Battery Incident
I've recently returned from our annual 2 week jaunt to the South coast - had the best of the weather, me thinks..!
Anyway, at the beginning of our break we had an incident with the caravan battery - basically, it boiled!
During the second day I notice an odd/unusual smell in the 'van (no comments, please) - it wasn't constaint, it seemed to come and go. Didn't think much of it. On the third morning I was making up the beds - my son sleeps on the front, offside bed - when
I noticed that the bedding and seat cushion were very hot. Removing the lot I found the battery box was really hot... I immediate switched off the charger - switch/control unit under the same seat - and went outside to the battery compartment. On opening it,
the battery was hissing steam and too hot to touch. I removed the securing screw/catch and using a pair of oven gloves managed to get it out and removed the +ve/-ve battery connections. It was still warm to the touch at teatime..!
Anyone else had similar incidents?
It was a correct leisure battery, a sealed unit and about 3 yrs old. We are always on EHU but I do, on occasion, switch off the charger to make the battery 'do some work'. As I said, its a sealed unit but does have an inspection glass/viewer in the top of
the battery but, to be honest, I've never checked it - with the battery secured in the compartment you can't see it and its a faff to get it out...
The rest of the holiday was spent running on the charger only, no battery connected and all seemed fine - according the internal 'van meter, the charger was delivering 13-14v.
I was concerned about the fumes being given off by the boiling battery as it obviously contains acid but we did not seem to have suffered any harmful affects.
I was lucky to have noticed it but if I hadn't or if my son slept on the other side... There could have been a fire I suppose if left long enough - doesn't bear thinking about...