Exploded battery - why?

The electrolysis of water produces hydrogen

The electrolysis of water produces oxygen. As pure as it gets.

Hydrazine and oxygen make for a wonderful propellant to lift fifty tons into orbit around the earth.

Sometimes when a cell goes bad, it shorts. Driving amperage up in remaining cells. This will cause grossly excessive electrolysis in all cells. As electrolyte level decreases to a certain point plates can overheat. An infinitesimal spark can be created between any two plates. The resulting explosion pressure will collapse plates in adjacent cells. More explosions chain-reaction style. Permutations of this scenario are many.

Inferior quality batteries stand a much greater chance of premature death. Incorrect charging and maintenance protocols may also cause excessive hydrolysis. One battery detonating in a bank where other batteries electrolyte levels remain normal is an absolute finding of an already failed battery. It was dead before it exploded. Only a BCI CCA test verifies catastrophic loss of capacity. Which is a thoroughly moot exercise.

harold1946 wrote:
I have never seen or heard of a TC that operates on a 24 volt system.

Well, not OEM anyway.

I am a ship's engineer by trade and until the depression, I earned a good living working on performance and other cruising sailboats. These all require significant battery banks. (Shipping out here has been dead for years.)

During a typical season, we got called to deal with the aftermath of between half and a dozen battery explosions. Single battery explosions are so rare that they are not worth mentioning. But 12V batteries in parallel are the regular culprit. If the batteries did not come off the line together or have been ignored, it is so common that it is scary.

There is not enough energy in the properly filled cell to do more than blow the caps off. But is a cell shorts internally (this can be detected after the fact with a simple meter) the heat will drive the electolyte to high temperature and because of the cell design, it can flash all at once. This is the common explosion that ends up looking like the picture. It can happen to a single 12V jar, but that will usually happen when it is loaded heavily - like to crank a big main engine. Parallel jars can just go off at any time.

I like them. The owner's insurance company gets to pay us lots of money to do the clean up and repair. We used to carry strainers and boxes of baking soda just on GP. The gloves and disposable cloths were already aboard to do epoxy work.

Matt

Interstate? Probably the warranty timer ;)

harold1946 wrote:

Suggested reading;

Suggest thinking before you post.

tatest wrote:
But the comment doesn't make a lot of sense because almost all flooded lead-acid batteries are high current.

And thus ALL flooded lead-acid batteries have the potential for a catastrophic event if one should have one or more cells short out when connected in parallel.

harold1946 wrote:

Sam Spade wrote:

2oldman wrote:
Is this why a few members on here advise against batteries in parallel?

Yes maybe.
Anytime high current batteries are connected in parallel, some types of failures on one can have catastrophic results.
But the odds are fairly low.
The odds with series connections are even lower.

Look closer at the photo.:S
That is a 12 volt battery. Connecting two in series would be 24 volts. It must be connected in parallel to be 12 volt. I have never seen or heard of a TC that operates on a 24 volt system.
Suggested reading; The 12 volt side of life, parts 1 @ 2.

I think he was referring to 6 volt batteries in series, he just didn't spell it out.

red31 wrote:

Sam Spade wrote:
high current batteries

what exactly makes a battery a high current battery?

Anything over a D cell !! :B

harold1946 wrote:

Sam Spade wrote:

2oldman wrote:
Is this why a few members on here advise against batteries in parallel?

Yes maybe.
Anytime high current batteries are connected in parallel, some types of failures on one can have catastrophic results.
But the odds are fairly low.
The odds with series connections are even lower.

Look closer at the photo.:S
That is a 12 volt battery. Connecting two in series would be 24 volts. It must be connected in parallel to be 12 volt. I have never seen or heard of a TC that operates on a 24 volt system.
Suggested reading; The 12 volt side of life, parts 1 @ 2.

you might want to re-read the post...I don't think you understood what was typed.

Okay, it was a five or six hour job cleaning up the acid. (Some disassembly of the battery compartment was required.)

Today I will install new batteries and a STRAP to secure them.
On retrospect, the factory did not include a strap - the batteries fit very snug into their tray.

However, the battery compartment is located in the tail of camper, behind the rear axle. (See signature picture below)
That location is the worst possible place for weight distribution.
I now realize that it's also like riding in the back of the bus; all the road bumps are amplified.

Its a truck camper. We go where others fear to tread. Now we go just a little bit slower. :)