Battery Charging

[Eagle Dude]

Before I get started yes I know "I was stupid". I worked in a battery locker in the NAVY for several years and had a lot of training on proper procedures when dealing with batteries.

I needed to move some Hay Rolls and when I went to start my Tractor all that happened was one little "click". OK, so the battery is down no problem I'll just put it on charge for awhile. I hook up the charger and set it on 12V/40A for 120 minutes (Yes I know). I go to remove the caps on the cells and can't get one off because of the battery hold down clamp, no big deal the caps are vented (Yes I know). After about an hour and 45 minutes later I come back to check the charge. I turn the ignition on and rotate for the starter (Yes I know). As the starter starts to engage there is a very loud BOOM!!. Thankfully the battery is located in front of the radiator so I didn't get showered with battery parts or acid. At the instant of the explosion I knew what had happened;
1. With a high rate of charge a lot of gas would be created in the cells
2. With 3 cells still caped, the ventilation was limited
3. With the charger still hooked up and powered during a start cycle a spark was generated.
4. The Spark ignited the gas
5. The combustion of the gases blew half the top and end off the battery.

A lot of Baking Soda and water to neutralize the acid and a lot of cussing myself. Why do we do dumb things when we know better?

 

[brin]

I've done the same thing many times with my JD 3020...since it is hard to start in the cold and the only way is with a quick charge...mine just has not blown up yet but I am guilty too so you have company..LOL

 

[Cami]

I'm glad to hear that only your battery and pride took a beating. You sent me on a stroll down amnesia lane:

There's an old legend, back in the village where I grew up, about a fisherman who made a nice little explosion down at the wharf while charging his boat's dead battery bank. He wanted to take a look at the terminals while it was charging but it was dark, so he used his cigarette lighter. He wasn't seriously hurt, but the incident earned him the nicname Die Hard; after the battery brand.

That cautionary tale has been with me since I was a boy.

In that same village, I drove the only forklift for hire in the area (within about 100 km) and it didn't have a charging system, so I'd just run off the battery. The battery could run the ignition for about 8 hours and give me a couple of starts. I'd always be hooking up the charger whenever there was a pause in work and sometimes somebody would holler a warning not to, "pull a Die Hard."

 

[Transit]

I have two suggestions;
First give your battery a good dose of Charge-it; it is very effective in keeping the plats clean and the battery in tip-top shape.
Second buy yourself a Victor Smart charger model VEC 1097 A. this charger holds the battery voltage below the gassing level and quick charges the battery efficiently. No need to set a timer, it will tell you when the battery is full, it also has many other useful features.

 

[Opti-Mist]

Confession is good for the soul. I trust that you feel better now? Thanks for the review for the rest of us, maybe there will be fewer repeats!

 

[Coyote machine]

I suggest using a charger called a "battery tender" it was recommended to me by my atv dealer and I have since used it to charge my marine deep cycle batteries, that sit most of the year waiting to power my boat. It is by far the best charger I have ever used and I previously owned and ran a foreign car repair/sales shop... (for reference purposes).
It constantly reads the state of the battery and will NOT over charge a battery regardless of how long the charger is left on.
The model I use is the battery tender junior.

Also to note: NEVER charge a frozen battery, nor one with a specific gravity below the minimum acceptable level for the specific battery in question.

BE SAFE

 

[Transit]

This is the 1097A, does lots more than just charging.


Car battery charger VEC1092A VEC092 VEC1092 VEC1097A - Vector Manufacturing

 

[lakeside]

I was working on my truck battery on afternoon. No charger hooked up and the hood open to vent any hydrogen gas. As I was lifting one of the caps off I heard a bang and the cap was blown over my head. My face got peppered with pieces of dirt which immediately started buring my skin.

I was wearing safety glasses and the only part of my face that didn't get burned was around my eyes. A good flush with the garden hose and I was back in business rather than a trip to the ER.

I NEVER work around around batteries, in fact I don't work with tools at all, without safety glasses. I may look like a geek, but who cares, I still have my eyesight.

 

[Transit]

Saving your eyes trumps the geek look every time. You probably set the hydrogen gas off with a static electric spark.

 

[Cami]

I'm in agreement regarding the eye protection. I'll wear them under my welding helmet or face shield for heavy grinding or overhead chipping....and still get crap in my eyes.

I keep a bottle of baking soda solution in the shop to neutralize acid when cleaning out battery trays; I suppose it would work for faces too....

 

[Egon]

I keep a bottle of baking soda solution in the shop to neutralize acid when cleaning out battery trays; I suppose it would work for faces too....

The Baking soda solution may be harmful to the eye's due to its high PH.

One get the proper eye wash bottles.

 

[eepete]

1) Buy and keep the eye wash bottles. They are the right pH and have a preservative in them so they will last for 10 years sitting around.

2) Have a box of baking soda handy. It's eye wash for your tractor. Related topic: Everyone has a small dry chemical fire extinguisher handy, yes?

3) Lakeside's post = eye protection needed. Always.

4) Transit refers to this, but have not seen it explicitly posted. When you put more than 13.8 VDC on a lead acid battery, it starts to make hydrogen (electrolysis). So a "tender" is a battery charger with a regulated output voltage that can't "boil the battery".
Some people weld, I throw parts around on circuit boards, so I made a few chargers for my stuff that output 13.75 volts current limited at 5 amps, and you can short them out and feed them an over voltage. So I charge using these and can leave them on when I crank.
My hope with this post is that when people are looking to buy a battery tender, they will have some idea what's going on. You should be able to plug one in, measure the voltage on it, and see less than 13.8 volts.

5) There are fancy things a charger can do to tell you things about your battery, such as bringing the voltage up and measuring current flow into the battery. This is a way you can tell if it's charged. They can also put a small load on the batter and seeing how much the voltage drops. This can tell you if a battery is bad and needs changing. These are little tests that can be done in less than a second, and might be done once a minute or so. I mention them in case anyone sees funny stuff going on when working with a fancy pants charger.

6) Standby lead acid wet batteries (non gell cell) tend to have a slightly shorter life if they just sit around for years than if they are cycled correctly every now and then. My backup generator battery pretty much just sits around on one of my tender-type chargers, so I just change it every 4 years. If I was using it correctly, it would last around 5 years, maybe more.

I've posted on other forums that no one really understands batteries, including me, so YMMV.

Pete

 

[Transit]

I would not put backing soda in my eyes to counter an acid.

1. use an eye wash to flush.
2. no eye wash, use water, lots of water.
3. get to a doctor now.

 

[medicshawn]

Here's a source for eye wash Eye Wash Station from Emergency Medical Products

They are a good source for any medical need.

 

[gerard]

I still have the original battery in my 1999 L2500 so I figure it's overdue for replacement and I''m living on borrowed time. Probably should just change it out but it still seems fine. Lately I've taken to using a 75 watt floodlight in one of those clip on lamps with a reflector. Clamp it to my jack stand facing stright up and put it under the battery and let the heat rise. Should keep the battery a little warmer and cheap enough to do...........

 

[Opti-Mist]

I've posted on other forums that no one really understands batteries, including me, so YMMV.

Pete

A "black art" eh? Kind of like carburetors.

 

[lakeside]

I forget to add in my first post one really dangerous thing to do without safety glasses, but something that doesn't look dangerous. Years ago my Dad was doing some landscaping and was pulling out roots by hand. This bunch of roots came loose and flung dirt into his eyes. He never went to doctors and was lucky that he didn't lose his eyesight from the subsequent infection.

Stupid me , I did the same thing last summer but came out of it with just a scare. I was doing just a bit of yard work and didn`t feel like walking over to the shed to get my safety glasses. Yup, roots came lose and I got dirt in my eyes. Out came the garden hose and I managed to flush the crud out. I should have known better, but I had all the excuses lined up, you know just a two minute job yada, yada.

Anyways, I`ve now sworn to myself, safety glasses, steel toed boots, ear protection, work gloves and that`s just to take a shower....

 

[eepete]

Opti-Mist: Yep. I had a carburetor go on the pressure washer (9 HP Honda), just bought a new on on e-bay for the price of a rebuild kit and changed it. Just like when you have battery problems, you just buy a new one.

Stuff I've designed charges batteries, and it took a long time to come up with a good trickle charger and a circuit/software to be able to tell if the battery is dead. Each time I do one of these it gets better. The circuits are different for gel cell and "car" batteries. There are specialty chips for making chargers for nicad and lithium batteries. As people probably know, the lithium are particularly sensitive to what you do to them, and have "spectacular" failure modes.

Note on eye protection: I'm a little complacent because I wear glasses. Current pair has 3 dings on one side. Still get side spatter on occasion. I'm working on forcing myself to put safety glasses over my glasses for some jobs. Have financial incentive of cost of new lenses every now and then.

Pete