Wet cell battery short-circuit

[sbrucewilson]

Have a wet cell battery problem & think I know the solution but wanted to check. In a GB I have six 6-volt house batteries, Dyno L-16s, all three years old. One of them has a cell that now loses electrolyte daily; I've been adding a cup or more of distilled water. I unhooked this battery from the others three days ago to test it in isolation. It still loses electrolyte and now (only since I isolated it) the neighboring cell is overflowing. I believe the battery is short-circuiting and perhaps there is a crack in the cell wall that leaks electrolyte to the neighboring cell. Solution: Replace the battery. Thoughts? And implications for the other batteries in this bank?

 

[tiltrider1]

The other batteries should be fine. We could get lost in the weeds about the effect of one shorted cell on the rest of the system. In reality, you will likely see no long term issues from this.

 

[ksanders]

Yep, as Dave indicated just replace the cell unless your bank is nearing end of life anyway.

That's the great thing about L16 FLA batteries. You can buy them anywhere.

 

[Flatswing]

Until you replace the cell, you will need to remove the other in it’s “pair” since your boat is almost certainly 12v and you have 6x6v batteries in a series/parallel configuration. You need to temporarily configure as 4x6v batteries in seres/parallel until you have an equal number. Perhaps that’s why one is now boiling over.

If your bank is over 5 yrs old, consider replacing all 6