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A Fool and his Battery(s)

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ilnadi
Captain

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452 Posts

Initially Posted - 12/07/2004 : 10:14:00

So, when we bought the boat in July, the friend who surveyed her noted that one of the batteries was dead. He also suggested that most people change both if one dies. Not knowing much about boat electrics and charging and still mentally recovering from the trucking and painting bills, I bought one battery at WM and replaced the dead one

. (foreboding music in the background)...

Forward to beginning of November. I notice that one of the batteries cannot start the engine by itself. It's the old one, no big deal. By this time I have read enough about matching batteries that I am nervous about the old/new combination. So back to WM to buy another one, except I cannot remember exactly which one I bought. So we need to go to the boat one of these days and look at the new battery. In the meantime, we keep shore power plugged in to keep the freeze from damaging the batteries (the monkey in the tree is cackling hysterically).

Forward to last Sunday. We find a good weather day, drive to the marina (~2.5 hrs from home). I go to the boat to air it out while the admiral is getting the supreme commander ready. I hear the CO detector beeping before I even get into the boat. I figure the battery in it is dying. As I open the hatches, I notice a new smell. Sniff the head-NO; shiff the sinks-NO; sniff the bilge-NO. While I'm down on the floor, I see that the battery charger is on "bulk charge", odd... I stick my hand under the cushion covering the batteries (the batteries are under the companionway) it's WARM

.

I lift the cover off the battery compartment, the smell gets much stronger, the CO detector goes crazy and I hear bubling. YIKES! I grab one of the fire extinguishers, run out on the dock and unplug the shore power cable. I tell the admiral to take her time and wait for the axe to fall. After a while I go inside and the old battery has boiled over (thank you battery box).

I drive over to the local marine store in Oriental (did I ever mention it is a great store. We now only mail-order what they do not have), buy two new 24's (I even skipped one that was mysteriously $3 cheaper, assuming it was from a different batch) and talk to the guy about my mess. To the grocery store, rubber gloves and baking soda.

Back at the boat, I remove the dead battery and carry it out to the parking lot box and all. I dump some baking soda on it, it starts fizzling and fuming. Not knowing what that does, I run away and watch (later I read up that the soda neutralizes the acid but the reaction gets very hot). Into the boat, I remove the "new" battery and spread some more soda around. Then I clean up all the battery connectors and the bottom of the compartment. The "new" battery tripped and spilled a bit taking it out, so as I was cleaning it up I managed to wiggle one of the covers off and get some soda in one of the holes. I assume that's dead now too. Anyway, I connect the new batteries and everything checks out OK.

I told the admiral she was driving, got a beer from the marina and we went on a 2 hour sail in virtually no wind. I figured I deserved that after 2.5 hours of heart-pounding action. The supreme commander even cooperated by taking a nap in the v-berth.

On the way home, I feel all tired and puky. Great, poisoning on top of everything else. Anyway, the symptoms do not match anything I found in the net, so I assume it was the excitement and getting cold running around.

All in all, we now have two new batteries and clean connectors. Nobody got hurt. I even got a compliment from the admiral on handling the whole thing without throwing a fit or anything into the river or screaming about my fate. I figure the monkey in the tree was screaming enough for both of us.

Nadi ex-C25
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/enka
http://building-spindrift11s.blogspot.com/

Edited by - on

Bubba
Admiral

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USA
542 Posts

Response Posted - 12/07/2004 : 19:24:07

If I'd followed all the advice I was ever given, I'd probably be better off, but I wouldn't have learned much!

Experience is the best teacher, albeit expensive.

By the way, is your battery charger a 2-bank charger? So that it charges each battery independently?

Edited by - on

ronrryan
Admiral

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USA
561 Posts

Response Posted - 12/07/2004 : 19:49:15

Also, is it the type of charger that settles down to a third stage that (theoretically) does not overcharge the batteries? This, by the way, exhausts my knowledge of this topic, therefore, I seek out experts and do as I am told. Ron, Orion srsk SW FL

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ilnadi
Captain

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452 Posts

Response Posted - 12/08/2004 : 08:30:22

Actually it is a 2-bank 3-stage charger. It cooked the battery anyway. Apparently it could not handle one good and one dead (un-charge-able) battery. I'll have to read the manual to see what it says.

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 12/08/2004 : 09:15:03

Glashopper, Confucius says: "good judgement comes from expelience, expelience comes from gleat sclew ups".....

Got to know your boat a little better, might pay off some time in the future on a dark rainy night......

One thought, gel cells are more $$ but you can hold them upside down without repercussions. I have lead acids now, but plan on non-spillers when they expire...

Oscar
C42 # 76 "Lady Kay" (Ex. C250 WB #618)
Georgetown MD/Fort Lauderdale FL

"Hindsight is 20/20, if I knew then what I know now, I would now be living on a small wooden sailboat, making a few bucks here and there playing a guitar and singing songs in bars."

Edited by - Oscar on 12/08/2004 09:18:17

Bill Holcomb
Admiral

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USA
769 Posts

Response Posted - 12/08/2004 : 10:33:57

I'm concerned about a couple items - yup, it might mean another 2.5 hour drive.....
1. If your batteries were adequately charged with your charger in the fall, I'd wonder about the charger now. The reason for my caution is that I installed a "smart" one battery charger shortly after Snickerdoodle was delivered in 1985. That charger worked flawlessly for several years. Then, one winter day I too drove out to the marina and noticed an odd smell when the main hatch was opened. The smell though was one of smokey burnt insulation. Upon opening the battery compartment (under the starboard settee seat in the C25) I immediately noticed that the red "hot" battery wire was melted through about 2" from the + terminal. The charger had failed to "float" and had created enough heat in the + wire that the 16 gauge copper had melted and nearly caught the plastic insulation on fire. There are still lightly scorched markes on the inside of the battery compartment hatch. My advice is to have the charger checked out ASAP.
2. I'm concerned that you had to jump out of the boat and to the dock to turn off the shore power. Don't you have a shore power setup with AC power inlet fitting and a proper (to code) AC circuitry with breaker/distribution panel, master switch, et al??? There's lots of ways to install this sort of setup. Lots of good ideas in the "Tech Tips" section of the website. Here's the like to Snickerdoodle's power distribution setup.
http://www.catalina25-250.org/tech/tech25/tt024.html
3. Finally, you might put one of the following (or all of 'em) on your Christmas list:
The 12-Volt Bible for Boats by Miner Brotherton
Boatowner's Illustrated Handbook of Wiring by Charlie Wing
Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual by Nigel Calder

Bill Holcomb - C25 Snickerdoodle #4839

Edited by - on

Dick Johnson
1st Mate

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USA
40 Posts

Response Posted - 12/08/2004 : 10:42:46

Great story.... I, too, have cooked batteries with a charger that was supposed to go to a trickle after a charge was complete. I have my boat in the water across the Neuse from you, in Clubfoot Creek, just down from Matthews Marina. I now use a solar cell to keep the charge up.

"Lagniappe" sk #5512

Edited by - on

ilnadi
Captain

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452 Posts

Response Posted - 12/08/2004 : 12:51:15

First my assumption as to what happened: the old battery died (not chargeable). The charger continued trying to charge it until the battery overheated and boiled over. The other battery was correctly charged and cool, so I assume the charger did not go bonkers. I am on the road, so I cannot check the manual. I need to see what it says about battery failure. I did not leave the charger plugged in this week, on account of the batteries are new and my nerves are not de-frayed yet.

Second, I actually do have a AC main switch inside the boat and that was the first thing I flipped to stop the charger. Then my brain dug up information about explosive battery fumes and whether the breaker would be spark-proof or not. So I got out of the boat. I unplugged the shore cable to be safe while I was on dock.

I have the 12-V bible and Calder's book, slowly reading through them as the next project is re-wiring the DC and replacing the panel I have (which has 6 switches and one main thermal breaker) with two panels with individually fused circuits. The charger will come out and I'll test it best I can. Being an electrical engineer, I figured the re-wiring would be simple but the more I read, the more cautious I get.

We actually try to go to the boat every weekend, do some small work every time. Last time we sailed before the meltdown we tried to sail across to Clubfoot but had to turn around to be back before dark.

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