97 Holiday Rambler chassis battery question?

[ARCA Dave]

Merry Christmas all, Dave here. I have a question about my chassis batteries....I did my periodic check of them yesterday and I had to add some water to the most inboard battery but the outboard one was more or less full. I might have overfilled the inboard one because afterward I saw water leaking down on the ground and had the smell of one of them venting. I checked them this mornng the inboard battery along with the battery compartment are very warm. I pulled the caps off of both batteries, and the outboard battery is cool to the touch, the inboard battery was warm and as I checked the levels, the inboard battery was venting fumes which appeard to be a vapor coming from inside. I checked the level and it seems fine so could one battery be getting over charged or would this indicate a bad battery or something else in the electrical system? Thanks for any input....Dave

[GaryKD]

Hi ARCA Dave,
My assumption is these are 2 12 VDC engine starting batteries connected in parallel. Also, nothing has happened lately to disrupt the batteries. The warm battery may have a short in one of the cells. Batteries connected in parallel will draw on each other and level out the charge. If one battery has a problem it will draw down the good battery. Use a Hydrometer to check each cell. That will tell you the real story.

How old are the batteries?

[ARCA Dave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD Hi ARCA Dave, My assumption is these are 2 12 VDC engine starting batteries connected in parallel. Also, nothing has happened lately to disrupt the batteries. The warm battery may have a short in one of the cells. Batteries connected in parallel will draw on each other and level out the charge. If one battery has a problem it will draw down the good battery. Use a Hydrometer to check each cell. That will tell you the real story. How old are the batteries?

You are correct sir, they are 2 connected in parallel. They are the size 31 and of the 950 amp flavor. I will pick up a hydrometer tomorrow just to check them out. I have the shore power disconnected and will "take the temperature" monday. They have a sticker on them that says 1/08 so I would guess that January of 2008 was the install date. So it looks like they will be starting year 5 next month.....I will post the results when I am able to get them checked, meanwhile, any other ideas are always welcome..Thanks again, Dave