Battery literally exploded today

[Prosideus]

So it's my birthday and wanted to head out with some friends. The boat has five batteries. 2 for stbd main, 2 for port main and 1 on generator.

Started generator, fired up great. Starboard engine, fired right up. Then pressed the button to fire the port engine and a loud boom! Engine would not start, no additional response with the start switch. Killed stbd and gen. Thought I had and engine issue, opened the ER hatch with extinguisher in hand and smoke and acid smell wafts out. Turned on the exhaust fans and killed all the electrical (yes exhaust fans still worked).

Hosed down ER with the dockside water hose, Acid was leaking from the battery, so did the best I could to get it all hosed out. With a plastic trash bag I was able to get a grip on the battery and get it out/off the boat and continued to rinse put the bilge.

The battery top was blown open, and chunk of the side was shot to the forward part of ER. What a mess, and thankfully nobody was injured. I pulled the second battery from the port bank and intend to buy two new batteries.

Just for the record, I did not note a reading for my batteries either on the main panel nor at the helm before I fired the engines. A lesson here I am sure.

So several questions for the forum:

'96 400 sedan bridge. These are 29 series deep cycle batteries. Because I don't trust the PO, should I replace these with the same, or something else?

Is there anything I need to consider to evaluate or check out given this battery exploded, meaning could I have a different issue?

Since I did not do any pre-starting readings, should I have and what should I have noted or looked for?

Lastly, Capt Rusty had a post that outlined a procedure for determining what systems were running off which battery banks, and he indicated a traditional factory configurations for the electrical systems. Does anyone have a reference/link to his post? I have searched, but have not located it yet.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[magstang1]

Dealing with that much battery juice, your clothes are likely contaminated. If you haven't already, I would probably toss them in the trash. I had a carhartt jacket that got acid on it once near the front buttons. After all my shirts started getting holes in them for no apparent reason I put two and two together. New jacket and a few new shirts later...

 

[ZZ13]

All the items labeled on the breakers above the port battery switch run off the port dual battery bank. All the items labeled on the breakers above the starboard battery switch run off the starboard battery pair.

 

[jxg]

the battery exploding could have just done it on its own. we had one explode on a 3 week old Volvo sedan one time. I thought someone was shooting at me. dealer said it happened every once in awhile. we never had another battery issue in the 220k miles we owned the car.

 

[bahamabreisus]

Good idea is to shake baking soda all over the bilge. It will kill the acids from the battery, Then rinse again. We had one do that a couple years ago. Scared the CR// out of me. Thought we blew an engine.

 

[sdleo26]

Wow, I never heard of something like this. Thankfully nothing is really damaged and your okay. To your point, it would be interesting to know if there is a way to know it's coming; any signs leading up to an explosion. How old are the batteries and who makes them?

 

[Mike Blake]

I had 2 batteries blow up. It was a over working battery charger. You might want to check that. That was when I went to optima and a new zantrex smart charger. That was almost 3 years ago.

Good luck

 

[RollerCoastr]

Wow, I never heard of something like this. Thankfully nothing is really damaged and your okay. To your point, it would be interesting to know if there is a way to know it's coming; any signs leading up to an explosion. How old are the batteries and who makes them?

It happened to me with my generator battery this spring. It was a WM brand and was really old (6+), but it cranked great and all the cells were keeping water evenly. It happened while I was away and fortunately went mostly up instead of sideways. I didn't have much to clean up, but I keep baking soda on the boat for just that reason.

 

[Ruff Life]

I had the exact same thing happen to me after just purchasing my boat. I determined after some research that it was caused by low water in the batteries. When the batteries are low on water the plates are exposed and there is some lead sulphide that some bridges between plates. Hydrogen gas is always produced from charging batteries. This is normally a non issue except when there is the lead sulphide buildup,exposed plates, hit the starter drawing lots of current and slight warping of plates during starting, then small little spark and BOOM! I am now very careful to once a month check batteries and add water. I also immediately used the transom shower to wash the area down and followed up wish baking soda mixed with water sprayed in the area and a final wash with water. Fortunately no damage to anything else

 

[carterchapman]

Good idea is to shake baking soda all over the bilge. It will kill the acids from the battery, Then rinse again.

+1!

 

[Tonka Boater]

Good idea is to shake baking soda all over the bilge. It will kill the acids from the battery, Then rinse again. We had one do that a couple years ago. Scared the CR// out of me. Thought we blew an engine.

One of the batteries on my previous 280 DA leaked and started spewing acid one day for no apparent reason. It never blew but it was bulging and acid was all over. I sprinkled baking soda over the acid after removing battery and also spread it around a wide area surrounding the batteries....I was surprised how far that stuff leaked..you will see it bubbling when it contacts the acid. Once everything was neutralized I vacuumed up the loose baking soda and wiped it all down...WHAT A MESS and PIA!!

As mentioned above -- that acid is nasty stuff. I was as careful as possible when I removed the old battery and small drop of acid dripped onto my engine cowling/cover. Holy crap...melted the thing on contact. The rags I used and clothes I wore that day were shot too.

 

[Prosideus]

Follow up:

After I hosed everything down the day the battery exploded, I used advice from our forum members. The next day I went back to the boat and made a mixture of baking soda and water in a spray bottle. I started spraying all around the engine room. It was surprising to see where acid was still present. The mixture would bubble when it would come in contact with the acid. I sprayed around for probably an hour, and flushing with water.

I had removed the exploded batter and the second one in the bank. Called the local marina to come out with new batteries to install them and test my charger to make sure it was working properly. All was good. I also maintenanced the other batteries (3), which used almost a gallon of distiller water.

The lesson in all of this is to top off the batteries once a month. Easy effort to avoid a potentially disastrous circumstance. So check those batteries!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[peterkvs]

Its probably too late now, but you should not be using Deep Cycle batteries for starting applications unless they are specifically designed to be both deep cycle and starting. Deep Cycle batteries and not designed to handle the instantaneous current requirements of starting an engine, especially a diesel.

Hope this helps,

Pete