Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

On the top of the batteries there is a small plastic strip that hides the vents, as show by a bad battery.
Vents

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Bill,
I don't think that label caused the problem, it simply was the evidence of the vent.

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Agreed. Unfortunately we will never know for sure. Another mentor immediately disposed of the two questionable batteries at a recycle center and they are now gone. I now think there was may have been nothing wrong with them, but it a minor loss to insure safety.

Hopefully this will encourage us to review our battery practices and safety procedures. It appears that not everyone on the team that was handling batteries had the same knowledge or followed the same process. If nothing else we can use this experience to help the students learn more about proper battery safety, care, and at least where we keep the battery spill kit.

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Even with training, team members sometimes forget. Here is a short list of battery do's and don'ts.
1. Never lift the battery by the wires. Guaranteed to break the terminal inside the battery.
2. Always use two hands, the batteries are heavy and have no good grasping points.
3. Don't charge when hot, i.e. right after a match. Wait at least 15 minutes.
4. If you run you battery down in just one match, reevaluate your mechanical design. A good rule of thumb is several minutes or at least two matches. Best tested during practice at your build space.
5. Insulate all exposed metal/wire/terminals. The battery is capable of currents that can weld.
6. Insist that only those students or adults that know how the battery is designed to be mounted in the robot actually place the battery in the robot.
7. Do not use the alligator clips on your battery charger to connect to the Anderson Power Products connector. The clips will scratch and deform the contacts which lead to high resistance and high heat. Yes Virginia, high enough to melt/fuse the connectors. There is no good way to insulate the clips for this operation.
8. Do not drop the battery. More batteries have been killed by dropping on a corner or breaking loose internal parts.
9. Test your batteries at least once or twice a season with a good battery checker. West Mountain Radio CBA II or III is a good way to tell battery status without trying to draw huge currents. The Cross the Road Battery Beak, battery checker is also a quick way to check battery health prior to a match.
10. Do not depend on a DMM/DVM to give you any usable data. It will simply tell you terminal voltage without telling you if the battery can actually supply current.
For this year, please insure that your battery will not bounce around inside your robot and many teams, (WildStang included) are adding some padding to prevent serious G-shocks to the case and internals.

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

And don't take this to mean "If you have big enough hands you can use one". I've almost/slightly pulled something in my thumb multiple times carrying batteries 1-handed using the little ledges on the top ::safety::

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

If the leak was from the terminal seals, this is a manufacturing defect and should be communicated to the manufacturer. Please post the manufacturer (ie Genesis or MK battery) and the manufacturing date code (ie YYMMDD + extra letters) which is stamped in the top of the battery case.

This year in our kit of parts, the Kinetic Knights Team 781, received a Genesis battery manufactured July 17 2010 (batch code E100717FB). We have not had any leaks. We inspected our terminal seals and saw no defects. Some pictures of a disassembled MK Battery are posted on our website (3 MB pdf).

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Last year we lost 7 batteries because of leakage... This year we upgraded to new chargers and we haven't lost a single one... :cool:

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Did you switch to a completely different type of charger? If so, what were the old ones, and what did you switch to.

Also, Al Skierkiewicz I really like your list of battery rules. In particular
#6 Insist that only those students or adults that know how the battery is designed to be mounted in the robot actually place the battery in the robot.
I would consider extending this a bit and think our team perhaps should have a formal battery handling certification. I too often here a coach, driver, programmer, or mentor yell, "Anyone!, we need a fresh battery now." Somehow replacing a battery has become some time critical priority, and anyone is considered qualified to replace one. We are trying to get away from that, and insure that proper battery handling procedures are followed. But we seem to be fighting a lot of inertia.

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Our batteries have a harness made from old seatbelts. When you have installed the cables the battery cannot come out and you have a two inch wide cloth carrying handle. It makes also very easy to remove from the robot. You do have to design the battery box larger to fit the harness. A fellow ham in my ARES/RACES group made the harness originally so 60+ year operators could carry the same size batteries safety

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

I would love to know how that's done (properly).

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

Arm-length rubber gloves through a Lexan panel into a ventilated hood?

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

The old ones were the HPX-60's.
The new ones I'm not sure about, but they are similar to the 3-way one on andymark.com but it only chargers one.

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

With a ROBOT! ::safety::

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

2168 received a leaky battery this year.

Re: Who has had a leaky battery this year?
 

while our battery never leaked (we stopped using it), our battery had come with 1 of the lead terminals weak to the point where i could move it back and forth. That was this year.