Reversed my Parallel's because I can't read....now what

[__ScottyDont]

Well...this is a slightly embarrassing story but it happens to the best of us.

I took my group 31 AGM battery and wired it all up strapped it down to the bottom of the boat with wires hanging out then took the next battery put it in their wired the ground down, wired the positive down and FIRE! Even worse, FIRE NEXT TO MY FUEL LINE!! Holy heart attack. Anyways, got that taken care of and thought something wild was occurring here but no, come back from dinner and look at the toasted battery terminal and see that it has the negative symbol next to it....wait.....didn't I wire the positive last. Yep so I ultimately took two batteries and wired them positive to negative on both sides almost like a looped series.

My question is, aside from a charred cable that needs replacing...have I trashed my batteries? I wasn't able to run a multimeter to verify voltage but I'm more concerned about the inside of the batteries, I don't want to be drawing a lot of power out of damaged batteries.

 

[Bruce]

Most automotive stores will test batteries for free.

Glad the boat damage was not more serious.

 

[Lawson2479]

At least you are okay. Toys are always replaceable.

 

[tdonoughue]

Probably didn't kill them, but I wouldn't expect them to last as long as normal...

For our education, how did you extinguish the fire?

 

[Lawson2479]

Yes how? We were just discussing fire extinguisher placement in an earlier post today.

 

[Magic]

Best hope is to get a charger/conditioner.... If anything can help, I would think that would..... I would guess you will get a shortened life-span, but you never know.... Monitor them closely and.....Good Luck!

 

[__ScottyDont]

I'll try and get them tested today, put the fire out with a thick towel, just cut the oxygen source. It was minimal...mainly the insulation around the cable on fire. From what I've read it won't damage your batteries, however, electricity will be moving so fast that your cables will eventually heat up and most likely catch fire.

We'll see!

 

[Gym]

You're lucky a battery didn't blow up as what you're describing is a dead short between two batteries. You may want to consider a battery terminal fuse like this: http://www.westmarine.com/blue-sea-systems--terminal-fuses--P009_273_007_517 They aren't cheap but probably less expensive than you're repair. You may also find them cheaper if you do a search. I'm glad you are ok.

 

[JDSCHMOO]

I had the exact same thing happen to me last year on the morning we were to leave for our lake vacation. I was also lucky that nothing else caught fire, batteries didn't explode, etc... I took it to my local dealer who I usually avoid, however they were able to get me fixed up pretty quickly, only lost 1 day from my vacation. My house battery was dead, start battery showed ok, but I had them replace both, and the cables obviously, it also blew both fuses located on each engine. Not exactly sure where they're located, but they said both were blown. Other thatn that I had no further issues from that incident, but definitely not something I'd want to go through again. Best of luck!

 

[__ScottyDont]

Thankfully I had nothing wired to the boat so the only thing that could be affected was the batteries themselves. I measured them this morning with a multimeter and they both show 12.83v, I'll go over to autozone next week and see what they say about them.

Not having everything finalized was another reason why the fuse wasn't on the line. I'll toss a fuse on the line before I reconnect. I connected them last night the right way and saw no problem.

 

[Gym]

Thankfully I had nothing wired to the boat so the only thing that could be affected was the batteries themselves. I measured them this morning with a multimeter and they both show 12.83v, I'll go over to autozone next week and see what they say about them.

Not having everything finalized was another reason why the fuse wasn't on the line. I'll toss a fuse on the line before I reconnect. I connected them last night the right way and saw no problem.

Sounds like you're in good shape if you're reading 12.83vdc. A fully charged battery should read a little over 13 vdc so if you fully charge your's you may get a little more. The engine fuses your dealer was referring to @JDSCHMOO are located on the black box on the rear engine room wall behind each engine. These fuses protect the ECU. There is a round cap you can unscrew to access these fuses. There should be a spare fuse in the cap itself incase you need one so you may want to check to make sure you still have a spare fuse under each cap.

 

[RumDiet]

Becoming more and more reading challenged every day, I put red tape around ALL of the positive battery cables and also a strip of red tape at or near the positive battery terminals. It helps when you don't have a pair of younger eyes or reading glasses around. Good luck with your batteries and thank your lucky stars there were no gas fumes around . . .