Marine Battery

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Marine Battery

Postby Bloodhound317 » Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:16 pm

Not a fishing question, but has anyone had their marine battery explode? Was out fishing today, was going up the lake on my trolling motor and BOOM! Sounded like some one fired a gun off, scared the you know what out of me and my son. Thank God no one was hurt. Had a second battery on board and after we through are underwear away we called it a day.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby warpsyrhead » Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:06 am

Holy smokes! I've heard of that, but always hearsay. Did it actually explode, with like shrapnel and acid and stuff? Did you take any pictures of it? I'm glad no one was hurt.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby Bloodhound317 » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:44 am

Yes it was an explosion, little to no acid though. My son could not hear out of his ear for a while. Did take some pictures not sure how to get them on here.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby warpsyrhead » Fri Aug 08, 2014 5:46 am

Dang, that's scary! :shock: I'm glad no one was seriously hurt.

For pictures, you can't embed them within your post. You must first upload them to one of those share sites, like Photobucket or Flickr or whatever, then copy and paste the link.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby brinkster » Fri Aug 08, 2014 7:41 am

It had to be a bad connection at the terminals
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby aka anglinarcher » Sat Aug 09, 2014 9:02 pm

I doubt a bad connection would have done it. I suspect a cracked plate or short inside, likely due to bouncing on waves, etc., like we all do. It sounds like internal heat caused the battery to expand until the case could not take it anymore.

Was it an actual marine battery or just a deep cycle battery? Was it a lead acid battery, a glass matt battery, or perhaps a gel cell? Was it a maintenance free battery that perhaps went dry?

I would sure love to see the photos. Like warpsyrhead said, go to photoshop and create an account. Then upload the picture to photoshop, then link the picture to this site.

Like they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words, in the case, maybe even more.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby Seachaser » Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:56 am

I have had one explode on my tractor and on my pick up truck. Batteries are dangerous with gasses and sparks. Both exploded like a bomb.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby aka anglinarcher » Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:25 pm

There is no doubt that batteries can be dangerous. That is the reason they ALL say to keep in a vented battery compartment and to perform routine maintenance on them. Still, there are certain conditions that are more likely to cause battery explosions. :shock: :x

1) Lithium Ion batteries in general are dangerous. Fortunately for us, they are not commonly sold for Marine use and the ones that are cost so much I sure cannot afford them. I found some for Marine use (12 volt) after watching an advertisement on TV in a fishing show and the cost was like $3000 each. Ya, going to get me a couple of those. :lol:

2) Maintenance required batteries need that required maintenance. If they need to have water or electrolyte checked, then do it and do it often. :!: :!: :!: The lack of maintenance on these batteries tends to cause the electrolyte to "cook off", venting that explosive gas (mostly hydrogen);ready for a spark. :idea: BOOM

3) Do not use non-Marine batteries, even non-marine deep cycle batteries, for Marine use. The biggest reason is that we tend to pound the waves at 20 to 50 miles per hour and never consider what it is doing to our batteries. A battery not designed to take it will crack a case, or short out a plate. A shorted plate heats up, heating the internal electrolytes to a point that they expand, splitting the case. A super hot battery, combined with the hot released gasses now mixing with oxygen in the air, can ignite and explode. Of course, if you boat won't go that fast, and if you provide a cushioned battery box, then I suspect that you can get away with it. I did for many years.

4) Using the wrong battery voltage for a specific use. If you have a 24 volt trolling motor and you loose a battery, you cannot just hook up only one 12V battery and think it will just give you half the operation length. It heats up the battery really fast, and ........ see number 2 above.

Seachaser, I would love to know more about what happened to your batteries. Considering that it was a tractor and a truck, and considering that you have had two explode while most never ever have a battery explode, :idea: :idea: :?: :?: well that just has me asking questions. Was it number 2 above that caused the problems? :oops: :oops:

Bloodhound317, do any of the above possible causes possibly apply to what happened.

One thing is for sure, now is a great time to go out and check our batteries. Are the connections clean and tight (at the very least this makes them last longer)? If they are a maintenance required battery, have you check the electrolyte, have you topped it off? Are we using the correct battery charger for the battery type we have? Does this charger have a limiting switch so it shuts off when the battery is fully charged and helps prevent "cook off"?

Let's learn from Bloodhound317's experience. Batteries tend to be ignored and that is one thing we all probably do to much. :!: :!: :!: :!: :!:
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby Bloodhound317 » Tue Aug 12, 2014 2:31 am

http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/Blood ... 5.jpg.html.
Hopefully I did this correct. Should be the picture of the battery.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby aka anglinarcher » Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:23 am

Bloodhound, you did well and the pictures are great, and telling.

Note that it may be a deep cycle battery, but not a "marine" battery. Note that it is a Maintenance Required battery. Note that cells one and two appear to be low or empty while cell number 3 looks ok. Note that the Positive terminal is blown off but the case of the battery did not split.

This tells me that it was not the battery that exploded (splitting hairs here) but that the cells number one and two probably shorted out, along with the positive terminal. The short and excessive heat converted the water into oxygen and hydrogen, expanded it, probably melted the positive terminal connections to cell number one. Once the pressure inside was too great it popped the maintenance access panel off and popped the positive terminal off. With the hydrogen now exposed to the air, with the oxygen from electrolysis, with the extra heat and spark from the positive terminal separating and popping off, the hydrogen exploded outside the battery.

That would explain the lack of overall damage to the battery that would have been expected from a true battery explosion, but also explains the explosion that caused hearing loss (temporary? perhaps but maybe some overall loss might be detected).

Do you know if the battery was ever subjected to hard jolts or impacts, such as wave hopping or being dropped? When was the last time you checked the fluids? With this type of battery, overcharging is a big problem; does your charger have a limit switch or top-off feature? When was the last time you tested the electrolyte acidity level (they sell little test kits for this)?

Thank you for telling us about this and showing us what can happen with a battery. Like I said before, TIME TO GO DOUBLE CHECK MY BATTERIES. :idea: :idea: :idea:
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby Bloodhound317 » Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:26 pm

Thanks for ALL the info aka. As far as waves or dropping the battery, mainly fish body's of water with trolling motors only, trolling motors are all I have on my Jon boat, didn't drop the battery, maybe setting it to hard in the boat. I just didn't do ANY maintenance on my battery's, lesson learned. I probably over charged my battery, and will be getting a new and better charger. And will be doing regular maintenance on my battery's from here on out. Thanks again!
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby aka anglinarcher » Tue Aug 12, 2014 8:12 pm

Oh yes, I am the battery expert. I have ruined a LOT of batteries gaining that experience. You know what, experience is a cruel teacher, giving the test first, the lesson later....... OUCH!

I hope you can benefit from this one lesson, and I am sure that others that have read about this will benefit from your experience as well.

NOW, TIME TO GO CHECK MY BATTERIES AGAIN. :oops: :oops: :oops:
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby Seachaser » Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:43 am

In reference to the two that blew up: both times the truck/tractor was off, turn the key boom. Never happened again on either one and no one could figure it out. Put a dent in my truck hood and a dent in my britches.
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Re: Marine Battery

Postby aka anglinarcher » Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:39 pm

Seachaser wrote:
> In reference to the two that blew up: both times the truck/tractor was off,
> turn the key boom. Never happened again on either one and no one could
> figure it out. Put a dent in my truck hood and a dent in my britches.

Were they "maintenance required" batteries, verses the new ones that are sealed?

One thing is for sure, with your luck, I don't want to be near you when you turn on a battery started vehicle. LOL :twisted:
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