Anyone been around a battery when it exploded?

[crazyal]

Until yesterday I wouldn't of answered yes. While digging up stumps I started smelling sulfur, the tell tail sign of a bad voltage regulator. I shut it down and when to get a couple of tools to remove the bad regulator. It's held onto the alternator with two small screws and is very easy to remove. No wires to disconnect, just two internal brushes and one spring contact. When I came back I was about 5 feet away when all of a sudden it blew up. Not sure why (or where the spark came from) since it wasn't running and the key was in the off position. I can tell you it was loud, had my ears ringing for several minutes. There's a steel plate that covers the battery that's held in place with two 1/2" bolts, that blew right off. Snapped both of the bolts, lucky the remaining parts were easy to remove. The cover landed near me. Even though it was a sealed battery both covers blew off, I found one about 15 feet away. The battery case is split on both sides. I'll try to take a picture of the battery this weekend.

$100 for a new Exide battery from tractor supply and $25 for a new regulator and it's back to running like normal.

 

[TomSeller]

The cover landed near me. Even though it was a sealed battery both covers blew off, I found one about 15 feet away. The battery case is split on both sides. I'll try to take a picture of the battery this weekend.
.

Please do post pictures. I have never seen that. Wow! What brand battery was the old one?

 

[mrmikey]

I've blown up a couple, not the batteries fault, mine. We had an old single axle salt truck at work we were repairing and were cutting a part of the spreading body right above the battery. Next thing...wham, off shee goes. We knew better just never thought. I think the biggest piece left was about the size of a softball out of two truck batteries not to mention the stink....Mike

 

[vtsnowedin]

Yes years back in a ton GMC that had a 350 cu. in. V-6. I had the hood up trying to see what the trouble was and was standing right there when the entire top of the battery blew off spraying my face with acid droplets. I was by a river And I ran down to it and stuck my head right in and opened my eyes to flush off any that had got into my eyes. If you can smell the acid don't make any sparks!!

 

[Coyote machine]

You're very lucky to have escaped serious injury from an exploding battery. I've seen it happen at my shop years ago when a truck that came to deliver my wood had a battery explode. Very loud, and real scary. It happens more than most people realize and it can/will do serious damage to anyone near it. Whenever someone on TBN starts talking batteries/starting problems I try to remember to caution to at a minimum wear safety glasses/goggles to protect one's eyes.

 

[Depmandog]

I was dropping off 36v industrial battery for service, like the ones you find in electric forklifts. 2500 pounds or so. Small shop, but they had hundreds of these batteries racked up for repair. They recondition these batteries by replacing bad cells, adjusting of the electrolytes and charging the batteries, etc.

They had just unloaded my battery, and the shop tech was filling out some paperwork when all of a sudden one of their guys did something to cause one of the batteries to blow. Deafening explosion, this battery blew apart with a huge shower of sparks and battery cells going everywhere. I am pretty sure I screamed like a girl, thinking I was about to die or at least was about to be drenched in battery acid. None of their guys even flinched. Apparently this was a fairly common occurrence, at their shop at least. Sure was an eye opener of the potential energy stored in a battery.

 

[Bird]

Never had it happen to me, but many, many years ago one of my employees had it happen when she was trying to jump start one vehicle with another one. Fortunately no one was hurt.

 

[rswyan]

As a fairly foolish young man, I once bent over a battery I was charging for a customer, to see whether it was bubbling real good or not.

Unfortunately, it was ... unfortunately, because I also had a lit cigarette hangin' out of the corner of my mouth ... :confused2:

BOOM ...

 

[Baby Grand]

I worked at a local lumber company in the 70's. We had a few old Macks with flat bed dump bodies.
One of them didn't like to start in cold weather. Normal procedure was to tow it with a chain, using one of the trucks that did start.
One morning there was too much ice in the yard to get enough traction that way, so one of the crew connected up the batteries between the two trucks with jumper cables. Except he got polarity wrong. As we were waiting for the battery to charge before trying the key, we started to walk over to the dispatcher office, who always had a bottle to share. About 10 or 12 steps from the truck, both of the batteries on the no start truck blew up. Very loud, violent explosion that ripped both batteries to bits. That truck got the day off.

 

[tow653]

While jump starting a John Deere 8820 combine,reach around side door to key,trying to start,both batteries blew up. Luckily,my head was inside cab,cuz all the clothes that got sprayed with acid,ended up in trash.