Battery Life

[Shadow]

so you can put a flooded wet cell battery in the cabin of a vehicle?

Hi Shadow, yes mate you can fit flooded wet cell ( FWC ) batteries inside the cab of ANY vehicle.

The only requirement is to make the battery spill proof by fitting it in a plastic battery box.

NOTE, no matter what type of battery you fit inside the cab, it should be in a plastic battery box.

If you manage to over charge a FWC battery, you may get a bit of spill from electrolyte spitting out of the caps, but if you over charge a sealed battery it WILL force electrolyte gel from the battery and because of the lower maximum charge voltages that sealed batteries must be keep under, you are more likely to over charge a seal battery than you are a FWC battery.

So again, any type of battery fitted inside a cab must be in a plastic battery box.

I spoke to the guys at several battery places today and all 3 of them said that having a FWC battery in cabin is not a good idea(although they didn't go so far as to say its illegal or anything), as they have the ability to vent noxious gasses into the cabin during charging, or in fault situations.

Commodores etc that have FWC batteries in the cabin also have vent pipe which plumb's the batteries vent's to the exterior of the car. Would this not be required?

I ended up buying a 120AH Fullriver AGM for the back of my 100series, and a 105AH Supercharge FWC Deep cycle for the engine bay of my brothers ute. But the AGM was nearly $100 dearer so I would be a little disappointed if the "noxious Gasses" thing was just an urban myth?

[drivesafe]

Hi shadow, they were correct about the noxious gases but if you were driving down a road and started smelling rotten egg gas, would you not pull up and try to find out why you battery stunk.

If it was a FWC battery you may need to add some water, job done.

Now the same problem can occur with a sealed battery but in this case, if you smell rotten egg gas, time to buy a new battery.

So while they are correct, the problem is common to all batteries it just noticeable sooner with a FWC battery and you might be able to save it, with a sealed battery, while less likely to happen, it still can but once you smell the battery, it’s already too late.

I run two FWC batteries in battery boxes in the back of my Discovery 4 and have no problems with smell, even when the batteries are very low.

When they are very low, you get a slight smell for a minute or two and thats it.

[DamTriton]

so you can put a flooded wet cell battery in the cabin of a vehicle?

Hi Shadow, yes mate you can fit flooded wet cell ( FWC ) batteries inside the cab of ANY vehicle.

The only requirement is to make the battery spill proof by fitting it in a plastic battery box.

NOTE, no matter what type of battery you fit inside the cab, it should be in a plastic battery box.

If you manage to over charge a FWC battery, you may get a bit of spill from electrolyte spitting out of the caps, but if you over charge a sealed battery it WILL force electrolyte gel from the battery and because of the lower maximum charge voltages that sealed batteries must be keep under, you are more likely to over charge a seal battery than you are a FWC battery.

So again, any type of battery fitted inside a cab must be in a plastic battery box.

I spoke to the guys at several battery places today and all 3 of them said that having a FWC battery in cabin is not a good idea(although they didn't go so far as to say its illegal or anything), as they have the ability to vent noxious gasses into the cabin during charging, or in fault situations.

Commodores etc that have FWC batteries in the cabin also have vent pipe which plumb's the batteries vent's to the exterior of the car. Would this not be required?

I ended up buying a 120AH Fullriver AGM for the back of my 100series, and a 105AH Supercharge FWC Deep cycle for the engine bay of my brothers ute. But the AGM was nearly $100 dearer so I would be a little disappointed if the "noxious Gasses" thing was just an urban myth?

Main issue is the Hydrogen produced under charging (explosive, but not necessarily noxious per se), all cells do this.

Gel cells try to limit this problem by retaining the pressure within the cell (this being one reason why you can't rapid charge them), as well as only having a gel (literally the consistancy of a home made yummy jelly) substance between plates meaning warpage of the plates can cause them to contact through excess heating while charging/discharging.

AGM's have a "starved electolyte" wetting a glass mat and limit the amount of H2 produced by not having too much H2SO4 acid in the cell in the first place. They also have a solid glass mat between plates and are generally packed pretty tight so thermal issues are better dissipated under heavy charge/discharge. This is also the reason they can deal with more current when charging/discharging.

Wet cells have a heap of acid around the plates, and the plates are usually not that well mechanically restrained meaning heavy charge/discharge can also warp plates. The distance between the plates is usually greater than in the gel cells so they are not as susceptible to shorting cells though. The amount of acid in the cells and the open venting makes adequate air circulation around the batteries (as suggested above) a must. Personally I don't like the idea of sitting next to 3 litres of hot acid in the event of an accident....

Gel cells and AGM's do have a pressure relieving valve in them but under normal usage it would not be active.

BIGGEST must-have is an appropriate sized fuse or circuit breaker within 200mm of the battery terminals if the battery is inside.

[drivesafe]

Main issue is the Hydrogen produced under charging (explosive, but not necessarily noxious per se), all cells do this.

If a battery is placed inside a cab, in nothing more than a plastic battery box, then there is absoltely no chance of the a hydrogen explosion occuring.

[poppywhite]

If you put a battery in vehicle lash it down secure and hard, A bucket of acid up the back of your head is not nice.

There will always be lot of different opinions on battery life with a fridge, My experience is they use more than you think and are hard on battery.
Remember that it is easy to get 80% charge into battery the last 20% is slow to reach full charge.

Do what drivesafe said and test at home. Check out drivesafe site and look at options to multiple charge all your batteries when mobile, your alternator is your friend here.
Change battery setting on fridge when battery is on charge to use max power, get all the energy you can from the charger,

Every one ha different idears and experiences.

dont take all things on forums (all forums) to seriosly, sort and do some of your own work. some have barrows to push and some have no idea but overenthused to say anything . There is a lot of good people and info around.