Excal.II battery explodes

surfhunter · Nov 8, 2013

So I plugged in my Excal. To charge up in the garage and about 2 hours later heard what sounded like a shot gun blast. This is what I found. 2 year old machine. 165 dollars down the drain.

krymesolvr93 · Nov 8, 2013

Ouch! That's the worst way a battery should go. Sorry to hear about that.

gobble-gobble · Nov 9, 2013

Thank God no one was near it. Could have had a little moisture in it, just a guess. Hope you have an extra around. Also could it be your charger ? It might be putting out to much volts.

christo000 · Nov 9, 2013

Wow I havent seen that yet, glad no one was hurt

NCGREG · Nov 9, 2013

surfhunter said:
So I plugged in my Excal. To charge up in the garage and about 2 hours later heard what sounded like a shot gun blast. This is what I found. 2 year old machine. 165 dollars down the drain.

Good Lord man,...That is definately a scary situation. I just got my first Excal II series machine a couple of weeks ago and I love it,.. but to be honest with you, I might be a little paranoid, but stuff like this ain't good at all..and is extremely dangerous too.

Tell me,..Was this the battery pack that came stock with the machine? Or was it a replacement that you got from another source? Did the machine act weird, or fail to hold a charge for any length of time before the blow up? The reason I am asking is so that maybe there are some kinds of warning signs to look for.

Sorry your battery pack blew up, really sorry pal.

Greg

Fletch88 · Nov 9, 2013

I've thought about this happening while running my Excal chest mounted. I've heard of cell phones and other electronic devices exploding while they were charging. Hopeful this doesn't happen while using, but I suppose it is possible.

NCGREG · Nov 9, 2013

Fletch88 said:
I've thought about this happening while running my Excal chest mounted. I've heard of cell phones and other electronic devices exploding while they were charging. Hopeful this doesn't happen while using, but I suppose it is possible.

You ain't jokin' Fletch. I saw the battery in a 1967 Impala blow up near one of my freinds face many years ago. Luckily the acid and flying debris missed his eyes, and only his ego was hurt.

Is this something that happens very often to the II series machines in general? Or I wonder if is it just a defect in the battery pack itself? I read in the owners manual, and some place here on this, or another forum about using silicone grease around the threads of the battery connector to help keep moisture out of the battery pack itself. I'll tell you something else that I have been thinking about,..That is coming off of the surf or outside from hunting for 3 or 4 hours when it is really cold outside and imediately getting into a very warm vehicle with the heater running full blast.

It seems to me that, the extreme difference in the temperature from outside to inside the truck or car would cause condensation to form inside of the battery pack (and or) the control box too. Maybe this might be something to think about during the colder months. I don't know, it's just something that I have had in the back of my mind to be aware of since I switched over to the Excal. Hopefully someone who knows for sure can tell us if that is possible or not.

Anyway, that blow up is a bummer.....an expensive bummer.

MBbeachrat · Nov 9, 2013

I would not worry to much. I think that is a first. Wouldn't that be a nice way to go. Your on the beach with your Excalibur. The sun is shinning, the water is beautiful your hoping to find gold and then BOOM your at the Golden Gates! Hopefully I am at the Golden Gates or else I will be with all my friends.

Sir Gala Clad · Nov 9, 2013

NO! As far as ways to go, I would think it sucks!
Even worse, would be to see gold in the scoop, then see no more.

MBbeachrat said:
I would not worry to much. I think that is a first. Wouldn't that be a nice way to go. Your on the beach with your Excalibur. The sun is shinning, the water is beautiful your hoping to find gold and then BOOM your at the Golden Gates! Hopefully I am at the Golden Gates or else I will be with all my friends.

Sir Gala Clad · Nov 9, 2013

Is the voltage at the outlet in your garage standard 110 Volt AC, or is it converted to 110 VAC?
Were you using the stock Minelab trickle charger?
In not what charger were you using?

surfhunter said:
So I plugged in my Excal. To charge up in the garage and about 2 hours later heard what sounded like a shot gun blast. This is what I found. 2 year old machine. 165 dollars down the drain.

NCGREG · Nov 9, 2013

I read about some more Excal batteries exploding and coming apart after 2 or 3 years of use today on another site. Those guys were saying to be aware of the stock batteries coming to the end of their useful life after that approximate time period, and to keep an eye on the battery pod for signs of swelling and cracks from heat. They also spoke of changing from the stock ML charger to a different 3rd party charger that has a "battery charged indicator" that recharges the battery at a quicker rate.....to the tune of 15 or 20 minutes

... I don't know if I would trust that or not. I was always told that rechargeable batteries, either deep cycle or whatever,.. performed, and lasted longer when they were slowly trickle charged rather than being recharged at a fast rate. But, I ain't nobody ..

I do want to find out more about this problem though. I would be a sad child if I were charging my battery while it was mounted on the shaft only to have it explode and take out the control box too!!!! Especially while charging it in the house like I do,..All of that shrapnel and acid flying around would ruin a lot of stuff (my TV) is one of them.

Do keep us informed about this issue. I am quite sure that there are a lot of folks including me that want to know why this happened, and what we should do to avoid it from happening in the future.

Greg

NCGREG · Nov 9, 2013

Sir Gala Clad said:
NO! As far as ways to go, I would think it sucks!
Even worse, would be to see gold in the scoop, then see no more.

Ditto I agree, 1,000,000% :eek:

Fletch88 · Nov 9, 2013

I pop mine off the rod and stand it upright on concrete floor in my storage room for charging, away from any other detectors or gear. He still hasn't said if he was using original ML trickle charger has he?

tiderider · Nov 9, 2013

Yikes, that's real scary, glad no one was injured !

NJcigarman · Nov 9, 2013

And I have been debating about buying an Excal. I think that made my mind up for me. I don't need the house to burn down from charging a detector.

NCGREG · Nov 9, 2013

Fletch88 said:
I pop mine off the rod and stand it upright on concrete floor in my storage room for charging, away from any other detectors or gear. He still hasn't said if he was using original ML trickle charger has he?

Not that I am aware of. And yes, to what you said about taking the battery off of the shaft to charge it. From now on I will take mine off every time I recharge. Losing a battery is one thing but losing the whole machine is a whole different can of worms!..Good point Fletch.

Fletch88 · Nov 9, 2013

NJcigarman said:
And I have been debating about buying an Excal. I think that made my mind up for me. I don't need the house to burn down from charging a detector.

NJcigarman, I wouldn't let one incident deter your decision. I've seen several car batteries explode over the years while charging and have seen pics of cell phones that exploded while charging. (Don't lay your smart-devices on your pillows on charge anyone). You can just buy the AA battery pod for an Excal and sell me the stock rechargeable battery.

Jason in Enid · Nov 9, 2013

NJcigarman said:
And I have been debating about buying an Excal. I think that made my mind up for me. I don't need the house to burn down from charging a detector.

Go ahead and buy it, I'll give you an even swap of my alkaline battery pod for your "dangerous" rechargable one (along with the charger, you won't need that either).

NCGREG · Nov 9, 2013

I wouldn't let this stop me from buying another Excal either, these are fine machines. Like we said above, batteries have been blowing up since they were first designed (ie) electricity + highly flamable mixture + compressed area = be careful. For that matter there's enough combustable stuff under the average kitchen sink to burn the house down. Me personally.....I'd just like to know why a few of these particular batteries are doing this, and how to prevent it from happening.

surfhunter · Nov 10, 2013

I would still buy an Excal. Thery are awesome machines. Especially now that I have to use my backup I can see how good it really is. The history of my machine is,the charger went out on me at years one just over the warranty. Minelab still sent me a replacement charger. So yes I've been using an original charger. I live in Fl so there has not been a huge swing in water/air temps. I think some how water got into the casing. Then it heated up enough to turn into steam, blowing the battery pack out. If you notice in the pic. the battery pack is still intact. There was enough force to shear the set screws right through the plastic case. That said I'm a lunatic about this machine and take very good care of her. I did look for vapor/ water in the battery pack all the time and never did see any ever. That said there had to be water in the pack, maybe the barriers themselves sweated out enough to make this happen.