Battery Explosion!!!!!

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POD II

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I went to my boat today to find my leisure battery had exploded in the engine bay.

As normal the shore power had been left connected to the boat to keep the battery charger powered, but all the breakers were turned off.

What might have caused this and what precautions should I take in the future?
 

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If I had to guess your battery charger has been over charging the battery. This produces lots of excess hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. Once you've got lots of hydrogen and oxygen you get explosions.

Phil
 
What sort of top up and water level regime did you employ ?---pic looks like a lead acid liquid bat .
How sophisticated is the charger -- interms of its ability to float / trickle and measure temperature ?

As above it's overheated and the water boiled off into explosive gasses .
 
Commiserations on this event. I had a very near miss a couple of years , and switched off before the battery went pop. With mine, I had run the battery too low previously so one or more of the cells were damaged. If not the case for you, the electrolyte level is very important. Don't let it go too low.
 
I did this with a car battery many year ago - but I was taking of the crocodile clips so there was a spark.

I would say you need to look at a few things

1. are the vents clear? The aim of the vents is to allow the hydrogen produced during charging to vent away out of the boat so exactly this does not happen. This must be checked. Also do you have the battery box lid on correctly. Hydrogen is lighter then air so it will rise - the lid catches it and then vents it away

2. what was the source of ignition? Something must have had a spark to set it off.


Then as per other posters why was it gassing so much ( excess charge etc), but even with excess gassing the aim of vents and a lid is to get rid of it and ensure there is no source of ignition.
 
What can you do about it?

1.) Check that your charger is working properly. Ideally replace it with a modern one.
2.) Make sure electrolyte levels don't drop too low.
3.) Replace your batteries every five years or so.
 
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Whitelighter said:
This reminds me I need to sort my battery boxes.
The standard Ferretti affair are wooden and not sealed.

Are long boxes designed to take 5/6 batteries available or do I need to buy 12 battery bixes?
Click to expand...

I'm not aware of any proprietary long plastic battery boxes, and 12 individual ones would look a mess IMO.

Nothing wrong with a stout wooden (18mm marine ply is perfect) purpose made box with a lid, suitably vented (they shouldn't be sealed) and painted. All joints can be sealed with appropriate adhesive sealant.

This enables the cables to be connected neatly with minimum length, the batteries fitted into a tidy logical arrangement such that you have a much more professional looking bank than a random collection of 12 plastic ones with cables of differing lengths everywhere.
 
I had a similar thing happen on my boat a couple of years ago and there was nothing wrong with the charger. It just turned out to be a dud battery. As a result of that experience I leave the shorepower to my boat switched off if I'm away from it for more than a few days and I get somebody to turn it on for a few hours every couple of weeks just to keep the batteries topped up. Indeed there are some marinas that insist that shorepower is disconnected if the owner is away and I think thats probably a good idea because a battery that fails in this way is definitely a fire risk
 
This happened to me about 3 weeks ago. A dud battery & CTEK charger which went rogue... filled the house with very explosive gas so I phoned the fire brigade for advice and was told to immediately leave the house and 2 tenders turned up and the firemen needed breathing gear to get the car out!

 
Whitelighter said:
This reminds me I need to sort my battery boxes.
The standard Ferretti affair are wooden and not sealed.

Are long boxes designed to take 5/6 batteries available or do I need to buy 12 battery bixes?
Click to expand...

There is an advert on E Bay for 2 x T105 Trojan batteries in a nice strong battery box. If I had the room then I could be tempted. If you can find the manufacturer they may have other sizes.

Pete
 
Whitelighter said:
This reminds me I need to sort my battery boxes.
The standard Ferretti affair are wooden and not sealed.

Are long boxes designed to take 5/6 batteries available or do I need to buy 12 battery bixes?
Click to expand...

Where are your batteries Jez, engine room or lazerette? The boxes should only be sealed if they vent out over the side. My Azi has piped vents for both battery boxes, sited in the Lazerette. Do not seal an unvented box. Why do you want to change?
 
markc said:
She was in the garage, the FB saved her first, before the car :-)
Click to expand...

So a Bentley (Rolls?) full of poisonous fumes and a Porker with a cracked windscreen (or is that a cable?).
Did you insult any little old Gypsy women selling Lavender that week? :nonchalance:

Love the Lara Statue!
 
Checked on a customers boat today and ooops, BIG battery explosion.
Acid everywhere.
Looks like the very expensive Mastervolt charger is at fault.
Won't know until I can get our sparky to look at it on Tuesday.
bat1.jpg

bat2.jpg
 
Whitelighter said:
This reminds me I need to sort my battery boxes.
The standard Ferretti affair are wooden and not sealed.

Are long boxes designed to take 5/6 batteries available or do I need to buy 12 battery bixes?
Click to expand...

Glass over the wooden ones.
My domestic one is a long fibreglass one which takes 4-5 batteries.
Your issue is you need to sort ventilation too.
ps you said you'd never heard of exploding batteries :)
 
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