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Hello Jay, Will a sealed Optima type APM battery produce chlorine gas when submerged in fresh or saltwater? There was no real hydrostatic pressure applied to the battery, and it was not in the water for all that long, so the battery didn't leak as you noted. At least not enough to seriously damage the battery. I'm interested in configuring my sub to that I can do a wet exit safely if need be. Since the K-250's have the batteries inside, that makes things more difficult. Regards, Brent Hartwig From: bottomgun@mindspring.com To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] 12 Volt DC Lawnmower Battery Test Update Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 16:14:22 -0400 Brent, Some other disaster processes take place that you didn’t note. With salt water, very poisonous chlorine gas will form (which will also result in hydrochloric acid formation that burns skin and eyes exposed in the air, the chlorine will ruin your lungs quickly). Additionally sulfuric acid will leak out of the batteries which will burn your skin in the water. A final threat is that when shorted out by the salt water with larger batteries you can have an explosion due to the rapid dissipation of power. These have all been documented in previous submarine disasters.
It is obvious that your test was not realistic since your battery still works. Salt water (35 ppm chlorides) leaking into a battery will quickly ruin the battery. Therefore with your battery still functional, this indicates that salt water did not intrude. R/Jay
From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Brent Hartwig
Last year I did a test to submerge a small basic lead acid battery in fresh, and then saltwater to better understand what I was up against if the interior of a sub flooded with exposed unsealed DC batteries in it. I discovered that unless I directly touch the poles I'm not likely to get shocked in fresh or saltwater, but that the battery will split water into H and O2. So you need to get out of the sub quickly for that reason as well as you don't want nitrogen to build up in your blood if your going to do a fast accent. Regards, |