Anyone been around a battery when it exploded?

[crazyal]

Until yesterday I wouldn't of answered yes. While digging up stumps I started smelling sulfur, the tell tail sign of a bad voltage regulator. I shut it down and when to get a couple of tools to remove the bad regulator. It's held onto the alternator with two small screws and is very easy to remove. No wires to disconnect, just two internal brushes and one spring contact. When I came back I was about 5 feet away when all of a sudden it blew up. Not sure why (or where the spark came from) since it wasn't running and the key was in the off position. I can tell you it was loud, had my ears ringing for several minutes. There's a steel plate that covers the battery that's held in place with two 1/2" bolts, that blew right off. Snapped both of the bolts, lucky the remaining parts were easy to remove. The cover landed near me. Even though it was a sealed battery both covers blew off, I found one about 15 feet away. The battery case is split on both sides. I'll try to take a picture of the battery this weekend.

$100 for a new Exide battery from tractor supply and $25 for a new regulator and it's back to running like normal.

 

[TomSeller]

The cover landed near me. Even though it was a sealed battery both covers blew off, I found one about 15 feet away. The battery case is split on both sides. I'll try to take a picture of the battery this weekend.
.

Please do post pictures. I have never seen that. Wow! What brand battery was the old one?

 

[mrmikey]

I've blown up a couple, not the batteries fault, mine. We had an old single axle salt truck at work we were repairing and were cutting a part of the spreading body right above the battery. Next thing...wham, off shee goes. We knew better just never thought. I think the biggest piece left was about the size of a softball out of two truck batteries not to mention the stink....Mike

 

[vtsnowedin]

Yes years back in a ton GMC that had a 350 cu. in. V-6. I had the hood up trying to see what the trouble was and was standing right there when the entire top of the battery blew off spraying my face with acid droplets. I was by a river And I ran down to it and stuck my head right in and opened my eyes to flush off any that had got into my eyes. If you can smell the acid don't make any sparks!!

 

[Coyote machine]

You're very lucky to have escaped serious injury from an exploding battery. I've seen it happen at my shop years ago when a truck that came to deliver my wood had a battery explode. Very loud, and real scary. It happens more than most people realize and it can/will do serious damage to anyone near it. Whenever someone on TBN starts talking batteries/starting problems I try to remember to caution to at a minimum wear safety glasses/goggles to protect one's eyes.

 

[Depmandog]

I was dropping off 36v industrial battery for service, like the ones you find in electric forklifts. 2500 pounds or so. Small shop, but they had hundreds of these batteries racked up for repair. They recondition these batteries by replacing bad cells, adjusting of the electrolytes and charging the batteries, etc.

They had just unloaded my battery, and the shop tech was filling out some paperwork when all of a sudden one of their guys did something to cause one of the batteries to blow. Deafening explosion, this battery blew apart with a huge shower of sparks and battery cells going everywhere. I am pretty sure I screamed like a girl, thinking I was about to die or at least was about to be drenched in battery acid. None of their guys even flinched. Apparently this was a fairly common occurrence, at their shop at least. Sure was an eye opener of the potential energy stored in a battery.

 

[Bird]

Never had it happen to me, but many, many years ago one of my employees had it happen when she was trying to jump start one vehicle with another one. Fortunately no one was hurt.

 

[rswyan]

As a fairly foolish young man, I once bent over a battery I was charging for a customer, to see whether it was bubbling real good or not.

Unfortunately, it was ... unfortunately, because I also had a lit cigarette hangin' out of the corner of my mouth ... :confused2:

BOOM ...

 

[Baby Grand]

I worked at a local lumber company in the 70's. We had a few old Macks with flat bed dump bodies.
One of them didn't like to start in cold weather. Normal procedure was to tow it with a chain, using one of the trucks that did start.
One morning there was too much ice in the yard to get enough traction that way, so one of the crew connected up the batteries between the two trucks with jumper cables. Except he got polarity wrong. As we were waiting for the battery to charge before trying the key, we started to walk over to the dispatcher office, who always had a bottle to share. About 10 or 12 steps from the truck, both of the batteries on the no start truck blew up. Very loud, violent explosion that ripped both batteries to bits. That truck got the day off.

 

[tow653]

While jump starting a John Deere 8820 combine,reach around side door to key,trying to start,both batteries blew up. Luckily,my head was inside cab,cuz all the clothes that got sprayed with acid,ended up in trash.

 

[rd_macgregor]

OP (crazyal), I hope you washed everything down really, really well before doing the replacement...

 

[AaronS]

Me...no. My brother, yes. At the time he was a mechanic working under the hood of a semi tractor. Thankfully he was wearing safety glasses.

 

[furnone]

I once got into my '88. Saab, turned on the ignition switch, and Boom! To my good fortune, I just happened to be parked next to an Interstate Battery truck. The drive sold me a battery and installed it for me right on the spot.

Another funny battery story... I was driving a tractor tailer delivering furniture in New Hampshire. It was around 20 below,and I couldn't leave it running all night in the motel parking lot. So, I paid the motel owner $10 to plug the engine heater into an outside receptacle. Well, it seems the receptacle was on the time switch for the neon sign that turned off at midnight. It was noon the next day before I could get a tow truck with a booster.

 

[TomSeller]

Did you get your $10 back?

 

[Billrog]

I was charging a very large battery out of a friends motor home in my shop a few yrs. ago. The next day I when into the shop and started with an angle grinder 24' away when I watched a large spark head across the shop right towards the battery and a very large explosion. There's still brown marks all over the white ceiling to remind me not to do this again and that battery was in small pieces.

 

[crazyal]

OP (crazyal), I hope you washed everything down really, really well before doing the replacement...

I washed myself down with the garden hose even though it was about 45F out including my eyes. Not going to take the risk even though I don't think anything got on me. Surprisingly there didn't seam to be anything wet. After hosing myself down, changing clothes, and getting some rubber gloves I removed the battery. I thought for sure the metal was going to be wet from acid leaking out but it wasn't. With the sealed caps now gone it's easy to see down into the battery and I couldn't see any acid. Of course both sides of the battery are split so they wouldn't hold any acid.

The battery is located in the right step. It's made out of very thick steel because it's designed to be a step and hold two batteries (glad I only was using one). Not long after it happened it started to rain I had removed the battery and left the cover off so it got a good soaking. Without a battery there was no way to start the backhoe to move it so I would of had to get a bucket of water and carry it to soak it down. So the rain was welcomed.

 

[furnone]

Not that I recall.

 

[Looking4new]

One company I worked for back in the '80s was subcontracted to the city for snow plowing, had a Mack that was notorious for not starting when we needed it. The company had the attitude that there was batteries in it so just boost it. The mechanic and I were getting sick and tired of boosting this truck every time it had to go out and he asked me what we could do to get them to replace the batteries. I told him, just blow them up. We hooked a 48V battery charger to them 2 batteries, I had already set the charge rate, turned the switch on and both of us stood back when I connected the extension cord to the live plug. 30 seconds later they exploded. We got the new batteries.
Nobody was injured or even got any acid on us.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

In the 70's we had a International 856 tractor that needed to be boosted to start one day. I hooked the jumper cables and got it started and as I removed the cables, the battery on the tractor blew.

There must have been an angel on my shoulder that day, because the battery was about 18" from my face when it blew. Luckily, it blew out in the opposite direction of my face, and I got no acid or any injury from it.

Since then, I always turn my face when connecting or disconnecting booster cables.

 

[JimRB]

About 40 years ago I was watching someone working on his 69 Camero. He had a new paint job and a new battery along with a new ball joint. The ball joint was important as the wheel alignment was weird before that replacement. Anyhow someone removed the ground from the block. One of his buddies wondered what would happen if you took the battery negative cable and touched the positive. Lesson learned by that kid that your hand smacks the hood of the car when the battery explodes, loud noises, paint gets messed up, and clothes are acid burned with new holes. I was not the one who blew up the battery, but I was maybe 5 feet away. I am a bit nervous around batteries sometimes.

By the way, I loaded this free Grammarly 301 Moved Permanently add-in that checks spelling and grammar. It brings back memories of grammar that I did not learn in English class 40 years ago.