Battery Charger

[Reverend Redfish]

Need your thoughts on this one...

3 bank charger, bank 1 and 3 indicator lights show full charge but bank 2 shows red blinking light (no charge).

Went to put the volt meter on the batteries with and without the charger plugged in to determine if the charger might have been broken.... Opened the console compartment door to access batteries and battery/bank #2 had exploded... Completely exploded to pieces.

1) Has anyone heard of this happening?

2) Can the battery acid screw up the fiberglass? It might've been like this for over a week or two.

[Macattac]

I had a similar condition with my 2 bank charger. #2 bank battery exploded. I have sent my charger back in to see what casued it. I think it stuck in full charge mode (based on comparing the readings between the #1 bank and #2 bank) and the battery couldn't vent, so it exploded. The acid shouldnt hurt the fiberglass. I washed mine with lots of baking soda an water, then flushed lots of water thru the area to make sure I got out what I could. Fortunatly mine was in a rear compartment away from any metal or electronics. I will post up when I get the charger back and let ya know what they think.

[Gerald]

Wash out all the acid as best you can. Then use lots of baking soda.....it will foam when it contacts acid. It could take several pounds of baking soda.....depending on how well you can wash out the acid.

[Sea-Trac Offshore]

Battery was low or out of water and charger over charged it.

[speck-chaser]

What kinda charger?

[Reverend Redfish]

That's the charger and whats left of one of the batteries...

[Macattac]

Just got my new charger back from MinnKota. As I said above I sent mine in with a picture of the battery and explanation of the problem. They didnt tell me what was wrong but sent me the new digital model charger to replace mine. I would carefully check the voltage. Based on my conversation with the tech line at minnkota, it should show a a gradual increase in voltage to about 14.6, then after it senses the full charge, slowy drop off. Mine never dropped on the #2 back. Stayed on peak charge. That is what fried the battery and led to the explosion.