Anyone else ever have a battery EXPLODE?! What can cause it?

[justsomeguy]

So I was at Lowes, and walking out of the store decided to try the remote starter which is part of my new Compustar alarm for my 2005 Astro. The alarm had been installed two days earlier and the Pioneer DEH P9400BH stereo was installed three days before that. When I pushed the button for the remote start, I head the chirp of the alarm, the fuel pump priming and then expected to hear the starter. Instead, I heard an explosion. Like a loud bang. And then smoke came out the grille and a liquid poured out from the engine compartment (turned out to be battery acid - the covers blew off the battery and the casing was cracked wide open on the top and side). I was ready to run back into Lowes for a fire extinguisher, but luckily nothing else happened.

A bit more background on this... the battery was a very cheap one, not old but super cheap (Motomaster 72). I would have never chosen this brand, but it was in the van when I got it, and was fairly new. Even still, I've had the van for 18 months at this point and it got me through two winters already. My new stereo sucks a lot of battery power. The owners manual says not to use it for too long without the engine running as the bluetooth constantly tries to connect. When the guy was installing the alarm, he might have had the key in the accessory position, because he said I need a new battery - mine went dead on him while he was working. He's got 9 years experience installing alarms, and came highly recommended, so I don't know if he did something stupid. And the guy who installed the stereo has been installing since the 1980s. I drained the battery at home listening to the radio for 2 hours with the key in the accessory position, so I used my trusty auto-shut-off battery charger to give it a 2 amp trick charge overnight. It started fine in the morning, but exploded when I was at Lowes, as mentioned above.

But any thoughts on why my previous battery exploded? Had its time come and it was just a coincidence that it happend right after the stereo and alarm/remote starter were installed? Do you think my trickle charger with auto shut off is defective? Maybe using the "start" mode on the charger put too much current through?

[Jasen]

Give that Angle on your shoulder a cookie. Years ago a buddy was unhooking the timing light and the battery blew up in his face. Do you have any idea how hard it is trying to drag a grown screaming man into the house, toss him in the tub, sit on his chest while you pry his eyes lids open while trying the flush his eyes. While sitting in the ER waiting room with an ice pack on my check do to catching an elbow, knee or maybe he just punched me, I noticed my left arm and side of my face were burning a bit. I was 20-25' away and I caught some of the acid. When we got back the house the only thing left of the battery was the bottom of the case, the plates, posts and everything else were strewn all over the yard and street.
A lot of eye drops and wearing sunglasses for a couple weeks and he suffered no notable lose of vision.
To this day I close my eyes and turn my head when hooking anything up to or disconnecting from the battery.

So I guess for some reason, in both cases, there was a build up of acid gases set off by a spark, the timing light in his case, maybe the new remote start, stereo, or alarm in yours. You should closely inspect all the wiring to and around your battery.

[chevymaher]

I am with Jason on this one. Gases from charging. Something sparked and set it off. All it takes is one loose connection.

Over charging a battery causes it to bubble extremely volatile gases. Explosion type gases.

Which is exactly why your not supposed to leave a big battery charger on start type charge other than when your tying to start it. Besides the obvious rattling and destroying the plates in the batt.

I would check your trickle charger. Sounds like it charging more than a trickle.

[justsomeguy]

Wow, that's some serious stuff that can happen when a battery explodes. I'm so glad nobody was near the battery when it exploded. I was about 150 feet away and the hood was closed. I cringe to think what could have happened if I it had exploded when I was hooking or unhooking the charger, or while the alarm installation guy was working under the hood. Just to be sure all the battery acid is gone, I should get an engine shampoo.

My father was quick to blame the alarm installation guy. Knowing that he's got 9 years experience, I kind of defended him, but he may have indirectly caused this to happen. He may have drained the battery by leaving the key in the accessory position for several hours, not knowing the stereo's bluetooth uses a lot of power. Which in turn caused me to drain the battery in the driveway while I was setting my radio presets (I had only driven about 1 hour after picking up the van, so the battery was probably not fully charged). And it was a cheap quality battery.

I'm going to throw out my trickle charger. It's about 15 years old and has always worked well, but maybe there's something wrong with it now. The new battery chargers are much smaller and more portable anyways. Getting back to my old charger, I used the "start" feature just to start the van so I could move it closer to the house. Then I set it to a 2 amp trickle charge. It's supposed to have auto shut off when the battery is fully charged, but I unhooked it after about 7 or 8 hours anyways. Then I drove to Lowes and everything seemed fine. It's when I came out of Lowes that the battery exploded. Maybe a combination of a defective charger, cheap battery and buildup of gasses from being overcharged? In any case, I was planning on getting a better battery before next winter. Now I do, just a bit sooner than I had planned.

Again, I'm so glad that I (or anyone else) was not near the battery when it exploded and the hood was shut to keep the spray and caps from flying far away.

[Big_kid]

I can't say what happened to your battery, but I did have one explode while I was holding/putting a cable to it.

It was a side post battery in a '75 Nova. I'd overtightened the positive terminal and ripped it out of the battery(they WILL break off). I was going to hold it on while a buddy turned the key to start it. Said buddy just held the key over and let ME make the connection at the battery. When it arced, the battery exploded. I got VERY lucky though- it blew the caps off, and blew mostly out the side. My ears were ringing for 3 weeks after that, and I probably did suffer some hearing loss. I flushed my eyes when it happened, I don't remember any ill effects other than the noise damage.

[ccookie66]

So I guess for some reason, in both cases, there was a build up of acid gases set off by a spark, the timing light in his case, maybe the new remote start, stereo, or alarm in yours. You should closely inspect all the wiring to and around your battery.

Wow, when I was messing with my alarm system, every time I connect the wire to the battery it would spark! I'm not going to mess around with that anymore, especially after hearing Jasen's story. And whenever I disconnect or connect the neg. battery thing, it will spark for some reason.

[justsomeguy]

Wow, another story of a battery exploding. Makes me really glad the hood was closed when mine exploded and I was 150 feet away using the remote starter. It could have happened while I was unhooking the battery charger.

Hopefully now that I had a very good quality Optima yellow top battery, it should be good for a long, long time. It's meant to take more abuse than the average automotive battery and they tend to last for quite a while too. I'm going to be extra careful not to do anything that could drain the battery. I have automatic lights that come on when it's dark, so not likely I'll ever forget to turn the lights off (though I could, if I have to turn them on manually during the day when it's raining hard). The less I have to touch that battery, the better! It's in now, and hopefully won't need to be touched for many years. I know sooner or later it will need to be replaced, but this time, I'll do it at the first sign of a weak battery.

I've checked the wiring, everything seems to be good. I want to go back to the alarm installation guy and have him check over the alarm wiring in the engine compartment since he knows it better. And then I want to get an engine shampoo to make sure all of the battery acid is washed away.

[Jasen]

It always sparks when you hook up to it. an over charged battery from a charger or a faulty voltage regulator and maybe even an old wore out battery can vent fumes and then your in a position for a big boom.

Other then Justsomeguy, Bigkid and my experience, I've never heard of it happening before other then in tavern stories.

But I still close my eyes just before making a connection to the battery.

Just to point it out. They say not to talk on your cell while fueling, it's a crock, but a static charge from dragging your feet across the carpet getting out could potentially cause the fuel vapors to ignite when you discharge say when putting the gas nozzle into the tank, I think Furd had the problem recently. When I was just a young lad before driving age I remember gas station attendants standing there smoking a cigarette while filling our tank.