Frozen House Batteries

Well it looks like the 6 volt house batteries couldn't handle the cold Idaho winter. I went to check on the MH the other day and found the cases on the house batteries bulging (yep they froze). As my wife and I are new to MHs (2002 Holiday Rambler Admiral 36 DBD), I winterized the MH but gave no thought to the house batteries. Anyone out there have any experience with frozen batteries?? Are they toast or is there a chance they can be charged and put back in service??

I'd say they are toast. I would bet they are cracked also. If you want take them inside someplace and let them thaw out and then try to charge them. Don't try and charge them while they are frozen.

And put them someplace where any leaks won't harm the floors -- maybe in a garage on a piece of plywood ... not on the concrete.

If the sides of the batteries are bulging they are pretty much toast. I'd hate to take a chance on charging them up and putting them back in the coach just to have them strand me someplace in the boonies.

Before putting my coach in storage for the winter I always make certain the batteries are full and fully charged. But, I don't live in an area that will have sustained freezing weather. If we get a hard freeze in Oklahoma it seldom will last more than a day or two. Most folks I know who live up north recommend that if you are going to store the coach for long periods in the winter to either keep it plugged into shore power, then your inverter or converter will keep the batteries charged, or remove the batteries and store them in a warm area, like your garage at home.

It doesn't matter if the battery cases are buldging. If they are delivering the proper voltage under modest loads, then they don't need to be discarded. However, having said that, I would not AGAIN subject them to extreme cold or heat.

I was stationed in Alaska where much of our equipment sat in modest sub zero temps. I do not recall ever a case of frozen batteries. yes we plugged an engine block heater into AC sockets, but that had nothing to do with batteries.

Perhaps the electrolite liquids in your batteries are too full to allow for some expansion. Suck some of it out or take the caps off the batteries and provide an avenue for frozen electrolite to flow out. A big mess, by the way. Or put a light bulb on an extension cord in the compartment that will provide minimum heat.

It has to get pretty damn cold to freeze a battery. Maybe you might want to move south????

Having raced full size over the road electric cars that ran on 6V batteries, and now owning a Golf Cart that uses similar 6V batteries, I can tell you that batteries will bulge with age weather you freeze them or not. I used Trojan T145's in the full size car, and Trojan T105's in the golf cart.

Even if your batteries have a modest charge on them they shouldn't freeze unless you leave them out in bellow zero weather for days. If you are really that worried about the batteries being shot, you can always bring them to a shop and have them load tested, you will know instantly if they are shot.

Just so you know, in an electric drive vehicle I expect a battery life of between 5 and 7 years, and that is with regular deep discharging. You will probably never abuse your house batteries as bad as I have abused traction batteries.

Best advice I can give you is my opinion that you should charge your batteries before storage, and at least once during storage, and check the fluid levels at least once a month when in use, and before every charge while in storage. If you want a whole lot of information on 6V battery care and feeding start checking Golf Cart web sites, they have a lot of info including freezing temperature charts.