Battery explosion
What would cause a lead-acid battery on a travel trailer to explode while driving highway speed, 3 hours into a road trip? This was after 7 days earlier re-filling the battery with water which was lo...
Forum Discussion
Sounds like it was being over charged and possibly had a shorted cell. You used to hear about battery explosions all the time back in the 50'-60' where the standard way to charge automotive batteries was to hit them with as high of DC voltage you could find at a 100AMPS of current. They would get red hot in just a little bit of time and alot would explode. You could get an one hour or a two hour charge at a filling station back then. They even condoned it so much in those days they made steel battery cases to keep you from getting hurt haha...
I try to keep abreast of my batteries at all time watching them operate with a remote battery monitor panel system. When my batteries drop to just 12.0VDC I know they are at their 50% charge state and need re-charging. Some chargers will produce 13.6VDC continuous and this is right at the point of boiling out battery fluids if on for long periods of time. Once the fluid level drops below the top of the battery cores then the batteries will start drawing alot of current and may end up with a shorted cell and could get hot enough to explode. This is most likely what happened in your case.
I have caught one battery starting to get hot on me being charged so was able to remove it from the system before anything bad happened. It was also boiling out fluids.
Having on-board smart mode charging technology really helps in this situation...
Your situation may have been caught by more inspections but it could also have been a fluke thing. The fumes associated with boiled out battery fluids are highly explosive.
Just a couple of my thoughts...
Roy Ken
I try to keep abreast of my batteries at all time watching them operate with a remote battery monitor panel system. When my batteries drop to just 12.0VDC I know they are at their 50% charge state and need re-charging. Some chargers will produce 13.6VDC continuous and this is right at the point of boiling out battery fluids if on for long periods of time. Once the fluid level drops below the top of the battery cores then the batteries will start drawing alot of current and may end up with a shorted cell and could get hot enough to explode. This is most likely what happened in your case.
I have caught one battery starting to get hot on me being charged so was able to remove it from the system before anything bad happened. It was also boiling out fluids.
Having on-board smart mode charging technology really helps in this situation...
Your situation may have been caught by more inspections but it could also have been a fluke thing. The fumes associated with boiled out battery fluids are highly explosive.
Just a couple of my thoughts...
Roy Ken
