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I can tie this for utter foolishness. Early in my off-grid days, a friend
and I split a load of telephone company batteries. His hydro system would
regularly boil off electrolyte in its season, so he checked fluid levels
a lot.<br><br>
One time he left his flashlight in his cabin. But being a safety-meeting
kind of feller, he had a Bic with him.<br><br>
He looked in the hole and couldn't tell the level, so he flicked his Bic.
The battery top did not blow off, but the filler neck turned into a
geyser, right into his face -- no eye coverings. He rinsed his eyes like
crazy, and drove himself 30 mountainous miles to the hospital. Lucky
fellow, there were no permanent consequences.<br><br>
Luke Christy wrote at 08:52 AM 12/16/2010:<br>
<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">These descriptions of battery
explosions certainly drive home the point that one should always always
wear protective gear when working on batteries.<br><br>
I have a story that may take the prize for the most foolish
behavior yet described (thankfully I wasn't involved until the cleanup
stage).<br>
In 2008 a neighbor of mine was filling a bank of 12 L-16s installed in a
remote home here in So. Colorado. Apparently it didn't occur to him that
it probably wasn't a good idea to smoke while adding water to gassing
batteries. Two or three batteries into the job, sure enough, a spark fell
off his lit cigarette, probably landed in or near the open cap of the
cell he was filling, and the resulting explosion blew the top off of the
L-16, also spraying electrolyte everywhere in the battery room. My
neighbor (who shall remain nameless) was not wearing protective gear of
any kind, and of course he had acid in his eyes and all over his face. He
was alone at this house, 40+ miles from the nearest town, and close to
ten miles from the closest neighbor. He managed to wash his eyes and face
in a creek, and was somehow able to drive the ten miles to the neighbor's
house, who then took him to a hospital. Amazingly, he came out of it
without permanent eye damage or scarring, but that must be due to having
had more than his share of luck that day.<br><br>
I had the job of cleaning up the mess and replacing the blown-up battery.
One thing that stood out was the fact that the top of the battery
disintegrated into dozens of very sharp shards of plastic. These were
obviously thrown out with the explosion and could have easily caused
serious injury themselves. The entire wall of the battery room was
covered with tiny bits of plastic, plate particles, and electrolyte,
almost making a cartoon-like outline of my neighbor, as he had been
standing in front of the wall when the battery blew.<br><br>
Always wear your eye protection. (and it seems that smoking plus hydrogen
equals bad things).<br><br>
<br>
<dl>
<dd>Luke Christy <br><br>
<br>
<dd> NABCEP Certified PV Installer™: Certification #031409-25 (Luke
Christy)<br>
<dd> CoSEIA Certified PV Installer (Luke Christy)<br><br>
<dd>Solar Gain Services, LLC<br>
<dd>Monte Vista, CO.<br>
<dd><a href="mailto:SGSRenewables@Gmail.com">SGSRenewables@Gmail.com</a>
<br><br>
<br>
</dl><br><br>
<br>
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