Boiling Battery

[GTHill]

I found one of my (4 month old) chassis batteries today making quite a stink and very, very hot. This happened when I was plugged into shore power.

My guess is that my inverter was over-charging, but the thing I can't figure out; why only one of the chassis batteries? They are connected together, yet only one of them got hot. If it was an over voltage, shouldn't it have been both?

I've removed both batteries and plan to have them tested. Any thoughts on why this would happen?

Thanks!

GT

[bigskymt]

That battery is likely bad. If you can test specific gravity you might find a dead cell.
Otherwise disconnect it from the circuit and check the voltage after several hours.
If the battery can't reach proper voltage the converter will continue to charge and boil the battery. Getting hot in one specific area of the battery will probably indicate plates shorted together.

[GTHill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigskymt That battery is likely bad. If you can test specific gravity you might find a dead cell. Otherwise disconnect it from the circuit and check the voltage after several hours. If the battery can't reach proper voltage the converter will continue to charge and boil the battery. Getting hot in one specific area of the battery will probably indicate plates shorted together.

Since it is still under warranty I'm going to take it in to the battery shop tomorrow. Thanks!

GT

[GMDavidson]

I subscribe to the shorted cell theory in the hot battery.

[Airtool]

I ditto Gm's response. Well the Rubi pull the Coach? just wondering?

[GTHill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airtool I ditto Gm's response. Well the Rubi pull the Coach? just wondering?

Not sure I'd want to try that.

I took both batteries to the Battery Warehouse today and they tested both of them. They didn't say much but replaced both batteries without question. I guess that's good!

GT

[takepride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airtool I ditto Gm's response. Well the Rubi pull the Coach? just wondering?

It's much easier to push the coach with the Rubicon:

[Old Rv'er]

Hmmm, I think I would also check output of the charger just to be safe. Since those batteries were only 4 months old, and both of them bad, check it's output as well. Another thought would be the alternator is not putting out enough and those batteries go down while traveling, they should not, but, the genset comes off those batteries, and there may be other things which do as well. Additionally, there is a solenoid which kicks in/out so the house batteries are charged after the chassis batteries are charged up, and this may have failed, which means it is closed all the time allowing both banks of batteries to get charging voltage all the time. But that is the way I think it is supposed to work. EM know for sure and can verify that statement of not.
And batteries can be poorly made and they just failed real early. It happens I guess. What brand of batteries were they?