Rotten egg smell/ new batteries

[BAD ORCA]

I just installed two brand new Trojan T-105's in series. I noticed when i was charging them at work to equalize their voltage there was a slight odor of rotten egg. I didnt pay much attention because they are brand new. it odor was not very strong just slightly noticeable when i put my nose over the battery. it seemed to dissapear after charging for a little while.

Now today i installed them in the boat. i hooked everything up and had the charger on for a few minutes so i could set the charge and float voltages. I noticed the smell in the battery compartment from the few minutes they were charging. i turned off the charger and its gone away now.

I have a brand new charger (Sterling Pro Charge Ultra) and set the charge voltage at 14.8 and float at 13.5 according to Trojans data sheet for the T-105's.

The batteries were fully charged already when i turned on the charger. water levels look good. the charger has a temperature sensor which i do have connected and is working. during the charging process, at work initially, and just now, the batteries feel cool to the touch. there is absolutely no area where the batteries get even slightly warm.

so why am i getting the hydrogen sulfide smell? from everything i read about it, its not something to be taken lightly but everything in my setup is brand new, including all the wiring and fuses etc...i didnt leave the charger on to see if it would go away because the batteries are already fully charged.

is it possible it happened because they were already full when i turned on the charger and they just got slightly over charged? is a slight amount of smell normal for these batteries when the charger is first turned on? Is it possible i have bad batteries? The Trojan company is close by to me and the distributor should be carrying pretty fresh batteries.

 

[dlochner]

Do you have an electric hot water heater? The smell often occurs when the anode in the electric heater has failed.

 

[BAD ORCA]

Do you have an electric hot water heater? The smell often occurs when the anode in the electric heater has failed.

No. im 100% sure its coming from the batteries (battery). when i popped off the lids to check the water level i got a good whiff. Its a small enclosed space so easy to tell. And unfortunately its in the main cabin under the settee.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

My suggestion is to set up a voltmeter at the battery terminals to see actual charge voltage rather than rely on what settings you select. Also look at the electrolyte to see any bubbling.
The batteries will evolve H2S when being overcharged and/or heating.

 

[BAD ORCA]

My suggestion is to set up a voltmeter at the battery terminals to see actual charge voltage rather than rely on what settings you select. Also look at the electrolyte to see any bubbling.
The batteries will evolve H2S when being overcharged and/or heating.

Will do. i have an SG-200 connected and its showing the same voltage as the charger but i can check with a multi meter to confirm what the charger is putting out at the terminals. When i popped off the lids to check the water i did notice a few bubbles coming up to the surface.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Will do. i have an SG-200 connected and its showing the same voltage as the charger but i can check with a multi meter to confirm what the charger is putting out at the terminals. When i popped off the lids to check the water i did notice a few bubbles coming up to the surface.

With charged batteries, what’s the voltage at the terminals? Should try not exceeding 14.6V.

 

[BAD ORCA]

With charged batteries, what’s the voltage at the terminals? Should try not exceeding 14.6V.

I will check next weekend when im at the boat again.

 

[Maine Sail]

I just installed two brand new Trojan T-105's in series. I noticed when i was charging them at work to equalize their voltage there was a slight odor of rotten egg. I didnt pay much attention because they are brand new. it odor was not very strong just slightly noticeable when i put my nose over the battery. it seemed to dissapear after charging for a little while.

Now today i installed them in the boat. i hooked everything up and had the charger on for a few minutes so i could set the charge and float voltages. I noticed the smell in the battery compartment from the few minutes they were charging. i turned off the charger and its gone away now.

I have a brand new charger (Sterling Pro Charge Ultra) and set the charge voltage at 14.8 and float at 13.5 according to Trojans data sheet for the T-105's.

The batteries were fully charged already when i turned on the charger. water levels look good. the charger has a temperature sensor which i do have connected and is working. during the charging process, at work initially, and just now, the batteries feel cool to the touch. there is absolutely no area where the batteries get even slightly warm.

so why am i getting the hydrogen sulfide smell? from everything i read about it, its not something to be taken lightly but everything in my setup is brand new, including all the wiring and fuses etc...i didnt leave the charger on to see if it would go away because the batteries are already fully charged.

is it possible it happened because they were already full when i turned on the charger and they just got slightly over charged? is a slight amount of smell normal for these batteries when the charger is first turned on? Is it possible i have bad batteries? The Trojan company is close by to me and the distributor should be carrying pretty fresh batteries.

When the series batteries are at 14.8V what is the individual voltage of each battery? If the batteries are cold the temp sensor can also be bumping up the absorption voltage.

 

[BAD ORCA]

When the series batteries are at 14.8V what is the individual voltage of each battery? If the batteries are cold the temp sensor can also be bumping up the absorption voltage.

Unfortunately i wont be back to the boat until wednesday. i will check and confirm then.

i have noticed that the voltage right now, because of the cold'ish weather here in southern california, gets bumped up by .1 volts according to the sterling remote display and the sg-200. this info is based off of charging cycles with the old batteries though. i will assume that given the amount of time the charger was turned on (5 -10 minutes), the new batteries may have seen 14.9 volts for a few minutes.

that being said...when i first got the batteries, i was charging them at work (6 volt automotive charger) to try and equalize the voltage of the two batteries. according to my multi-meter and the battery charger display, they never saw a charging voltage above 14.5 combined volts and one of them did have a slight noticeable odor. i did frequently feel the batteries for temp and neither felt even slightly warm. this is what confuses me. i would assume over-charging would produce noticeable heat.