Location: Victoria, BC. Canada (75.155.181.152) | Couple days back my carbon monoxide alarm (CO) sounded off and when I entered the coach I could detect the faint smell of rotten eggs; it was worse in the front of the coach. I ventilated the coach to shut the alarm up then figured I'd look into it more so the following day (yesterday) as I was planning to swap out both the upper and lower rad hoses in preparation for yet another run over the infamous Hwy #4 to Tofino on the Thanksgiving long weekend (Nov 11th).
Yesterday as I was working on the coach I noticed the rotten egg smell was substantially worse. Again, I ventilated the coach, took the batteries out of my CO alarm and then after the new hoses were on, I took it for a good test run. All good with the cooling system, I parked the coach for the night with extra windows open intending to get to the bottom of the 'stink-thing' first thing this morning before work.
Bad decision!
When I first went out this morning to investigate I could smell the 'smell' from six feet away from the coach. This was alarming. I entered the side door and was instantly struck by a couple of good whiffs of the stuff; instantly I had trouble breathing and quickly stumbled out of the coach. After collecting myself in the fresh air for a few minutes I went around to the drivers door and opened it to focus on the house batteries.
Immediately I could hear hissing from beneath the cover and the lid was warm to the touch. I thought, 'This is dynamite!'
I turned away and grabbed my full-face mask, gloves, and a couple of wrenches to get the batteries disconnected. Didn't think to UNPLUG the coach. Funny how you forget things under duress.
Two or three of the cells were off-gassing so severely, gas was steaming out like a kettle. There was moisture (sulfuric acid no doubt) everywhere and as I struggled to get the batteries disconnected, I felt like one of those 'bomb-techs' trying to diffuse an IED.
These two (now thoroughly cooked) 6-volt Trojans are older, but were holding a charge just fine and I serviced both of them only 3 months ago. Go figure.
I'm running a Progressive Dynamics (45 amp) converter with a 'Charge Wizard'.
https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/power-converters/pd9200-series-rv-...
These converter/chargers are reputed to be among the best units out there and are supposed to have built-in over-charging safeguards so these sorts of things don't happen.
I'll be contacting these guys to find out WTF is going on with my 'super-safe' (NOT!) PD charge controller.
I've since learned a few things about charging batteries and how important it is to make certain your battery compartment is WELL VENTILATED. I'm also going to look at the ventilation on my house battery compartment as I believe the design is lacking. It needs to breath better to the outside and be securely sealed-off from the living quarters.
In my case, HYDROGEN SULFIDE was the culprit and I was some STUPID to be breathing any of it.
If it helps any of you out there to read the following, then maybe some good will come of it:
http://goodforgas.com/hazardous-gases-associated-lead-acid-battery-...
Happy Motoring,
Terry
#846
Edited by andy1canada 2017-10-30 8:58 PM
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