Battery chargers?

Yesterday in response to Mama's statement that she and the dog heard a loud bang the night before, I started looking around. I found the 6 volt battery in my John Deere M had self destructed quite catastophically. I had put my old Century charger on it that day and I'm thinking now that there was a failure in the charger that caused the battery to overheat.
Anyhow I've junked that charger and need to replace it.
Has anyone used a Schumacher SC-600A 6 or 12 volt charger? I see these on Fleabay frequently and wonder if they are worth buying. I cannot find a 6 volt charger locally and have even had kids at Autozone tell me there's no such thing as a 6 volt battery.

Isn't that a 6 volt battery? Charging with 12 volts may have played a hand in it. You can get a Schmacher model number SE-40025 from this web site. Hal


http://www.absolutebattery.com/chargers.htm

Not the charger fault. Any Lead/Acid Battery under charge generates hydrogen gas. Any spark can set it off. REMEMBER THE HINDINBURG !!!!!

Kent

The charger I used and junked was a 6 volt charger.

That's the confusing part, the charger had been on the battery for almost 8 hours. and nobody was around it. Where did the spark come from? I have no idea. This would be more understandable if it had happened hooking up the charger or jumper cables.

Maybe I missed it in the picture, but I don't see any burn marks to indicate a fireball. Did you loosen the caps on the battery before charging? I have seen a number of old batteries with plugged vents. A battery charger will generate more hydrogen than the factory generator, so it would develop more pressure than normal charging. Maybe it built pressure until the weakest component failed.

Anyway, it's just a thought...

The spark could have come from STATIC electricity.

Kent

REMEMBER THE HINDINBURG !!!!!

Kent

Click to expand...

Actually, to go a little off topic....

The Hindenburg didnt burst into flames because of the hydrogen inside of it. The zeppelin was painted using a mixture that included powdered aluminum oxide. This is commonly used today as solid rocket propellant. When the blimp came into dock, it lowered its ropes so that the ground crew could grab them and pull it in. However, this was during a fierce rainstorm with plenty of lightning. The ropes got wet, and became like grounding rods, making the big floating metal thing a really easy target for lightning strikes.

After a few, the bladder itself began to burn from the aluminum oxide.

The famous picture with the flames coming off of it is actually of the fuel for the engines burning (the fire is below the ship, from the falling fuel)

If the hydrogen had been what caused the fire, the entire top would have exploded, rather than burned. Also, the flames would be going up, since the hydrogen would rise, rather than falling.

Ok, done with the OT posting...

Sounds like something wiggled the cables and caused a spark. With the hydrogen of charging being set off BOOM.

According to the date on the battery you got good service from it

Here's that charger. Hal

I've got a Harbor Freight 6/12v charger I've had several years. It also has start boost on it. Only thing I don't like about it is it won't charge below 10 amps in the 6v mode. It will in 12v mode. I have a couple antique motorcycles with 6v that needs to be charged at 2amp and I use this and so far so good.

I doubt that the charger was at fault. Loose internal connections between the plates or cells can spark and cause such explosions.

Call 1-800-621-5485 on the SC-600A charger. Hal

Ditto to what Busdriver said.

I have picked up several small chargers at the local pawn shop.

I use them on my electrolysis tank. When I charge a battery, I set it outside the shop on a board. If its raining, I have to put a bucket over the charger. I never charge a battery indoors for this very reason your pictures show so well.

We always disconnected the battery on our old Gleaner F when we quit for the night. My dad was always scared of fire. Anyway the wrench I was using hit the side of the frame one evening when I had ran the combine hard all day. I guess the battery was fully charged, when the wrench sparked, BLAMMMMMM!!!! Scared the bejabbers out of me. Luckly I was not hurt, but I got a firsthand lesson on how batterys worked.


Gene

just looked at the picture on Wikipedia, looks like upper rear end of the aircraft burned first

My local Walmart carries that Schumacher model that can handle both 6 and 12 volts. Can't remember price though.

Had a funny experince charging a delco battery for a customer.Put it on a slow charge(sealed battery) Later on there was a loud boom .Battery had blown up ,breaking a pvc water line allowing water under pressure to shoot into the office where my wife was doing paper work.Iran into the shop closing the door behind me,turned off charger before anything else could short out.Tried to shut off water,but valve was broken off,found meter wrench ,but it was partialy stuck.Called the city and they tried to close the valve,but instead broke it.They called for a backhoe to dig up the meter to repair it.After a couple of hours they got the meter replaced and the water under control.The water was three or four inches deep in shop.Igot my brokenvalve repaired and when my coustomer came after the battery,I told him it was his shorted battery that caused all off this mess,and he said he sure need ed that battery,and I said take it but it is junk.......

By the way ,can you top this battery tale?????????????????

In my experience if you charge a battery on the high rates and leave it charging too long it will short the paltes aout and go boom. 2 0r 10 amp rate should be ok for longer periods.

Toppin the Battry Tale ??.., IdUnno ?, MY 4020 sure played an important role with a Good Christian Man.!........ ,Here Goes ,,Wife splits and takes my 4 children away in 1995. STILL wanted ME in HER LIFE . Wants Me to sell FARM , then, MAYBE divorce , would not be necessary, .....Soo,, Good man across the way Heard I was probably going to sell -out ,.So He and his Son come to buy the 4020 pwr -shift,,. temp was in the mid 40s that winter day ,JD had,nt been touched in weeks . But I knew It would probably start easily .His son climbed up ,Hit the starter button and INSTANTLY both batteries blew off the top, 1st time I ever saw a battery blow . At that point , the good Christain Man said ,,"Lynn , Come On ,, We are not supposed to buy that tractor,"...Lynn Says , "Dad it's only batteries , It's not the tractors fault, those things happen ! ",, Dad , Replied ," Yes , I know , But JIM , will need this tractor to farm , next Year,!" And THEY bid Me Well and Quickly left me alone in the barn ...,And SOO , next year I did Farm ,I did divorce , And got a better than most settlement , Selling the farm would not had kept that marriage together ,.And My children Came to me often than most to visit.
About 5 yrs ago in 2003, Just got elected Co.Commissioner My Son and I sitting at the grain elevator,sAW THE SAME GOOD CHRISTAIN 80 yr old MAN ...,All was well with him and He told Me his son was doing well and we enjoyed a nice chat , Congratulated Me on My hard fought election,,, Then He took me kinda by surprise ,,. When he said , "remember when those batteries Blew on that 4020 ? ,That was one of the few times In my Life when the Spirit Of GOD told me NO!!! , Like CRYSTAL Clear,!,,Jim I'm glad you worked on thru that Mess and you still got the Tractor and your farm , " we both Laughed ,And I nearly choked up in Tears.. Blessings , Jim

The battery charger you want can be found in Wal-Mart. I use a 2-4-6- , 6 or 12 volt charger from there for 29.95. They also sell larger units but I like the 6 amp because it charges slower and in my estimation slower is better. Henry

I doubt the charger had anything to do with it, other than percolating the battery to generate hydrogen. I've popped afew, with jumpers, charger, and booster unit. Its the spark from the clamp that pops them. One time was with a nearly new battery that had been run down from cranking. I put on jumpers and when it sparked near the clamp...pow.

The headdmaster used to hate it when we would get into electrolysis in our high-school chemistry class. It always meant the usual two-tube separation of water, and somebody always had to blow something up trying to "recombine" the two elements.

Here's that SC-600A charger call 1-800-621-5485 for price. Hal

Never saw a batt explode. But one time installing a batt in car used hammer and block of wood to drive cable clamp onto post. When car tried to start batt started smoking real bad. Always spread clamp before installing and hardly use any force. Never happened since.

I ran across a 50amp boost at Advance Auto the other day for 19.99 reg price but they had others for 29.99 to 59.99 with less amp.

I have posted many times on battery chargers causing fires and blowing up batteries.Looks like no one reads the posts on battery charger problems.Some new chargers cant bring a battery to full charge.They shut down before the battery is fully charged.Made in China with multi colored LEDS by well know maker.I type one finger so wont post on the subject again.

I have seen batteries explode,but not because they were hooked to a charger especially.The battery was shorted out inside or something and they usually start to swell up and boil over or something which means the battery is shot and its going to blow up soon.Unless you have it on 2 amps you shouldnt need to charge a battery 8 hours anyway.Sparks can make a battery explode.I saw that a couple of times when somebody was welding and sparks fell on a battery,melted through the case,and caused it to explode.Battery not being tied down and you get in a wreck and battery shorts out against something like the hood and explodes.Something falls across the terminals like a wrench,shorts it out and it explodes,being shorted out on the inside and it explodes,hit a big hole or something and jar it real bad(Ive seen that on dump trucks driving on real rough roads in a quarry)and it explodes.Ive even seen where somebody hooked one up to a charger wrong and charged it backwards and it didnt blow up,but it made it worthless to use as a battery.If a charger made it blow up there was something wrong with it to start with,probably not the charger.

That is the reason you are supposed to remove the ground wire first!!