Battery

[Ivan49]

I had something happen yesterday that made me think more about battery safety. Last nite I pulled a 6 volt battery from one of my tractors and brought it inside to charge it up. The charger was set up for 6 volt 2 amps and was hooked up right. I always hook the battery up first and then plug the charger in. I figured I would leave it charge overnite. We had a storm go thru during the night and I heard a big boom so I just figured it was the storm. Well I went out this morning and guess what. The battery top was blown off. All I found from the top was the caps and one piece of plastic about 2 inches square. Just wanted to post this as a reminnder to be careful and maybe get an idea of why this happened.

 

[Coyote machine]

Probably a power surge/ spike that got past the charger and 'smoked' the battery. A battery is basically a small b o m b waiting for just the right mix of hydrogen gas and spark or too much juice being shoved into it by a charger that becomes a path of least resistance for a spike from a storm surge/ lightning, etc. looking for a ground.
Be careful in cleanup, there will likely be a bunch of battery acid everywhere it could have sprayed when the battery exploded.
Use gloves, and baking soda and water to neutralize any acid damage/liquid you find in the area. Don't let any dogs, cats etc. in the area either.
Glad no other damage occurred.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Low water level in the battery. Lots of proccesses in charging a battery, including heat and chemical reactions. Throw one element off and BAM, acid bomb. I would check your charger as it could be a lightning issue, but if nothing else in your house is effected it was your battery itself more than likely..

Lots of scary stories floating around, people having their heads over the battery when hooking them to chargers, facial acid burns, lost eyes.... blah blah blah..

 

[J_J]

I lost a golf cart to a battery fire. I had set the charger to timed charge. It was under a fiberglass panel roof. I left for the night and came back the nest morning to a pile of ashes, and a hole burned in the roof. It appears that battery gremlins did it. Apparently hydrogen gas, and a spark set it off, and it burned until it melted a hole in the roof, and a pile of wet leaves smothered it out. Things happen at the worst times. I was going to use it to spread mulch that day. I had built a truck bed on the back. D*m the luck.

 

[Soundguy]

yep. could have been a gas buildup.. and then a power failure then power back on and spark.. some chargers use a sealed bulb breaker.. but not sure if all do that..

soundguy

 

[RonMar]

If the electrolyte level was low, low enough to expose the top of the plates, it could have sparked internally with the normally applied charge current and set off a fuel(hydrogen) air explosion. Since hydrogen is lighter than air, as it excapes from the vents, it gulps air back in to replace the volume expelled. Perfect recipe for a big boom...

 

[BrentD]

About 10 or 15 years ago my grandmother was driving around town running errands on a hot summer day. She stopped at a red light, waited for it to turn green and right as she hit the gas there was a loud BOOM from under her hood and the car rolled to a stop. Fortunately there was a service station on that of the intersection and a couple of guys came over and pushed her car in. (After getting up off the ground and dusting themselves off from diving for cover when they heard the boom.) They popped her hood to see what the heck happened and her battery was completely gone. The only thing left was about a silver-dollar sized shard of plastic around each of the battery posts. There wasn't even any liquid battery acid left anywhere, like the explosion must have flash-boiled it all. Never did find out exactly what caused the explosion, but I've always just assumed that the exceptionally hot day coupled with the car running for hours and an old battery accelerated the acid evaporation and hydrogen production. When she hit the gas either the motion of the vehicle caused something to shift inside the battery and caused an arc or the sudden surge from the alternator caused something to spark and that blew the battery.

 

[ultrarunner]

If the electrolyte level was low, low enough to expose the top of the plates, it could have sparked internally with the normally applied charge current and set off a fuel(hydrogen) air explosion. Since hydrogen is lighter than air, as it excapes from the vents, it gulps air back in to replace the volume expelled. Perfect recipe for a big boom...

This would be my guess... had a battery blow up in my face once and it impacted my hearing for a while.

I was 12 years old helping out at the family car business and hooked up a 30 amp charger to the battery in a 1970 Caprice... the charger meter wasn't registering a charge so I wiggled the clamp and KABOOM...

Lucky for me I was looking at the charger so the acid bath got the side and back of my head and I had enough sense to hose myself off within seconds... a few minutes later my shirt down to my waste was in shreds as well as the pocket on one side of my jeans...

 

[tallyho8]

When I was 16 my battery exploded the second I hooked a jumper cable up to it after I had killed my battery by cranking it too long. I was extremely lucky as I was looking right at it and up close but I don't think one drop of acid hit my face though I did have some clothes eaten up by the acid.

Needless to say, I have never hooked up the cables to the dead battery last anymore. Always hook them to the dead battery first and then to the jumper battery and ground.

 

[dmccarty]

Thank you for this conversation.

I knew batteries could be dangerous but I never knew how they could go boom. I knew about hydrogen but I figured the spark would be from me hooking up the jumper cables not an internal spark in the battery.

We have a new used Toyota. Seems to be a nice SUV except the ergonomics stink. They only way we know how to turn off the headlights is by locking the car. If you don't lock the car the lights stay on. For awhile. Then the battery dies. No buzzer when the door opens to tell you the light is on. No relay to turn off the lights IF THE ENGINE IS NOT RUNNING! My Ford can do these things. Seems like cars have been doing this for a few years now... Hmmmmmm I won't even talk about the hidden clock and crazy windshield wiper controls....

Either we can't find the headlight switch or something is broken. We have drained the battery TWICE. I don't think I have ever left the lights on to drain a battery. Until this car.

For some reason I have a battery charger. Don't know why I have it but I do. Good thing too. I use it to charge the car battery instead of jumping the battery. Its a bit easier to use the charger since I don't have to mess with another vehicle to do the jumping. Plus I don't plug the charger into the outlet until the charger is connected to ground and the positive battery terminal. Then I hide behind the SUV and plug in the charger.

I know batteries can go boom. They scare me. Thus I hide. Now I know why batteries go boom. I will still be hiding.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Soundguy]

Does your vehicle automatically turn on headlamps when you start it? is there a dial control that you can flip from auto to manual..?

soundguy

 

[Coyote machine]

You car screwed up! You need to go back to your dealer and find out what the proper sequences are to turn on and off the lights, etc. Do you have a remote? If you turn your headlights on after you've shut off the key then they will stay on, and killl your battery. Otherwise try pushing the lock button on the driver's door and then shutting it and the lights will turn off automatically- if they don't push the remote's lock button twice and you lights should immediately go out- if not, you car screwed up!
Either way draining and discharging your battery constantly will shorten its life and may leave you stranded when it finally dies when you are no where near a charger or a jump source.

Post back results.

 

[pat32rf]

Just the charger cycling on and off can produce a spark at the charger but a poor connection at the battery is more likely to be the cause, especially if the post is corroded or the charger clips a little rusty. The charger cycles but the resulting spark is at the battery post...

 

[dmccarty]

I looked at the SUV. This is the wifey's car not mine.

There is a control that turns off the head lights. But unlike all of the vehicles I have had over the last two decades no buzzer sounds if the headlights are left on and the driver exits the car. The lights are turned off if you LOCK the car doors which last time I tried could only be done with the key fob. Unlike my Ford. Where we live we don't need to lock the car so we don't always do it. Well we do try to lock the doors to turn off the headlights. The wifey likes to leave the headlights ON when driving. Why she does not just turn them on when she gets in the car I don't know.....

And I'm not going there....

Why the SUV does not buzz when the headlights are left on is the big question. Wifey thinks this is somehow configurable according to the manual. But she does not know how to configure. I would think draining the battery would cause whatever configuration that might have been set to have been reset but that does not appear to be the case.

I guess I'll have to read the manual.....

Later,
Dan

 

[woodlandfarms]

I guess I'll have to read the manual.....

Later,
Dan

God... no... not the manual... you know how many man points you loose for something like that?

 

[PILOON]

Battery boom---
Had a friend learning to fly on an old Ercoupe aircraft.
One cold day he boosted the plane to start as it was fairly cold, started Ok and off he went in the wild blue yonder.
Well about 10 mins later he heard a loud BOOM and quickly returned to earth.
There was a shorted cell or the battery had frozen and boom she went.
Scared him enough that he sold the airplane and that ended his aviation career.

 

[BrentD]

Why the SUV does not buzz when the headlights are left on is the big question. Wifey thinks this is somehow configurable according to the manual. But she does not know how to configure. I would think draining the battery would cause whatever configuration that might have been set to have been reset but that does not appear to be the case.

Does the SUV have an after-market radio in it? When I first got my Aztek, there were no chimes at all, but I also noticed that neither of the front radio speakers were working. Replacing the speakers brought the chimes back. Apparently a lot of vehicles made after about 2000 used the radio to generate the various chimes. There is an internal vehicle module network that all the various modules use to talk to each other. When something needs a chime, it puts a command on the network and the Radio acknowledges the request and plays the desired tones, usually through the speaker on the driver's door. If the driver's door speaker isn't working or the factory radio has been replaced with an aftermarket radio and the owner opted not to add a chime module, then you don't get chimes anymore.

 

[Soundguy]

Also, some vehicles have a button to disable alarms about lamps being on and engine not running..

soundguy

 

[dmccarty]

God... no... not the manual... you know how many man points you loose for something like that?

Since I have yet to read the manual I think you stopped me in time from loosing my Man Points.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Does the SUV have an after-market radio in it? ....If the driver's door speaker isn't working or the factory radio has been replaced with an aftermarket radio and the owner opted not to add a chime module, then you don't get chimes anymore.

Interesting. This I never would have thunk of. But the radio is from the factory.

Since I don't want to loose Man Points I'll have to nag the wifey to read the manual for HER car.

Later,
Dan