Well I decided to fire up my 50 Chevy this morning. The battery was connected to a battery tender. I disconnected the tender, turned the ignition and BANG!! with lots of smoke. My wife came running out of the house as a few minutes earlier a had been cleaning a couple of handguns and she thought one of them had gone off. She was ready to call 911. Piece of S#$@ Autozone battery. I am going to replace it with an Optima. The battery was a sealed unit. I think gas must of built up in it and when I turned on the ignition it sparked and blew. I got the garden hose out and rinsed everything down as there was battery acid everywhere.
What a mess !! Batteries produce hydrogen when charging, shouldnt have sparked inside, were the termimals tight? JW
had one blow up on me a few months ago, all of a sudden BOOM! and then i heard **** falling on the roof of my garage, didnt know what the hell happened.. walked over to my truck and the battery top was blown clean off! had the hood open on my truck luckily so no damage.. I then took it back to the Auto parts store and was told "sorry that doesnt fall under the manufactures warranty"
That's not a sealed battery but scary none the less. I had a sears die hard blow up on me while jumping another car almost 20 yrs ago and still have the scars to prove it.
If it doesn't start your car or take a charge, we will replace it and only charge you a huge pro-rated fee. But if it explodes like a bomb and takes out half your neighborhood, you are on your own.
had a few pop on me. Usually a fresh charged one with a connection that sparks when you hit the key. Only once going up the road. It's not the battery's fault usually, just bad connections.
I just had this happen to me last week! same thing the battery was on the charger for a couple hours when i needed to move the car i disconnected the charger and closed the hood (thank god) turned on the key and as soon as i pushed the foot starter BOOM!!! when i took the battery back to where i buy my batteries the guy told me when you charge a battery gases ac***ilate in the battery and when you start the car sometimes it creates a spark and well you know the rest!
If you have an unsealed (regular type) battery and are charging it, loosen the caps !! They build up gas (explosive hydrogen) and pressure inside if you don't. When done charging you can pop the caps back on.
He said exactly what I was gong to say. It was the spark that was probably caused by a poor connection close to or on the battery that caused it to blow up not the make or style of the battery. My grandfather had one blow up in his face in his 48 Chev one ton out here in they yard when I was a teenager when he hooked jumper cables to it. I think he had had the charger on it for several hours before he did that.
It was one of the no maintenance types. Connections were solid, had to get a wrench to unbolt the terminals. This was a replacement battery 6 months ago for another one that was the same model that went bad. (wouldn't hold a charge) Haven't found the battery tops yet. Don't know where they flew to. Luckily hood was up and I was in the car.
at least yours was under the hood, I wouldn't like the thought of that going off under the seat of my 52 m37, not good at all, good luck with it
A good safety tip with jumper leads is to connect the earth last and to an earth point other than on the battery, this stops sparking at the battery and remove the earth first when disconnecting. Safe and happy driving. JW
Wiring is all new and well insulated. Have cable going to trunk for air ride. All through the correct grommets. Other take off is for electric fan. Car has been built for 2 years now. Not driven much as its being blocked in by 40 Ford pickup in the front and 30 Model A on the side.
NEVER connect the ground directly to the battery with either battery chargers or jumper cables. Always ground to engine block, hot to battery. Once had a Ford Focus blow up a battery because of a faulty alternator.
i've seen this three times in shops.always after a long time on a charger. battery tenders are junk.unhook the battery to store it and charge it with a real charger for 10 to 20 minutes on high amps then drop down to a lower amp rating for another 30-60 minutes.again tenders and trickle chargers cook the water off and the battery will eventually blow.it's not the batteries fault.no battery was made to be hooked up and constantly charged
I had one explode on me lat month. It apparently sparked inside the case and ignited the hydrogen gas. I was trying to jump it off. Fortunately, I connected to it first and made my last connection at the good battery. Otherwise I would have had acid and plastic shrapnel all over me. Scared both me and my wife, who was working in the yard. Always make the last connection at the good battery side.
Even Odyssey fail. I currently have one of the Antique Auto Company of Ohio batteries with an Odyssey in a Ford Power Punch case/faux tar top back in their hands for warranty repair/adjustment. Charged it up per instructions, didn't let it go under recommended voltage, and yet one of the cells ****ped out and when load-tested wouldn't put out the amps needed to turn engine over. Waiting for final word on Monday what the pro-rated adjustment will be as I've had it since 2010, and that was a replacement for one that they wired the posts back-***ed-wards and resulted in fire coming out of the back of my alternator.
I had one blow in my OTM, in my garage. No charger, just hit the key and it was like Hawaii Five-O. My Battery is in the trunk and deafened me temporarily. Took me a sec to figure what the hell happened. Pretty shocking, I couldn't have even talked to 911. What a mess. Now I only use AGM batteries in my OTM.
The Jalopy Journal
