So this afternoon I received a Brand new 130Ah Leoch AGM battery. I opened the box, and it was inside a thick black plastic bag, filled with polystyrene. I got the battery out, and noticed there was a little bit of sticky residue in the polystyrene, but the thought didn’t cross my mind there was something wrong. I just thought nothing of it. The battery had lots of polystyrene ‘fibres’ on it, but I didn’t clean it down or anything - I had work to be getting on with, so wasn’t allowing myself to get distracted. I did notice that there were some whitish lines on the back face, but just assumed these were polystyrene marks at a quick glance. I stood the battery on the ground next to the box, tested across the terminals and got a 13.0V reading, and then continued to work.
I just finished, and thought I’d go put stuff in the van and start testing it for size. I carried the battery, and when I got to the van, realised my calf was starting to sting (I’m wearing shorts). I turned the battery round and my hand got soaking wet, and I noticed that the ‘lines’ had globular stuff coming out. I’ve attached a picture. It seems there’s several splits on the main back surface.
I took the battery back inside and noticed that there’s a puddle of liquid on our living room floor. Quickly threw a rag down and tried to clean up. At this point I thought perhaps I’d best put the battery on its front so that it doesn’t continue to leak onto the floor, and then it started to make a high pitched noise. I thought it might be just bubbles but it changed pitch and got higher, and I started to worry the thing might be about to go bang and make a mess of the living room, or potentially much worse. It’s now lying face down on the lawn, with a guinea pig run to stop the dog getting near it. It’s starting to rain very slightly, and obviously it can’t stay outside, but I don’t want to risk it exploding/catching fire and burning down the garage/my van!!
Sure enough, the company that sold it is closed for the weekend, and don’t open again until Monday.
How dangerous is this battery? Where should I keep it? I will google stuff now but I started typing this post as there’s a hell of a lot of people with experiences with AGMs on here!
I just finished, and thought I’d go put stuff in the van and start testing it for size. I carried the battery, and when I got to the van, realised my calf was starting to sting (I’m wearing shorts). I turned the battery round and my hand got soaking wet, and I noticed that the ‘lines’ had globular stuff coming out. I’ve attached a picture. It seems there’s several splits on the main back surface.
I took the battery back inside and noticed that there’s a puddle of liquid on our living room floor. Quickly threw a rag down and tried to clean up. At this point I thought perhaps I’d best put the battery on its front so that it doesn’t continue to leak onto the floor, and then it started to make a high pitched noise. I thought it might be just bubbles but it changed pitch and got higher, and I started to worry the thing might be about to go bang and make a mess of the living room, or potentially much worse. It’s now lying face down on the lawn, with a guinea pig run to stop the dog getting near it. It’s starting to rain very slightly, and obviously it can’t stay outside, but I don’t want to risk it exploding/catching fire and burning down the garage/my van!!
Sure enough, the company that sold it is closed for the weekend, and don’t open again until Monday.
How dangerous is this battery? Where should I keep it? I will google stuff now but I started typing this post as there’s a hell of a lot of people with experiences with AGMs on here!
