Hot hot hot battery...these numbers seem crazy

TantoTrailers

Well-known member
Is my shore charger toast? Victron IP67 and an AMG battery that's showing 147* F. I was prepping for a quick one night error and noticed it really hot....and almost out of nowhere because about 30 mins prior I was fiddling with the fridge right next to the battery, didn't notice the heat.

Charger was showing 17+ amps, 200+ watts to the battery...

It's unplugged now showing 0 amps.

Can the battery survive this heat? Ambient temp in the garage is 76* F.

I've already replaced this shore charger once...
 

Attachments

  • Tanto.png
    Tanto.png
    1.2 MB · Views: 3
  • Screenshot_20250829_140006.jpg
    Screenshot_20250829_140006.jpg
    192.3 KB · Views: 4
  • Screenshot_20250829_140032.jpg
    Screenshot_20250829_140032.jpg
    315.5 KB · Views: 2
  • Screenshot_20250829_140152.jpg
    Screenshot_20250829_140152.jpg
    275.5 KB · Views: 2
  • Screenshot_20250829_140218.jpg
    Screenshot_20250829_140218.jpg
    420.7 KB · Views: 2
  • Screenshot_20250829_140316.jpg
    Screenshot_20250829_140316.jpg
    315.7 KB · Views: 2
  • Screenshot_20250829_140341.jpg
    Screenshot_20250829_140341.jpg
    458.4 KB · Views: 3

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Where exactly was the red dot sitting when you saw 147°?

Can you put your hand on the spot?

What chargers are running? Just the Victron shore, right?

I have my doubts the battery case measured that hot because that would imply the plates inside were much hotter than this. My first thought wouldn't be to assume you ruined anything at this point but it's possible the battery is bad just the same.

An exceptionally hot battery is one indication of an internal short, so it's possible and you're right to be careful. Lead acid can go into thermal runaway, not unlike lithium. It's rare but can happen. Electrolyte will boil, the case will often melt before you reach a critical temperature (it's in the several hundreds of °F). So the bigger problem is out gassing and leaking sulfuric acid.

AGM is a sealed lead acid chemistry. The sealed part is important, it means the battery won't vent the off gas result of charging, which is oxygen and hydrogen gas. AGM means absorbed glass mat and it's this mat that makes it special. As you charge oxygen and hydrogen are evolved and being sealed they recombine into water that's diffused in the glass mat.

In standard flooded batteries they are open to the environment and can vent freely. If you push them too hard the water is boiled but is fixable by adding water or in the worst case new electrolyte.

When you charge a sealed type, including AGM, a slightly higher than atmospheric pressure is developed inside the case. Normally this is OK because of the recombination. But if you push them too hard, beyond what can be recombined, and actually boil the electrolyte they have a pop-off vent to allow gas to escape rather than having the case fail.

If you did this to the battery it's toast. You can't reseal an AGM once you've overcharged it.

But heat is created during charging, so it's not unexpected the temperature should rise. Also ~18 amps into a big battery like that isn't really a lot. It could tolerate quite a lot more during bulk.

You show a photo of ~14A at absorption, the current tapering (slowly declining) is also what you'd see going through the charge steps.

Did you hear any hissing? Smell anything like rotten eggs?

At this point I'd take it off any chargers, let it sit for a while and see what voltage it settles to after a rest. Then put a load on it and see if it dives quick or holds up like normal.
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
190,185
Messages
2,924,805
Members
233,522
Latest member
Petersmithinak
Top