Exploding Battery

[Sydney]

2003 Yamaha, working perfect, set charger after a short morning commute, later in the afternoon hear the charger recycling over and over. Never seen or heard it do that before, unplug charger and lift the seat up and the battery compartment is very hot and you could smell the acid. Checked water level and left the seat up to cool...also checked battery voltage, all were 8.+ except one was down to just under 7 volts.

Next morning loaded and ready to hit the links as you depress the accelerator, you could feel a slight movement and then nothing and the meter pegged to the left like a total short to ground or discharge. So we drove the car, later I was out looking for any shorted wires burned fuses etc., checked voltage (47 volts) all the lights work turn signals horn and such, and tried driving it. If I just barely pushed the accelerator I got it to move but depress it fully and the meter would peg immediately to discharge as before. After backing out of the garage, at the bottom of the drive I tried to drive it forward but the cart only lurched very slightly before the meter would peg to the left. Then BOOM!!! A battery blew its top off, sprayed acid and was smoking like crazy...

Any ideas what's up with that would be appreciated...thanks.

[Frank7]

Battery charging produces hydrogen gases. If the gas present is exposed to a spark either bay a falty wire or a short in the battery or batteries then a blast will occur. Most likely the battery that the top blew off has produced that spark and the results are evedant.

[Sydney]

Yes yes thank you, I am aware of that...but my question is why doesn't the cart go and why does the meter peg over to discharge?

[Frank7]

The cart will not move with an open circuit in the battery, you have an open and incomplete connection. Your meter is a volt meter and reads battery voltage of all the batteries when the circuit is complete without any part of the system shorted or open circuit.

[Sydney]

Hmmm, the open circuit caused my battery to explode.