I noticed a puddle beneath our coach this morning, under the left battery compartment (I'm pretty sure this is the coach battery area). I opened it up and found a battery that looks like it exploded. The coach is connected to shore power. It was upper twenties last night.

Is this likely from overcharging?

The battery was new early April, installed by the seller in Texas.

quote:

a battery that looks like it exploded

A totally discharged battery can freeze at about 20F, causing swelling/case distortion/cracking & leaking....but not a reason to explode.....

For that, you'd need an ignition source and a run-away charging condition, creating excess hydrogen venting.......

For sure, worth serious checking out!

Freezing of a discharged battery seems more likely. As Lee says, there would have to be an ignition source for it to explode.

We had many cases of batteries exploding in Fairbanks years ago. Back in the good 'ol days we didn't have smart chargers and we plugged the cars in anytime they sat, there were even plugs on the parking meters downtown.

Batteries would explode if they were getting low on water, in the charging mode they would generate hydrogen and probably would have an internal spark that would set them off. We had cars that the entire hood would be blown off during the explosion, battery parts everywhere.

On our heavy equipment, if the battery would be nearly or fully discharged, they would split the case but not explode.

quote:

Originally posted by Lee:

quote:

a battery that looks like it exploded

A totally discharged battery can freeze at about 20F, causing swelling/case distortion/cracking & leaking....but not a reason to explode.....

For that, you'd need an ignition source and a run-away charging condition, creating excess hydrogen venting.......

For sure, worth serious checking out!

A picture is worth a bunch of words. The picture shows that a lot of the force was directed upward, which points more to an explosion than freezing. Freezing typically forces the sides to bulge until they fail. Sometimes cold makes the sides brittle enough to make one think of an explosion, but the top is usually spared much dramatic damage.

SAFETY NAG: You never when a battery is going to explode. Charging produces hydrogen, which can go BOOM. ALWAYS wear eye protection, or even a plastic bag over your head. Sounds silly, but at work we had a lot of batteries and a few sad stories. Between Skydrol and battery acid, I wore a bag often. Easier to wear in confined spaces than the company-issued face shields.

For those of you who use a hydrometer, be particularly aware that the tip is flexible, and can spring back and flip acid on your face or clothing.

I remember checking the converter, which charges the batteries and supplies when we were checking the wiring at Raccoon Mountain. IIRC, it's on the driver's side of the bedroom.

Converters are designed not to overcharge, but rather to float.

If one cell was corroded, that's a sign of low fluid, allowing air, and that could have caused a short. Enough of the cell could have been flooded to output hydrogen, and the short could have ignited it.

I did an investigation a few years ago on a battery explosion on an SUV, and that was the cause.

This is what my almost new batteries looked like after losing power and discharging then freezing.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jack:
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Went out to Barth today and found that power had been cut off, and since I had heat running, the batteries were very dead. Luckily I'm working on the battery tray and had two of the four golf car batteries disconnected. After I got power back on, I went to check out batteries and they were very, shall I say, 'plump', opened vent cap and top it was solid ice.
Guess I'll have a set of four new batteries shortly instead of the two I just got.




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quote:

Originally posted by Keith Hopper:
Thanks

So the converter is inside the coach near the circuit breakers and shore power switch? I was looking for something in the engine compartment.

Keith

IIRC, it was a Power Dynamics, and would look like this 9180.