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Old 12-17-2018, 03:10 PM   #1
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Interstate Battery in the Seneca

I have not used the Seneca in three weeks so I went over to the storage unit to check the water level in my house batteries and plug in the unit in to charge. When I opened the battery compartment this is what I found. I hole in the back of the battery that the house power cord is hooked up to.
Any ideas to why this happened, I have a watering system and I keep them charged. Has anyone else had this experience?
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Old 12-17-2018, 03:51 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick-in-Houston View Post
I have not used the Seneca in three weeks so I went over to the storage unit to check the water level in my house batteries and plug in the unit in to charge. When I opened the battery compartment this is what I found. I hole in the back of the battery that the house power cord is hooked up to.
Any ideas to why this happened, I have a watering system and I keep them charged. Has anyone else had this experience?
Battery explosion? Did it blow the caps off that battery too?

I have seen more than one battery blow due to a buildup of hydrogen ignited by a cell short. But the times I saw it was when a battery had been on a charger for a while creating the buildup and then a large draw occurred like during starting. Internal short, built up hydrogen, boom! But you were headed to charge it if I read your post correctly.

Did it spray acid around the battery compartment? You may have some cleanup and corrosion prevention in store for the holidays!

Are those the original batteries? I suppose you could try to get them covered under warranty.
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Old 12-17-2018, 04:09 PM   #3
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Rob, it blew the watering system caps off.
It has been sitting for 3 weeks unplugged not charging. I don't understand how hydrogen could build up not being charged.
I did not notice a lot of acid in the tray or compartment.
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Old 12-17-2018, 04:25 PM   #4
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Rob, it blew the watering system caps off.
It has been sitting for 3 weeks unplugged not charging. I don't understand how hydrogen could build up not being charged.
I did not notice a lot of acid in the tray or compartment.
Rick,
In my experiences as a firefighter and a backyard mechanic that seems odd that it would occur just sitting like that. But I suppose it is possible if it is bad enough. I can relate that on my Seneca's original set of Harris batteries one of them had an internal fault causing it to drain the other three. The bad one would get hot just sitting there, but never to the point of exploding or any other case failure. When I discovered the issue is when I switched to my 6-volt Trojans.
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Old 12-17-2018, 04:39 PM   #5
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I wonnder... if that battery had one of the cells fail by a short, that would really only have 5 cells under a charge of the other 4 batteries. That could cause a charge scenario just from the other batteries in the array. If it boiled the electrolyte down enough that the sulfate bridge failed, could it have caused the spark ???
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Old 12-17-2018, 06:38 PM   #6
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We had a battery explosion in our Seneca just under 3 years ago and none the battery shops could explain why.
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Old 12-18-2018, 05:24 AM   #7
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Yep....Ours did the same thing right here in the driveway. Had to clean it up. Baking soda etc. Repaint the tray. Went with Costco 6vdc batteries and a watering system..
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Old 12-18-2018, 05:46 AM   #8
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Must be something about our multi-battery setups that makes an "explosive" failure more likely. You certainly don't hear about it happening often in cars/light trucks with millions of examples out there on the roads. Or maybe the construction of a "marine" or "dual-purpose" makes it more vulnerable to that type of failure?

Or maybe our units just came with the cheapest batteries possible!
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Old 12-18-2018, 06:41 AM   #9
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Most likely the frequency and rates of charge I would think....much different from my car.
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Old 12-18-2018, 10:37 AM   #10
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When I googled why batteries explode I read about people having issues with the Interstate deep cycle rv batteries. Makes me a little concerned.
I'm also a little nervous about pulling all four batteries out and cleaning the tray and then reinstalling them. Sure would hate to hook them up wrong and zap the electronics. Any words of wisdom and encouragement. If you have a diagram on the hook up it would greatly be appreciated.
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Old 12-18-2018, 11:41 AM   #11
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I swapped out our House batteries this summer, and then the chassis batteries this fall.

In a nutshell... I did this

Disconnect the RV from shore power.
Disconnect any solar or aux chargers you might have.
Shut the power off from the switch at the door.

Get some colored tape and tag every terminal with it's own unique color (use two colors if you don't have enough colors to make each one unique) then take a bunch of pictures of the batteries and cables. (use this to identify where they go back)

Take the (-) cables from the motorhome off first.
Take the (+) cables off one at a time and carefully insulate the cable end in case it falls and hits something.
Take the battery to battery cables off.

remove the old ones and clean up the mess... paint as needed.

Reinstall in reverse
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Old 12-18-2018, 03:29 PM   #12
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Quote:
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When I googled why batteries explode I read about people having issues with the Interstate deep cycle rv batteries. Makes me a little concerned.
I'm also a little nervous about pulling all four batteries out and cleaning the tray and then reinstalling them. Sure would hate to hook them up wrong and zap the electronics. Any words of wisdom and encouragement. If you have a diagram on the hook up it would greatly be appreciated.
If you are planning to convert to 6-volt batteries I have a diagram of how I hooked up mine.

If you are staying 12-volt, I am just wondering if you plan to replace all 4 batteries? It is a general recommendation that all batteries in a specific bank, in our case all 4 comprise our house bank, should be of similar capacity, chemistry, and age.
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Old 12-18-2018, 05:27 PM   #13
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I used to maintain Diesel gen sets in a utility and found it also helps to keep tops of batteries ( the case) clean of dirt etc will also cause problems. Old time mechanic showed me years ago to keep terminal corrosion down he used copper kote the type of spray used on head gaskets
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Old 12-18-2018, 07:43 PM   #14
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Old time mechanic showed me years ago to keep terminal corrosion down he used copper kote the type of spray used on head gaskets
It works! We still put that on our forklift batteries. we use the can with the brush in the lid, but either does the job.
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Old 12-18-2018, 08:38 PM   #15
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Ditto

1. Don gloves and eye protection.
2. Disconnect everything as stated: shore power, etc.
3. I used Robbie's diagram and went with six volts last summer.
4. I added a watering system as well.

So far so good.
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Old 12-18-2018, 08:59 PM   #16
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If you are planning to convert to 6-volt batteries I have a diagram of how I hooked up mine.

If you are staying 12-volt, I am just wondering if you plan to replace all 4 batteries? It is a general recommendation that all batteries in a specific bank, in our case all 4 comprise our house bank, should be of similar capacity, chemistry, and age.
By no means be discouraged to follow Robbbyr's 6volt strategy...

There was one major factor in our choice of staying with 12v batteries... My best buddy is the service manager for a large Trucking / Construction company and they buy batteries by the pallet. I get a top of the line group31 battery with excellent capacity for less than $75 ea. (delivered to my door along with a 12pk of silver bullets to share)

Robbbyr has about 450ah in his battery array with the 4 T-105's We can't get that from our four 12v batteries which are rated about 95ah each.

Price vs capacity was our deciding factor.
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Old 12-19-2018, 12:24 PM   #17
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I pulled the bad battery and purchased another one same make and model.
I was going to just replace that one battery for now. I went back to the rv storage with my multimeter and checked the other batteries that are still hooked up and was getting a 6.5 volt reading. Does this mean they are that discharged or is it because they are still hooked up in parallel?
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Old 12-19-2018, 12:29 PM   #18
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I pulled the bad battery and purchased another one same make and model.
I was going to just replace that one battery for now. I went back to the rv storage with my multimeter and checked the other batteries that are still hooked up and was getting a 6.5 volt reading. Does this mean they are that discharged or is it because they are still hooked up in parallel?
I would disconnect each individually and check their voltage. 6.5 is dead, dead, dead!
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Old 12-19-2018, 12:44 PM   #19
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I would disconnect each individually and check their voltage. 6.5 is dead, dead, dead!
Maybe also try charging each one individually, then test each one with a load tester to see if they (likely not) survived. You still might have another that has failed in the group.

Honestly, at 6.5v on the group... that is way beyond a complete discharge that most batteries never recover from.
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Old 12-19-2018, 12:56 PM   #20
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Thank you guys that I what I'm afraid of that I will have to replace all four at $140 a piece. Ouch!!!
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