Battery Smells like rotten eggs.
I woke up this morning and bad smell was coming from the front of my camper. I checked the battery it was hot and smelled like rotten eggs, is my battery shot?
Forum Discussion
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
DANGER!
This is no joke! Disconnect from shore power. Let the battery cool down. Put on a set of goggles or safety glasses.
Take an image of battery wiring positive and negative
Fill the battery with water, any water
I have seen a boiled out battery now full of gas explode as it was being removed, and the guy pulling it out now has ear damage from the explosion. Fill it with water and purge that gas!
NOW Remove battery. It's worthless except as a trade in.
Return with new battery. Verify nothing else got damaged by high voltage. Lights, refrigerator, etc.
Note voltage of battery as installed. Do this in the morning not late afternoon. Connect shore power and monitor charging voltage. If voltage surges, zig zags, or acts weird, stop. The converter has PMS. This is as far as I'll go, anything more would be conjecture and pure manufacture of permutations not warranted at the moment...- This gives all day to keep an eye on a converter. Yep. I've learned the hard way. Do the install in the evening, everything looked OK for a few hours, then fell asleep. Awoke to 15.6 volts (I forgot the figure it was scary). I don't like these kinds of surprises. makes me crankier...
- Thanks guys for all the info. Just put my new battery in.
- Hi Mex,
Why the morning? Inquiring minds want to know. MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
This.
DANGER!
This is no joke! Disconnect from shore power. Let the battery cool down. Put on a set of goggles or safety glasses.
Take an image of battery wiring positive and negative
Remove battery. It's worthless except as a trade in.
Return with new battery. Verify nothing else got damaged by high voltage. Lights, refrigerator, etc.
Note voltage of battery as installed. Do this in the morning not late afternoon. Connect shore power and monitor charging voltage. If voltage surges, zig zags, or acts weird, stop. The converter has PMS. This is as far as I'll go, anything more would be conjecture and pure manufacture of permutations not warranted at the moment...- We had the same thing happen to the battery in our truck camper back in July. Smelled awful and was very warm. I unplugged the power, let it sit for a couple of hours. Then wearing safety glasses, a long sleeve shirt and thick leather gloves I removed the old one and let it sit in the yard overnight to cool down before I took it in to buy a replacement.
- What usually causes this is a shorted internal battery cell. This may have been caused by the boiling out of battery fluids by using an older trailer single mode converter/charger unit that only puts out a constant 13.6VDC charge voltage. These types of converters require one to really keep tabs on the battery fluids. Your 2012 model trailer probably has the multi-mode smart mode charging unit. Something to check on...
Once the internal battery cell shorts out then the battery really demands excessive DC CURRENT available from the converter/charger unit and will get very hot in the process. The hotter the battery case gets gets the more rotten egg smell emits from the battery vents. They have been known to explode and is very toxic to breath in. Not a good situation.
Roy Ken - Check your converter voltage, most likely it's too high.
If all you use your battery for is the electric brakes while towing then it's probably fine for that. If you use it otherwise then it's time to replace it. Jeff Chandler wrote:
I woke up this morning and bad smell was coming from the front of my camper. I checked the battery it was hot and smelled like rotten eggs, is my battery shot?
Wear safety goggles as it can be explosive when it gets like that. Take it out of service and replace immediately. And read what MEX said as he is the man with the plan and beat me to it with a much better resolution.- DANGER!
This is no joke! Disconnect from shore power. Let the battery cool down. Put on a set of goggles or safety glasses.
Take an image of battery wiring positive and negative
Remove battery. It's worthless except as a trade in.
Return with new battery. Verify nothing else got damaged by high voltage. Lights, refrigerator, etc.
Note voltage of battery as installed. Do this in the morning not late afternoon. Connect shore power and monitor charging voltage. If voltage surges, zig zags, or acts weird, stop. The converter has PMS. This is as far as I'll go, anything more would be conjecture and pure manufacture of permutations not warranted at the moment...
