In the first year of my apprentership (not quite when dinosaurs rulled the earth as my kids seem to think ) I had the rather nasty experience of a battery exploding while I was removing it from a vehicle. It was an important lesson learned the hard way. Back then with only wet cell batteries in use there was no question about battery box ventilation, it was a must do if you were to avoid a potentially explosive situation.
Today with the advances in battery tecnology many van manufacturers seem to have given up treating batteries as a source of potential hazard and mount them with little reguard for ventilation or what electrical devices may be nearby. A well made AGM battery in use today is indeed very safe as far as batteries go and will not release gas while working under normal operating paramaters. As Tjaliwalpa correctly points out above, problems can occure when the battery is forced to work outside those parameters. This leads us to the controversial area of the debate and it can be quite a hot topic too as can be seen on
this thread from another forum.
The battle lines are very clear with one side saying the risk is so low that if you are worried about it you probably should not even get out of bed as you are probably be more likely struck by lightning etc etc. The other side countering with the risk is none the less there and can be reduced by a few simple steps.
So where does this leave you Borstalboy apart from very confused and feeling a headache coming on
There can be no doubt that the safest method is to use a sealed battery box and correctly vent it to the outside or at least vent the area where the battery is to be mounted. Whether you do that or accept what seems to be the norm for many van manufacturers at this time and simply put the battery in a box and mount it wherever is most convinent is a choice you have to make.
In my 14 the battery wiring was done by jayco. they put the battery in an unsealed plastic box under the seat and have made no extra attempt to vent the area.
Am I losing sleep wondering when the ticking bomb will go off.... no
Would i have prefered jayco to have made an effort to vent the area.... yes
So there you have it, lots of text and no real soloution. Sorry borsta, if you can't decide which way to go perhaps a visit to your local sparky is in order. Electric Guru I would be interested on your thoughts on the subject.
Borsta You could also fit a volt meter in the van to monitor the battery condition this would help in detecting an overcharging situation.
