Repair Report - Hydrogen Sulfide Smell from Batteries (H2S)

[dfogal]

Hi All,

Ranger Tug 2015 29-S here.

We were out on our boat and started to smell an awful chemical burning acrid smell. Truly awful. We first sniffed the kitchen cupboards and it was clearly there. That’s the same side as the batteries. Further investigation showed the smell coming from the battery compartment. We noticed the smell was getting worse on sunny days.

The first battery in the sequence (engine) was way over temperature at about 80 degrees C. After diagnosis with FLIR gun, voltmeter and looking at all connections the culprit was the the the solar panel controller which is located on the port side of the hull just astern of the batteries. We were not sure whether it was a connection problem (we took apart everything and scuffed/sanded all the connections) or whether the controller itself was the problem.

To get home we pulled the 30A fuse for the solar panel and for good measure I taped black plastic over the panel itself. The engine battery was destroyed and had to be replaced. We used the house bank battery cross-over switch to start the engine.

I had inspected that part of the boat with my FLIR gun and noticed the controller was hot - but without appropriate baselines I did not know that it was too hot. I reviewed my images and do not see a connection point hotspot. So my current belief is that the controller itself was not limiting itself and was putting too much current into the battery and boiling it.

 

[Cutwater28GG]

glad it was nothing worse like a fire!

what controller was this? the sunsaver duo?

if the battery was getting overcharged it sounds like the connections are just fine 🙂. more likely either a critical failure in the battery or more likely the solar control barfed.

if so, they are a pretty cheap PWM controller. if you are spending money to replace it buy the Victron 10/20 or 10/30 MPPT smart unit. and charge the house batteries. The ACR's will close and charge the engine and thruster batteries.

obviously check your wire thickness for specs if changing any charging capabilities. 🙂.

I also highly recommend the victron smart battery sense modules for the battery's. They have temp and power measurement and send data back on the network to the victron solar controller so it can control charging levels. critical for proper charging when cable runs are long in 12v boats as voltage drop is a real problem on our boats

 

[GaylesFaerie]

What type of battery chemistry and how old? That can have a big impact.

 

[F Farkel]

[if so, they are a pretty cheap PWM controller. if you are spending money to replace it buy the Victron 10/20 or 10/30 MPPT smart unit. and charge the house batteries. The ACR's will close and charge the engine and thruster batteries

Cutwater28GG,
Are you saying a dual battery solar controller is not needed? That really simplifies changing out the controller.

 

[Cutwater28GG]

yes a dual charger is not needed. if you have the standard agm battery install with ACR's which close at certain voltage points between the batteries if you just charge one bank with solar, you will in essence charge all batteries as the voltage comes up.

this is how the thruster battery gets charged today with the sunsaver even though its not wired to it.

just wire your solar to the house batteries.

 

[watson1987]

[if so, they are a pretty cheap PWM controller. if you are spending money to replace it buy the Victron 10/20 or 10/30 MPPT smart unit. and charge the house batteries. The ACR's will close and charge the engine and thruster batteries

Cutwater28GG,
Are you saying a dual battery solar controller is not needed? That really simplifies changing out the controller.

That is correct, assuming the solar charger provides a current over 13V for 2 minutes, the ACR will close and both batteries will charge

"For an ACR to automatically combine the batteries, voltage and time thresholds must be reached. Although these numbers vary somewhat from one ACR product to another, if ACR terminal voltage is greater than 13.0V for 2 minutes, the ACR should combine."

 

[Fishmagnet]

We had a solar controller fail and was putting out 23v to the batteries. Same result as yours.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[dfogal]

glad it was nothing worse like a fire!

what controller was this? the sunsaver duo?

I also highly recommend the victron smart battery sense modules for the battery's. They have temp and power measurement and send data back on the network to the victron solar controller so it can control charging levels. critical for proper charging when cable runs are long in 12v boats as voltage drop is a real problem on our boats

The controller was the Sunsaver Duo. I have been thinking about a real solar controller with battery management. I have an annual upgrade budget for my toys - I have to wait until next year.

I have a FLIR gun that I use. I hand over the helm for a few minutes and run around shooting everything to see hotspots. I improved my logs this year to write them down better for more reliable tracking.

 

[Todd_D]

A Victron 75/15 will only set you back about $120. That controller can handle up to 220 watts of solar. If you have more solar than 220 watts I would suggest a 100/30, which can handle up to 440 watts of solar and costs $226. In either case I would buy the "smart" controller which has bluetooth so that you can monitor your batteries and set up the controller from your phone via the Victron App. Another really good upgrade is to add a Victron smart shunt battery monitor ($130 ish) to keep track of the state of charge of the house bank.

 

[scross]

I love my VE 100/30 with the smart battery monitor. With a 335 watt panel I’m keeping all four new AGM batteries above 12.4 volts (75-80%) just sitting at anchor for 2.5 days. On Thursday the solar put 110 AmpHrs back into the batteries! As of 9:30 AM this morning the solar has delivered 22 AmpHrs.