Good Evening Vance,
Thank you for taking the time to post the below information. True
I don't plan to use lawnmower batteries in my subs. I used that battery for a
number of reasons; it's a 12 volt DC none sealed lead acid battery, basically
like most batteries used in private subs in the past and present, it would be
cheap to replace if damaged in the test, smaller battery = smaller explosion
and/or shock, and it's what I had in hand. I would expect a larger non sealed
lead acid battery to respond in the same basic way. I did the test to learn how
to be safe in a submarine, and so I could design as safe of a sub as I could.
For safety, I filled the bucket remotely from over 50 feet away, and behind a
corner of the house, and the bucket was 30 feet from the house on concrete. When I did
the jumper cable test, the battery was 6 feet away from me on the other side of the
bucket, and I was wearing allot of protective clothing and a full face shield
in case the battery e! xploded and through battery acid at me. When ever I work
on a battery, or use jumper cables, I use protective eye wear at a bare
minimum. I don't know how many times I've done and seen car engine
compartments, including the battery, pressure washed with no apparent ill
affects on the battery, or the person doing the washing nor the dogy in the
window.
Having a battery explode in a enclosed hardened container, is not
the same as it exploding in an open area. If I put a cup of gun powder on
the concrete and light it remotely, you'll get a big flash and not much else.
Now if you put that same amount of powder in a hard container, like a pipe with
threaded end caps, you now have a whole nother animal. Hydrogen and/or chlorine
gas exploding in a sealed contain because they got lit from a fuse is not the
same as having a battery in the compartment with you, and it getting covered
with water, unless you light the gas(s) some how after they build-up. In that
story the gas exploded from a fuse igniting it, not just the batteries
exploding on there own.
Time will tell if my mower battery is toasted, but I don't think
it would be damaged, since myself and many others use larger and smaller
batteries of all kinds to produce colloidal silver and hydrogen by
way of electrolysis by using electrodes. Much like I did with
the jumper cables. These batteries get drained over time, but nothing else. We
just charge them again and again. I would highly suspect that having the
battery submerged does the same basic thing, and just slowly drains the
battery by producing hydrogen and oxygen tell spent. It's very
true that a higher voltage and amperage system would produce allot more
hydrogen and oxygen faster, of which I wouldn't want to be around, but that in
and of it's self is not an explosion of the battery(s) until it gets ignited
some how by something else besides the battery. I would think it would take
some time to fully discharge the batteries in that manor. Now h! aving
batteries directly connected with wires that can act as an heating element
would be very uncomfortable, if the fuses and/or ground fault protector(s)
didn't work correctly.
Now I didn't touch the jumper cable ends together underwater while
the battery was submerged, and I didn't open and expose the battery acid to the
water. So that is another matter. That would be testing the battery submerged
while under load, if I touched the cable ends together above or below the water
or hooked them up to a car light or a electric motor. Having the battery by
it's self submerged and producing hydrogen and O2 off the negative
post, I would think could be considered testing while under a light
load, depending on the salt and/or mineral content of the water.
Regards,
"Do
or do not, There is no try"
~ Yoda
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