Safety tip: Wear safety glasses while working with batteries! I had one explode in my face one time, a piece of the case gave me a nasty cut in my left eyebrow and it blew acid all over my face. If I hadn’t of been wearing my glasses, I could have been blinded. My quick thinking saved me from serious burns from the acid, I ran around the side of the house and stuck my face under the outside faucet. Still got a trip to the ER and some stitches in my eyebrow, but they told me flooding my face with water kept it from burning the skin too bad. Why did the battery blow up? It was on my wife’s car, it had been losing connection at the clamp, so she took a hammer or a rock to tap it down instead of telling me to check and tighten it. As soon as I grabbed the clamp to twist it to see if it was tight, it exploded. Apparently, the clamp was tight enough to turn the post that she had broken loose from the case, bending two of the plates together, instant dead short. I no longer check for tightness of the clamp by twisting them on the post.
Stick a rubber or plastic plug in it and run it. Unless you hot a plate it's fine. I install fill level indicators in industrial batteries in fork lifts all the time . You drill a hole in the top install a rubber grommet and insert the probe . A led acid car battery really no differant .
Forty years ago my oldest daughter's car had a chip out of the corner of the battery, I can't remember why I used a plastic glass and a soldering gun to "weld" a patch back in, it held until a hail storm totaled the car.
Gee thanks guys for your opinions/thoughts. One guy predicts hell and damnation with acid burned folks running amok and me seeing things that aren't pretty and another claims the parts flying of an exploded battery will claim my life and my dog's plus carnage and stuff and another guy sez piss on it and put the pedal to the metal and run the piss out of the truck and hope nothing happens. another guy(s) say plug it with a sealer and hope for the best. So I pulled the battery and battery acid came pouring out as I had to tilt it to get it out. Luckily, my wife had bought a 5 pound bag of baking soda (for why I don't know) Fortunately for me I used it to clean up everything me included. I guess my T shirt is history. There's definitely a hole in the battery and it looks like a melted piece of metal sticking out of the top of it where the drill bit entered. The drill bit is fine I guess. Anyway, I'm not going to mess with it as I don't want to compromise the short time I have left on the planet so's I'll buy a new battery but thanks for the encouragement and support....................I'm not the only doofus in the world.
It seems that exploding batteries would have to have a blocked or restricted vent , with a build up of hydrogen, and a spark to go "boom". I have never really worked out the cause of these exploding batteries, only the aftermath. The sparking battery terminal would explain the ignition side of it, so it would have ignited hydrogen coming from the battery. Why is the hydrogen coming from the battery when it isn't being charged? Bad ventilation of the battery area? Maybe Crazy Steve could fill us in on the facts. By the way, if you suspect a Lithium battery of being faulty, discharge it (outside, with a taillight bulb, ect) before getting rid of it (recycle it). They can still go up if faulty and have any charge left.
Most batteries don’t explode,,,but some do,,,,,the circumstances have to be just right . The same way that most gauges on acetylene torches have a phrase inscribed on the dial face,,,,,Use No Oil . The gauges won’t always explode from oil,,,,,but,,,yes they can,,,under the right circumstances . Tommy
Lithium doesn't really explode. It just makes for an intense fire, that cannot be put out by a fire hose, only total immersion.
A number of years ago, I was down in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas running durability testing on Side x Side's. Got back to the trailer at the end of the day, and the unit would not restart (part of our end of the day inspection routine). I popped the battery cover off (between the seats), and saw this. Wiggled the stick, and it started right up. Ran that way for another couple of days until a new battery could get shipped down from the factory. Lucky that stick didn't come up and get me in the leg or worse. These batteries had to be filled with acid initially, and a hole in the top plugged with a stick didn't seem to hurt it too bad.
My opinion- don’t risk all that hard work on your hotrod for a $200 battery. It really depends what actually the drill bit hit, and what could now become a longer term failure later on that takes out your car or garage.
As some others have said, IF the drill bit did any internal damage that could cause a future short, you could end up with a shorted battery that tries to burn your car. I had a friend that had a battery short while working on his truck. Had some major damage to the truck that he needed to repair, but he could have lost his shop and who knows what else (he was working under the truck at the time of the short. I wouldn't chance it with a battery, just replace it.
You didn't get old by being dumb. Spend the money. Buy a new battery, and don't look back. Huge amount of energy is stored in a battery.
You've got hydrogen outgassing from the battery in a confined space. Hydrogen + spark = BOOM. Think "Hindenburg". Oh, before your time
You were how old when you watched it live? Or at least you listen to the recap on the radio that evening
Lemme see, today I feel like I'm 106. That would have made me 20 if it were true. But it's not, I just feel like it
The Jalopy Journal
