battery ventilation

[boatmike]

I have always been taught that batteries should be installed in a well ventilated space. On my new (to me) Moody 35 I am a little concerned to find them in an unventilated locker under the double bed in the aft cabin. Obviously the original boatbulders intention that they be there but seems less than ideal..... What does the folorum think?

 

[jwilson]

Hundreds of thousands of boat have them in the same or similar places. The surveyor who coded my boat was happy with a one inch hole near the top of the locker, to vent any hydrogen to the cabin, from where there are plenty of vents to atmosphere. The many hundreds, possibly a thousand, of the same model that have never been coded don't have the little hole.

Hydrogen rises, unlike LPG whick sinks and becomes dangerous in the bilges which (usually) don't have holes. Have seen one boat and heard of many others blown apart by leaking LPG. Never heard of one destroyed or even damaged just by hydrogen from the batteries. Yes, "cooked" batteries can explode, but that is a very different scenario from simple lack of venting.

 

[PaulRainbow]

I'd agree with John, post #2.

Mine have been happily sitting under the saloon sofa for 40 years.

Moody fitted them under the aft berth on several different models, such as the 35, 376, 36CC etc.

 

[Caer Urfa]

Sorry guys like most surveyors as part of a survey I would report a battery locker should be vented if no ventilation found . I even did my own by simply adding a vented grill, why take any risk.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Sorry guys like most surveyors as part of a survey I would report a battery locker should be vented if no ventilation found . I even did my own by simply adding a vented grill, why take any risk.
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Risk of what ? Being under a bunk or sofa is not like being in a gas tight locker. Hydrogen is a lighter than air gas and will easily dissipate from those types of storage space. As i said earlier, mine are beneath a saloon sofa, if subjected to a prolonged absorption charge the hydrogen escapes so easily throughout the boat that the CO alarm in the aft cabin goes off.

You are of course correct, "should be vented if no ventilation found", but bunks and sofas aren't usually gas tight.

 

[LittleSister]

I can't remember who it was now, but someone who seemed to know what he was talking about said on a similar thread here years ago that hydrogen, because of its characteristics, is well able to find its way out of the sort of small gaps in locker lids and joinery, and that specific vent provision wasn't necessary.

 

[Graham376]

Open lead acid batteries on our Moody 376 have been located under the aft bunk for 33 years, no problems so far

 

[sailaboutvic]

And another Moody owner , on my 42cc they are under our bed but there is a vent pipe that leads out to the stern of the boat.
After saying that , my batteries no longer need venting as there lithium .