What happened?

[ferndaleflyer]

Walked by my DP yesterday and noticed something dripping from the battery compartment. Opened the compartment and found that one of the house batteries had exploded. Thats right exploded, pieces and acid all over the compartment. The others were fine and power to the house had not been interrupted, everything worked. I am 80 years old and have never seen anything like this in an RV, car, boat, or any other vehicle that had a battery. Looked to me like it could have easily caused a fire. We had not used the motor home since March and hardly a day goes by I don't check on it. It has been hooked to shore power the whole time. What happened?

[ferndaleflyer]

Well I got it all back together and its been sitting for a few days powered up and all is going well. Still have no clue what caused it but at this stage in life I'll just let it go and carry on. Didn't get to take this trip but its not that bad. Thank a veteran.

[pianotuna]

Hi Mex,

Thanks for the informative post!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Use of a low amperage charger intrinsically protects against high voltage latching leading to high amperage. A Battery Minder rather than a high amperage potential inverter would be a example.

You folks are not familiar with AGM Batteries. The RECOMBINANT valves return 100% of gas to liquid even at 145°F. It takes 17 to 18 volts potential to gas gelled electrolyte enough to activate a relief valve. Thermal runaway only occurs with abusively high amperage. Thus the reason for my recommendation of an Intrinsictly protective low amperage maintenance device. Make it idiot proof.

Solar panels can be shaded to limit ultimate maximum current to 5 amperes current for long term storage.

100 CCs of space can allow an oxygen hydrogen stoichometeric the explosive force of a 12 gauge shotgun shell.

[pianotuna]

Hi 2oldman,

I think it is pretty rare for a battery to rud, even with flooded. AGM would be, I guess, even less likely to do so--after all they do have a pressure relief valve.

[YC_1]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
I have pulled the batteries and flushed everything in the compartment as best I could. I also covered everything with a baking soda paste and flushed it a second time. I will paint it all today if its dry enough. This is a Monaco and has a 3 stage inverter/charger. It is always powered up if that matters. Someone mentioned golf carts and my friend had a battery in his explode in the garage. The top of the battery went through the roof of the cart and the sheet rock ceiling of the garage.....I'll let you all know as I progress here as I had planned a trip for next week

Sometimes the temp sensor on the inverter/converter acts up and will cause the batteries to overcharge/boil and be very susceptible to exploding.

[2oldman]

pianotuna wrote:
2oldman,AGM do go into thermal runaway given the right circumstances.

I bet they don't spray acid all over. Got any percentages compared to wets?

[pianotuna]

2oldman,

AGM do go into thermal runaway given the right circumstances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCpozYOAj64

[2oldman]

Matt_Colie wrote:
About all you can do if your load requires that big a bank is to separate the sections by gunga moma fuses that will let go when one cell in one jar goes short and then the rest of the bank can't gang up on him.

Or go series, or go lithium. Can't say I've heard of AGMs exploding.

[Matt_Colie]

I got paid by a lot of people to do boat work for a lot of years.

One of the reasons I advise against paralleled jars is the common occurrence of battery explosions. I have seen (and cleaned up after) battery explosions from all possible arrangements and yes even single jars. The fact is, paralleled jars make it more common. At least, I got paid much more often to clean up and make repairs after explosions of paralleled banks.

About all you can do if your load requires that big a bank is to separate the sections by gunga moma fuses that will let go when one cell in one jar goes short and then the rest of the bank can't gang up on him.

I used to keep disposable rain gear and gloves and such in the coach along with several boxes of baking soda for just such events. Insurance companies made my time worthwhile.

Matt

[ferndaleflyer]

I have pulled the batteries and flushed everything in the compartment as best I could. I also covered everything with a baking soda paste and flushed it a second time. I will paint it all today if its dry enough. This is a Monaco and has a 3 stage inverter/charger. It is always powered up if that matters. Someone mentioned golf carts and my friend had a battery in his explode in the garage. The top of the battery went through the roof of the cart and the sheet rock ceiling of the garage.....I'll let you all know as I progress here as I had planned a trip for next week

[YC_1]

I have seen far to many battery explosions. One right under my sit down. Yep, on a golf cart.

I am an electronic tech and diagnoses battery issues thousands of times. Always wear some sort of eye protection around a battery. One spark or even one that goes bezerk internally. Usually an old one or one that has been overcharged. A battery temperature sensor can turn a charger into a boiler.

Folks are mentioning low water levels and that can be a clue. For now if those batteries have any age on them it would be a good thing to get rid of them. You need to pull out all the batteries (after lots of pictures of course), and clean everything with warm water and lots of baking soda to get rid of the acid that will eat everything in sight and beyond.

[StirCrazy]

larry cad wrote:
Everyone, please note the OP is driving a DIESEL PUSHER!! It would be safe to assume he has a three stage charger/inverter which would seem to preclude a high voltage "converter"

Looking more like a defective battery and the manufacturer is running away from it.

I dont think thats safe to asume at all, My parents bought a 200K dp and it had a crappy two stage in it, my buddy just bought one and he has to change it out, so I have seen more with two stage than I have with three stange, not that I have seen a lot but the ones I have seen were all bigger brands.

Steve

[larry_cad]

Everyone, please note the OP is driving a DIESEL PUSHER!! It would be safe to assume he has a three stage charger/inverter which would seem to preclude a high voltage "converter"

Looking more like a defective battery and the manufacturer is running away from it.

[Tom_M1]

On my pickup camper I have two 12 volt batteries in parallel. The camper was not plugged in so the converter/charger was not powered. I do keep a maintainer connected to the batteries. One of the batteries exploded. The other one was okay. Fluid level in the one that survived was low but still covered the plates.