Close Call and Burnt Fingers
Discussion
Oh so close and just burnt fingers to show off as scars
Saturday was about to get the Chimaera out for a run, and as the Accumate has not been working, i had a battery charger hooked up for the odd blast charge for 2 hours once every 2 or 3 weeks.
Now it was an old charger, and has been maintained well, and I just unplugged it from the extension cable, had not been switched on at the mains and placed it on the passenger seat, checked nothing was on the garage floor to drive over, have wife and child who dump things for me to clear away LOL.
Looked up and saw SMOKE bellowing out from the cabin
Jumped into action, reached in grabbed charger and just ripped it clean out of the car throwing it up the drive, leaving parts of the wiring running to the battery, ran round the car and pushed her quickly out of the garage, (not mad enough to jump into a smoking car) then opened passenger door and grabbed the smoking wires running to the battery and ripped them out, quickly grabbed the battery terminal clamps and with the ends of the charger wires pulled them off.
Quickly removed the roof and then stood back, wife looking on in horror
Had a quick look, no wiring damage just the battery charger leads melted and then picked up the charger and found that the it had melted were the leads came out off it, the fault was with it, not the car.
Deep breath and keys in and first turn she roars into life
So all calm, no damage, a few marks from the burnt wires, which brushed off, discontacted the battery just to be safe and rolled her back into the garage and then i noticed a bit of pain on my right hand, looked and found a nice neat burn line across my fingers.
Still, worth the pain to save the my Pride & Joy, not to mention the garage, car port and house
This morning had her back out and checked everything over, let her run till nice and warm wth fans kicking in and a wee blast too, no problems, beastie is great, but hates icy roads
still here to rock my world, which is the best result.
Birthday up soon so new Accumate being ordered, last one did last 12 years after all, so can't complain. Mind you its 13 years this week that I got her, was this a spooky 13th birthday present from the beastie to me
So guys, worth checking out the wiring on any chargers, age can kill them and your car too.
Take care and don't get your fingers burnt.
Colin L
Saturday was about to get the Chimaera out for a run, and as the Accumate has not been working, i had a battery charger hooked up for the odd blast charge for 2 hours once every 2 or 3 weeks.
Now it was an old charger, and has been maintained well, and I just unplugged it from the extension cable, had not been switched on at the mains and placed it on the passenger seat, checked nothing was on the garage floor to drive over, have wife and child who dump things for me to clear away LOL.
Looked up and saw SMOKE bellowing out from the cabin
Jumped into action, reached in grabbed charger and just ripped it clean out of the car throwing it up the drive, leaving parts of the wiring running to the battery, ran round the car and pushed her quickly out of the garage, (not mad enough to jump into a smoking car) then opened passenger door and grabbed the smoking wires running to the battery and ripped them out, quickly grabbed the battery terminal clamps and with the ends of the charger wires pulled them off.
Quickly removed the roof and then stood back, wife looking on in horror
Had a quick look, no wiring damage just the battery charger leads melted and then picked up the charger and found that the it had melted were the leads came out off it, the fault was with it, not the car.
Deep breath and keys in and first turn she roars into life
So all calm, no damage, a few marks from the burnt wires, which brushed off, discontacted the battery just to be safe and rolled her back into the garage and then i noticed a bit of pain on my right hand, looked and found a nice neat burn line across my fingers.
Still, worth the pain to save the my Pride & Joy, not to mention the garage, car port and house
This morning had her back out and checked everything over, let her run till nice and warm wth fans kicking in and a wee blast too, no problems, beastie is great, but hates icy roads
still here to rock my world, which is the best result. Birthday up soon so new Accumate being ordered, last one did last 12 years after all, so can't complain. Mind you its 13 years this week that I got her, was this a spooky 13th birthday present from the beastie to me
So guys, worth checking out the wiring on any chargers, age can kill them and your car too.
Take care and don't get your fingers burnt.
Colin L
Bloody hell - glad it all ended okay.
You've started me worrying now. I have an Accumate which lives inside the living room, connected via a long cable through a hole in the wall into the cigar lighter in the TVR. My assumption is that should the Accumate develop an internal short (which is what I assume happened to your charger), it'll blow the cigar lighter fuse in the TVR before anything bad happens. Is that right, or am I deluding myself?
Just wondering now whether my setup is safe, or whether it's a fire hazard...
You've started me worrying now. I have an Accumate which lives inside the living room, connected via a long cable through a hole in the wall into the cigar lighter in the TVR. My assumption is that should the Accumate develop an internal short (which is what I assume happened to your charger), it'll blow the cigar lighter fuse in the TVR before anything bad happens. Is that right, or am I deluding myself?
Just wondering now whether my setup is safe, or whether it's a fire hazard...
SH**T CollinL an almost identical incident to mine. Again an aging "Smart" battery charger output wires shorted out,reverse current from battery, bags of amps! Result wires welded to the wing of the car. Damage, minimal as I was present to observe the smoke. Needless to say my new charger as an inline fuse fitted in the output cable close to the connection clamps. Wonder why an output fuse is not a standard fit when these chargers are advertised as 'foolproof' and can be left unattended? Cheers John042
John042 said:
SH**T CollinL an almost identical incident to mine. Again an aging "Smart" battery charger output wires shorted out,reverse current from battery, bags of amps! Result wires welded to the wing of the car. Damage, minimal as I was present to observe the smoke. Needless to say my new charger as an inline fuse fitted in the output cable close to the connection clamps. Wonder why an output fuse is not a standard fit when these chargers are advertised as 'foolproof' and can be left unattended? Cheers John042
John is right. If the charger wasn't even plugged in, it is the car's battery that has caused the heat, so a fuse in the mains lead to the charger wouldn't have protected anything. You need the fuse in the low voltage leads, close to the clamps. Did they fail where they exit the charger chassis due to constant flexing at that point ?No need to change your battery though. If you've dropped a cell, you'd be 1.5V down and wouldn't have been able to start the car. These batteries are used to punching 600amps or so out when you start up so it'll be fine.
The main danger with what happened was actually that the battery could have exploded due to rapid internal heating. Just check that no acid has bubbled out of the battery onto your carpet / wiring / floor. Otherwise, the battery will be fine. You could check the battery voltage. As long as above 11V or so, it'll recover no problem.
I had exactly the same thing on my S3.
At the time I had a cheap charger from a well known car accessory chain. I thought I could smell something weird and I looked up to see one of the battery terminals was on fire! The polarity was correct and I obviously couldn't see anything directly in contact when I put them on - must have been a tiny bit of oil residue or something that went up. I don't understand why the charger was still putting volts through it if the resistance was high enough to create that much heat.
Needless to say the Halfwits charger rapidly went in the bin and I got myself an Acumate, which has performed faultlessly since.
At the time I had a cheap charger from a well known car accessory chain. I thought I could smell something weird and I looked up to see one of the battery terminals was on fire! The polarity was correct and I obviously couldn't see anything directly in contact when I put them on - must have been a tiny bit of oil residue or something that went up. I don't understand why the charger was still putting volts through it if the resistance was high enough to create that much heat.
Needless to say the Halfwits charger rapidly went in the bin and I got myself an Acumate, which has performed faultlessly since.
Fingers still sore, Chimaera fine,
The battery did not boil over no damage to any other wiring, and all electrical systems working fine.
Have fitted longer wiring for the accumate to fit direct with new in line fuse hate crawling in the footwell and don't want to move the battery.
Colin l
The battery did not boil over no damage to any other wiring, and all electrical systems working fine.
Have fitted longer wiring for the accumate to fit direct with new in line fuse hate crawling in the footwell and don't want to move the battery.
Colin l
Colin L said:
Fingers still sore, Chimaera fine,
The battery did not boil over no damage to any other wiring, and all electrical systems working fine.
Have fitted longer wiring for the accumate to fit direct with new in line fuse hate crawling in the footwell and don't want to move the battery.
Colin l
Good news.The battery did not boil over no damage to any other wiring, and all electrical systems working fine.
Have fitted longer wiring for the accumate to fit direct with new in line fuse hate crawling in the footwell and don't want to move the battery.
Colin l
If you want to run leads direct from the battery, I personally find its easier to connect bayonet fuses directly on the battery terminals. Then they will blow quickly if you short either lead as well as making it a doodle uncouple the wiring if you need to remove battery or terminals (so use them as protection & convenience connector)...
Chris71 said:
I had exactly the same thing on my S3.
At the time I had a cheap charger from a well known car accessory chain. I thought I could smell something weird and I looked up to see one of the battery terminals was on fire! The polarity was correct and I obviously couldn't see anything directly in contact when I put them on - must have been a tiny bit of oil residue or something that went up. I don't understand why the charger was still putting volts through it if the resistance was high enough to create that much heat.
Needless to say the Halfwits charger rapidly went in the bin and I got myself an Acumate, which has performed faultlessly since.
I have had one of their chargers explode a sealed battery before. Luckily it was not in the car at the time. At the time I had a cheap charger from a well known car accessory chain. I thought I could smell something weird and I looked up to see one of the battery terminals was on fire! The polarity was correct and I obviously couldn't see anything directly in contact when I put them on - must have been a tiny bit of oil residue or something that went up. I don't understand why the charger was still putting volts through it if the resistance was high enough to create that much heat.
Needless to say the Halfwits charger rapidly went in the bin and I got myself an Acumate, which has performed faultlessly since.
You have got me worried now. I have a cheap Draper "smart" charger which is left on. This has a fuse near the clamps on the +ve wire going to the battery. I'm hoping that if anything happened to the charger to cause a fault the fuse would blow and stop any damage.
Am I right or do I need to add further protection.
I have a cheap Draper "smart" charger which is left on. This has a fuse near the clamps on the +ve wire going to the battery. I'm hoping that if anything happened to the charger to cause a fault the fuse would blow and stop any damage. Am I right or do I need to add further protection.
After my incident last week, I will Never Ever Ever use a battery charger again with a battery in place.
New Accumate arrived and is now being fitted, well once my hand has recovered, still not able to use two fingers, burn was worse than I thought.
Still the mild weather has arrived and its time to drive the beastie not have her parked up.
Colin L
New Accumate arrived and is now being fitted, well once my hand has recovered, still not able to use two fingers, burn was worse than I thought.
Still the mild weather has arrived and its time to drive the beastie not have her parked up.
Colin L
Got me thnking about the smoke alarm issue, but would you hear it in the garage?
I'm guessing a bit of rewiring and the bell could be put somewhere in the house, my garage is attached but I'm not sure it'd wake me up in the middle of the night, the one in the house outside the bedroom door, yes, downstairs in the garage the otherside of a block work wall, I doubt it.
I'm guessing a bit of rewiring and the bell could be put somewhere in the house, my garage is attached but I'm not sure it'd wake me up in the middle of the night, the one in the house outside the bedroom door, yes, downstairs in the garage the otherside of a block work wall, I doubt it.
spend said:
Colin L said:
...I will Never Ever Ever use a battery charger again with a battery in place...
So what are you going to take out the alternator or the battery?Back to carbs & magneto?
I should say that if I had used a trickle charge with inline fuse it would not have occurred, still live & learn.
Mind you did enjoy watching my wife crawling into the footwell to check the battery out, nice view
Colin L
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