Exploding tractor battery!

[patti24]

It does, just as you outlined, BUT when the charge in the battery goes down the acid concentrations also goes down as the sulphuric acid converts to lead sulphate on the plates. You should go read about the very complicated process that goes on in a lead acid battery. Anyway the battery fluid becomes more like just plain old water and it will freeze.

Here, this should keep you busy for a while:

BatteryStuff Articles | The Lead Acid Battery Explained

BatteryStuff Knowledge Base Article explaining how a standard lead acid battery works. What is electrolyte? How do you charge a battery? Answers to these and more in the following article.

www.batterystuff.com

HAHAHA
(That will make my friend happy if you can keep me busy…because then I don’t have a list of jobs for him to do when he comes here!! HAHAHA)
Thanks for sending that!!!
I will give it a read tonight!

 

[grsthegreat]

i have a NOCO genius charger. they make excellent products.

i service generators also, and the only time i have had batteries explode are on the older (pre 2010) era generac units that used a crappy old style brick battery charger. always on at 2.5 amps. these would overcharge the battery and sooner or later the battery either dies an early death or exploded. after this date, they use a battery maintainer inside the controller and i have never seen one blow up a battery. Battery heat pads are another issue. they can boil off a battery, causing battery failure and possible explosion. i disconnect every heat pad i find in the field.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'll leave that as an exercise for the student, to ponder the results if timing had been a bit different, and if another human (child?) or pet had been in the neighborhood of the battery...

Yes... the cooking revived a battery that was declared not salvageable and I am still using it today.

Electrolyte was full to ring and caps removed.

Battery was outside in a fenced yard... one man shop... no kids or pets...

 

[Little Red Tractor]

A lesson that I hope was learned here: always wear safety glasses with doing ANYTHING around any battery.

 

[manzer7]

Well that was bloody scary.

I charged the (not entirely flat) battery on my Fordson Super Major overnight and came to start it this morning. Big spark, huge bang, smell of battery acid and battery fluid dripping all over the barn floor.
Everything had been done properly. Correct polarity. It just seemed to happen out of the blue.

Any idea how best to clean the battery acid off the tractor and floor? Hose pipe?

What is is likely to have been destroyed? Alternator? Anything else?

Thanks for any advice

FYI, one thing to do after charging a battery is to make sure that it has been allowed to air out the gasses created when charging. I know we are supposed to do that - but - being human, we forget. It could also be a short in the battery (defective). I saw online where one had a battery maintainer on his battery that was not in use and when he went to get it - it had exploded.

Hope it didn't destroy anything (but the battery) !

 

[patti24]

i have a NOCO genius charger. they make excellent products.

i service generators also, and the only time i have had batteries explode are on the older (pre 2010) era generac units that used a crappy old style brick battery charger. always on at 2.5 amps. these would overcharge the battery and sooner or later the battery either dies an early death or exploded. after this date, they use a battery maintainer inside the controller and i have never seen one blow up a battery. Battery heat pads are another issue. they can boil off a battery, causing battery failure and possible explosion. i disconnect every heat pad i find in the field.

…and…there’s one more thing to add to the list of things I learned today!
Who knew??
batteries have heat pads???

 

[patti24]

I had a 56 IH Utility 330 and never gave a thought to the position of the battery until my friend had a battery explode on his JD M. My present tractor (2007 JD 3320) has a FEL and I would find that in the rare occasions when my tractor needed a boost on a VERY cold morning(didn't give the block heater enough time..or battery was nearing the end of its useful life) getting to the battery was quite the pain..I installed a set of external terminals on the front guard..has made my life alot easier

I didn’t know you could add terminals to the side!!!
Is that a difficult thing to do? That would DEFINITELY come in handy in some of the batteries I have!

You should HEAR me cursing out whatever dummies designed certain things on equipment- like where they put the batteries!!!
A lot of the time it’s because I’m trying to ‘get to something’ in order to clean it/maintain it…you know…like you should…
And… Funny enough…stop for a moment and consider what gender is likely 99% responsible for designing & building this equipment!!!
Hmmmm

Jus’ sayin’…
(Cleaning it? You’re supposed to clean it they say…lol)

 

[Boss 302]

Best advice I can think of is as follows:
. Keep terminals clean
. Keep batteries topped off
. Do not over charge by use of portable units as this will cook all of the acid out
. Most important, always wear PPE (personal protective equipment) when checking batteries

 

[cdaigle430]

Had one blow up in my face when I was a kid....I didnt know any better but my stupid father should have. He was in the loader trying to start it after a boost and I was the one clamping the jumper cables. Apparently there was alot of gas....and BOOM. Acid all over me, my face and clothes not to mention the hearing loss from it.

All he said to me after it exploded was that "Look- you ruined a good battery"

 

[Alan W.]

Last place I worked we had a battery explode on a fork lift. The operator turned the key and nothing happened. He left the key in the on position and proceeded to wiggle the battery terminal. It sparked and exploded.
His coworkers got him to the emergency shower and other than scared he was ok.
His clothes were toast.
I had to send him back for forklift training again since he was not a qualified mechanic and had no business trying to fix it. Company policy.
We were also starting to develop lithium ion batteries for Nissan and had quite a few meltdowns. Serious learning curve then.