Cascade Crew

iansane · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 12:19 am Post subject: Boiling battery?

I've seen some boiled batteries before but today after heading up to a dyno day at the Horsepower Ranch I heard this hissing noise. Confused me because it sounded like when you have a stereo turned all the way up with nothing playing.

I do the drive back to my house (about 40 minutes) and smell something funky and hear the noise again. I turned around saw my battery steaming and it was HOT to the touch. Now the weird thing is this is a BRAND NEW optima battery. Any ideas what this might be? Where I should look? I had thought I had a draw in the system because the battery went dead if I didn't drive the car within 2 days or so. I checked voltage at the battery right when I got home and it was 12.8v with a toasty battery. A couple hours later it cooled down a bit (still warm) and it dropped to 12.2v. Somethings obviously funky but where should I start?

aaron_sK · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 12:27 am Post subject:

Did you ever get that overcharge issue figured out? Cooking the water out of it = no bueno.

Sealed cell battery can still get cooked out AFAIK.

Dewey316 · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 12:28 am Post subject:

moving to the garage....

chevymad · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:36 am Post subject:

That battery is probably over with now.. only a tablespoon of water in each cell, so when it steams... not much left. Car is either overcharging and cooking it, or the battery has an internal short.

iansane · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:54 am Post subject:

Sorry Dew, for some reason at the time I posted I thought that I did post it in the garage. Laughing

I had an undercharging issue before because the alt wasn't grounded correctly but I finally fixed that and the highest the gauge ever gets to is ~13.5v. I figured this one is toast but I didn't want to slap another one in there just to boil it to. Hopefully I just had a shitty one with a short or something.

aaron_sK · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:36 am Post subject:

Can you warranty it out with Optima?

iansane · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:01 am Post subject:

blue89 · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:02 pm Post subject:

What was your charging voltage at and did you check the volt gauge with a multi meter? Interesting.

iansane · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:32 pm Post subject:

When I was having my low charging voltage I was getting 8-10v depending on idle speed (measured at the charge post of the alt). 500rpm hot idle vs. ~700rpm cold idle. After fixing the grounding issue I was getting 12.9 @ 500rpm hot idle and ~13.7v at cold idle 700rpm.

I hooked up the new optima and measured voltage at the battery and it was 12.6v. Haven't started it yet because it's raining and I don't want to drive. Laughing

What do you mean check the gauge?

QwkTrip · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:22 pm Post subject:

Gell cell batteries (Optima) require tighter charging voltage tolerances then flooded lead acid batteries. Also, the hotter batteries run the less the charging voltage should be to avoid overcharging. If you don't have a temperature compensated voltage regulator then the combination of heat and overcharging will explode a gell cell battery in a matter of minutes. Gell cell really aren't well suited to being in the hot underhood location.

You would be better off going back to flooded lead acid which is more tolerant to variation in operating conditions.

aaron_sK · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:32 pm Post subject:

Ian's battery is where the rear passenger seat would be, Jon.

QwkTrip · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:35 pm Post subject:

You know, I've noticed that I'm ALWAYS lost in this Garage section. I think I've made about 5 posts in here ever and all 5 were useless. Laughing

aaron_sK · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:47 pm Post subject:

Lack of working on your Pontiac will do that to ya. Razz

I ran my Exide Orbital in my S10 for about six months being charged by a CS130 without the regulator hooked up (lazy me). Voltometer said 14.5+ all the time. Never once got hot, or gave me any trouble. Still taking it like a champ in my Furd.

That's just been my experience, however everyone always says they don't like being overcharged. Problem is they cost so darn much I haven't been tempted to test it. Laughing

Ian, the Red-Top you sold me for the Monterey has been brilliant. However I've been reading increasing complaints around the interwebs about slipping quality control from Optima. You may have just got a Monday/Friday unit.

chevymad · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:09 pm Post subject:

Technically the optima and orbitals arent gel cells. They're whats called AGM or absorbed glass matting. They actually use liquid acid like a regular battery, its just trapped in a fiberglass matting. A real gel cell is more like a flooded acid battery, but filled with jelly.

As Qwk said though, they're temperature sensitive. If you read any of the literature that comes with them, it says that you can charge them at any amp rate you want... As long as you do not let the battery over 110* or some temp like that. In other words keep it below boiling! LOL.

If you are charging at the correct voltage then I suspect an internal short. When this happens the battery will just get hotter then hell while it discharges itself. It will also get hot from charging because it will pull all the amperage into itself and dispel it as heat.