Beware you battery charger and who you lend it to!

Yesterday was a ****py day........

For the last two years I have been getting my 39 Plymouth pick up ready to use on the road here in the UK and short of some pretty trivial things I am pretty much there, or was nearly there..

I'd rebuilt my pair of holley 94's and reinstalled them with the intention of firing the old flathead up again for the first time in a little while only to find unsurprisingly the battery was a little low on power. I've hooked my charger up inside the cab dozens of times given that the battery is under the drivers floor and never before given it a second thought. Yesterday being no different I followed my normal procedure of disconnecting things, unscrewing caps and securely fastening charger clips, switching on then off to my workshop to carry on being productive.

20mins later my neighbour is banging on my workshop door which I promptly open with rolling eyeballs as she is normally about to moan about a noise that only bats can naturally hear! This time she blurts out "Your truck's on FIRE!"

I have plenty of fire extinguishers to hand luckily so ran round to the front of my house to see plumes of black smoke billowing out from the cab doors! First I unplugged the lead to the charger then opened the door and found the charger ablaze.

The fire extinguisher made short work of the fire and I quickly began trying to figure out what had happened, mean while noticing all my new gl*** is cracked from the heat, my brand new leather bench seat has a huge hole in it, there is melted tar everywhere from the freshly installed sound deadening and the paint on the roof is blistered!!!! Months of work destroyed in a matter of minutes.

As it appears I'm going on I'll cut to the chase. I've loaned my charger to a number of friends over the years and never thought twice about it but whilst sifting through the carbonized cab of my pride and joy I pull out the molten plastic remains of the battery charger and on closer inspection find that at some point some IDIOT has put in a 30amp fuse!

I'm not entirely sure what the moral is right now as I'm still too angry/upset about the un-insured damaged to be constructive or thoughtful about it but don't get too complacent when it comes to something as simple as your battery charger.......

 

Wow, major buzz kill. I hate to hear that for sure.

I have found that is never a good idea to loan out tools. I had an old battery charger that came back cooked a couple of year ago, I do not know what they did to it. But ti surley didn't burn my car down it wasn't capable of burning anything down I am afraid.

I am really sorry to hear about your project. That is just bad news lost battery charger aside.

 

The moral to the story is don"t loan your tools. Especially electrical tools. Good thing you have a neighbor who cares.

 

Sorry to hear about the fire and all of the hard work gone to waste... That's just rotten luck. Guess this should be a lesson to the rest of us.

 

I've always wondered why I feel like I need to buy something if I need it, and others feel that they need to borrow something if they need it. A battery charger is 20 freakin dollars, I would definately not loan one out again.

 

I have never had a problem like that ,no-one ever returns anything to me!!

 

You hate to be a bad guy and not loan stuff out when you have it, but my experience has always been that no one takes the same care that I do. Always makes you the bad guy when you are just minding your own business with your own stuff though, doesn't it.

This stinks big time. SO SORRY to hear of the setback. Glad no one was hurt.

 

After almost having to fight to get my tools back from "friends" in the past,I've only got 2 friends I'll loan my stuff to. Those guys can come and go in my garage whenever they want. Anybody else? Hell no. In my experience,loaning tools is the same as giving them away,you're going to have to buy another one anyway.
Sorry about your experience. From now on,use this story as the reason you won't loan tools.

 

Fires from car battery chargers are becoming more common . Most chargers have automatic shutoffs . If they don't shut off ,they overheat and that's when the fire begins. More fires are from the chargers made in China. Go figure. Best practices - never leave a charger unattended for more than two hours. If you need to trickle charge the battery , use a inline timer . If you really need to chance chargeing for long period ... use longer charging cables so the charging unit sits on the concrete floor away from the car.

 

Uh could I borrow your car?

How on earth are ya buddy?

 

I agree with all the post ,the tool comes back screwed up(floor jack now on 3 wheels from useing in soft soil) or never see it again and deny they borrowed it.So now i get a deposit,i believe a TRUE friend wouldnt do this **** because i dont. I respect people and there things and expect the same and if i dont get it ,,,get lost i dont need any
excuses,or there bagage on my mind..........I feel good now......YG

 

Hey im sorry about your car,got excited there,hope she comes back in better shape at a low $$$$$.............YG

 

Damn, sorry to hear about your luck. I'm glad it didn't turn into something even worse. Good tips for charger safety too.

Things like this are exactly why I never loan out tools or ask to borrow anything. If I borrow something from next door, that leaves the door open for them to ask me for something, and that ain't happening. Besides, I bought, scrounged or made all my tools, why can't he?

Same for asking for physical help moving or lifting stuff. I have an engine hoist and a knowledge of basic physics; I can move anything by myself... it just may take longer.

"Why don't you go ask Neighbour Joe to help you with that, dear?"
a) because Neighbour Joe is busy with his own life and doesn't need me bothering him
b) because I sure as **** don't want him coming around here for help when I'm busy and I 'owe him one'.

Being a socially inept, uber-introverted stubborn hermit has worked well for me for about 40 years, and I don't see a need to change that.

 

Sorry to hear,glad it didnt burn the whole deal down.
Where is this fuse? None of my chargers have one that I can see.

 

That ****s, being a fire investigator I have seen this happen a few times.
What does the neihbor look like.......? bat ears....I have on like that.......

 

Sorry to hear about your ride going up in smoke. Hope you get back on it soon. I only lend tools to good mates, folks i can trust. The last lend came back better than they went, he has OCD. Lent him a socket set and it came back with a custom made sponge to stop them rattling in the case.

 

Wow, that blows!! Glad it didn't burn the whole freaking truck down. Do you have insurance to cover it?

 

Look at the bright side. it wasnt in your house/garage!

Sorry for your loss.

 

So, what was the neighbor lady wearing?????Is she cute???

 

I'm going to set up a "charging station" outside of my garage. That way, if anything does happen to the battery or charger, it won't take anything else with it.

 

The gas a battery puts out while charging is flammable. Probably not a real good idea to put a charger in an enclosed area with a battery with the caps off to start with. It's possible the fuse didn't have anything to do with the fire.

I've seen more than one battery blow the top off, simply with a spark.

But, as far as loaning tools out---No good deed will go unpunished.
Larry T

 

Man does that ****!! I won't charge a battery in a vehicle; what does it take, a minute and a half to take it out? I set my battery and the charger on the cement floor away from everything else and charge it. I've heard too many horror stories. My brother had one (battery) explode while on the charger, luckily it wasn't in a vehicle but it did ruin a chrome oil pan and the paint on a freshly painted engine on a stand.

 

I remember this plaque on the wall of this old garage,

"you can borrow tools if I can borrow your wife"..

 

I've seen that one a few times too...

 

Was the charger on the correct setting? The one I have has a 6V and 12V switch on it. I've never given it any ****ysis, just made sure I had the switch flipped according the battery I was charging.

I was told to always take the battery out of the car before charging them, which I have always done.

Bob

 

Thanks for all the supportive words and yes I suppose this does boil down to just no more loaning out of equipment. I've never really considered the charger a tool to be concerned about unlike like my plasma cutter or even a fancy allen key set, that's now changed.

I've been washing down the thick black soot that has covered everything and I'm just really thankful that the carpet and seat foam I used was all fire retardent otherwise I'd be really screwed, and even though all of the new gl*** in the windscreen and door windows cracked the 72 year gl*** on the instruments survived intact!

I'm hugely pleased that the firewall lived up to it's name after spending divorce inducing money on parts for the old flattie and here's hoping all the new wiring under the dash is ok.

The fuse by the way was a blade style car fuse which slotted directly into the bottom of the charger which is why I think it was just shoved in there after somebody blew the original and just found one they had lying around.

Thanks again for the support.

P.S for all those interested in the neighbour, dreaming up those fantasies of a loose dressing gown clad hottie running to my workshop concerned and in stockings........... No, I'm afraid to say she is nothing of the sort! She scowls and whines a lot.

 

Yes the charger was set correctly although I'm not convinced that didn't have something to do with it. The charger had a 6 and 12 volt setting with a trickle or heavy duty setting for each. It was set for 12 volt heavy duty.

The only reason I ever charged in the cab was that the battery is strapped down under the floor which requires a lot of unbolting to remove and I figured that having the windows open would deal with the gas issues.

Won't be doing that again.

 

Oh, I don't loan tools any more. Period. A relative said, "C'mon, Uncle Mike...I just need to borrow it for an hour. Otherwise I gotta go buy one..."
I countered with, "Remember whet you did to my portable air tank? Then 'lost' my fullsize balloon tire hand truck...This tool you now want: I had to go buy it. You can be like me. Just go buy one."

When I first opened my shop in 1978, some guy dropped by (I was 35, he was about 40) He was amused by my frame jig and how 'far in' hot rod fabrication went. He said he thought it was about wheels, tires, and maybe an engine swap...

Telling him I was busy did no good...I finally had to tell him to leave. He went, but the next Saturday morning he came back, with his new Chevy pickup. I asked if I could help him, and he said, "Yeah, I have to go to the dump this morning, could I park my truck here while I borrow your old truck? I don't want to use my new truck..."
My own brother wouldn't even suggest such a thing.
I had a real grumpy neighbor with a shop across the railroad tracks, with a real mean pit bull.
I told this lizard, "Go around the block and see Rudy. He'll probably loan you his..."
I didn't hear the guy's truck after he left, but I sure heard the pit bull growling and yelping as he lunged for the guy...barely got back in his "new truck"!

 

Ain't that the truth. A co worker wanted to use my ball joint press but I couldn't find it. Another co worker said he had one and brought it in. When the first guy wanted me to show him how to use it, we found that the press and all of the adapters had my name on them. The second guy borrowed it without telling me and forgot to bring it back.

About a year later the second guy asked to borrow it again. I just laughed.

 

I bought my car trailer for almost nothing because someone messed it up when they borrowed it from the guy I bought it from. It has never cost me less than $50 to fix it when I loan it out so nobody will borrow it with out a $900 deposit in the future.