boat stink sourc found

[67hat34c]

Last 2 times i was on the boat i notice a sour smell, smelled like rotton head water. This was not problem so i though must be bilge so i bought some tide with fabreeze to clean it with. opened engine room and noted it was warm, thought must be ac compressor making it warm. was working on some plumbing and put my arm on port battery box and noted it was very hot, looked at the charger and noted it was at 20 to 25amps, wires going into the box were browned near the ends. tuns out we have been cooking that battery for last few weeks and the smell was the acid evaporating away, It is a 4D gel battery. shut off bat switch and turned off charger at noon yesterday, at 4pm the battery was still hot. took it home and at 8pm it was still hot. put it behind some bushes away from the house just incase. This morning it was cool. the wires going to the battery were only warm or hot near the battery, cool everywere else, this is not the house battery. charger leg going to the 8D battery was fine and that battery seemed fine. Not sure if the charger is bad and cooked the battery or if the battery went bad and the charger was trying to do its thing. By the way on saturday i was in there and noted the charger at about 15amps and room did not seem that hot. so i am betting on the battery being bad and the charger doing its thing. I am guessing we were getting close to a fire, also not sure if the gasses making me sick, have a bit of a sore throat today. That was my first experience with a battery going bad like this, now I know what it smells like.

Moral of the story is that if something is out of the ordinary, sound/smell or what ever, then you better find out why.

 

[Trojan]

You are lucky! Charging gas from batteries is highly explosive. Its hydrogen gas. One spark and you could have been a Hindenburg Hatteras. NOT GOOD. The fumes are also acidic not good for breathing. Not to mention what they can corrode. I think you need to find out why you are drawing 15 amps on a continuous bases. I run my charger 24/7 and very seldom draw that much currant for any length of time. I'm only charging 4 8Ds. What are you running on 12 volts. Maybe your charger has gone bad.



BILL

 

[67hat34c]

that battery is not the house battery. however it is hooked to a fuse that goes to the bridge, this is original set up. none of those wires were hot beyond a few inches from the battery. battery switch also not hot. connections on battery were clean . If battery had hard failure the charger may have been trying to charge it and did not know any better (some smart charger). Either that or the charger is bad.

I plan to install new battery and then test system out. battery is 4.5years old, not alot of use, kept on the charger full time. it only startes one engine.

 

[egaito]

that battery is not the house battery. however it is hooked to a fuse that goes to the bridge, this is original set up. none of those wires were hot beyond a few inches from the battery. battery switch also not hot. connections on battery were clean . If battery had hard failure the charger may have been trying to charge it and did not know any better (some smart charger). Either that or the charger is bad.

I plan to install new battery and then test system out. battery is 4.5years old, not alot of use, kept on the charger full time. it only startes one engine.

I had an 8D "runaway" like that once. I kept waiting for it to explode taking it out, and it, like yours, remained hot for days. A new battery took care of it....charger was apparently fine.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Check your ground cable for the battery charging system. I had a similar problem years ago on Blue Note, and finally figured out (since I am not the sharpest tool in the shed) that the return path for the charging current was not big enough and had too much resistance. Therefore the overall resistance of the charging circuit went way up and the charger never shut off. New charging cables going and coming solved the problem. Make sure that you have return charging cables and that you are not depending on grounds or returns of whatever dimension to serve as the charging returns.

 

[67hat34c]

there are return cables. appears the last guy hooked it up right. batteries and charger were installed in May 2002. nothing has changed except for the age.

Wondering if the cost of gel battery is worth it. the only thing that would have to be done is check the water level which we dont have to do now.

 

[Trojan]

You said in your original post that your charger was charging at 15 amps Saturday after you removed the suspected bad battery. That is a lot of charge. What is it charging today?




BILL

 

[67hat34c]

saturday battery was hooked up, did not know there was problem, i looked at the meter and i think is was at around 15amps..sunday i went back in and noted warm engine room, battery box hot and noted guage reading more than 20 amps. turned off the charger and cut off battery switch, let battery cool.

 

[Trojan]

Check your other batteries. Use a hydrometer. Look for a bad cell. When you have more than one battery in series the first battery takes the over charge abuse. You will also find that the first cell in any single battery will always be the lowest in fluid. So it may be another battery that is bad and caused the over heat and destruction of your first battery.


BILL

 

[Genesis]

Yeah, pretty common when a battery gets an internal short in a cell.

What happens is that the voltage never rises enough to shut off the "bulk charge" mode. That cooks eveything else in the string, along with the bad one.

There's really no "out" for this from the standpoint of a charger, other than a temperature probe, which could detect the problem and shut the charger off.....

 

[67hat34c]

Trajan,, my batteries are gel, cant ck water.

also no batteries in parallel or series so only fried one. charger has 2 legs one for each battery.

 

[Trojan]

Well! I think I would disconnect all the wires going to the battery and just connect the charging wires to the battery. Then see what the charge amps are. If they are the same as before. I would then try another fully charged battery and do the same thing. If the new battery shows the same amp charge. I would look to repair or purchase a new charger. If the high amp charge goes away with only the battery connected. You have voltage leak. There are other ways to check this. BUT,I think unless you have the proper meters this would be the easiest way to check this.


BILL

 

[67hat34c]

sounds like a good idea.

 

[spartonboat1]

Check your other batteries. Use a hydrometer. Look for a bad cell. When you have more than one battery in series the first battery takes the over charge abuse. You will also find that the first cell in any single battery will always be the lowest in fluid. So it may be another battery that is bad and caused the over heat and destruction of your first battery.


BILL

yea, verily...