A question for lead acid batteries experts

[MapisM]

I bought online a battery to replace the starting battery of my genset, which having lasted nine years I guess had good reasons to give up.
Btw, talk about not wasting money with special agm or gel batteries...!

Anyhow, the thing arrived in decent shape, but a bit wet of acid on its exterior, inside the package.
Nothing too bad though - I checked the levels of the 6 compartments and they looked ok.
Otoh, one thing grabbed my attention: on both sides, there is a small hole in the cover.
One of them is closed by a small plastic plug, which is not there in the other one.
I checked inside the package, and I couldn't find a second plug which could have possibly popped out.
But the package was not perfectly sealed, and it might be that it got lost in some courier truck.

Bottom line, wadduthink, could it be normal that the cover has one closed hole, with the other one left open?
And if not, should I try to close it somehow?
The pic below shows both sides/holes, and the small plug which was in one of them (in the negative pole side, FWIW).
Oh, and before someone suggests it: I'd rather avoid going through the hassle of resending the thing to the seller and ask a replacement, life's too short...
Thanks in advance!

 

[Robg71]

Thats so the battery can breath when charging. It will give off hydrogen gas. We used to have these connected to a breather pipe system and vented outside,

 

[Portofino]

I think those plugs are poss a safety divice to blow off if excess gas pressure builds up ( for what ever reason -eg wrong -too high recharge current = boiling it ) .
It's a vent of sorts , no harm leaving it open assuming boat does not heal excessively - spilling acid!

 

[MapisM]

I see... Well, in this case, wouldn't it make sense to leave both of them open?

 

[Robg71]

I should have said, we had these connected and dumped over the side in a vent, as it was in a Tank. All the armoured vehicles running lead acid batteries piped it over the side, as you really don't want hydrogen gas building up in a confined space. Cars and trucks dont need it, as open to the environment.

 

[Alan ashore]

I think it's fairly typical for cars with large batteries fitted in the boot to have a pipe connected. Mine does.

 

[Stork_III]

I recently bought a new battery from Battery Megastore, online. It arrived with sticker on with warning to remove BOTH plugs, only needed for transit delivery.

 

[MapisM]

Doh! Interesting to hear that.
At the end of the day, it might turn out that the battery I bought was missing the sticker, rather than one of the plugs!

 

[paddy01]

The holes are there to take a vent pipe if fitting batteries in enclosed space so that any gassing during charge cycles gets removed to an external location. You really really don't want to be breathing that stuff or lighting a match near it..

There are holes in either end for convenience so you can fit the vent pipe which ever suits your installation.

Both holes should have bungs in them for transport and you remove 1 (or both) before charging.

For example, I'll be adding a domestic battery to the campervan I'm currently building. It will be installed under the passenger seat and the vent pipe will go through a convenient bung in the floor pan of the van to the outside.

Cheers

Paddy

 

[taz]

I have a 110ah battery in my Vito(under seat in cab) and it has two vents, one at each end and one plug, this is to cap off the one not in use if you have only one pipe. That's my understanding but I am no expert.

 

[MapisM]

Thanks folks, that makes good sense.
Tomorrow I'll fit the genset starting battery with no plugs, coming to think of it that's the most logical thing.
Otoh, that battery is charged only by the genset itself when it's running, and typically when I'm running the genset I'm NOT running the e/r blowers.
Since the boat still didn't blow up after all these years, I suppose/hope that will work ok also with the new battery...
...anyway, if you'll read of a boat exploded in some southern Sardinian bays, you'll know why I won't be posting here anymore!

 

[taz]

Thanks folks, that makes good sense.
Tomorrow I'll fit the genset starting battery with no plugs, coming to think of it that's the most logical thing.
Otoh, that battery is charged only by the genset itself when it's running, and typically when I'm running the genset I'm NOT running the e/r blowers.
Since the boat still didn't blow up after all these years, I suppose/hope that will work ok also with the new battery...
...anyway, if you'll read of a boat exploded in some southern Sardinian bays, you'll know why I won't be posting here anymore!

and why we all immediately removed/edited our replies upon finding out

 

[MapisM]

Good point. I just made a copy of the whole thread, I'll forward it to my lawyer for a proper notarization!

 

[taz]

Good point. I just made a copy of the whole thread, I'll forward it to my lawyer for a proper notarization!

Damn, why did I say that.

 

[lynall]

Thing is the side vent cant be much above the level of the acid itself, pop a cap off and have a look inside.


Lynall

 

[MapisM]

Thing is the side vent cant be much above the level of the acid itself, pop a cap off and have a look inside.

Well, checking levels was the first thing I made when the battery arrived wet, but I was more looking at whether the plates were all covered, and at the level consistency between each compartments, than at the level height vs. the side vent.
In the meantime, I installed the thing, which seems to be working just fine, so I'd rather not squeeze again behind the genset just to re-check, but by heart I'd say that the acid wasn't more than a few millimeters lower than the vent holes.
Why do you think it's important?