Re: [A/S] Frozen battery!

["Mr. Joy H. Hansen" <joytbrew@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chuck,

Just a word of caution that I have no direct experience with - just saw the
effect!  Frozen batteries can and do explode without regard to the
environment.  Don't know the reason, but I've seen it with automobile
batteries several times when a seemingly dead battery was charging in the
vehicle.  I'm not sure the battery was frozen and it might have been a spark
that ignited the charging gases.  A real mess that I wouldn't want in any
vintage A/S.

As a side note, I used to charge several motorcycle batteries with a daisy
chain hooked to a "Battery Tender" charger.  Eventually I stopped because
the unit would usually over charge one of the batteries when another was
defective - meaning that I lost all the batteries the charger was supposed
to protect.

Motorcycle batteries have high density plate construction due to the hight
amperage drain during starting relative to the small space available for
storage.  When these batteries freeze, it warps the plates and damages the
spongy lead.  The batteries may function again, but never at the performance
level of the undamaged battery.  There's a load device that you can
discharge the battery and check it's performance.  Quite different than
looking at the specific gravity of the cells or the apparent voltage.

May not be applicable to your situation, but I thought I'd make my
observations known to you.  But I think you'll find a warning about charging
frozen batteries somewhere in your battery literature.

Good luck,

                                                    '69 Safari,  Joy