Battery Insulation

[Retroanaconda]

Those of you who have seen my topic on Batteries and Cold Starting will know that my old battery couldn't do the business when cold. Considering this, plus the auto electrician I went to see reccomending it, I have decided to wrap my battery in some insulation to try and keep the worst of the frosts and cold off it. As far as I know it's reguarly done in a lot of cars, but I couldn't find anything on Google about how it was done, or any accounts of people doing it themselves. So here's the method I decided upon, which may or may not work.

A trip to B&Q and £3 odd later, and I have myself a Mangers heater tank jacket (18" x 12" x 12" size).

First I put the smaller piece provided on the floor of the battery box:

Then in went the battery, and I put the rest of the insulation (a long piece 12" across I believe) in around the battery. Like so:

And that's it. I don't know how effective it'll be, but I figured it can't hurt. I made sure to leave some gap at the top for any gasses to escape should the worst happen battery-wise.

[samtope]

My own parents didnt treat me that well..

[Happyoldgit]

Have you got that battery clamped down?

[Retroanaconda]

No. My old one was, myself and my dad made a clamp for it...but I don't have the facilities away from home to make a new bracket for this (bigger) battery.

Will fabricate one when I get home mid-December.

[T1G UP]

vw and i'm sure others have blankets with velcro for there batteries. Worth a trip to the breakers???

[Turbocharger]

Of course, any insulation only works if there's some heat there to be conserved. If you leave the truck unused for 24hrs your blanket won't help at all. As you say, for £3 you can't go wrong.

If you haven't got any way to strap the battery down, at the very least two or three cable ties through holes in the floor will stop it from bouncing and setting fire to your car (and all your insulation....)

[Retroanaconda]

Of course, any insulation only works if there's some heat there to be conserved. If you leave the truck unused for 24hrs your blanket won't help at all. As you say, for £3 you can't go wrong.

If you haven't got any way to strap the battery down, at the very least two or three cable ties through holes in the floor will stop it from bouncing and setting fire to your car (and all your insulation....)

Well I was working on the same basis of people putting things in greenhouses and what-not. And as you say, if it doesn't help I haven't wasted loads of money.

Thanks for the advice, I'll cable-tie it down tomorrow

[bow]

good old polystyrene does the job realy well, i work with ice machines and cooler units, and also ovens and hot cabbinets, and a lot of trade units only use it, and most skips / industrial bins are full of the stuff,

just a thought for you,

ATB

BOW..

[sotal]

fords have a corrugated plastic round the batteries which I presume is for the same reason.

I wouldn't worry too much about the battery bouncing, mine was unfixed for years and it never caused any harm, that was with plenty of off roading, ended up building a bracket though just to stop the annoying MOT advisory!

[Fatboy]

I don't know what type of battery that is but its not an Optima therefore I'd guess its a standard one therefore has the potential to vent hydrogen under heavy load, ie trying to crank a cold engine.....

By wrapping it in lots of plastic and insulation I suspect you have the potential to trap the vented gas and create an explosive atmosphere.

Then, all you would need would be a source of ignition - So, lets assume the car doesn't start after a bunch of tries and you borrow another one and connect via jump leads - voila, sparks.

It may seem like an extreme scenario but I investigated an incident a few years ago where a battery exploded and that was one of our findings..... It was a bigger engine and a 24v system but its not worth taking the risk. Battery comparments are ventilated for good reasons.

[nas90]

My old Rover 3500S (M plate 1974) (P6 / Rover 2000 bodyshape) had the battery located in the rear offside wing / chassis. Loverly old car but a bit of a rust bucket. The wings were bolt-on, the boot and bonnet were aluminium, so upgrading to a Defender was the logical step

But the battery was located in a hole in the rear of the 'chassis' and had a superb insulated plastic moulded box and a sealed insulated lid, so that no battery fumes entered the boot space. The lower box was vented to atmosphere under the car. Big problems with the positive terminal cable which was the length of the car and always managed to grow a battery 'fungus' on the positive terminal. Probably not enough of them remain nowadays to find the box at a scrap yard.

[Retroanaconda]

I don't know what type of battery that is but its not an Optima therefore I'd guess its a standard one therefore has the potential to vent hydrogen under heavy load, ie trying to crank a cold engine.....

By wrapping it in lots of plastic and insulation I suspect you have the potential to trap the vented gas and create an explosive atmosphere.

Then, all you would need would be a source of ignition - So, lets assume the car doesn't start after a bunch of tries and you borrow another one and connect via jump leads - voila, sparks.

It may seem like an extreme scenario but I investigated an incident a few years ago where a battery exploded and that was one of our findings..... It was a bigger engine and a 24v system but its not worth taking the risk. Battery comparments are ventilated for good reasons.

Hence my leaving a flap for any gasses to escape. My battery box is by no means sealed anyway, if the amount of water in there was anything to go by a few weeks ago

I always connect the last earth connection to my vehicle away from the battery anyway, on the chassis somewhere usually. That's how I was taught to do it.