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Old 17-09-2016, 19:49   #1
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Battery steaming like a teapot

Serviced my batteries this am and one was extremely dry. It took over a gallon of water. This evening we went out to dinner. When we came him the smell of acid was overpowering. I opened up the compartment and found that battery steaming like a teapot. Is the battery shot? Is it getting cooked by the charger? The rest of the house batteries are fine.
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Old 17-09-2016, 20:01   #2
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Sounds like it is shorted out internally.

Battery case probably bulging out too?

May be best to remove cables for now.
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Old 17-09-2016, 20:08   #3
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

I would remove it from your boat now!



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Old 17-09-2016, 20:11   #4
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

New battery time.


When you connect the new battery, run the charger for a while with the box open and keep an eye on it. The problem may have been caused by two wires in the box touching when they shouldn't. If something is wrong you'll hear a hissing noise pretty quickly.
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Old 18-09-2016, 04:56   #5
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

You did not tell us about the battery bank setup.
I suppose you have house batteries in parallel ?
If that is the case , remove the teapot asap .
Remember you are making hydrogen , that's what made the Hindenburg to blow up , really blow up.

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Old 18-09-2016, 06:07   #6
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Thanks all. I shut the charger off first and the battery cooled down. I've removed it from the bank. How can I test the battery charger to make sure it isn't cooking the system?
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Old 18-09-2016, 06:22   #7
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

All the better chargers have temperature/voltage/current sensors. Doesn't your charger have some form of data screen ?
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Old 18-09-2016, 06:30   #8
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

No, I have a Cristec charger with no digital display. It has 3 lights:

1. ON
2. Boost/Absorbtion
3 Floating

It was in Boost when I shut it down. I'm going to get the new battery in a bit but don't want to fry it too.
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Old 18-09-2016, 06:33   #9
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

It's shot. Replace it.

This is what happens when one cell is shorted. It raises the voltage in the other cells and cooks them.
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Old 18-09-2016, 07:05   #10
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

There are three main possibilities here;
1. The old battery had a faulty cell. If that caused the problem then Dockhead is right - a new battery will fix it.
2. The charger is faulty and is pumping amps into an already charged battery. To put it another way, the charger could not sense when to switch to float mode and lower its output. Because your charger cannot be adjusted a new one might be necessary.
3. Two battery cables are touching and causing the short. This is less likely but you never know.

The only thing to do is connect the new battery, switch on the charger and see what happens. Assuming that the other batteries are fairly well charged then bringing the bank up to float mode should take something like an hour. You can sense the state of the new battery just by touching it. It should feel a little warm but not hot. A charging battery is likely to be around 85f/30c. You can also put a voltmeter across the battery terminals. I don't know the automatic settings but the system should switch to float mode at 14v or a little above.

Hopefully the float indicator light will come on and the problem will be solved.
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Old 18-09-2016, 07:21   #11
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Do a search on the internet on Cristec chargers as there is much interesting information out there.
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Old 18-09-2016, 07:40   #12
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Quote:
Originally Posted by Myknjul View Post
Thanks all. I shut the charger off first and the battery cooled down. I've removed it from the bank. How can I test the battery charger to make sure it isn't cooking the system?
A simple hand held voltmeter. If you don't have one, fix that first.
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Old 18-09-2016, 07:53   #13
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Now , what's the problem ?
You took out the bad battery , start charging with the Cristec , if you see an other battery of your bank getting overheated it's the charger . Period.
If not , it's the battery you took out .
But do remember , if one battery of a bank drops out , there's a fair chance an other one will follow.

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Old 18-09-2016, 08:28   #14
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Very dangerous and extremely toxic!!! Get them out of your ship ASAP. We had similar problem last year with 2 of our 4 house batteries set. They were at the end of their life. We had to replace the hole 4 battery set. Good luck!
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Old 18-09-2016, 08:40   #15
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Re: Battery steaming like a teapot

Toast, don't anything before getting that thing off the boat and the other batteries in the bank need a good evaluation.
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