My bus smelled like Rotten Eggs again!

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Folks,

First, I'd like to apologise for not having alot of time on the board these days... We had some major challanges to overcome

in the recent past and things are looking good now.

Back to the subject in hand. This time the rotten egg smell wasn't my H20 heater like 2 years ago. My whole bus smelled...

It was really foul. After checking all my tanks and fittings, I rueled out the obvious and stuck my head in the battery com-

partment. Two of my 8 battery bank batts had exploded... Blew the tops right off! The two bad batts were sulfating and

penatrating into my coach through the OTR blower compartment. The smell actually burned my nazel cavaties when I stuck

my head in there.. Ok, I shut down the bank and started scratching my head. I just topped off all the batts with distilled water

about a month ago. They didn't take much but, I also forgot to test all the cells with a hydrometer.

I started checking around for batt prices and found that one of my suppliers had a great deal on group 31's and purchaced 8

new ones for $80 bucks each. All made April/10' and all from the same batch and all tested identical hydrometer readings.

Now, I went through all of my programming on my RS3000 inverter and all checks out normally..? So, I'm at a loss as to why

my 2 1/2 year old batt bank failed. The remaining batteries only showed one other with 1 slightly bad cell in it.

Hope everybody is well..
Nick-

[JackConrad]

Nick,
   Years ago, we had a voltage regulator fail on our 4106. Since we had to be home the next morning, I temporarily wired a switch on the dash to energize the alternator. This made the alternator output all or none.  I would run it for a while then shut it off for a while (we were driving all night). The next morning as the sun came up, we were near Tampa and I was tired from driving all night. I forgot to turn off the alternator. When my kids used the bathroom, they complained of the rotten egg smell. I was thinking it was the holding tank and told them "deal with it, we will be home in about 1 hour". When we pulled into our yard and I got out, I could hear the batteries boiling. They were toast.  It sounds like your batteries were overcharging. If this happened while the coach was sitting and plugged in, I would check you charger. 

[junkman42]

Nick, I had the same problem, the fumes even set off My co monitor.  My battery's did not blow up, one of them just decided to do a thermal runaway and boil itself dry.  I now have a circuit breaker in each battery lead in the bank.  I can trip each battery off line as well as each string can disconnect in a short situation.  The reason I decided on the breakers is that there was nothing I could do to stop the runaway because of the fumes and heat.  I had to just sit until the thing ran its course.  I have had a battery in a diesel truck do the same thing so I assume it is not that uncommon.  Just My way, have a good day and consider the breakers!  John L

[robertglines1]

Nick I think the guys have hit it..I was a heavy equip operator for 37 yrs..have seem some go (batt.)only other simple ck is for a dead short in cable.should be a hot or melted spot where it passes thru a opening...I had a grease gun in batt box short out once and blew batt( I was young and dummer then) Bob...

[pvcces]

Nick, it's real easy to have that happen if you don't have temperature compensation on those batteries and they get very warm. A friend of ours lost his house bank because he left it plugged in without the temperature sensor when the weather got warm last spring.

We have had a cell go bad in the house bank which discharged all but one of the other batteries and overcharged the remaining one. It's real hard on things when that happens.

For what it's worth.

Tom Caffrey

[Gary '79 5C]

Bad deal for you Nick, & sounds like you have other problems as well.
If you need any thing I will be around this weekend, I have a guy for batteries who I have dealt with local to the area.
I have his number and he has been extremely competitive.
Now I need to finally install the temp sensor I purchased with the replacement invertor.

Hey All, Have a Great Weekend,

[happycamperbrat]

I appologise for my ignorance, but I am seriously considering buying 10 batteries (wet cell) and live where the outside temperatures remain very hot in the desert (near Death Valley). Although my bus is parked in the coolest spot on my property and pretty much sheltered, it does get HOT. What is a temperature sensor? And are there any other hints for keeping the batteries cooler? Thank you!

[JackConrad]

Our temperature sensor is a lug on the end of a wire that plugs into our inverter/charger. It attaches to a battery terminal in our house bank and monitors the battery temps.  If the temp gets too high it lowers the charging rate to prevent the battery from overheating due to an excessive charge rate.  Jack

[PP]

Nick,
This sounds familiar to a lot of us and I have a feeling there are a lot of reasons behind it. It's happened to me twice in the last four years. The first time was when my basement freezer started going out. Everytime it kicked on it caused the charger to run a cycle on the batteries, by the time the freezer kicked on again, the charger was just finishing its cycle and would start all over again. Those bats were less than a year old.
The second time was when the start batteries fumigated the coach, one of the D's dropped a cell and caused the charger to keep charging in an attempt to bring it up to speed while cooking the battery next to it (popped caps and hotter than a pistol). I know you will eventually determine the problem, but good luck to you, Will

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Guy's,

I found a crack on the bottom of 1 battery which could have led to the battery leaking acid out.

The other one is still a mistery.. I do have a temp sensor on 1 battery lug at the very end of my bank

that is tied to my xantrax RS3000 but, that does no good if other batteries are overheating..

Thanks for the ideas
Nick-

[Ed Hackenbruch]

HCB,  ventilate the battery compartment as much as possible, you might even consider installing a small fan somewhere to help with air flow. Since you are going to be in a hot, dry climate, i would check the water level once a week for a while until you can see how much water you are having to replace. You also might want to get some water miser caps to slow down loss of water.  Letting your water level get low is one of the quickest ways to kill a battery that i know of.

[Len Silva]

All it takes is one bad cell in a parallel bank to take them all out.  I've had the same thing happen.

[gus]

This string makes me appreciate the simplicity of my system, no inverter, no converter, no automatic anything, nothing but four batteries and individual battery disconnects.

[Skykingrob]

Hey Nick
I see where you have had some issues. I have sent you 2-3 messages about the a/c vents and didn't get a reply so thought I might have ended up in your trash. Do you have any infor for me.

Rob
91 Prevost LeMirage XL
Missouri