[tamiya4x4dryver]

I'll tell you what I've been doing here, then hit you with the big question.

I don't race, I just bash. I have a room in my house that is my "hobby room". In this room I have my PC, TV, DVD, all my r/c stuff, and is generally where I spend alot of time hiding from the wife. In this room, I have a 12 volt deep cycle battery. Basically looks like a normal battery like you'd have in your auto, but it's meant to be deep cycled. It's actually my trolling motor battery for my 1:1 boat. Now me being ever the opportunist, have decided to keep this battery in my "hobby room". I have been running my DC only chargers for my r/c stuff off this deep cycle battery for awhile now. It works great, even runnin 2 chargers at once for my e-maxx. Then at the end of the day of charging, I take the 12 volt charger and charge the deep cycle battery back up.

Here's the big question. I'm kind of concerned/ worried that I may be doing something that is a potential health hazzard. I don't know anything about automotive batteries and deep cycle batteries, but I remember hearing somewhere that during charging and/or discharging they give off some sort of gas???? My hobby room is very small, am I sitting in there breathing something that I shouldn't be??? Or am I just paranoid? I hate to have to buy a power supply because this works so well for me, but I'd rather buy a power supply than kill brain cells or something like that. Can someone educate me a little here? Is this something to worry about?

Appreciate any help you can give me!

[bufferoo]

Lead\Acid batteries give off hydrogen gas when they are being charged. MOST of them are sealed and there is no real danger. The older ones and smaller (ie motorcycle, utility etc) are vented and do release the hydrogen into the surrounding area. It's not a lot but it is enough to cause problems if there's a spark. I have seen a car battery explode when it was being charged but ONLY because it was still plugged in when the leads were removed from the terminals. A spark jumped the gap on the terminal and BOOM. Bad stuff. It was an older vented battery though and for the most part that problem has been fixed.

Deep cycle batteries, esspecially marine batteries should be fine as they are designed to take a lot of vibration and movement without spilling so it should be sealed. The main difference between deep cycle and regular is that deep cycle are made to be heavily discharged before a recharge without causing and damage to the plates. That can happen with a regular battery.

End point is that as long as the room is well ventilated (ideally to the outside), you remove power to the charger BEFORE you remove it from the battery, keep the top of the battery clean, and turn off any of your pack chargers BEFORE you remove them from the battery you should be fine. I was doing this in my basement for years and now in my garage and as long as you follow some basic rules you should be fine. If you can limit any charging of the battery indoors you will lower your risk greatly, but that's not to say that you're in a lot of risk at the present time.

Bufferoo

[tamiya4x4dryver]

Thank you for that information! Well I'm still kind of concerned because 1. my room has little if any ventilation and it's a very small 7' x 8' room. Do you think my battery is "sealed"? I can tell you that it does have the caps on top to refill with water if need be.

[bufferoo]

If you've got caps it's not sealed. Still not a big problem though. If you are really concerned just don't charge it in the room. Do it in a garage or outside. Using it won't be a problem though. They don't off-gas appreciably when in use.

Bufferoo

[ducati777]

Good questions. It woulnd't have occurred to me that there would be a danger. But hydrogen in itself is fairly plentiful in our air, so I'd probably just run a fan in the room...

[tamiya4x4dryver]

If you are really concerned just don't charge it in the room.

Well that's kind of a problem right now because where I'm living at the moment, I don't have a garage (man do I miss my garage). I also am disabled and can not lift the battery so taking it outside is not an option for me. I don't get to fish as much as I use to, but when I fish with my brother-in-law, he carries the battery out to the truck and brings it back into my room when we get home (just ask him he hates this freekin thing it ways lika a gazillion pounds lmao). I don't know what to do.... on one hand, I'm cheap, and poor, and this has been working well for me. On the other hand, I don't want to do anything that's going to be a health hazzard.

[Desolas]

MOST of them are sealed and there is no real danger.

If it is a wet cell battery, it is not sealed. Even if it filler caps or not, it has a vent to release gas, and still produces gas.

The only lead acid batteries that do not actively vent into the atmosphere are AGM style, and gell cell batteries. These can still gas, but only if overcharged.

If you've got a wet cell battery, you can charge it inside your house without issue if you do a few things to insure safety.

· Ventilate the room. You'll smell the sulfur with the hydrogen released if there is too much gas in the room. It's not life threatening until you can't tolerate breathing it anymore as it displaces oxygen.

· Put a drip pan of some kind under the battery, should it be too full it will over spill when charging as the acid expands when hot.

· Buy a battery hydrometer, it's the only way to tell of the cells of the battery are charged and it keeps you from over charging it.

· Only charge it when you're home, and awake.

If the battery is physically warm when your done charging it, it's starting to over charge. >120F is bad. The battery always releases gas, the act of charging and discharging causes it, and when the battery sits idle, it's discharging. When you over charge is when you get a lot of gas from the battery boiling.

It requires a lot of gas before it becomes a real health hazard, you can smell it when it does, worse of all, you can taste it when it's thick enough to cause you immediate issues. I've also blown up pleanty of batteries, its not really a fire issue you need to worry about but more that the acid gets blown everywhere. As long as you keep an eye on the battery when charging it's perfectly safe.

Also in an ideal situation you want to charge the battery without the caps on it, to avoid trapping the gas, but in your situation leave them on to avoid acid splatter.

[tamiya4x4dryver]

Desolas, thank you that was extremely helpful info!