* Gogarty wrote, On 6/2/2007 5:30 PM:
In article ,
says...
You had one set of batteries all explode and the next set of heavy
duty batteries (which should go 8-10 years) all die in 4 years (one
with a cracked case), and you don't think there might just be
something wrong with what you're doing?
The exploding set were indeed abused. But not by me.
Oh come on! Three batteries do not explode simultaneously from abuse
that happened years before. They explode from charging at 18 Volts
because the regulator had a problem.
I'm sure the Rolls guy wasn't interested at all because everyone
always claims they never abused the batteries
No doubt. To the point that the case cracks open, however?..
I've done that to an old Surrette by letting it go flat and freeze
during the winter, but its hard to see it happening in normal usage to
young Rolls. BTW, the warranty on Rolls marine batteries is 7 or 10
years, depending on the model. If yours were only 4 years old, you
had new ones coming to you.
I'm thinking you have a latent problem in your system. I had two in
mine: One was that the starter battery was hard wired to the engine,
but the regulator was sensing the house bank. This wasn't a big
problem when the combiner latched the batteries together, but if it
didn't for some reason, it was possible to overcharge the starter bat.
This was solved by breaking the connection between the alternator
and the starter and running a dedicated cable. The other problem was
a connection on the regulator control wire that could on occasion
catch some rain water if a hatch drain clogged.
Both of these problems resulted in severe overcharging - the only good
thing is the the battery getting zapped was right behind the helm and
the smell was unmistakable so it could be dealt with promptly.
However, if I had let it continue I'm sure the battery would have blown.