Got to the boat Saturday and entered the salon to a strong odor almost like sewer but had a distinct sulfur/sulfate smell. After looking below discovered port battery was cooked. Not sure I had checked acid level when launching (5/18) or not. Battery was HOT. Lucky I got there at the time. Turned off battery charger and removed from boat. What could have caused this? Could battery charger or perko switch be bad on one side (port vs starboard)? I've always left the charger on for over twelve years. Never a problem. Would low acid level cause charger to keep charging? Put a new battery in and watched charging needle pulsate for a half hour. Battery should have had a decent charge so I switched charger off for the week until I get some answers and call the tech.
Battery zapped
- Thread starter JamesG
- Start date
Which charger do you have? Is it a smart 3 stage charger with a temperature probe?
Since you said it had a meter I doubt it. It sounds like you have an older feroresonent charger. Couple one of those to a tired wet cell battery where the fluids may have not been checked regularly and you can have the results you had. It could have been worse possibly not. However I doubt the PERKO switch has anything to do with this. With modern batteries and a smart 3 stage charger this should never happen the charger would shut down when it sensed a fault. How old was your wet cell battery that cooked?
Bill
Since you said it had a meter I doubt it. It sounds like you have an older feroresonent charger. Couple one of those to a tired wet cell battery where the fluids may have not been checked regularly and you can have the results you had. It could have been worse possibly not. However I doubt the PERKO switch has anything to do with this. With modern batteries and a smart 3 stage charger this should never happen the charger would shut down when it sensed a fault. How old was your wet cell battery that cooked?
Bill
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i've had this happen to a couple of AGMs over the past few years, every time it turned out to be a bad battery although in one case (a generator 4D) the battery wasn't even 2 years old.
nothing like that smell in the morning to ruin your day...
check the voltage with the charger on. that's one reason i like having visible voltmeters on a boat, preferably in a spot where you often walk by and NOT behind a solid wooden cabinet door. it helps keeping an eye on things...
nothing like that smell in the morning to ruin your day...
check the voltage with the charger on. that's one reason i like having visible voltmeters on a boat, preferably in a spot where you often walk by and NOT behind a solid wooden cabinet door. it helps keeping an eye on things...
First, there is no negative connection to the switch ("Perko" is a brand, not a type or description) so a problem with the switch wouldn't cause a battery to fail.
A defective or dry battery could cause the charger to charge continuously or a defective charger could overcharge a battery and cause it to boil the electrolyte out.
If you have a multi bank charger, you can tell if one section has failed or been damaged by switching the charging leads to the batteries.
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Lead/Acid batteries use a sulphuric acid solution in distilled water. This acid works on lead plates inside the battery. Over time, the sides of the lead plates corrode (erode) away and little bits of the lead drop down to the bottom of the battery. Over time, these bits build up a little hill inside the battery. When this "hill" becomes high enough to come into contact with the bottom of one or more of the lead plates, you have a shorted battery, which gets hot and gives off the strong sulphur odor because the acid is cooking away. At that point, the battery is "shot" and it's time to replace the battery before it explodes. And it will, if it gets hot enough!
I have never heard of a run away AGM Pascal not saying it can't happen but it is very rare when it is on a smart charger. On the other hand Lithium Ion and Wet Cell I have seen and heard of this failure many times over. You are more often going to have a wet cell battery fail before an AGM unless your talking about the blue top spiral style made by OPTIMA which I believe are hopefully now discontinued (a poor design).
Changed post; OPTIMA not Oddessy made the Blue top spiral AGM series.
Bill
Changed post; OPTIMA not Oddessy made the Blue top spiral AGM series.
Bill
What Vic said.
Anytime any type battery gets a shorted cell that battery will look like a 10V battery to your 12V charger or another battery in parallel. The result is always the same, high current, the battery cooks, sometimes boiling and spewing acid, possibly melting and or burning. Catastrophes are rare but they do happen. That is why I dont like batteries in parallel.
Anytime any type battery gets a shorted cell that battery will look like a 10V battery to your 12V charger or another battery in parallel. The result is always the same, high current, the battery cooks, sometimes boiling and spewing acid, possibly melting and or burning. Catastrophes are rare but they do happen. That is why I dont like batteries in parallel.
Bruce with larger inverter banks and more then 2 batteries in a thruster bank it is very costly to seperate all the batteries but you have a valid point. I generally put the temperature probe on the closest battery but in a thermal run away the sensor doesn't do any good. The sensor is more about the ambient temperature setting the optimum charge rate for the battery's environment not to shut the charger down in a thermal run away. Note to self it would be nice to monitor individual battery temps and report an alarm over a NMEA2000 network which could then e-mail an application alarm to your smartphone. I wonder if there is a patent on this yet?
Bill