Battery Venting Question

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park

Senior Member
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Jan 3, 2014
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381
Location
Wickenburg, Arizona
My old battery finally gave up the ghost so I went with two 6 volt golf cart batteries. They are not the sealed type like I had before. How important is it that I install a vent in the camper battery box? I have the side dinette and the batteries are under the front seat. It seems to me that with a soft sided camper that isn't really a sealed unit it wouldn't be necessary.....but what the hell do I know?
 
Once you've witnessed a battery explosion or seen the aftermath of one you'll understand the need for proper venting. It is important. Put them in a plastic box, and use marine vent ducting and escutcheons to vent the box to the outside.
 
Park, I will second what ntsqd said. During charging, you can get a buildup of hydrogen, and it can explode if you have enough gas and a spark. If it were me, I'd play it safe and vent to outside the camper.
 
Hydrogen gas is an unusual gas since it has both the widest explosive range (the concentration between too lean to explode and too rich to explode) and the most explosive energy per pound of any gas. Hydrogen is lighter than air so an upward sloping short line from the top of the battery box should work. Long battery vent runs require fans. The national building code requires non-AGM batteries to be vented but they are short on details like vent line diameter and how long before a fan is needed. Hydrogen is light enough to escape Earth's gravity and so some of your vented hydrogen could reach outer space. I have seen folks put several cups of water into a six volt golf cart battery and always wondered "did all that water go to hydrogen?".
 
Ever hear about the Hindenburg disaster? Seriously, needs to be vented and if you use a fan to assist in venting,it should be explosion proof.
 
Guess I'll pull the camper and start cutting. Wonder if a simple eave vent say 4" x 6" cut into the camper would suffice?
 
crumbs said:
My Rube Goldberg machine.
I Didn't have the setup long enough to say with certainty that it was safe.
Click to expand...
Please clarify just what in the hell is that set up. Kinda wishing I'd of stayed with a sealed battery at this point. :unsure:
 
Just guessing: 4x6" sounds huge unless you have large battery array and high amp draw (4x6" is larger than the propane vent on my propane tank compartment). Hydrogen production rate is proportional to amp usage. 1.5-2" round (round does not weaken structural wood as much) with a screen for two batteries and a moderate amp draw sounds like plenty. Do not weaken the area around the turnbuckle bracket. AGM's cost more but avoiding checking/adding water routinely and needing to vent are the alternate cost.
 
Park,
There are some small round vents which make it easy to install by just drilling the proper size hole with a hole saw. And may be able to do it from inside. Ron
 
park said:
My old battery finally gave up the ghost so I went with two 6 volt golf cart batteries. They are not the sealed type like I had before. How important is it that I install a vent in the camper battery box? I have the side dinette and the batteries are under the front seat. It seems to me that with a soft sided camper that isn't really a sealed unit it wouldn't be necessary.....but what the hell do I know?
Click to expand...
Yes vent. It is easy to do. I just have a 2" dia sofit vent going to the outside of the camper:

battery box low.jpg

Place the vent as high as you can in your battery box (hydrogen is lighter than air). If you add a fan, add it to the intake side of the battery box as even brushless DC fans can spark.

BTW, the ABYC specification recommends venting all lead acid batteries as even AGMs do vent hydrogen under the right conditions.

jim
 
My 2003 325 BMW had a sealed battery mounted in trunk with a vent to the outside. The vent port was built into the battery, and was tiny - about 1/4" tube. It might have been an AGM type battery (I no longer own the car), but earlier models with flooded batteries also used this arrangement. So, a really big vent isn't required, but as many have stated having it as high as possible is important.

Duralast H8, vent port is on upper right.DuralastH8.jpg

With the possible large open volume of our battery compartments, I suppose a larger vent area helps in collecting the hydrogen.
 
wuck said:
Nice work Jim! Is that an actual battery box or something else?
Click to expand...
It's a Ziploc weathertight storage box found at wallyworld. It was a lot cheaper than the custom battery boxes. The GC2s fit nicely with ~ 3/4" clearance all around and barely for height. Has worked well for two years.

jim
 
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