Battery Explosion

[akadeadeye]

Originally Posted by BirdDoggin

Don,

A couple of questions that can help narrow down the cause, so that we may find a way to help prevent another incident.

While in storage was the RV plugged in to shore power, or does it have a solar charging system? Yes, plugged in. No solar.

Is there a switch that isolates the batteries and what position was it on? I don't know. This is not my coach.

You had said in the original post that it was the house batteries, how many where there? I did not say it was a house battery. I said it was a chassis battery. One exploded. One survived.

Did all of them explode or just 1?

When you say explosion, do you mean flames, or an explosion like the popping of a water balloon? No flames.

What is the status now of the RV and batteries? Two new chassis batteries and a lot of clean up.

Don

[BirdDoggin]

Sorry, I remembered house batteries and not chassis batteries when typing.

A couple of assumptions and a theory....

2 chassis batteries means we are dealing with a decent sized diesel, so odds are a diesel pusher. With that assumption, I going to assume the house batteries (2-4 of them) are the wet type deep cycle, and could even be 6 volt?

The chassis batteries were the sealed no maintenance that exploded , and I'm questing that these where not the type of chassis batteries that originally came with the RV.

So my theory is that his charger for the battery system is a single battery type of charger, it may be multistage and multiple battery, but only one kind of battery can be used for both house and chassis batteries.

The Chassis batteries blew because they did not match the charging system and where over charged.

There are a few solutions, if the owner wishes to use different types of batteries in the house and chassis banks, then he will need to get a charging system that can handle that. They are a little pricey, but usually are a significant upgrade over what comes standard on an RV. There are chargers available that have a multiple battery bank set up, and you let the charger know what type of batteries are on that bank and it charges them accordingly.

The other solution is for him to check and see what type of house batteries and charger he has and buy chassis batteries that are compatible.

I hope I helped and didn't leave you with more questions than answers...

[MattC]

I work on boats. I frequently get calls to repair the damage caused by exploding batteries. It is Far More Frequent with batteries that are in parallel, but it can happen with a single battery. It is more common with an older battery than a new one, but I have seen it with a battery that was one season old.

Matt