One thing i didn’t clearly mention and i feel like i should to help people understand how fast this can happen. That battery charger was only on and hooked up for less than 60 seconds. I always assumed gassing took a while to happen like when charging for hours etc.
I had an incident about 45 years ago that probably explains what happened to you. By your description of the battery voltage and post condition, I say that the post was cracked/broken inside the case. I had bought a brand new expensive battery for my Ranchero and a week later, went on a trip to see the Kittyhawk monument. When about there, I shut the engine off for a few minutes and it wouldn't crank as if I had a dead battery. I got a jump and barely made it home to Charlotte. Long story short, my boss showed me that even though the voltage was good, it could not carry enough current to start the car. He showed me that the post was flexing and if I flexed it the right direction, it would start the car. This was because the post was cracked inside the case. He told me that the installer probably only used one wrench to tighten the cables to the battery, this allows the post to flex and can break the post very easily. I see many UA-cam videos when people use only one wrench on the clamps, and I cringe. Using a wrench on both the bolt and nut will allow the clamp to be tightened with out flexing the post. Try it, you will see what I mean easily. The crack inside allowed arcing and ignited the hydrogen gas.
We had this happen at my old job. We decided to begin unplugging the battery charger from the wall and waiting a minute before unhooking it to minimize the chances of a spark. Side note, this is why the last connection for jumper cables (and first off) should be a ground clamp on the engine block of the 'dead' vehicle. This way any arcing (unavoidable in this case) is on the engine hopefully 12" or more away from the battery. Most people dont know this and just hook straight to the terminals.
I highly encourage you to get an eye wash station if you don't have one. Battery acid in the eye is extremely dangerous. Also always, ALWAYS wear eye protection around charing batteries. Especially charging batteries of some unknown condition at a high charge rate which you do a lot. I've been working on lead acid batteries of 30 years, and eye protection is a hard rule.
also watch polarity when you connect a jumper or charger. I reversed a connection one time and the battery caps blew off and I too got acid in my mouth, but that was all.
Im a forklift tech and that happened to me once - 8 cells of a 80V 750Ah traction battery in a 7K pound capacity lift. All through a careless oversight. Head was right over the battery when it blew. Loudest thing ive ever heard - was scared I'd ruptured my ear drums as i was completely deaf for a about 45 mins. Driving home about an 1hr later i had to pull over - just started shaking uncontrollably and it wouldnt stop. Shock I guess. Absolute miracle I still have a face after that. Glad you got away from that unscathed, heard some real horror stories with batteries in the forklift business.
Yeah, I always wear eye protection any time I'm working around lead-acid batteries. I just never trust them. Better safe than sorry and losing your eyesight.
I am so glad that you didn't get seriously injured. I saw this happen once when I worked at a truck repair shop in West Sacramento, CA. It was a group 24 battery. My co worker was servicing a truck that had a bunch of group 24s in the battery box. He just used a screw driver to pop off one of the cell caps, checking the electrolyte levels, and it went off like a bomb! In his face. It sounded exactly like a 12 gauge shotgun to me. I can not imagine how it would sound when you are standing right over it. The shop owner ran out of the office, grabbed the guy by the arm, and dragged him over to the eye wash station. He also got a garden hose going over his head, and face. Luckily he did not get injured. I don't understand how he didn't get injured, because the entire top of the battery was gone. Scarry shi#!
ALWAYS CONNECT THE BLACK CABLE TO THE CHASSIS on the vehicle you’re charging/jumping. Make it the last connection when hooking up, and the first connection to undo when unhooking the leads. It’s the only way to keep sparks safely away from the hydrogen gas production. In this case, it probably had too much water added to the acid which partly froze, breaking the terminal enough to cause the arcing you saw and additional hydrogen production.
To be clear, the sparkling battery would have remained a hazard with cables connected the safe/correct way. Could have blown any time while cranking/charging. But disconnecting the cables would have been very unlikely to ignite the hydrogen gas. Connecting/disconnecting requires your body to be right by the battery. So do it the safe way from now on. And teach your audience while you’re at it. Red on jumper, red on dead batt, Black on jumper, black on dead chassis ground point. Reverse order when disconnecting. Every time. 👍
I had a friend smoking a cigar over a charging battery and it exploded on him, now he's blind in one eye. I don't mess with sparks around charging batteries because of that.
Glad to hear that you're not seriously hurt. I've never seen a battery explode, but I have heard one, and it put a serious dent in the car's hood. I don't know why the mechanic put the hood down while charging, but it ensured that I didn't do it myself.
Glad you are ok. Now I know why my automotive teacher always had us wearing safety glasses when working with car batteries. Also, we were taught to put the positive charging/jumper cable on the battery and the ground to the engine or body so you don't get sparking at the battery. Stay safe!
Scott i have had several 8D batteries blow up on me in the past. I have been a generator tech for 30 years. One battery blew up inside a building and blew several flourecent lite bulbs all over me. The cause is low fluid level allowing excess gas build up that will explode when subjected to a high load and spark.
Scott, a friend of mine was working alone when a battery blew on him. He lost 40% of his vision and had acid burns over 20% of his torso. What caused his accident was static discharge while he was blowing out dust from around the radiator/air cleaner/battery compartment. It was a permanent life altering accident for him, ever since then I started wearing a face shield while dealing with batteries and I make sure I'm grounded out to stop static build up.
Being around cars, trucks or busses you've needed to jump start one at sometime. The batteries, chargers and jumper cables all have warning labels all over them. After time the thought of anything happening leaves your mind. It's an annoying task to get something started until without warning BOOM! Glad you weren't hurt any worse Scott.
Back 50 years ago it was more common for batteries to explode, the battery would get weak from age, someone would crank up the voltage regulator, the acid would start boiling out leaving a large volume of hho, and when they tried to boost the vehicle there would be an explosion, I've seen batteries with the entire top blown off, glade your not blind.
We had a fire truck with battery issues that we took to the Fire Department shop. One of the mechanics was putting a battery charger on it and and sparked it and the whole top of the battery exploded. He was lucky the only injury was a small acid burn on his arm. He was very lucky. Of course the area of the truck where the batteries sit was covered in acid and had to be stripped down and repainted. I was about 10' away from it when it happened and the boom it made was loud. I thought a bomb went off.. Batteries were just like the ones you have in the video.
Over many years of vehicle maintence I have had the same thing happen. The sound is like a firearm going off right next to your ear. My ears rang for an hour afterwords. We are both very our eyesight wasnt affected.
I have had a battery blow up on a diesel standby generator. It sounds like a 12 gauge shotgun. Now, I am always cautious and wear safety glasses anytime I’m near a battery. It’s a lesson you will never forget…
I know it all to well. Battery exploded on me in 1985 on a Carmel jobsite, blew both my eyes out of sockets, ripped open right side of face, shrapnel into brain above right eye. Ironic twist, seconds after explosion, an ALS ambulance from Noblesville and a Carmel fire chief and his driver were passing each other on Rangeline Road and were flagged down by a bicyclist who heard the explosion and immediately came to my aid. After stabilizing me on the ground for almost an hour, I was placed in the ambulance and rushed lights and siren to St Vincents Hosp in Indy. Within ten minutes of being unloaded and placed in the E.R., I passed away. I was revived and rushed to surgery, afterwards placed in a coma. Both eyes had to be repaired with the right one being reinflated and both reattached, and face reattached. I believe it was the second week when I was awoken and doctors discovered something wrong with right eye, I was put back into surgery for the complete removal of right eye. I have no memory of the explosion and of the weeks following, and at no time did I feel any pain. As I lay on the ground, I had no idea how bad my situation was, obviously I couldn't see and I couldn't hear as my eardrums were damaged. You Scott are lucky those batteries were inside that compartment because if you'd been any closer, your situation could've been similar to mine. Yeah I have one eye and have been driving semi-trucks and now dump trucks here in middle TN for going on 41 years now with zero at-fault accidents. I owe my life to the bicyclist who raced back to help me because without him, I wouldn't be here today to irritate all you fine country folks. Batteries are very dangerous if care is not taken but they do not scare me. Since moving to TN two years ago, I began working on friends 36V-48V electric golf carts with up to eight batteries. I am very careful now. Even here at the campground, I just changed out my lead acid deep cycle house batteries for LiFePo4 lithium batteries and a new converter/charger just for lithium on my 5th wheel RV. I've always been told if knocked off horse, get back on and ride.
I was watching one of your video's a day or two ago and I thought, man this guy is a real pro around these buses, there probably isn't a thing he doesn't know. And then this happens. One day I just escaped a very serious injury from an acid splash handling highly concentrated sulfuric acid for cooling tower de calcification. I was never lucky in love, but I have been in a lot of other ways in life. I guess it evens out over time.
Hey Scott, glad you weren't hurt, 3 yrs ago we had that deep freeze in Houston, my wife tried start to our power stroke, 2020 model, she came back in woke me up to charge it, i hooked up the charger told her to turn the key on and off a couple of times to get the glow plugs warmed up, then to start it, and like you said i thought a shotgun went off, my face, my neck got the worst, the smell was awful, i ran to the water faucet it was wrapped, so she put me in the shower, that scared her, and me that could've blinded me, she felt so bad, so we were both lucky.
I had one explode in my face when my friend was cranking his truck. I couldn't hear and the taste was horrible. My face and eyes burned like fire. Crazy how that happens for no foreseeable reason. The concussion from the explosion really rings your bell. Took over a month for my vision to come back. I'm glad you are ok.
Egads, I've been warned many times on battery explosions, but have never actually known it to happen to someone. That could have been so much worse, glad you still have your eyes!
Glad to hear no serious injuries. One of my former work colleagues moved to IT from being an auto electrician and experiencing a similar incident. Always wary charging batteries.
Wow. Glad this wasn't as bad as it could have been, Scott! I try to not be the Safety Nanny and tend to not comment on how folks run their shops and service... but I think I've mentioned before that PPE use in the BGM shop seems intermittent at best. Losing or impairing eyesight would be a huge loss for you, your wife, kids, and grand kids. Ditto for burns (thermal or chemical), lung diseases from chemicals and exhaust, etc. At the very least I'd suggest full time eye protection, nitrile gloves when using chemicals or working with waste lubricants, and bump caps for some limited head protection. You've got lots of experience to share and the quality and ethics of your shop are tremendous. I'd love to see you able to do this for a long time. Take care of yourself and have Johnathan do the same.
I had an older Suburban that my friend and I were trying to figure out why it suddenly was running rough. We were standing in front of it while it was running and the battery blew up. The power wire from the starter to the battery had come into contact with the exhaust manifold, melted the insulation off and shorted out. You’re right about the noise, it was super loud…..luckily neither of us was hurt, but it could easily have gone the other way. A big chunk from the top of the battery came down a couple seconds later. I don’t like to think about what would’ve happened if it had hit either one of us on it’s way to the stratosphere. We just plain lucked out…
Glad to hear that you were not seriously injured. I can’t count the times I have worked on batteries w/o eye protection, I’ve been very lucky and complacent. Now a days I wear corrective glass, but they aren’t a replacement for googles.
Glad you survived that without any serious injuries. Very fortunate. Hydrogen gas is no joke. I Had a car battery blow up in my face some years ago. Had it on a charger for a while but it still didn’t have enough power to crank the vehicle, so I went to jump it off from another car. …And that’s when we had liftoff. ! That was some serious noise. Thought I was dead for a moment
Super hot molten lead landed in the juice and popped it all off, even without hydrogen hot lead can get pretty nasty. That would've been damn impressive if it hadn't tried to kill you! I've melted a few batteries in my time but never had one pop off that violently
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it was an 8th-Gen ('95 to '99) Riviera? (Man, those are nice cars, especially with the supercharged 3800...) Like you, I don't like the idea of batteries being in the passenger compartment. Something about lead-acid batteries giving off hydrogen gas when charging, and that whole alternator-charging-the-battery-when-running thing.
I blew up a motorcycle battery on my bench, luck had it at chest level, but it blew out all the clear plastic above the plates, covered me with acid which started itching immediately. I ran straight to the shower clothed and ran it full blast as I rinsed and removed everything I was wearing. The shirt looked OK, but after the next wash, it was full of holes. I doused the whole workbench in baking soda and misted it down from the hose to neutralize the acid that was all over my tools. Hopefully you mixed up a slurry of baking soda and water and splashed it all over the battery compartment of that bus or it's going to be full of pinholes and corrosion. The gases released from electrolysis are a mixture of both Hydrogen and Oxygen, aka HHO or " Brown's Gas " , since it's a 2:1 mixture, it's extremely explosive.
I had an RV battery do that. Fortunately, no one was around at the time. The cover to the battery was found 50' ft away and the battery and box was destroyed.
That same thing happened years ago to my dad, luckily he didn’t get hurt,glad that you didn’t get hurt either Scott .be very careful with that stuff….. take care ……
I had that happen to me while I was in the service stationed in Hawaii. I was working a part time job as a security guard in an apartment complex and a lady said she couldn’t get her car started. Well it was in a dark parking garage and me not having a flashlight used my lighter. Well she had just had the battery charged but the reason she couldn’t get it started is because the seat belt needed to be clipped. Remember those? It was a Datsun . Much more to the story because if who she was but I’ll leave it there. Oh I had acid all in my eyes and all over my face, lucky I didn’t get blinded. And yes it made a huge bang.
Hydrogen gas exploded. I feel your pain. First you feel itchy then your skin starts to burn. I hope you get better. Have some egg noggin to cool down the burning mouth😊 Merry Christmas Bus Grease Man
I had a similar experience when load testing a battery ! Using one of the oversized toasters . The ones you hang over the thing when testing because the cables never long enough ! The battery top hit the wall behind me & that's about 60 ft away ! Luckily it totally missed me & it was a gel battery so no acid escaped . Eye protection or a full face shelled around charging batteries is a must . It's also a common thing when welding on vehicles & equipment .
When I was in junior high a battery exploded right in one of my class mates face the hole top of the battery hit him in the face. He had battery acid in his eyes by the grace of god they had just ran water to shop I drug him to the sink and shove his head under the water and told him to not stop washing his eyes till the ambulance arrives his eyes got burned bad by the acid it was a month long recovery for him.
Glad it didn’t get your dreamy eyes Scott. I had one blow up from charging. I wasn’t there. It detonated big time. I undue the cables when I charge them. Just to be safe. Always wear eye protection
Looks to me that the terminal melted a path through to the inside of the battery when it was cranking. Just bad timing that you stopped him cranking when you did, one more second it'd have blown whilst cranking. Good advice from others, to wear glasses & have eye wash available. Had battery acid in the eye one time, it's something akin to how I imagine 1000 red hot needles would feel. Definitely something you want to avoid, no matter how rare battery explosions are. Stay safe, the buses need you!
The thing is, when water is electrolyzed (disassociated into hydrogen and oxygen by electricity), it produces a mix of oxygen and hydrogen gas the exact ratio - two H to one O - that will burn perfectly and explode with maximum energy. It's a common science show demonstration to fill a balloon with the gas from electrolysis of water then touch it with a torch. The boom is, as you say, louder than a shotgun. That turns it back into water of course but a miniscule amount of water produces quite a large volume of explosive gas. The danger in attaching a jumper cable directly to a battery isn't, as is commonly said, the hydrogen gas possible - but the very real possibility of a pocket of this perfectly explosive mixture being ignited inside the battery case and doing what happened to you.
In all honesty, when I was in technical college back in the late 80's, I hated wearing safety glasses. It wasn't until a battery exploded behind my back on a multi battery charger., that I respected the "wear safety glasses" rule. Accidents happen sure, but some you can avoid.
Hope you’re ok. No joking matter. I’ve seen batteries explode before. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Keep the videos coming, very, very interesting!!
Overcharging batteries is the main reason that lead acid batteries explode. Too much current creates excessive hydrogen gas production. Whenever you see a corroded battery terminal, its a sign of the battery leaking from around the base of the post. The battery that exploded definitely had a leaking terminal where hydrogen gas could escape from. A clogged vent hole could have allowed hydrogen gas to build up within the battery and the only place for it to escape would be around the damaged terminal post. It wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase a hydrogen/flammable gas sniffer detector so you test for hydrogen gas buildup.
This has happened to me two times in years past. Both were batteries just removed from charge. One was a 9 month old Ford truck battery, the other was an older Duralast battery. Both were internal failures, not loose terminals. Both exploded when the starting load was applied. Fortunately my face was not near them at the time of explosion.
been there done that....think more about batterys now and where they are on the bench when using the angle grinder....I was taken a back by the shock wave from the blast....In Pakistan they would rebuild that battery...you have to hand it too those guys...much respect.
The reason why battery factories keep fans blowing on new batteries that are charging is to keep hydrogen gas from building up, I used to use a blowgun when around batteries while servicing garbage trucks.
One time in a small tug boat with a 671 dead batteries went to use a pair of jumpers to an other 8 D battery, must have sparked sounde like a gun shot going off, blew the top of the battery off luckily i was off to the side no injurys, just deaf for a few hours !!
Hi Scott and family merry Christmas from down under. I had a big battery like yours. I had a battery charger sitting on top of the battery. The thermal circuit breaker It supplied the spark blowing the top off the battery .I should knowen better being a firey for 38 years. As you mention to take care around batterys. I hope everyone is safe and happy for Christmas .Dave and family from down under .Scott your fire truck would make a great fire fighting appliance on your property setting it beside a large water source near your your shop. It's got the best NOTE coming from the JIMMY when it's going up the hill .
You were lucky. An ex's dad ended up with glasses for the rest of his life when he had a plain car bettery go off in his face... and I mean that even coulda been worse, so.... Wear your PPE!
That Sucks! The Battery in my 69 Dodge Super Bee did that to Me! Did not want to crank and I got out and checked the connections, the Negative was loose a tad and as I turned it a spark and "BOOM"! it set of the gases and blew my Eardrums crazy! The shockwave had me in Awe and confusion! My eyes and face were burning. My brother grabbed the cooler full of beer from the back seat and shoved my face in the cold ice water! The Police came flying over from the other side of the mall parking lot as they heard the cannon blast. They were surprised to learn what happened and praised our response to the ice bath. The had EMS on site quickly and got me to the Hospital. It took three operations to remove all the plastic and lead out of my Eyes! Scary Shit and I can still see today albeit with progressive glasses! I require Hearing aides as well! Batteries are serious safety hazards and precautions need to be heeded religiously! JMO! You are very lucky it was not more serious to your Eyes, Ears and more!
Had this happen to me 40 years ago. It hit me in the face. Lucky an fellow employee saw what happened and got a portable eye was station and flushed my face and eyes right away.
As large as those batteries are perhaps there is a replacement Lion/ Supercap version available which would provide more cranking amps and a longer life. The lithium ion battery is connected to the supercap via a resister so the supercap actually performs the cranking.
Watching that bus smoke reminded myself of the time in the early 90’s, ima touring Musician and we were at an outdoor venue and it was windy. We were leaving for the next town, started our bus ( Prevost) and it smoked like a chimney and was completely choking out the next band on stage. We were waiting for air pressure to release the brakes and the stage manager is beating in the door, turn it off, turn it off, it was totally hilarious.nFinally the pressure built and away we went, but you couldn’t even see the people on stage hahahahahaha
Crazy but I've seen it before. In the early 70's I worked at a battery recycling plant with every kind of battery ever made. I hating lifting these batteries. When we were bored, we would wire them up to watch them smoke but now and then they would explode. I definitely wouldn't have my face near them. dropped one on the top of my foot one day and went to the hospital thinking I broke it but after x-rays they said no just a bad burse.
You may have suffered concussion. Brain injury from pressure wave. Battery blow ups, when the key is turned to “start” - cause usually begins with low fluid levels. Followed by high rate charge from jumper cables or chargers. I preach battery safety for decades now. Most all of my car buddies blow me off. I personally have been around three battery explosions. The low fluid levels allow the lead plates that are very close to each other, the spark jumps from plate to plate. If fluid level is covers all the plates, the spark inside the battery can’t occur. Only need a little of the plates exposed.
My kids will be here tomorrow. They have both asked for shop time in the wood shop. Rule #1) safety glasses. Rule #2) no loose clothing. Rule number 3) leather apron.
One thing i didn’t clearly mention and i feel like i should to help people understand how fast this can happen. That battery charger was only on and hooked up for less than 60 seconds. I always assumed gassing took a while to happen like when charging for hours etc.
I had an incident about 45 years ago that probably explains what happened to you. By your description of the battery voltage and post condition, I say that the post was cracked/broken inside the case. I had bought a brand new expensive battery for my Ranchero and a week later, went on a trip to see the Kittyhawk monument. When about there, I shut the engine off for a few minutes and it wouldn't crank as if I had a dead battery. I got a jump and barely made it home to Charlotte. Long story short, my boss showed me that even though the voltage was good, it could not carry enough current to start the car. He showed me that the post was flexing and if I flexed it the right direction, it would start the car. This was because the post was cracked inside the case. He told me that the installer probably only used one wrench to tighten the cables to the battery, this allows the post to flex and can break the post very easily. I see many UA-cam videos when people use only one wrench on the clamps, and I cringe. Using a wrench on both the bolt and nut will allow the clamp to be tightened with out flexing the post. Try it, you will see what I mean easily. The crack inside allowed arcing and ignited the hydrogen gas.
We had this happen at my old job. We decided to begin unplugging the battery charger from the wall and waiting a minute before unhooking it to minimize the chances of a spark.
Side note, this is why the last connection for jumper cables (and first off) should be a ground clamp on the engine block of the 'dead' vehicle. This way any arcing (unavoidable in this case) is on the engine hopefully 12" or more away from the battery. Most people dont know this and just hook straight to the terminals.
Always, Always, Always un plug the charger first. That way you never get sparks when you take the clamps off. Safety glasses are a must as well.
I highly encourage you to get an eye wash station if you don't have one. Battery acid in the eye is extremely dangerous. Also always, ALWAYS wear eye protection around charing batteries. Especially charging batteries of some unknown condition at a high charge rate which you do a lot.
I've been working on lead acid batteries of 30 years, and eye protection is a hard rule.
We have two eye wash stations in the shop
Absolutely!!
@@BusGreaseMonkey Did you use it properly? Or should I say did you follow the instructions?
also watch polarity when you connect a jumper or charger. I reversed a connection one time and the battery caps blew off and I too got acid in my mouth, but that was all.
Im a forklift tech and that happened to me once - 8 cells of a 80V 750Ah traction battery in a 7K pound capacity lift. All through a careless oversight. Head was right over the battery when it blew.
Loudest thing ive ever heard - was scared I'd ruptured my ear drums as i was completely deaf for a about 45 mins. Driving home about an 1hr later i had to pull over - just started shaking uncontrollably and it wouldnt stop. Shock I guess.
Absolute miracle I still have a face after that.
Glad you got away from that unscathed, heard some real horror stories with batteries in the forklift business.
Hydrogen is no joke.
Hindenburg is a fine example.
Even worse with batteries because it's a mix of hydrogen and pure oxygen floating around - perfect explosive mix
I would have expected it to be loud because it was an explosion, but i never could have imagined how loud it really was until i experienced it!
@@deezelfairy Absolutely correct, charging battery makes H2, I have exploded a couple. . . . . . .
It's more excitement than you ever need.
@@572Btriode Yup, they produce H2 at one plate and O2 at the over plate - that's what's happening when a wet battery is 'gassing'
I hope you wear our safety glasses from now on
Yeah, I always wear eye protection any time I'm working around lead-acid batteries. I just never trust them. Better safe than sorry and losing your eyesight.
I am so glad that you didn't get seriously injured. I saw this happen once when I worked at a truck repair shop in West Sacramento, CA. It was a group 24 battery. My co worker was servicing a truck that had a bunch of group 24s in the battery box. He just used a screw driver to pop off one of the cell caps, checking the electrolyte levels, and it went off like a bomb! In his face. It sounded exactly like a 12 gauge shotgun to me. I can not imagine how it would sound when you are standing right over it. The shop owner ran out of the office, grabbed the guy by the arm, and dragged him over to the eye wash station. He also got a garden hose going over his head, and face. Luckily he did not get injured. I don't understand how he didn't get injured, because the entire top of the battery was gone.
Scarry shi#!
Burn survivor here... I feel for you. Mine was an electrical explosion. You are so lucky Scott.
ALWAYS CONNECT THE BLACK CABLE TO THE CHASSIS on the vehicle you’re charging/jumping. Make it the last connection when hooking up, and the first connection to undo when unhooking the leads. It’s the only way to keep sparks safely away from the hydrogen gas production.
In this case, it probably had too much water added to the acid which partly froze, breaking the terminal enough to cause the arcing you saw and additional hydrogen production.
To be clear, the sparkling battery would have remained a hazard with cables connected the safe/correct way. Could have blown any time while cranking/charging. But disconnecting the cables would have been very unlikely to ignite the hydrogen gas. Connecting/disconnecting requires your body to be right by the battery. So do it the safe way from now on. And teach your audience while you’re at it.
Red on jumper, red on dead batt,
Black on jumper, black on dead chassis ground point.
Reverse order when disconnecting. Every time. 👍
I had a friend smoking a cigar over a charging battery and it exploded on him, now he's blind in one eye. I don't mess with sparks around charging batteries because of that.
Glad to hear that you're not seriously hurt. I've never seen a battery explode, but I have heard one, and it put a serious dent in the car's hood. I don't know why the mechanic put the hood down while charging, but it ensured that I didn't do it myself.
Very glad to hear you weren’t seriously injured Scott. Prayers for blessings and safety for you and yours in the new year.
Glad you are ok. Now I know why my automotive teacher always had us wearing safety glasses when working with car batteries. Also, we were taught to put the positive charging/jumper cable on the battery and the ground to the engine or body so you don't get sparking at the battery. Stay safe!
Scott i have had several 8D batteries blow up on me in the past. I have been a generator tech for 30 years. One battery blew up inside a building and blew several flourecent lite bulbs all over me. The cause is low fluid level allowing excess gas build up that will explode when subjected to a high load and spark.
Scott, a friend of mine was working alone when a battery blew on him. He lost 40% of his vision and had acid burns over 20% of his torso. What caused his accident was static discharge while he was blowing out dust from around the radiator/air cleaner/battery compartment. It was a permanent life altering accident for him, ever since then I started wearing a face shield while dealing with batteries and I make sure I'm grounded out to stop static build up.
Being around cars, trucks or busses you've needed to jump start one at sometime. The batteries, chargers and jumper cables all have warning labels all over them. After time the thought of anything happening leaves your mind. It's an annoying task to get something started until without warning BOOM! Glad you weren't hurt any worse Scott.
You're right, it's louder than a shot gun. Had the same thing happen to me 40 years ago in an old International Scout.
Back 50 years ago it was more common for batteries to explode, the battery would get weak from age, someone would crank up the voltage regulator, the acid would start boiling out leaving a large volume of hho, and when they tried to boost the vehicle there would be an explosion, I've seen batteries with the entire top blown off, glade your not blind.
We had a fire truck with battery issues that we took to the Fire Department shop. One of the mechanics was putting a battery charger on it and and sparked it and the whole top of the battery exploded. He was lucky the only injury was a small acid burn on his arm. He was very lucky. Of course the area of the truck where the batteries sit was covered in acid and had to be stripped down and repainted. I was about 10' away from it when it happened and the boom it made was loud. I thought a bomb went off.. Batteries were just like the ones you have in the video.
Over many years of vehicle maintence I have had the same thing happen. The sound is like a firearm going off right next to your ear. My ears rang for an hour afterwords. We are both very our eyesight wasnt affected.
I have had a battery blow up on a diesel standby generator. It sounds like a 12 gauge shotgun. Now, I am always cautious and wear safety glasses anytime I’m near a battery. It’s a lesson you will never forget…
I know it all to well. Battery exploded on me in 1985 on a Carmel jobsite, blew both my eyes out of sockets, ripped open right side of face, shrapnel into brain above right eye. Ironic twist, seconds after explosion, an ALS ambulance from Noblesville and a Carmel fire chief and his driver were passing each other on Rangeline Road and were flagged down by a bicyclist who heard the explosion and immediately came to my aid. After stabilizing me on the ground for almost an hour, I was placed in the ambulance and rushed lights and siren to St Vincents Hosp in Indy. Within ten minutes of being unloaded and placed in the E.R., I passed away. I was revived and rushed to surgery, afterwards placed in a coma. Both eyes had to be repaired with the right one being reinflated and both reattached, and face reattached. I believe it was the second week when I was awoken and doctors discovered something wrong with right eye, I was put back into surgery for the complete removal of right eye. I have no memory of the explosion and of the weeks following, and at no time did I feel any pain. As I lay on the ground, I had no idea how bad my situation was, obviously I couldn't see and I couldn't hear as my eardrums were damaged. You Scott are lucky those batteries were inside that compartment because if you'd been any closer, your situation could've been similar to mine. Yeah I have one eye and have been driving semi-trucks and now dump trucks here in middle TN for going on 41 years now with zero at-fault accidents. I owe my life to the bicyclist who raced back to help me because without him, I wouldn't be here today to irritate all you fine country folks. Batteries are very dangerous if care is not taken but they do not scare me. Since moving to TN two years ago, I began working on friends 36V-48V electric golf carts with up to eight batteries. I am very careful now. Even here at the campground, I just changed out my lead acid deep cycle house batteries for LiFePo4 lithium batteries and a new converter/charger just for lithium on my 5th wheel RV. I've always been told if knocked off horse, get back on and ride.
WOW, I use a face shield, not safety glasses. You were LUCKY.
Saw this happen too with a larger battery in a crane. I now have a healthy wariness of lead acid batteries…
Hang a face shield on the battery charger.
Glad U are ok! Don't get hurt, we love your videos, look forward to seeing new ones... from a former tour bus driver (1981-2014)
That was a close call. I cant even imagine all the bad things that could have happened if things were just a bit different. Really glad you are ok.
I was watching one of your video's a day or two ago and I thought, man this guy is a real pro around these buses, there probably isn't a thing he doesn't know. And then this happens. One day I just escaped a very serious injury from an acid splash handling highly concentrated sulfuric acid for cooling tower de calcification. I was never lucky in love, but I have been in a lot of other ways in life. I guess it evens out over time.
Hey Scott, glad you weren't hurt, 3 yrs ago we had that deep freeze in Houston, my wife tried start to our power stroke, 2020 model, she came back in woke me up to charge it, i hooked up the charger told her to turn the key on and off a couple of times to get the glow plugs warmed up, then to start it, and like you said i thought a shotgun went off, my face, my neck got the worst, the smell was awful, i ran to the water faucet it was wrapped, so she put me in the shower, that scared her, and me that could've blinded me, she felt so bad, so we were both lucky.
I had one explode in my face when my friend was cranking his truck. I couldn't hear and the taste was horrible. My face and eyes burned like fire. Crazy how that happens for no foreseeable reason. The concussion from the explosion really rings your bell. Took over a month for my vision to come back. I'm glad you are ok.
glad to hear u r ok, keep the clips coming
Egads, I've been warned many times on battery explosions, but have never actually known it to happen to someone. That could have been so much worse, glad you still have your eyes!
Glad to hear no serious injuries. One of my former work colleagues moved to IT from being an auto electrician and experiencing a similar incident. Always wary charging batteries.
Wow. Glad this wasn't as bad as it could have been, Scott! I try to not be the Safety Nanny and tend to not comment on how folks run their shops and service... but I think I've mentioned before that PPE use in the BGM shop seems intermittent at best. Losing or impairing eyesight would be a huge loss for you, your wife, kids, and grand kids. Ditto for burns (thermal or chemical), lung diseases from chemicals and exhaust, etc. At the very least I'd suggest full time eye protection, nitrile gloves when using chemicals or working with waste lubricants, and bump caps for some limited head protection.
You've got lots of experience to share and the quality and ethics of your shop are tremendous. I'd love to see you able to do this for a long time. Take care of yourself and have Johnathan do the same.
I had an older Suburban that my friend and I were trying to figure out why it suddenly was running rough. We were standing in front of it while it was running and the battery blew up. The power wire from the starter to the battery had come into contact with the exhaust manifold, melted the insulation off and shorted out. You’re right about the noise, it was super loud…..luckily neither of us was hurt, but it could easily have gone the other way. A big chunk from the top of the battery came down a couple seconds later. I don’t like to think about what would’ve happened if it had hit either one of us on it’s way to the stratosphere. We just plain lucked out…
Glad to hear that you were not seriously injured. I can’t count the times I have worked on batteries w/o eye protection, I’ve been very lucky and complacent. Now a days I wear corrective glass, but they aren’t a replacement for googles.
Glad you survived that without any serious injuries. Very fortunate.
Hydrogen gas is no joke.
I Had a car battery blow up in my face some years ago. Had it on a charger for a while but it still didn’t have enough power to crank the vehicle, so I went to jump it off from another car. …And that’s when we had liftoff. !
That was some serious noise.
Thought I was dead for a moment
So glad you are safe. We had a battery explode on our boat and it lifted the hatch.
So glad you are ok! That happened to an employee where I worked years ago. Scary stuff!
I'm glad you're all right it's been a wonderful Year stay safe my friend God bless you and your family 👍👍👍👍
Super hot molten lead landed in the juice and popped it all off, even without hydrogen hot lead can get pretty nasty. That would've been damn impressive if it hadn't tried to kill you! I've melted a few batteries in my time but never had one pop off that violently
Lucky fellow!! Cold + flakey connections = boom boom!
Bad situation, glad you're ok.
This is another reason I was never too fond of batteries inside vehicles.
I have a buick and the battery is under the back seat.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it was an 8th-Gen ('95 to '99) Riviera? (Man, those are nice cars, especially with the supercharged 3800...)
Like you, I don't like the idea of batteries being in the passenger compartment. Something about lead-acid batteries giving off hydrogen gas when charging, and that whole alternator-charging-the-battery-when-running thing.
I blew up a motorcycle battery on my bench, luck had it at chest level, but it blew out all the clear plastic above the plates, covered me with acid which started itching immediately. I ran straight to the shower clothed and ran it full blast as I rinsed and removed everything I was wearing. The shirt looked OK, but after the next wash, it was full of holes. I doused the whole workbench in baking soda and misted it down from the hose to neutralize the acid that was all over my tools.
Hopefully you mixed up a slurry of baking soda and water and splashed it all over the battery compartment of that bus or it's going to be full of pinholes and corrosion. The gases released from electrolysis are a mixture of both Hydrogen and Oxygen, aka HHO or " Brown's Gas " , since it's a 2:1 mixture, it's extremely explosive.
Oh, my…..so sorry to hear. Hope you heal quick ! Stay safe !
I had an RV battery do that. Fortunately, no one was around at the time. The cover to the battery was found 50' ft away and the battery and box was destroyed.
That same thing happened years ago to my dad, luckily he didn’t get hurt,glad that you didn’t get hurt either Scott .be very careful with that stuff….. take care ……
A friend of mine's battery popped when we were standing by his truck, I can imagine how loud and crazy that was.
I had that happen to me while I was in the service stationed in Hawaii. I was working a part time job as a security guard in an apartment complex and a lady said she couldn’t get her car started. Well it was in a dark parking garage and me not having a flashlight used my lighter. Well she had just had the battery charged but the reason she couldn’t get it started is because the seat belt needed to be clipped. Remember those? It was a Datsun . Much more to the story because if who she was but I’ll leave it there. Oh I had acid all in my eyes and all over my face, lucky I didn’t get blinded. And yes it made a huge bang.
Hydrogen gas exploded. I feel your pain. First you feel itchy then your skin starts to burn. I hope you get better. Have some egg noggin to cool down the burning mouth😊 Merry Christmas Bus Grease Man
I had a similar experience when load testing a battery !
Using one of the oversized toasters .
The ones you hang over the thing when testing because the cables never long enough !
The battery top hit the wall behind me & that's about 60 ft away !
Luckily it totally missed me & it was a gel battery so no acid escaped .
Eye protection or a full face shelled around charging batteries is a must .
It's also a common thing when welding on vehicles & equipment .
Sorry to hear this occurred.
Internal spark and what followed is the rest of the story. Glad there were no serious injuries.
I've only seen that happen when batteries were frozen when starting the engine l. I'm glad you are okay 🙏🔧👍
That's pretty crazy, glad you're ok!
Lucky man. Battery explosions are nothing to trifle at. Safety glasses ALWAYS.
Close call there scott...
Be careful bud,
👍😎💯🇺🇲
Been there done that. I was lucky and didn’t get it in the face. Glad you are ok.
When I was in junior high a battery exploded right in one of my class mates face the hole top of the battery hit him in the face. He had battery acid in his eyes by the grace of god they had just ran water to shop I drug him to the sink and shove his head under the water and told him to not stop washing his eyes till the ambulance arrives his eyes got burned bad by the acid it was a month long recovery for him.
OMG! Could have been so much worse. So glad you're okay.
Glad it didn’t get your dreamy eyes Scott. I had one blow up from charging. I wasn’t there. It detonated big time. I undue the cables when I charge them. Just to be safe. Always wear eye protection
Looks to me that the terminal melted a path through to the inside of the battery when it was cranking. Just bad timing that you stopped him cranking when you did, one more second it'd have blown whilst cranking. Good advice from others, to wear glasses & have eye wash available. Had battery acid in the eye one time, it's something akin to how I imagine 1000 red hot needles would feel. Definitely something you want to avoid, no matter how rare battery explosions are. Stay safe, the buses need you!
Ive heard of this happening but have never heard anyone tell how it happened to them. Im glad you're ok buddy.
The thing is, when water is electrolyzed (disassociated into hydrogen and oxygen by electricity), it produces a mix of oxygen and hydrogen gas the exact ratio - two H to one O - that will burn perfectly and explode with maximum energy. It's a common science show demonstration to fill a balloon with the gas from electrolysis of water then touch it with a torch. The boom is, as you say, louder than a shotgun. That turns it back into water of course but a miniscule amount of water produces quite a large volume of explosive gas. The danger in attaching a jumper cable directly to a battery isn't, as is commonly said, the hydrogen gas possible - but the very real possibility of a pocket of this perfectly explosive mixture being ignited inside the battery case and doing what happened to you.
Gonna wear safety glasses from now on? As I send this I have a group 78 charging on the patio in the rain, but the charger is in the house...ha!
In all honesty, when I was in technical college back in the late 80's, I hated wearing safety glasses. It wasn't until a battery exploded behind my back on a multi battery charger., that I respected the "wear safety glasses" rule. Accidents happen sure, but some you can avoid.
My grandfather lost hearing in one ear from a battery explosion back in the 60s
I didn’t have any idea how loud a battery explosion was until i experienced it. It was insane
Hope you’re ok. No joking matter. I’ve seen batteries explode before. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Keep the videos coming, very, very interesting!!
Overcharging batteries is the main reason that lead acid batteries explode. Too much current creates excessive hydrogen gas production. Whenever you see a corroded battery terminal, its a sign of the battery leaking from around the base of the post. The battery that exploded definitely had a leaking terminal where hydrogen gas could escape from. A clogged vent hole could have allowed hydrogen gas to build up within the battery and the only place for it to escape would be around the damaged terminal post.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase a hydrogen/flammable gas sniffer detector so you test for hydrogen gas buildup.
Glad you are ok Scott
GLAD you're OK - Acid spraying around is NOT a good situation! Especially if any had gotten into your eyes!
Glad to hear that all is ok. It could have been a whole lot worse.
OMG 😮 Glad youre ok Scott ! Yay SCENIC CRUISER 😊
This has happened to me two times in years past. Both were batteries just removed from charge. One was a 9 month old Ford truck battery, the other was an older Duralast battery. Both were internal failures, not loose terminals. Both exploded when the starting load was applied. Fortunately my face was not near them at the time of explosion.
Glad to hear you're okay. Could have been much worse.
i found out years ago about exploding batteries in vehicles, you got lucky it didn't get in your eyes
been there done that....think more about batterys now and where they are on the bench when using the angle grinder....I was taken a back by the shock wave from the blast....In Pakistan they would rebuild that battery...you have to hand it too those guys...much respect.
The reason why battery factories keep fans blowing on new batteries that are charging is to keep hydrogen gas from building up, I used to use a blowgun when around batteries while servicing garbage trucks.
My Dad had this happen, thankfully he wore glasses or he'd have had battery acid in his eyes. I have never seen my Dad that shook up.
One time in a small tug boat with a 671 dead batteries went to use a pair of jumpers to an other 8 D battery, must have sparked sounde like a gun shot going off, blew the top of the battery off luckily i was off to the side no injurys, just deaf for a few hours !!
Hi Scott and family merry Christmas from down under. I had a big battery like yours. I had a battery charger sitting on top of the battery. The thermal circuit breaker It supplied the spark blowing the top off the battery .I should knowen better being a firey for 38 years. As you mention to take care around batterys. I hope everyone is safe and happy for Christmas .Dave and family from down under .Scott your fire truck would make a great fire fighting appliance on your property setting it beside a large water source near your your shop. It's got the best NOTE coming from the JIMMY when it's going up the hill .
You were lucky. An ex's dad ended up with glasses for the rest of his life when he had a plain car bettery go off in his face... and I mean that even coulda been worse, so....
Wear your PPE!
Wow so lucky. Stay. Safe keep up the great work. And be careful. 👍
once had a big forklift battery have a blow out like this, gotta always check your batteries, I check my flooded batteries every payday
That Sucks! The Battery in my 69 Dodge Super Bee did that to Me! Did not want to crank and I got out and checked the connections, the Negative was loose a tad and as I turned
it a spark and "BOOM"! it set of the gases and blew my Eardrums crazy! The shockwave had me in Awe and confusion! My eyes and face were burning. My brother grabbed the cooler full
of beer from the back seat and shoved my face in the cold ice water! The Police came flying over from the other side of the mall parking lot as they heard the cannon blast.
They were surprised to learn what happened and praised our response to the ice bath. The had EMS on site quickly and got me to the Hospital. It took three operations to remove all the plastic and lead out of my Eyes! Scary Shit and I can still see today albeit with progressive glasses! I require Hearing aides as well! Batteries are serious safety hazards and precautions
need to be heeded religiously! JMO!
You are very lucky it was not more serious to your Eyes, Ears and more!
Had this happen to me 40 years ago. It hit me in the face. Lucky an fellow employee saw what happened and got a portable eye was station and flushed my face and eyes right away.
Safety glasses and a face shield, never can have enough protection.
Eye protection always important
Maybe in the future wear a full face shield. Glad you didn't get hurt too bad.
As large as those batteries are perhaps there is a replacement Lion/ Supercap version available which would provide more cranking amps and a longer life. The lithium ion battery is connected to the supercap via a resister so the supercap actually performs the cranking.
Watching that bus smoke reminded myself of the time in the early 90’s, ima touring Musician and we were at an outdoor venue and it was windy. We were leaving for the next town, started our bus ( Prevost) and it smoked like a chimney and was completely choking out the next band on stage. We were waiting for air pressure to release the brakes and the stage manager is beating in the door, turn it off, turn it off, it was totally hilarious.nFinally the pressure built and away we went, but you couldn’t even see the people on stage hahahahahaha
I had that happen to me. After my wife washed the clothes I was wearing at the time, they disintegrated...lol. Glad you're ok.
When you work on heavy vehicles or light vehicles for that matter, safety glasses at a minimum.😊
Crazy but I've seen it before. In the early 70's I worked at a battery recycling plant with every kind of battery ever made. I hating lifting these batteries. When we were bored, we would wire them up to watch them smoke but now and then they would explode. I definitely wouldn't have my face near them. dropped one on the top of my foot one day and went to the hospital thinking I broke it but after x-rays they said no just a bad burse.
That was a close call. Noting to myself to be careful around batteries.
Same thing happened to me while trying to start my cabover
You may have suffered concussion. Brain injury from pressure wave. Battery blow ups, when the key is turned to “start” - cause usually begins with low fluid levels. Followed by high rate charge from jumper cables or chargers. I preach battery safety for decades now. Most all of my car buddies blow me off. I personally have been around three battery explosions. The low fluid levels allow the lead plates that are very close to each other, the spark jumps from plate to plate. If fluid level is covers all the plates, the spark inside the battery can’t occur. Only need a little of the plates exposed.
My kids will be here tomorrow. They have both asked for shop time in the wood shop. Rule #1) safety glasses. Rule #2) no loose clothing. Rule number 3) leather apron.