Boiled Battery

[Walterwontfalter]

I was charging my Orbital deep cycle battery the other night and after about an hour and a half on the 10 amp setting the battery started to boil and gases were escaping from the vents on top. Is this battery ruined or did it just overheat? There's no visible damadge on the outside but I haven't even put a tester on it to see how much charge it's holding. I just let it cool and took it out of the fish house and put it in the garage.

[TTfromBlaine]

did you actually look into the cells and see bubbles? some bubbles "hydrogen" are normal, did the case get very warm? if not it'll probably be ok, I would consider a charger that can control itself. Just double check the cells water level "especially" before charging then again after.

[delmuts]

you can take it to a shop and have them check it for you to . then you will know for sure.

[eurolarva]

How old is the battery?

[Walterwontfalter]

The battery is a Orbital brand battery that I bought a year and a half ago. It did get warm but not hot on the case and it looked like steam rising out of the vent holes and I could hear bubbling.

[Surface Tension]

You must have been using the manual 10 amp setting for conventional batterers? If so then yes you can boil a deep cycle battery.

A deep cycle charger set to automatic won't boil a battery and it'll taper down to nothing once the battery is charged.

As to if you've done any damage to the battery, I'd say probably, its just question of how much. In the future use the deep cycle charger.

[ChuckN]

Is this a NAPA Orbital?

I own a NAPA Orbital, which I believe is the same as the Exide Orbital...different name. I could be wrong, I'd have to look.

Orbitals are sealed batteries and should not leak or bubble at all. With the combination of getting warm like that, it's faulty. Even with an auto charger...it happened to me on a year old battery.

It might have a 48 month warranty, but pro rated after 12 months. Take it in and have the dealer test it. Refuse to take it back and you want to get a new..mine was flat out dangerous and after several visits they took it back (it's gonna cost ya, but sooner the better).

[MNbrewer44]

How is it going walter...

I had to do a lab project on lead acid and lithium ion batteries. Your deep cycle battery is a lead acid battery meaning it can store electricity by converting lead sulfate crystals back into lead. Over time some of the lead sulfate crystals will harden making it next to impossible to convert back into lead ions. This is called sulfation. When this happens the capacity (how long you could run your trolling motor) will decrease. When your battery is charging in the automatic setting it will decrease the voltage output and not overcharge the battery. Your battery was overcharged if it was boiling and releasing gases. Chances are you know how long it takes to charge your battery but because of the decreased capacity it took less time to receive a “full charge”. If you look into your battery at the positive terminal and the plate inside is a brownish color and the negative is white your battery is defiantly toasted. Hope this helps you out. Storing infrequently used lead acid batteries above 75 degrees greatly increases the rate of sulfation. Hope this helps you out