Battery boosting debate

Perhaps it’s time for your employer to step up and buy a self-contained jump starter before the inevitable reverse connection occurs. These devices are not that expensive and contain reverse polarity protection. A moral dilemma occurs as to who gets to keep the tip, right?

Using a metal surface for the ground means the donor cars wiring is in the starting circuit to the dead vehicle. Sometimes these wires are capable of handling the currant and sometimes they are not…Either way, damage can occur…

Thanks for all the replies.

I agree that my company needs to get a good battery booster for us. I always question the ethics of taking another car from our valet inventory and using its good battery to jump someone else’s bad one. We always use a rental car for this purpose, if possible.

This being said I suggest you guys park yourselves when you check in to a full-service hotel : )

The biggest problem I have with the entire situation is using another customers car as the donor car, I hope I have mis-read the info here as this is not a ethetcial practice. Idealy it is best to make the negative connection to a point on the chassis, at times this does not work, these times are with older cars that have many voltage drops and cars with totally dead batterys.

Nothing to do with the totally dead battery cars, it wont matter how you hook it up, with the older cars you just may be sucessful if you attach at the battery (keep your face away and your wallet open).

Luckily on many newer cars (the ones your customers are likely to have) the manufacture has provided jump points, so the point is “use the provided jump points when possible”.

I too had a battery explode in my face many years ago. It occurred the moment I disconnected a clamp from a battery charger.
When it exploded:

  • It felt like a cherry bomb went off in my ear - a painfully loud explosion.
  • Battery acid was sprayed all over my face and body.
  • Plastic pieces from the top of the battery were blown in all directions, including my face.

I was lucky to have my eyesight after that.
Take all precautions about battery explosions very seriously.

It happened to me on my first car (57 BelAir, who got a 57 BelAir as their first car? cost me $200.00) and I would describe mine as a rifle shot, very dangerous.

These explosions all occurred while using CHARGERS, not booster cables…

The high-output charger creates enough gas (a nice hydrogen/oxygen mix) to set up the explosion. Once ignited, the flame travels through the batteries venting system and ignites the gas trapped inside the battery. KAA-Boom!

What I would like to know is why was the charger still on when the cables were disconnected?
If the charger was unplugged or turned off the explosion would never have happened.

RE: Willey’s question on why the charger was still on when the cables were disconnected.

In my case, I was 19 and working at a local garage. The only battery charger the garage owned had a broken on/off switch, and it was always “on”. I should have unplugged it from the wall first, but didn’t realize the seriousness of an explosion.

I will argue that explosions can still occur with booster cables, because that “last” cable connection usually makes a spark. Maybe less likely than after a battery charge, but still possible. And given how serious an explosion is, I wouldn’t risk it.

the explosions happened when the batteries were quick charged, or over charged, or with faulty equipment. Jumping a dead battery, the odds of heavy outgassing are almost nill.
Follow the correct order for hook up and release and there will be no spark, thus no possibility of an explosion. But if you want to wear a face mask I would not argue with you about it. do whatever you feel is the safest, but do so with reason and use good tools.

My explosion was booster cable related but also backwards booster cable related, Hey I said it was my first car.

It’s nice to be a Good Samaritan, BUT, your company may hang you out to dry if something ever went wrong. Make sure that your company will cover your ass ets if something were to go wrong, in writing.

On an earlier post on this thread I gave a link to another battery jump discussion:

http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/628409.page

Note DARTMAN69’s story of the day he took the wrecker out to jump a customer. Little did he know the guy had been charging the battery for 3 hours & it was gassing like crazy!

Hope DARTMAN is still doing well. Haven’t heard from him in a while.