Homestead mailing list

[Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

At 11/19/2004, you wrote:
> O.K., why would it be any different than in a car?  Something weird happened
> with the alternator (call it a charger) in my truck and it fried my battery
> by "overcharging" it.  that's exactly what the mechanic called it.  He said
> that the guy who replaced the burned out alternator (it had caught on fire)
> should have checked the battery and the battery cables at the same time.

Automobile batteries are wet cell batteries.  A mixture of a water and an 
acid stores energy.  The water can boil off if the battery is over charged 
or gets too hot.  Alternators have a regulator to keep the voltage to a set 
limit and to bring the voltage down as current load decreases.  If the 
alternator charges at to high a voltage, it will boil a battery dry.  It 
would had to have been going on for a while and any alternator change 
should cause the battery to be tested.

The batteries used on cordless tools are dry cells.  If they are charged at 
too high a voltage they heat up.  If there is a malfunction they can heat 
to the point of ignition.

Don Bowen
Awl Knotted Up Woodworking
Valley Center, CA             http://www.braingarage.com