Why is my battery boiling?
05-31-2007, 09:52 PM
#1
DTR's Night Watchman & Poet Laureate
Thread Starter
Why is my battery boiling?
Ok, got the new to us horse trailre with living quarters, has one start/deep cycle battery, and a 12V invertor.
Have had the trialer plugged into a 110 outlet all week while I checked that everything worked. Everythign has been fine, all interior lights, the water pump, the fridge and microwave... all good.
This eveing I unhooked it all, and moved it back by the barn so i could start letting the horses get used to loadign in a new trailer....
Trailer was disconnected from teh 110 for about 4 hours, during which time some lights were on in a storage area unbeknownst to me....
When i hooked it back up to 110, it blew the 15amp fuses to the water pump, and started chirping( low voltage warning)....replaced the fuses and checked the electrical, found the batteyr was boiling and smelled something firce, was making bubbles out of the vent caps and had steam rising off of it also
I shut down the power, disconnected and removed the battery from teh trailer, figured it was totally drained and was charging too fast.........
Whiel I am removing battery from teh area of the house and barn, the wife plugs trailer back in and turns on interior lights.. every bulb in the ceilign lights blew out!!!!
Hooked battry up to a trickle charger and it is showing battery is over charged..........
I am thinking it is low on water( not a sealed battery) and needs refilled and slowly recharged.. or is it toast once it has gotten that hot?
COuld this be a sign of somethign major wrong with the charging/electrical system?
Shouldnt the lights still have worked OK without the battery being hooked up????////
We both took tomorrow off work to out to the lake, the BOSS is NOT happy.........
Have had the trialer plugged into a 110 outlet all week while I checked that everything worked. Everythign has been fine, all interior lights, the water pump, the fridge and microwave... all good.
This eveing I unhooked it all, and moved it back by the barn so i could start letting the horses get used to loadign in a new trailer....
Trailer was disconnected from teh 110 for about 4 hours, during which time some lights were on in a storage area unbeknownst to me....
When i hooked it back up to 110, it blew the 15amp fuses to the water pump, and started chirping( low voltage warning)....replaced the fuses and checked the electrical, found the batteyr was boiling and smelled something firce, was making bubbles out of the vent caps and had steam rising off of it also
I shut down the power, disconnected and removed the battery from teh trailer, figured it was totally drained and was charging too fast.........
Whiel I am removing battery from teh area of the house and barn, the wife plugs trailer back in and turns on interior lights.. every bulb in the ceilign lights blew out!!!!
Hooked battry up to a trickle charger and it is showing battery is over charged..........
I am thinking it is low on water( not a sealed battery) and needs refilled and slowly recharged.. or is it toast once it has gotten that hot?
COuld this be a sign of somethign major wrong with the charging/electrical system?
Shouldnt the lights still have worked OK without the battery being hooked up????////
We both took tomorrow off work to out to the lake, the BOSS is NOT happy.........
05-31-2007, 10:45 PM
#2
Registered User
I'd have the onboard charger looked at. I don't recall the make/model, but there are several threads about a bad model on rv.net.
If the plates are exposed through low water, you could recover some or most of the battery....http://www.trojanbattery.com/ has a VERY good tech section about general charging and recovering batteries.
HTH
Tony
If the plates are exposed through low water, you could recover some or most of the battery....http://www.trojanbattery.com/ has a VERY good tech section about general charging and recovering batteries.
HTH
Tony
05-31-2007, 11:34 PM
#3
Proprietor of Fiver's Inn and Hospitality Center
You say you have a deep cycle battery and an "inverter". Do you really mean inverter or a "converter"???? A converter is really a battery charger of sorts used in RV applications.
If you have the normal cheap (which a horse trailer would probably have) converter, it charges your batteries at a rather high voltage. You cannot leave them plugged in for long periods of time - - they do not back off the voltage once the battery is charged but keep hammering away at it and boil out the water. Either leave it plugged in for short periods of time such at 4 - 6 hours at a time, or invest in a converter with "smart charge" technology. It will normally pay for itself in a couple years by the number of batteries you will not burn up.
If the lights in the trailer were turned on with no battery in it but plugged into shore power, that converter would be applying a rather high voltage to your lights - - it could easily blow out the bulbs. The battery tends to keep the voltage a little lower until overcharged.
Bob
If you have the normal cheap (which a horse trailer would probably have) converter, it charges your batteries at a rather high voltage. You cannot leave them plugged in for long periods of time - - they do not back off the voltage once the battery is charged but keep hammering away at it and boil out the water. Either leave it plugged in for short periods of time such at 4 - 6 hours at a time, or invest in a converter with "smart charge" technology. It will normally pay for itself in a couple years by the number of batteries you will not burn up.
If the lights in the trailer were turned on with no battery in it but plugged into shore power, that converter would be applying a rather high voltage to your lights - - it could easily blow out the bulbs. The battery tends to keep the voltage a little lower until overcharged.
Bob
05-31-2007, 11:52 PM
#4
sounds like my second battery in my truck a couple weeks ago. It would gurgle when I hooked it back up, and smelled like rotten eggs or somthing, and it then killed the other battery dead. So i just replaced both batteries and its back to normal. Mine happened after I unhooked it and did some welding, and other things, but it was unhooked so I really don't know what happened to them, because it slowly lost it's charge, and finally wouldn't even hold a charge or jump start.
06-01-2007, 12:23 AM
#5
Registered User
Sometimes if one cell shorts internally, it then causes an overcharge in the other cells, but... the converter should not have run high enough voltage to pop light bulbs- so I would suspect a faulty converter.
How tough is it to gain access to the converter? Can you unhook the 12v leads from the converter (so as not to damage any appliances or whatever) and plug it in and take a voltage reading?
Might also post what kind of converter it is.
Time will tell with the battery. Don't overfill it.
If you do need a new converter/charger, Progressive Dynamics seem to be well respected and a reasoable value. If I recall correctly the 9100 series has a port to connect a "Charge Wizard" for computer controlled multi-stage charging and the 9200 has those features built in.
Essentially it lets the charger run higher voltage when the batterys are deeply discharged (and can handle the higher rate of charge w/o loss of water). Then it drops into Normal mode until fully charged, and after a period of no use it switches to storage mode so it can remain plugged in w/o overcharging or drying out the battery...
When my cheap-o converter dies, that would probably be the route I'd go...
How tough is it to gain access to the converter? Can you unhook the 12v leads from the converter (so as not to damage any appliances or whatever) and plug it in and take a voltage reading?
Might also post what kind of converter it is.
Time will tell with the battery. Don't overfill it.
If you do need a new converter/charger, Progressive Dynamics seem to be well respected and a reasoable value. If I recall correctly the 9100 series has a port to connect a "Charge Wizard" for computer controlled multi-stage charging and the 9200 has those features built in.
Essentially it lets the charger run higher voltage when the batterys are deeply discharged (and can handle the higher rate of charge w/o loss of water). Then it drops into Normal mode until fully charged, and after a period of no use it switches to storage mode so it can remain plugged in w/o overcharging or drying out the battery...
When my cheap-o converter dies, that would probably be the route I'd go...
06-01-2007, 08:15 AM
#6
DTR's Night Watchman & Poet Laureate
Thread Starter
OK it is a converter, not invertor... the manual says it will charge the battery, then when the battery is at full charge, drop to a maintenance charging rate. I am supposed to be able to leave the trailer hooked up to shore power ( 110VAC) indefinitely.
The ground wire from the battery to the frame is scorched.
there is a spot light on the rear of the trailer that had been wired into the turn signal circuit. . I corrected this day before yesterday, by changing a couple of wires in the trailer plug.. the aux wire had been contacting the turn signal wire in the plug and I separated the two.
Prior to doing this the spot light( for loading horses in the dark) wouldn't work at all unless the turn signal was on , now it is running off the trailer 12V power.
I am wondering if I have a really bad short in this circuit and if this could have caused the problem.
This light got left on and drained the battery while the trailer was disconnected from shore power.
I turned on some of the 12 V lights and such this morning with no problem, they worked fine.
I think I am going to disconnect the loading light and see what difference that makes.....
The ground wire from the battery to the frame is scorched.
there is a spot light on the rear of the trailer that had been wired into the turn signal circuit. . I corrected this day before yesterday, by changing a couple of wires in the trailer plug.. the aux wire had been contacting the turn signal wire in the plug and I separated the two.
Prior to doing this the spot light( for loading horses in the dark) wouldn't work at all unless the turn signal was on , now it is running off the trailer 12V power.
I am wondering if I have a really bad short in this circuit and if this could have caused the problem.
This light got left on and drained the battery while the trailer was disconnected from shore power.
I turned on some of the 12 V lights and such this morning with no problem, they worked fine.
I think I am going to disconnect the loading light and see what difference that makes.....
06-01-2007, 10:49 AM
#7
Registered User
What kind of voltage reading are you getting out of your converter?
What kind of voltage reading do you get from the battery, now that it's sat for a while?
When you say the light got left on and drained the battery, did it get drained to flat dead? If so, how long was it like that?
What kind of voltage reading do you get from the battery, now that it's sat for a while?
When you say the light got left on and drained the battery, did it get drained to flat dead? If so, how long was it like that?
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06-01-2007, 12:26 PM
#8
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This may or may not help.... I see alot of power inverters/convertors being used in my line of work. I have been able to chase some electricial issues (shorts/engines throwing codes for no clear reason...etc..) to what I call A/C ripple voltage. Chargers and inverters allow some small amounts of A/C voltage into the D/C outputs. Some is normal and acceptable. But when it gets excessive, the problems start. I had a customer try and run his engine straight off of the power inverter....wouldn't work. There was no battery to absorb the ripple voltage. May be why you blew lights out???... The normal cure for this condition is to make sure you have good clean grounds everywhere...on the A/C side and the D/C side.. Hopefully some of this will apply to your situation... Food for thought!!.. Good Luck!
06-01-2007, 04:12 PM
#9
DTR's Night Watchman & Poet Laureate
Thread Starter
Well, it is measuring 13.74 volts at the convertor output to battery, and after installing a new batt, everything seems to be fine...13.74 volts on teh DC circuits at the fuse panel and everything seems to work OK... and it is a Prestige brand convertor BTW........
not sure what may have caused the problems.....
old battery had gone almost bone dry anmd had heavy white build-up between teh plates that were visible through the vent holes... I think the previous owner must have put tap water into it and the white is calcium... battery simply shorted between plates...
that sound reasonable?
not sure what may have caused the problems.....
old battery had gone almost bone dry anmd had heavy white build-up between teh plates that were visible through the vent holes... I think the previous owner must have put tap water into it and the white is calcium... battery simply shorted between plates...
that sound reasonable?
06-01-2007, 05:22 PM
#10
Registered User
Earlier you said something about a light got left on that killed the battery?
If it got drained down to 0 and sat that way for a while, that might have destroyed it.....
Anyhow, glad it's up and running with just a new battery.
If it got drained down to 0 and sat that way for a while, that might have destroyed it.....
Anyhow, glad it's up and running with just a new battery.
06-01-2007, 06:18 PM
#11
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06-12-2007, 11:55 AM
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It sounds like your battery may have "Sulfated", or shorted itself out. Normally this is terminal.
New battery is the answer. if you can fit (2) 6 volt golf cart batterries(in series), this will provide the best service/cost ratio, as well as reserve. Keeping the water(distilled) up is mandatory.
New battery is the answer. if you can fit (2) 6 volt golf cart batterries(in series), this will provide the best service/cost ratio, as well as reserve. Keeping the water(distilled) up is mandatory.
06-12-2007, 04:13 PM
#13
Registered User
Yeah, leaving a battery fully discharged will cause it to sulfide.
I've also seen people over fill batteries. The electrolyte level will rise as a battery is charged, and will also rise when the battery is warmer. If you fill one to just below the caps when it’s cold and discharged, and then put it on the charger it will spit out quite a bit of electrolyte. If enough gets on top of the battery to bridge between the terminals that can create a discharge.
If the batteries are in a tough spot to get to for checking electrolyte level, and you have the money, AGM’s could be worth having…
I also prefer to run industrial 6v batteries in series or one huge capacity 12v deep cycle instead of two 12v’s in parallel, but since Chrisreyn already snagged a new battery I didn’t bring it up…
I've also seen people over fill batteries. The electrolyte level will rise as a battery is charged, and will also rise when the battery is warmer. If you fill one to just below the caps when it’s cold and discharged, and then put it on the charger it will spit out quite a bit of electrolyte. If enough gets on top of the battery to bridge between the terminals that can create a discharge.
If the batteries are in a tough spot to get to for checking electrolyte level, and you have the money, AGM’s could be worth having…
I also prefer to run industrial 6v batteries in series or one huge capacity 12v deep cycle instead of two 12v’s in parallel, but since Chrisreyn already snagged a new battery I didn’t bring it up…
06-13-2007, 05:14 AM
#14
DTR's Night Watchman & Poet Laureate
Thread Starter
Well the one I bought is sealed, but I am always interested in learning.. soooooo,
Why woudl two 6v in series be better than one deep cycle 12v?
and when/where/how is the proper way to check electrolyte level adn fill a battery??
Why woudl two 6v in series be better than one deep cycle 12v?
and when/where/how is the proper way to check electrolyte level adn fill a battery??
06-13-2007, 08:17 AM
#15
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It has more to do with bang for the buck. Batteries are rated by their Amp/hours of storage. It comes down to the fact that you can get 2 Golf Cart batteries for about $50 each. These may be built better than the average deep cycle battery, due to the demands. There are industrial grade that are even better. You will spend way more on 1 battery, 12V, that will have the reserve of (2) 6 volt.
I am sure other members here can give you the formulas and specs, but it comes down to the above. Search on batteries, there is hours of reading.
The (2) important laws of batteries, keep them in water, properly(Not overfill), and keep them charged. Northen has a trickle/desulphate charger for aboy $45 that is excellent for keeping all your batteries up.
Also, if leaving your RV for more than 30 days, pull the batteries, take them home, keep them charged. Always, disconnect the ground wire or use a cut off switch to prevent "mystery" discharge.
Battery 101, plain and simple.
Others may have some further suggestions!
I am sure other members here can give you the formulas and specs, but it comes down to the above. Search on batteries, there is hours of reading.
The (2) important laws of batteries, keep them in water, properly(Not overfill), and keep them charged. Northen has a trickle/desulphate charger for aboy $45 that is excellent for keeping all your batteries up.
Also, if leaving your RV for more than 30 days, pull the batteries, take them home, keep them charged. Always, disconnect the ground wire or use a cut off switch to prevent "mystery" discharge.
Battery 101, plain and simple.
Others may have some further suggestions!