Battery maintainer fire

[kjsifer]

Hello,
I don't get a chance to get on this forum much but recently had an incident that I thought I should share with you folks. I have been using battery maintainers for years. I have never had an issue with them but from here on out I am going to be very cautious with them. Any time you have something electrical plugged in, bad things can happen. I have attached a picture of what happened to my tractor. Thank goodness nobody got hurt and the tractor was insured.

From all indications this fire was started by the battery shorting out or the maintainer catching on fire. The battery was located in a compartment just ahead of the steering wheel. It is a molten glob now. If the fire had started somewhere else I do not think the battery would have been affected like this. The guys at the fire department thought the same thing although there was not an official investigation.

The fire also took out about 50 bales of hay and a couple of spreaders and other various pieces of yard equipment. Just be careful with these things and all battery chargers as far as that goes. If you have portable, battery powered tools I have read where they can also catch on fire. Just don't leave them plugged in when you are not using them.

Kevin

 

[davesl708]

That's too bad. Glad no one was hurt. Thanks for the post. I use a maintainer on my Suburban since it rarely gets used.
I think I will park it a little farther away from the house.

 

[jmc]

That is painful to see. Sorry it happened.

Where was the maintainer made?

For years, I have wondered about all the "inexpensively sourced" electrical devices plugged in around my house. So many ways to take shortcuts in making these products, when low cost is the goal. I have even heard that certain sources have counterfeited Underwriter Laboratories labels for their products.

 

[kjsifer]

That is painful to see. Sorry it happened.

Where was the maintainer made?

Not sure where it was made but it was not one of those cheap Harbor Freight models. This one was purchased at Northern for around $40 on sale.

Kevin

 

[3930dave]

Thanks for posting Kevin, that is a good reminder for all. You lost some equipment, but obviously this could have been much worse.

Any decently designed charger should have fusing or equivalent to isolate it from faults. My Ctek 3300 came with an external inline blade fuse, up by the positive clip - effective and easy/cheap to replace if it blows. Not promoting Ctek specifically, moreso that it's easy enough to add your own inline fuse to any charger. I know from Canadian sources that the counterfeiting that jmc is talking about is widespread, including on high-voltage cable.

While a bit rare, batteries can fault on their own. Always good practice to make sure battery terminals are clean and tight, and that individual cells are topped up to the proper level - good as routine maintenance, and esp. at the end of the season.

Not suggesting there was anything lacking for maintenance on your end Kevin, just wanted to drop those general points into a Safety thread.

You might want to check with Northern if there were any recalls on their chargers.

Rgds, D.

 

[MHarryE]

Many years ago before I returned to the farm my cousin had a Massey, I can't remember what model, sitting in our machine shed, doors open. One morning while he was milking cows a neighbor passing by saw smoke coming from the machine shed and called 9-1-1. First thing my cousin knew he had a fire was when he heard the sirens in the yard. No maintainer attached. Apparently the battery chose that morning to short and it was directly under the fuel tank. Fire department was quick and got the tractor pulled out before anything else was lost, just smoke damage. So don't be too quick to blame the maintainer. Similar item - one time my wife drove me to the airport to catch an evening flight to Europe and, as usual, parked our Explorer in the garage when she got home. Several hours later I arrive at my office where my secretary told me to call home immediately - my wife had called her, something about a fire. When my wife went out to the Explorer the next morning she found much of the interior burned, especially by the driver side door. Fire department's analysis was the power window switch, always hot, had shorted causing the fire. It burned the interior until it exhausted all the oxygen and self extinguished. Four months later we got a safety recall notice from Ford for the power window switch. Several fires had been reported. Too late for ours - the insurance company called it totaled. Fortunate for my wife and younger daughter that the fire self extinguished. My wife said there was absolutely no hint of smoke odor outside the vehicle, and the insurance company inspected the garage for smoke damage finding none. Electricity, a passing fancy, tool of the devil. Why else would he be characterized holding a trident with lightning bolts zapping off the tines.

 

[kjsifer]

Thanks for posting Kevin, that is a good reminder for all. You lost some equipment, but obviously this could have been much worse.
While a bit rare, batteries can fault on their own. Always good practice to make sure battery terminals are clean and tight, and that individual cells are topped up to
Rgds, D.

Agreed, could very well have been a shorted out battery. I had one on the charger just last week inside my shop. It kept taking a charge and the charge kept increasing. By the next day the charger meter was pegged! Apparently had a short in it. Very glad that one didn't catch on fire!

Kevin

 

[3930dave]

Many years ago before I returned to the farm my cousin had a Massey, I can't remember what model, sitting in our machine shed, doors open. One morning while he was milking cows a neighbor passing by saw smoke coming from the machine shed and called 9-1-1. First thing my cousin knew he had a fire was when he heard the sirens in the yard. No maintainer attached. Apparently the battery chose that morning to short and it was directly under the fuel tank. Fire department was quick and got the tractor pulled out before anything else was lost, just smoke damage. So don't be too quick to blame the maintainer. Similar item - one time my wife drove me to the airport to catch an evening flight to Europe and, as usual, parked our Explorer in the garage when she got home. Several hours later I arrive at my office where my secretary told me to call home immediately - my wife had called her, something about a fire. When my wife went out to the Explorer the next morning she found much of the interior burned, especially by the driver side door. Fire department's analysis was the power window switch, always hot, had shorted causing the fire. It burned the interior until it exhausted all the oxygen and self extinguished. Four months later we got a safety recall notice from Ford for the power window switch. Several fires had been reported. Too late for ours - the insurance company called it totaled. Fortunate for my wife and younger daughter that the fire self extinguished. My wife said there was absolutely no hint of smoke odor outside the vehicle, and the insurance company inspected the garage for smoke damage finding none. Electricity, a passing fancy, tool of the devil. Why else would he be characterized holding a trident with lightning bolts zapping off the tines.

Reminds me of one of the higher end GMs (Caddy, I think) in the last decade or so.... I've forgotten the electrical hazard details on that one by now, but what still sticks in my mind was the official recommendation from GM - Don't park it in a garage. This kind of thing happens; unfortunately the word doesn't always get to owners fast enough.

Good examples of why homeowner insurance is (around here at least) a bit more expensive with an attached garage.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Agreed, could very well have been a shorted out battery. I had one on the charger just last week inside my shop. It kept taking a charge and the charge kept increasing. By the next day the charger meter was pegged! Apparently had a short in it. Very glad that one didn't catch on fire!

Kevin

I find that some of the newer microprocessor controlled battery chargers can sometimes be too quick to condemn a battery - the upside of that watchfulness is that they may have assessed a battery like you describe as faulty, early on.

Maintaining a whole pile of equipment, and dealing with whatever else comes up in life, it can be easy to forget a battery on charge. Big commercial chargers often have shut-off timers built-in..... the points raised in this thread can be used to make a case for using an appliance timer on smaller chargers.....

Rgds, D.

 

[kebo]

Wow, that really sucks but I'm glad no one was hurt! I hope that your insurance came through on this accident. Tractors can be replaced easily enough.

Slightly off topic but related.... everybody has left a battery for a cordless drill in the charger for days at a time, right?? Well, I have a DeWalt 14.4volt drill set and I had left one of the batteries in the charger to recharge. Only... I left it in there for days, and when I went to use it, the charger had pretty much melted and deformed so badly that I could hardly get the battery out.

I think the battery was no good after that too (this was several years ago) and I can't remember if it was still hot when I found it all melted, but it really scared me when I saw it. I keep the charger in the garage, right underneath the master bedroom. It had to get pretty close to catching on fire!

 

[tcartwri]

Wow, that really sucks but I'm glad no one was hurt! I hope that your insurance came through on this accident. Tractors can be replaced easily enough.

Slightly off topic but related.... everybody has left a battery for a cordless drill in the charger for days at a time, right?? Well, I have a DeWalt 14.4volt drill set and I had left one of the batteries in the charger to recharge. Only... I left it in there for days, and when I went to use it, the charger had pretty much melted and deformed so badly that I could hardly get the battery out.

I think the battery was no good after that too (this was several years ago) and I can't remember if it was still hot when I found it all melted, but it really scared me when I saw it. I keep the charger in the garage, right underneath the master bedroom. It had to get pretty close to catching on fire!

We had a dewalt charger pop a battery in our service truck. The truck is powered by a 3K inverter with a load sense circuit. When the charger went into float mode the inverter cycled power and started the charge cycle over again... Luckily we were standing next to the truck when it started smoking.

 

[kjsifer]

A friend of mine had the exact model of battery maintainer plugged into his camper to keep the batteries charged. This weekend he was walking by and smelled something like electronics getting too hot. The smell was coming from the battery minder. It was so hot, he could hardly touch it. Do not use these things near a flammable surface guys. They are not trustworthy.

Kevin

 

[3930dave]

We had a dewalt charger pop a battery in our service truck. The truck is powered by a 3K inverter with a load sense circuit. When the charger went into float mode the inverter cycled power and started the charge cycle over again... Luckily we were standing next to the truck when it started smoking.

Present day Dewalt chargers may not have this issue, but I seem to recall that some of the older ones were not rated for inverter use - meaning the factory documentation advised against using inverters as an AC source with certain models of their chargers.

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

This is why I keep trying to warn people about the huge amount of energy stored in a lead acid battery. There should be a very low amperage fuse right at the battery clamp, just enough to allow the maintainer to do it's thing. Otherwise if you have a semiconductor failure in the device, you now have a thousand amps going through that typical low gauge, cheap thermoplastic insulated wire!

I have friends in the business of battery powered systems for utility vehicles and trucks. Every now and then some brand new service vehicle or million dollar bucket truck gets burned down to the water line on account of some failure in the DC wiring connected to all those huge batteries!!

 

[Paystar]

Wow, that's scary. I'm going to think differently about mine now. My atv's are parked and plugged in right next to our bedroom wall.

I've already replaced one maintainer when I noticed the insulation pulled away from the wire right at the unit where the cord moves and bends.

 

[JRobyn]

They should be used only by persons who can understand the dangers and potential for disaster brought up here!

This past weekend, my FIL got a call from the folks house-sitting at his son's. The electric fence seemed to not be working. He went and got the battery. Without a thought or a care, or checking the battery electrolyte or voltage, he hooked it up to his fine-quality Harbor Freight float charger. The one with WARNINGS all over it and the box to "NOT USE ON A DISCHARGED BATTERY". This was despite having TWO regular 2/10/50 amp battery chargers on-hand.

The battery was a little group 51 salvaged out of an old Bronco II, over 6 years old. It took over a QUART of distilled water to fill it back up to normal level. To my astonishment, it took a slow charge OK and didn't blow up either the battery or the charger.

- Jay

 

[drizler]

Good to know. I have one of those running continuously for years now one one unused battery or another. I'm going to make sure to locate that charger in a steel open top box and locate it on something that won't burn. Thanks for the heads up