My job and machines

[wayno]

I pressure wash for a living, it's my own business. Over the last 2 weeks, my pressure washer has been having a few issues, so I took it to the repair shop and told them to fix it and they talked me into the engine maintanace thing where they change all the fluids(oils, filters, ect.), when I left it there I told them that the machine smelled funny, they asked if it was the belts(rubber smell), I said no, they gave me the machine back with a leak in the pump, so back it went the next day after I used it for a few hours, and it still smelled funny I told them, went back to get it friday I think, they told me that they ran it for almost a hour and no weird smells, I told them then I guess when it blows up we'll know what the problem is, they didn't like my attitude. About 10 hrs. into my day, with the machine smelling funny the whole day, the machine backfired really loud, sounded like a shotgun going off, but the engine didn't miss a beat, so I kept going till I had to shut down to do some sweeping and shovelling, when I went to start the engine, I looked down and realized what the boom was, both sides of the battery were busted open, the battery had blown up like a bomb. I really didn't mean it literaly, when I said, "I guess when it blows up, we'll know what the problem is", I am really happy that no one was around it when it exploded. wayno

[DAT510]

geez

[HRH]

Exploded batteries suck. Make sure you clean off all the acid with baking soda or something.

[metalmonkey47]

Ouch man, glad to hear no one was hurt by that. Batteries are dangerous when they detonate.

 

Didn't hurt the machine did it?

[wayno]

The machine seems to be unhurt, I am wondering where all the acid went though, i told the customer what happened and asked if they smelt anything funny, they said no, I have to go back to finish the job tomarrow, I am hoping not to find any supprises, I rinsed the best I could. wayno

[thisismatt]

Did you check the charging circuit? Sounds like it's over-volting and boiling the battery.

[wayno]

Electricity is a mystery to me, i'll just take it in and have them fix it, while I am there I'll ask why they didn't smell it. wayno

[metalmonkey47]

Were you smelling something that smelled faintly of rotton eggs?

 

How old was the battery?

[wayno]

The battery happened to be about a month old, to me that is new. It didn't smell like rotten eggs to me then, but now that you say that, I guess that is as good discription as any, it smelt funny. I had never had a smell like that before in over 15 years, I had no idea what the problem was. wayno

[Farmer Joe]

yup... thats the smell of sulfur you catchin a wiff of..

 

when the 620 over charged the battery it smelled the same way i bet... kinda like rotten eggs, or the car in front of you that hasnt changed their plugs in 10 years...

 

my battery plumped up and broke the seal and leaked... im glad it didnt blow up like yours did...

[wayno]

I have had batterys boil over cause of overcharging in two vehicles before, they didn't have the same smell, the car batterys boiled out the top breather caps, and I knew what was going on after the first whiff of it, this battery on my pressure washing unit is sealed battery, there was no acid leaking out while it was overcharging, it was just building up pressure, that was the first day in a while that I worked over 8 hours strait, it blew at about 9 hrs. of my 10 1/2 hr. day. wayno

[thisismatt]

I have had batterys boil over cause of overcharging in two vehicles before, they didn't have the same smell, the car batterys boiled out the top breather caps, and I knew what was going on after the first whiff of it, this battery on my pressure washing unit is sealed battery, there was no acid leaking out while it was overcharging, it was just building up pressure, that was the first day in a while that I worked over 8 hours strait, it blew at about 9 hrs. of my 10 1/2 hr. day. wayno

Smell could have simply been the heated plastic of the battery shell...

[wayno]

Well now, it has been a while for this thread, my pressure pump blew up a week or two ago, last May 2011 I was saying that my pump leaked after they gave it back to me, well their fix fell apart while I was doing a roof, all the fuild ran out of it and it threw a rod. Last week I pulled a pump off another machine I bought a few years ago, I have already used the engine off of it, I decided to use the pump, it turned out to be a left hand side drive pump, so after it was all pulled I figured out I couldn't use it.

The other night while I was sleeping sort of, I thought what if I can convert it to right hand drive, so I pulled it apart a couple days ago and turned the crank around, it works great! Wish I would have thought of that sooner.

This is one of two machines that I use, this one the tank is raised because it vapor locks if the tank is in the stock configuration, that is an issue that briggs&stratton has had with this engine.

I bought a bypass from an outfit called "maplecroft sales" on ebay, it is advertized as NIB(new in box), the one they sent me is used, WTF is going on here, I sent a question asking about it last night, waiting to get a responce.

I also bought a pump from an outfit called "pressure washer authority", it came directly from general pump, it does look new.