Re: (ET) One cell frozen in the whole pack

[Charlie <medievalist gmail com>]

The batteries are East Penn/Deka blems, labeled "The Usable".  They
don't claim to be very high quality, but I figured for my very first
lead acid battery bank I should go cheap, since people often report
ruining a few while learning how to properly care for them.  Also I
was strapped for cash at the time, because I'd just bought a
professionally restored late-model I-5. ;)

The frozen cell is on the outside, it's the frontmost leftmost cell in
the tractor.

Thanks for all the comments and advice, guys.  I guess I need to pull
the pack right away and get it inside, wash out any spillage, and make
a visit to Tri-State battery ASAP!

Luckily I have an old sears car battery charger with a six volt
setting (yes, I did have a six volt VW, back when dinosaurs ruled the
earth) so I can charge the batteries individually while they are out
of the pack.

--Charlie

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 9:49 PM, David Tiefenbrunn
<davidtief comcast net> wrote:
> Sounds like one weak cell was not fully charged, and froze.   Case 
> cracked
> by ice sounds likely now.  I was on my Elec track when a cell exploded a
> while back.  I wasn't hurt, but I had to pull the battery, and wash the
> whole area with water and backing soda to neutralize the acid splashed
> around.
>
> Dave
>
>
> On 2/18/2015 7:18 PM, Charlie wrote:
>>
>> When I was plowing yesterday, the I-5 was sluggish at first, and never
>> really got up to the usual level of power.  I also noticed a strange
>> sulfuric eggy smell at times.
>>
>> When I put the charger on, it was unusually loud.  So I checked all
>> the batteries and I found that one of them had a single cell frozen
>> solid!  The other two were fine, as were the other five batteries.
>>
>> I was trying to be careful about not letting the batteries get
>> discharged, to prevent them from freezing.  In the fall I carefully
>> checked every cell with a good quality temperature-compensated
>> hydrometer and they all looked good.  The charger and electronics are
>> the simpler late model type, the tractor's a 1973 I-5.
>>
>> Does anybody know what happened here?  Is the battery irreparably
>> damaged?  What happens when I charge the pack with one cell frozen?
>>
>> --Charlie
>>
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