Battery explodes! Why?
 

Drove over to check boat in storage when I noticed water under boat. To my surprise it was battery acid dripping from drain. It has a factory installed 3 bank pro charger (3-10 amp banks) and one battery had exploded causing one h*** of a mess. Batteries 1 year old (lead), water level OK 6 weeks ago. Any ideas?

Over charged

Boat is 2012, I would think charger would last longer? And would have fail safe to prevent a overcharge!

This is why I don't leave my charger on over the winter. You just can't trust the monitoring circuits to shut down when fully charged. I manage a large fleet of vehicles, trailers with inverters charges and never leave them on the tenders for fear of either the tenders or batteries causing a fire! I have seen batteries short out and melt down causing extensive heat and acid damage.FWIW

anything that is electrical is prone to failure imo.espically things produced in china.

I always thought there would have to be a spark to cause explosion?

A lead acid bat being charged emits hydrogen. If your not well vented the hydrogen can fill the compartment, then even a marine battery charger can have enough spark to cause ignition. This and also a lot of heat from a bad battery can cause a red hot cable issue.

I use AGM's

I'm not sure of the cause , but I'd be spraying the area down with a baking soda and water mixture to neutralize the acid, then a good freshwater flush afterwards.
Old trick my dad taught me many years ago for cleaning battery cables and terminals.

from what I've seen in the past a battery that becomes low on water level can cause a arc between the lead plates, causing the battery to explode.

If it is left on charge all winter, it needs to be a charger that drops to 0 amps. Very few do. Most charge at a low rate all the time.

For winter storage - You pull batteries out of the boat and charge them once a month with a FLOAT charger at 1 to 2 amps in stored warmer areas. It is important to make sure your fluid level in the battery is proper if not add distilled water to the proper levels before charging .

I can not tell you about all the bad stories I see and hear from owners charging their own batteries thru out the whole winter - hooked up and left in their boat. Many end up with a bad result and or even a battery that they killed themselves.

One example as we speak - I have a rec I/O fish N ski boat in that had a very well known name 3 bank battery charger that over heated very badly while the owner left it plugged in for about 2 months. The charger is completely melted and the boat was stored in his garage. I have no idea how the whole boat did not burn completely down by the way the charger looks, he is very lucky.

This is also a very well known 3 bank USA made charger, with the float system. Never had a built in charger until this boat. In the past always pulled batteries and charged with granite digital never had issue and always checked water level. Trying to figure out bad battery or charger?

Guy in the Mopar hobby lost his garage, classic car and a lifetime worth of tools and parts by leaving a battery on charge.

Unfortunately it's not an uncommon story.

Pull the batteries - check water level, fully charge and check again in a month - repeat. Plugging in and forgetting is asking for trouble in the long run.

Get a CTEK battery charger.

So... Battery's are relatively cheap, what have you done to mitigate the damage? Acid splashed inside a boat just can't be a good thing!

You can have a cell in the battery short out and the charger will see the battery as having 10V, so it will go into fast charge. Since the battery is bad, it won't come up to normal voltage and allow the charger to drop down to absorption mode and then into float mode. So charger will stay in fast charge, battery will become smoking hot, and bad things to follow. Not to mention the odor

Have had this exact issue happen to my cruiser twice with Interstate batteries each 3 yrs old. Luckily both times I caught it before the batteries exploded, but they were very hot and boiling. Replaced batteries and good to go. Charger (ProMariner 1240plus) still running strong.

you need to use a "smart" charger that indepently monitors and charges only the battery that needs it then shuts completly off , have a Xantex on my gibson

This one is suppose to be a "smart" charger.

•DeltaVolt® Intuitive Charging Technology
•Waterproof, dependable, rugged construction
•Independent outputs
•Fully automatic / multi stage charging
•Zero spark technology
•Battery maintenance mode
•On-board diagnostic codes
•Temperature compensated
•Advanced microprocessor controlled
•Battery systems available: 12V – 48V
•LED lights indicate the state of charge
•Reverse polarity protected
•No installation restrictions
•FCC Parts A & B interference compliant
•DC charge cables = 5ft. AC power cord = 3ft.
•Approved and meets ISO 8846 Marine standards
•Ignition protected (US Coast Guard 33 CFR 183.410

Oh I Forgot this:

•TROUBLE FREE – Just Plug It In and Forget It! (Quote)

Lead acid = hydrogen
AGM = no hydrogen

No hydrogen = no explosion

At least that's the way I look at it

Nothing ruins battery faster than overcharging. Even if no explosion. One winter will kill it. Store in a cold place fully charged and you are good.

not all chargers will work with AGM

I did too! I charged one of my truck batteries due to one of the guys leaving on the dome light. Got a call from the warehouse manager that my unit was on fire. Was a nightmare, lost my tools, computer equipment all kids of stuff. Was a Schumacher battery charger.

NEVER EVER again will I charge a battery unattended. At first I thought it was the charger from a Ryobi drill but the fire chief showed me the burn marks all around a wall and said "what was here". I said a "car battery and a charger"

Want to know the best part? It was 10 feet away from my acetylene torch. That would have been really nice! Could have killed a firefighter. Piece of scjit Schumacher charger.

so much now is junk from china...and they don't care what happens here...idiots can't even make a good fortune cookie !!!

I won't leave a battery on a charger overnight !

A charger that shuts off after the correct voltage is reached shouldn`t cause any damage unless that battery is bad.
I leave my truck and 3 boat batteries in the boat on a good trickle charger.
I did have a bad battery one time that I left on a regular charger and it was smoking and bubbling , looked like ready to blow..

Thats what I thought...

On the other hand, a battery that gets rocked around and launched off 6 foot waves might end up with a few problems.

I'm glad this post came up - reminded me to go unplug mine.

I have always used the digital chargers for years and never had issue. And I'm leaning toward a bad battery issue and possibly switching out to the AGM batteries. The charger company did say they would check out this on-board charger for me, they claim they never had a issue. I was told by one person and seems like a good idea, put charger on a timer to come on once a month for 1 hour. Any other thoughts on this idea?

One of the kids that runs around our marina had a really nice older wakeboard boat he absolutely loved. Because of his driving record he did not have insurance on it.

Cheap Chinese battery charger burned it to the waterline one night .

If you guys ran those boats occasionally instead of rafting up and playing stereo wars all day you wouldn't need to change those batteries.

My opinion; I use name brand chargers, no HF stuff except on a stand alone battery. Keep all the bats in the boat, lawn mower, etc connected to 3-stage chargers every year. Putting a charger on a timer, I've never tried it should work. Only issue I could think of is the connected charger while not turned on could put a slight drain on the battery, how much depends on the charger.

Batteries short out on there own too. Have had many(10-12?) melted/'blown up' at the shop that the alternators where fine and batteries where not on chargers.

MY IMHO is that if the batteries are left in the boat, charge them up full, and undo the + cable to each battery, before the boat get's stored.

If batteries are inside, charge them here and there, every month or two or three is fine, and unhook when done.

I've seen enough melt, 'blow up' that I do not leave them on a charger when I'm not around. ie: at night, or if gone for the day, or etc....and speaking of which, when charging I make sure to walk by one in a while and touch the top and side of the battery to make sure they are not real hot.

A melted / 'blown up' battery suks bad ! Had to evacuate the shop for a few hrs once. Bad stuff !

my gibson stays in the water sometimes for a couple seasons at a time, charger is on 24/7 with the xantex never had a issue, just pulled it this year and removed batteries, saw they were from 07, unreal...pepboys brand !! before I changed to the smart charger killed batteries regularly. Had a friend install a new xantx charger a few years ago after seeing how well mine worked, only lasted a couple of years..guess chinese made now ?? anyway tried a couple of harbor freight chargers(which I have used several with only one failure) and had a battery meltdown just as you described a month ago, no idea what happened, amazing boat did not burn...

I dont think its always the charger, some cases i think its the battery. A $125 Schumacher burned my shop down.

Some times stuff just happens

I just remembered a number of years ago a golf cart battery exploded when I stepped on the pedel to start it. This was a gasoline engine power one where you push the pedel and it starts. Scared the crap out of me thinking some one just shot a gun next to me. Hot summer usage guessing it gasssewd out and the engine spark set it off.