BLOWN BATTERY

[glover]

man when they blow they freak u out it sounded like someone just shot at us j/w what casues the battery to do this?

 

[Harrygoodwrench]

Batteries can and do "blow up" sometimes. If memory serves me correctly batteries emit hydrogen gas when being discharged rapidly or when being charged at a high rate which is highly flammable. All you need is a source of ignition, spark etc. Let your imagination take over.
I worked with a guy with sight in only one eye, plus some facial scarring.
Cause=battery exploded while he was jump starting it.

 

[glover]

the sides blew out on the sides of the battery and the acid blew out

 

[robison]

Batteries explode as a result of gross overcharging of the cells. This happens one of two ways. First, the battery may have one or more cells internally shorted, which raises the voltage applied across the remaining cells. Second and more often, the voltage regulator on the alternator has failed or the rectifier in the alternator has failed.

I suggest you install a new battery then meaasure the running DC voltage across it with engine at 1500 rpm. If it rises above the low 14s your regulator is bad. Assuming you pass that test switch your meter to AC volts, and the reading should drop to 0.05 volt. Any reading above 0.1 volt indicated a rectifier failure.

 

[RalphVa]

This happened to a battery on one of our vehicles when my Dad jumped it. This is why you ALWAYS connect the last cable to the dead battery to a ground somewhere away or beneath the top of the battery. That way, a spark is less likely to set off the hydrogen gas that is coming out of the battery vents on top.

Ralph

 

[MajMac392]

Although it warns you on a lot of Lead Acid batteries that the gas produced by the battery can explode I haven't known anyone it happened to. When I was on active duty it was a serious problem with NiCad batteries in aircraft. I believe it was caused by an internal short and the battery would just continue charging if you didn't stop it somehow. I think you lessened the load and watched it real carefully. Those kind of batteries were re-useable and re-buildable every so many hours. I hope you got all the acid cleaned up and neutralized in the battery compartment.

 

[Bird]

Like you, I've never personally seen a battery explode, but one of my employees in the police auto pound had one blow up when she tried to jump start a vehicle; plenty of witnesses so there was no doubt about it; just lucky she didn't sustain any serious injuries.

 

[PineRidge]

We charged and quite possibly overcharged a fairly new Die-Hard that I had on a Chinese tractor after I accidentally ran the battery down. I also suspect the acid level in the battery was also low although I'll never be able to prove that theory now. Anyway once we took the battery charger off and closed the hood we immediately tried to start the tractor when the battery blew. Sounded just like a gunshot and I think I wet my pants, couldn't be sure on that either because I immediately grabbed a water hose and soaked everything down including myself.

After I calmed down I put all the pieces in a cardboard box lined with newspaper and took the mess to Sears. They actually did a warranty on the battery and gave me another new one. I never want to be that close to another battery exploding in my lifetime. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[glover]

yeah that is wat happened to us we all got of the tractor(JD 2750) and the battery blew good thing we werent ccuttign dwon the trees because the guy in bucket cutting them down would of jumped out because he is a bit scared of hieghts lol