Batteries

[Spraynlog]

A friend of mine at work related an incident that happened in his garage. It seems his teenage son was done charging a 'maintenence free' battery, and he went to install it inhis car ('66 Barracuda) . He said he heard it make a hissing sound when he hooked it up, it scared him so he dropped to the floor. The battery exploded with enough force to dent the metal ceiling 9' above the car! The kid was very lucky in my opinion.

Anybody else heard of this happening?

My other thought is that the newer batteries like the 'Optima' or the
Champion 'Vortex' not only offer better performance, but they are much less likely to explode.

My first post on the new site!

[WVRampage]

I have heard of battery explosions.

[JDAWG]

Sounds like he overcharged it. How old was the battery? Yes they can explode and he is lucky he is alive. Tell him to immediatley pressure wash the engine. The battery acid will eat everything. Even if you get a gel cell battery I bet it would explode if you did something wrong.

[Clay]

I would say he probably charged the battery way to fast. When you charge batteries you produce hydrogen gas. The gas has to go somewhere (what do you think the little vent holes on the top of Optimas are for), but if you charge a battery to quickly they can build up pressure, and boom!

clay

[supercrackerbox]

I once had a customer come into the tire shop I worked at saying he needed a battery in his Camry. No problem I figure. I went out to where the car was and popped the hood. A large chunk was missing from the top of the battery, and acid was everywhere. I asked him if he knew about this, and he said "Yeah, I noticed that when I was filling up in St. Joseph" which is a couple hours south of here. "Is that the problem?"

I dumped a few cans of Coke all over everything and hosed down the engine bay. Got the new battery in along with some new cable terminals, and everything seemed to work okay.

[Spraynlog]

Interesting replies.

From what I understand of the matter, battery exlosions are caused by a
low liquid level which then creates a void inside the battery which is filled with hydrogen sulfide gas. If the lead plates are exposed, there can be a spark generated which causes the explosion. Rapid charging can cook off some of the liquid and be a factor in the problem.

A gel cell battery does not have a liquid level, so it will not have a void develop inside. The Optima is used by companies that build armored vehicles like the Caddy Escalade for Bush. They say it eliminates the possibility of a battery explosion.

[PUNKSLIP]

The last time I heard a hissing sound when hooking up a battery was when the guy hooking it up, hooked it up backwards. It didn't take long and boom. He was standing directly over the battery. We, me and the drilling crew, had him stand behind the water rig and opened the water valve to the tanker. He got real wet, and it fried his contact lenses. He was OK, his clothes weren't.

John