My trojans have never overflowed but my yellow topping up bottle obviously put too much into the new Yuasa start battery. 

 

I'll post a picture of the overflow... 

Ok I've just squirted another 200ml of bicarbonate down there including inside the ply battery box so it should follow the same path as the acid. I've also put some nappies down there to soak up excess liquid. 

 

This is the overflow of the start battery. How can I connect it to a tube? 

 

 

 

The battery on my youngest sons Lotus connects to an overflow tube via a right angled plastic adaptor.  When he lost his adaptor he went to Halfrauds and borrowed one from one of their display batteries ?

Edited June 11, 2018 by cuthound
Spillung

[blackrose]

On 10/06/2018 at 18:57, blackrose said:

By the way, is it possible to get fittings to connect the battery overflow to a tube? Then I could just put the tube into a container. My trojans have never overflowed but my yellow topping up bottle obviously put too much into the new Yuasa start battery. 

 

I'll post a picture of the overflow... 

Ok I've just squirted another 200ml of bicarbonate down there including inside the ply battery box so it should follow the same path as the acid. I've also put some nappies down there to soak up excess liquid. 

 

This is the overflow of the start battery. How can I connect it to a tube? 

 

 

I got hold of a battery breather extension today which is just a small plastic elbow fitting connected to a tube. I wanted to use it an an overflow pipe but the diameter of the fitting is to big to go into that red fitting and the red fitting just spins if you try to unscrew it. 

 

But anyway, at the battery shop they told me it's a breather not an overflow and given that I guess I'd be unwise to connect it to a downward pointing tube because then hydrogen would build up in the battery headspace. 

 

So my auto-fill battery bottle overfills this new battery. If I extend the nozzle by about 10mm will that reduce the amount of water it dispenses? Is that how it works? 

[Dr Bob]

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

 

 

So my auto-fill battery bottle overfills this new battery. If I extend the nozzle by about 10mm will that reduce the amount of water it dispenses? Is that how it works? 

That would be interesting to know. I've got one of these and it works great on my engine start battery butt overfills on my domestic ones, with very little access room. How does one stop them overfilling?

[Chewbacka]

Push a bit of tube onto the bottle outlet to extend it.  They work by air going up the spout as the water comes out, so it fills until the liquid in the battery rises and blocks the nozzle so air can’t get in.  Then a bit more water does out until the ‘vacuum’ in the bottle stops the flow.

[MtB]

On 11/06/2018 at 08:36, cuthound said:

he went to Halfrauds

 

Do you have any proper evidence that Halfords are fraudsters?

[cuthound]

7 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Do you have any proper evidence that Halfords are fraudsters?

 

Have you seen the way their sales assistants claim to be automotive technicians? ?

[blackrose]

On 10/06/2018 at 18:57, blackrose said:

By the way, is it possible to get fittings to connect the battery overflow to a tube? Then I could just put the tube into a container. My trojans have never overflowed but my yellow topping up bottle obviously put too much into the new Yuasa start battery. 

 

I'll post a picture of the overflow... 

Ok I've just squirted another 200ml of bicarbonate down there including inside the ply battery box so it should follow the same path as the acid. I've also put some nappies down there to soak up excess liquid. 

 

This is the overflow of the start battery. How can I connect it to a tube? 

 

 

I got hold of a battery breather extension today which is just a small plastic elbow fitting connected to a tube. I wanted to use it an an overflow pipe but the diameter of the fitting is to big to go into that red fitting and the red fitting just spins if you try to unscrew it. 

 

But anyway, at the battery shop they told me it's a breather not an overflow and given that I guess I'd be unwise to connect it to a downward pointing tube because then hydrogen would build up in the battery headspace. 

 

So my auto-fill battery bottle overfills this new battery. If I extend the nozzle by about 10mm will that reduce the amount of water it dispenses? Is that how it works? 

[blackrose]

My plywood battery box sits directly on the uxter plate and without disconnecting and removing all the batteries I can't really get under there to inspect the condition of the steel. 

 

I'll obviously need to do that at some point, remove any rust and repaint, but as a temporary measure I bought 20 x 10mm plastic spacers from ebay and with a crowbar I lifted the box from the front and sides just enough to slide the spacers underneath. Then I squirted about 3/4 of a litre of the bicarbonate solution around the back and underneath the box to make sure any remaining acid is neutralised and put some nappies on the uxter to soak up the excess liquid. 

Edited June 17, 2018 by blackrose

[Dr Bob]

On 17/06/2018 at 17:19, blackrose said:

My plywood battery box sits directly on the uxter plate and without disconnecting and removing all the batteries I can't really get under there to inspect the condition of the steel. 

 

I'll obviously need to do that at some point, remove any rust and repaint, but as a temporary measure I bought 20 x 10mm plastic spacers from ebay and with a crowbar I lifted the box from the front and sides just enough to slide the spacers underneath. Then I squirted about 3/4 of a litre of the bicarbonate solution around the back and underneath the box to make sure any remaining acid is neutralised and put some nappies on the uxter to soak up the excess liquid. 

So, 12 months on, did it work? When you removed the batteries to repaint ........(hee, hee, hee), was there any corrosion?