Just Heard of 2 Battery Fires On '07 MADP's. What's Up?

[Lug_Nut]

I just spoke to a friend that has a '07 Mountain Aire. He recently experienced a battery fire. Additionally he told me about another guy I know experienced the same. While I have no details on the 2nd guy's issue, the one I spoke to said it happened shortly after he cleaned up and washed the batteries. This happened at River Bend in Florida. North Trail said it was probably caused by a small piece of metal being washed onto a hot terminal. "WHAT?" Run that one by me again! A battery terminal would burn off any small piece without issue. Unless the Batteries were under heavy charge at the time, but then I would think it would be an explosion instead.

Anybody else out there experienced anything like this?

Peter

[Lug_Nut]

I just spoke to a friend that has a '07 Mountain Aire. He recently experienced a battery fire. Additionally he told me about another guy I know experienced the same. While I have no details on the 2nd guy's issue, the one I spoke to said it happened shortly after he cleaned up and washed the batteries. This happened at River Bend in Florida. North Trail said it was probably caused by a small piece of metal being washed onto a hot terminal. "WHAT?" Run that one by me again! A battery terminal would burn off any small piece without issue. Unless the Batteries were under heavy charge at the time, but then I would think it would be an explosion instead.

Anybody else out there experienced anything like this?

Peter

[MBnKen]

I am real interested in thoughts on this as well... I regularly clean my battery tops and want to know what's up.

Personally, I would not trust anything North trail says about batteries. I caught these guys topping off my batteries with a garden hose. When I challenged the service manager he said they tested their water and it was "low mineral" so they don't use distilled water anymore. I forced them to replace my house batteries at their cost. I never heard of such Bull S___ before. I spoke to folks at Deka who confirmed that nothing but distilled should be used to replace water in a battery.

[TaxedtoDeath]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MBnKen:
I am real interested in thoughts on this as well... I regularly clean my battery tops and want to know what's up.

Personally, I would not trust anything North trail says about batteries. I caught these guys topping off my batteries with a garden hose. When I challenged the service manager he said they tested their water and it was "low mineral" so they don't use distilled water anymore. I forced them to replace my house batteries at their cost. I never heard of such Bull S___ before. I spoke to folks at Deka who confirmed that nothing but distilled should be used to replace water in a battery. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree about North Trail using a hose to top off batteries!

When my coach was in for some routine maintenance issues, I asked them to check the batteries, and showed them where I stored two gallons of distilled water to use if needed. Later that day, as I was walking my dog, I happened upon my coach parked in the rear of the service building where a technician was about to top off the batteries with hose water. I yelled just in time to have him stop and was given the same BS about their water. In addition, this particular tech insisted that "distilled water use in batteries" was an "old wives tale" and they never use it on their coaches- whether new or used, service customers included!

Since that time, I have read much about the use of distilled water and will agree that the majority of sources recommend the use of distilled.
With 8 coach batteries to maintain, I feel confident using distilled water makes the most sense!

[Norm Payne]

If they burned up after cleaning this is what I would suppect. They battery tray was pulled out for cleaning and shoved back in after cleaning. A battery cable got pinched and shorted out causing the fire. Water, dirt or a flake of metal on a battery will not cause it to burn up.