Lead Acid battery. Explosion in this case.

[parabellum]

It was a battery for airfield power. (starting airplanes and helis) It exploded at attempting to disconnect charging leads without disconnecting charger first. (charger was on quick charge, at about 30V on the 24V pair)
Enjoy.

 

[Ypedal]

Nice !!...

good reminder that it's not always Mr. lipo's fault ! :lol:

 

[dnmun]

hydrogen is wonderful stuff. at least they got stoked up on the caffeinated energy drink before plugging in the the charger to charge it at ubermax levels.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of lead acid explosions like this over the years, often as a result of fast charging. When I was a young teenager I worked on the petrol pumps at the local garage after school to earn pocket money. Once there was a big explosion in the workshop when a mechanic did exactly the same thing, pulled the charger lead off before turning the power off. In that case the bulk of the battery (which was in the breakdown truck) went vertically upwards and wedged in the roof. AFAIK it stayed up there for years, as a gentle reminder of the hazards of dealing with batteries full of hydrogen and oxygen.................

 

[parabellum]

hydrogen is wonderful stuff. at least they got stoked up on the caffeinated energy drink before plugging in the the charger to charge it at ubermax levels.

I was lucky to have a bucket of dirty watter not far away.

 

[spinningmagnets]

For noobs, the process of charging lead-acid produces hydrogen gas as a byproduct. Hydrogen has a wide fammability range in combination with the oxygen in air, which means it will ignite at just about ANY combination ratio. This is why the warnings always include "charge in a well-ventilated area".

The example here was obviously outside, with presumably at least a mild breeze (adequate ventilation the correct way), and yet the spark that occurred when detaching the charge leads at the battery (while the charger was still on) was able to ignite even this fairly safe situation.

With lead-acid, turn off charger before disconnecting leads to avoid a spark.

 

[parabellum]

The example here was obviously outside, with presumably at least a mild breeze (adequate ventilation the correct way), and yet the spark that occurred when detaching the charge leads at the battery (while the charger was still on) was able to ignite even this fairly safe situation.

With lead-acid, turn off charger before disconnecting leads to avoid a spark.

Not exactly. It happened in the hangar. Pilots got it outside after the explosion.

 

[dogman dan]

Ever since I went running out the door of the house with my hair on fire, Ive taken to interpreting "well ventilated area" to be outside. I only spent 7 days in hospital for that one. Then for years after, other contruction workers called me fussy for leaving the area if contact cement was being used inside.

Hydrogen gas can be fun stuff, just play with it outside.

 

[heathyoung]

I'll see if I can find the pictures of the server room with the roof blown off due to a UPS battery bank going 'critical'...

When the website is up - http://www.belvoir.army.mil/safety/inc/battery-explosion.asp

 

[liveforphysics]

Lead acid is the only battery type that ive ever seen actully cause serious injuries.
Pretty nasty stuff. After it blasts plastic shrapnel into you, you get to burn from the acids chemical burns as well, many folks have gone blind from the acid spray to the eyes from a lead acid.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I had this happen with a low-amperage battery maintainer, in the garage, with no one around. The thing must have gotten stuck on the higher charge mode, but I don't know what ignited it. I still find occasional pieces of the top of the battery. After that I bought a battery Tender Jr. to replace the off-brand maintainer I was using...

 

[circuitsmith]

(charger was on quick charge, at about 30V on the 24V pair)

If these two batts were charging in series they can get out of balance and one batt will outgas a LOT more than the other on a fast charge.
That's likely the one that blew up.
It's a good idea to check with a voltmeter from time to time for balance while series charging, even with lead-acid.

 

[Hillhater]

.. you mean use a "BMS" for Pb ? ! :lol: :lol:

 

[SamTexas]

It's a good idea to check with a voltmeter from time to time for balance while series charging, even with lead-acid.

With 2 or more lead-acid batteries in series you can definitely check each battery with a voltmeter. But how do you check the six 2V cells in each battery? Specific gravity? But how about sealed lead acid battery?

 

[liveforphysics]

It's a good idea to check with a voltmeter from time to time for balance while series charging, even with lead-acid.

With 2 or more lead-acid batteries in series you can definitely check each battery with a voltmeter. But how do you check the six 2V cells in each battery? Specific gravity? But how about sealed lead acid battery?

You know it was imbalanced when it explodes and blinds you with acid spray.

 

[bigmoose]

self balancing in this case is just another word for gassing...

 

[parabellum]

(charger was on quick charge, at about 30V on the 24V pair)

If these two batts were charging in series they can get out of balance and one batt will outgas a LOT more than the other on a fast charge.
That's likely the one that blew up.
It's a good idea to check with a voltmeter from time to time for balance while series charging, even with lead-acid.

I know the voltage because I was there with a tester and they were about 0.5 V difference. Higher battery was gassing notably. I knew I should not disconnect charge leads before charger, I just could not stop myself. As result blue thumb, few cuts on right hand, relatively deaf until next morning and ruined coat. Lucky about water in place, eyes are OK.

 

[bzhwindtalker]

I happened to mee too when I overdischarged the truck FLA that I used for my electric wakeboard winch and charged them rigth back with my meanwell at 18v each I was lucky too but it could have gone BAD. Good reminder to stay away from those battery.

 

[Chalo]

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of lead acid explosions like this over the years, often as a result of fast charging.

How many have burned down the structure they were sitting in at the time? That's the Lipo Difference™.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

How many have burned down the structure they were sitting in at the time? That's the Lipo Difference™.

Whether it burns it down or blows it up (see server building link earlier) makes little difference, it seems. Either way the building/vehicle/whatever is badly damaged.

The bottom line here is that we've been living with lead acid explosions for more than 100 years, but happily accept the risks. For some bizarre reason we get hung up about lithium battery safety, despite the fact that the world probably has far more lithium batteries around now than lead acid batteries. A quick check around my house, (ignoring the ebike, motorcycle and electric boat batteries) shows that I have three things with lead acid batteries in (two cars and an old SLA powered hand lamp) but 14 appliances with lithium batteries in. I suspect this isn't untypical.

 

[Lebowski]

Ever since I went running out the door of the house with my hair on fire

picture or it didn't happen !

 

[Chalo]

How many have burned down the structure they were sitting in at the time? That's the Lipo Difference™.

Whether it burns it down or blows it up (see server building link earlier) makes little difference, it seems. Either way the building/vehicle/whatever is badly damaged.

That was a LOT of lead-acid in one place. When was the last time you heard about a house getting blown up from the starting battery in a car? Yet we do hear of houses getting burned down by equivalent or smaller amounts of lipo from time to time. The fact that we do hear of lipo house fires, even though lipo batteries of more than butter-pat size are uncommon, and we never hear of a home destroyed by a single lead acid starting battery even though pretty much every household has at least one, is illustrative of something.

 

[nicobie]

When in high school working at a gas station a customer came in complaining that he was having trouble with the battery in his VW. The old VWs had their battery under the back seat and when my coworker went to check the water level in the battery he couldn't see what it was because it was dark. So what does the dillweed do? He pulls out his cigarette lighter...BOOM

Acid everywhere, interior of VW ruined. Had to take the coworker to the hospital.

 

[liveforphysics]

The failure modes are definitely a different style risk.

Lead's risk is more human-damaging, lithium's risk is more property damaging. (not that lead can't still destroy property, or lithium can't still hurt humans)


I've got a couple laptops, a half dozen old cell phones sitting in drawers, various wireless controllers/mice/keyboards etc all using lithium batteries sitting in my room right now, easily 20 I would imagine, and I don't think that's an abnormal number to have for a typical residence. While you do see/hear of fires starting from them on occasion, it seems to be pretty few and far between these days (unlike earlier more sketchy lithium cell designs from a decade ago).

I think a big part of the reason for that is the most common applications are largely single-cell, so good management of cell voltage is nearly effortless. That doesn't explain laptops very well though.

50million laptops were sold in 2011 in the US alone, and I would be willing to be only a tiny handful if any were sold that didn't use lithium batteries. I've not yet seen one that operates on just a single cell either (not saying they don't existor can't exist, but 3-5cells in series is the standard, and I've not personally seen below 3s yet). Out of a group of 50million, even a very small percentage that bursts into flames, say 0.0001%, that's still going to be 500 of them bursting into flames, and I don't think we're seeing that. 0.0001% for perspective is low enough odds that you're 10 times more likely to be killed in a motor vehicle accident.

I guess all I'm saying is, we can see that when setup and handled properly in a well designed system, lithium batteries are about as safe as anything involving energy/electricity/technology etc. I think the risk multiplies a LOT when we're not using anything like a properly handled well designed system though, like duct-tape batteries, sketchy BMS's with more sketchy install jobs, tab welds that wiggle and crack off randomly, wire routing that doesn't protect from chaffing related shorts etc etc.

 

[SamTexas]

The fact that we do hear of lipo house fires, even though lipo batteries of more than butter-pat size are uncommon, and we never hear of a home destroyed by a single lead acid starting battery even though pretty much every household has at least one, is illustrative of something.

If by lipo you mean RC LiCo then I'm in complete agreement. Any energy storage device can potentially cause harm, but I never worry about a lead-acid battery unless it's being misused or abused. And when an accident happens, well, it happens.

Consumer LiCo (laptop, cell phone, gps...) on the other hand is not a problem to be concerned with. My chance of getting killed or badly hurt while riding a bicycle, driving a car or simply walking down the road is many time greater.