Burst tm battery

This is a new one for me. Didn’t do anything differently than any other year when I put the boat away this winter. Topped it off on the charger, disconnected, and let it sit. This Interstate 27dc lives in the bow compartment for the trolling motor. Cracked open the hatch today to put the battery on the charger and found a leaky mess of partially frozen fluids in the tray and on the carpet around the tray. The battery is swollen and the case split open in 4 separate areas. Any ideas? I’m thinking trapped gasses, internal short circuit, boom? No signs of damage or debris anywhere else in the hatch though. Guess I’ll be bringing the batteries in the house for the winter from now on.

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Looks like it froze. Were their wires still connected to it, if so there was a power draw.

im guessing it didnt hold its charge and froze. batteries can freeze if they dont not have enough charge in the winter

It was disconnected, no power draw. It was fully charged when I disconnected it and nice never had issues with it not holding charge, but that’s possible.

From what I’m reading, fleet farm is not gonna replace it under warranty.

I had the same thing happen to my interstates this year also. Stored them the same I always do.

The lower the charge, the higher the freezing point. Either the battery wasn’t charged or it drained.

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Looks like it froze. Maybe that battery had a bad cell allowing it to freeze.

hopefully it doesnt start eating holes through things

Coletrain27 wrote:

hopefully it doesnt start eating holes through things

Fleet farm replaced it, which surprised me.

^ I’m worried about that too. The piece of carpeted wood in the now compartment looks easy enough to remove so I might pull it out and replace it. I think the leak only hit carpet but kind of wanna be safe and clean up under there.

I’ve seen several frozen batteries and none of them split open in 4 places but I guess it could happen.

Definitely clean the area with water to dilute the acid.

Dave maze wrote:

Definitely clean the area with water to dilute the acid.

Better to use a baking soda solution. Baking soda will neutralize the acid.

I agree that it looks like it froze.

Only once in my life have I seen a battery go “boom”

The case was blown into hundreds of pieces and it was a violent explosion.

It was a lead acid Interstate starting battery on a 45k diesel generator. My operator went to start it like he had a thousand times before. As soon as the starter engaged, it turned into a bomb and blew the doors open on the generator. We were lucky nobody was hurt. I’ll never forget it.

How old was the battery? If a lead-acid boat battery is over 5 years old, you’re playing with fire. In the fall, disconnect all leads and tie-wrap them together. In the spring, clean all the leads and battery posts before re-attaching. I keep a chart of voltage on both batteries before storage (fall) and after storage (spring). If there’s any significant change over the winter, replace the battery.

Absolutely frozen 100%. I pull all my batteries from the boat when it is stored and keep them in the attached garage off of the concrete and charge them with a smart charger over the winter. I hope they do warranty it but honestly they can deny it because it froze. Good luck DW

B-man wrote:

I agree that it looks like it froze.

Only once in my life have I seen a battery go “boom”

The case was blown into hundreds of pieces and it was a violent explosion.

It was a lead acid Interstate starting battery on a 45k diesel generator. My operator went to start it like he had a thousand times before. As soon as the starter engaged, it turned into a bomb and blew the doors open on the generator. We were lucky nobody was hurt. I’ll never forget it.

We just had two of the 6 batteries on a Fire Truck blow up.
When it’s a gas/ventilation problem the top area (where the gas builds up) blows the top of the battery off normally in pieces. Those froze.

Baking soda and water are now your best friend (and Feet Farm!).

B-man wrote:

Only once in my life have I seen a battery go “boom”

The case was blown into hundreds of pieces and it was a violent explosion.

I had one blow when hooking up to jump a battery… all that was left was 2 posts and debris every direction for 30yds. Cannot believe I didn’t go blind.

Hearing loss in that ear from that explosion… like a 12ga.

Related safety note:
Hook up jumpers in the correct order and do not over charge a battery.
Hook up to dead battery LAST.
DO NOT hook up to an over charged outgassing Battery last…boom!

Yeah, clean the boat up! All my clothes were trash after that incident.

B-man wrote:

Only once in my life have I seen a battery go “boom”

The case was blown into hundreds of pieces and it was a violent explosion.

It was a lead acid Interstate starting battery on a 45k diesel generator. My operator went to start it like he had a thousand times before. As soon as the starter engaged, it turned into a bomb and blew the doors open on the generator. We were lucky nobody was hurt. I’ll never forget it.

Wow that is downright scary.

Musky Ed wrote:

Looks like it froze. Were their wires still connected to it, if so there was a power draw.

Definitely froze. The battery was probably weaker and didnt hold charge since you didnt have a trickle charger on it once it dropped below a certain voltage it froze. Either remove the batteries or keep a trickle charger on it.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and advice. Definitely sounds like it froze. Fleet Farm went above and beyond and replaced it for free. I picked up a second one to give them some business and will run them parallel for longer runtime.

Getting out there with the baking soda this morning.

Ron, to answer your question the battery was only 20 months old and was still performing well late last fall.

I’ve always charged it as soon as I get home and never leave anything connected when not using. My boat sits in an attached (not heated) garage all winter and I’ve never had any issues. This has me questioning my charger now, so I may end up upgrading there as well.

Did you check the water level in the cells prior to storing? If not, the water levels may have been low. Your charger may have shown “full charge”, but lack of water allowed for a weaker battery going into the winter – losing voltage quicker and being prone to freezing.

docfrigo wrote:

Did you check the water level in the cells prior to storing? If not, the water levels may have been low. Your charger may have shown “full charge”, but lack of water allowed for a weaker battery going into the winter – losing voltage quicker and being prone to freezing.

That’s very possible, I did not check the water levels. That said, I think I’m still gonna start over with a new Noco onboard unit. I’ve been using an older diehard portable charger, it’s done the trick but I will appreciate the convenience of an onboard charger.

dirtywater wrote:

but I will appreciate the convenience of an onboard charger.

Yes you will, I love mine.

This is another example of why you want you batteries in a plastic container per DNR regs. Hopefully, you didn’t compromise your hull with the acid.

Dee J Anders wrote:

This is another example of why you want you batteries in a plastic container per DNR regs. Hopefully, you didn’t compromise your hull with the acid.

The word “battery” never appears in the DNR’s boating guide.

I believe there’s a law that “boats for hire” need to have batteries with plastic covers.

Mine was in a standard plastic tray as rigged by the dealer, and as I’ve seen in almost every boat I’ve ever been aboard.

Doesn’t look like any acid made its way to the hull. Baking soda has been sitting all over the affected area of carpet for several hours now. Gonna vac that all out, give it a good scrub, and vac again.

MN Boating Equipment Regulations

Drop down to the last line on the page.

Subp. 5. Battery covers. All batteries must be covered with battery covers to eliminate sparking or arcing.

It’s a Federal Reg that the DNR adopted…but from what I’ve seen, is never enforced. For a long time I thought it was just a WI thing.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

MN Boating Equipment Regulations

Drop down to the last line on the page.

Subp. 5. Battery covers. All batteries must be covered with battery covers to eliminate sparking or arcing.

It’s a Federal Reg that the DNR adopted…but from what I’ve seen, is never enforced. For a long time I thought it was just a WI thing.

Aware of this. I could be wrong, but I don’t see any proof that the DNR has adopted this because the DNR doesn’t include it in the boating regulations that they publish.

On that revisor page, this is part 5225.6500. If you back out from there to chapter 5225, it’s titled “Boilers and Boats” and is attributed to the dpt of labor and industry. If you go to the very first section entitled “Scope” (part 5225.0010), it’s clear that this chapter applies to “boilers, pressure vessels, appurtenances, and boats for hire.”

I can’t see how any of this pertains to me in my 16ft tiller.

Much like the fish and game rules that are handed out when a person buys a license, those are just a synopsis.

However after spending another 15 minutes searching the MN Rules, I can’t find anything that would say they need to be covered either…although I haven’t checked the Federal Regulations for the rivers…

I do stand corrected and thanks for taking the time to follow up!