Re: [Paddlewise] concrete battery facts?

Philip Torrens wrote:

>
> I'm neither a mechanical nor an electrical engineer, but why would this
> cause any permanent damage? I've heard car mechanics (who should know
> better)talk about the floor wicking the electrical energy from the battery.
> But neither terminal is in contact with the floor, and I believe concrete is
> more an insulator than a conductor in any case. The only thing I can imagine
> is that if you leave a battery on a cold concrete floor, its thermal
> conductivity will cool the battery, slowing down the chemical processes in
> the battery and thereby reducing its output, at least until it is warmed up
> again. But would this be a bad thing for storage (I store my spare
> flashlight batteries in the fridge just so they will not prematurely "burn
> up"). Or am I missing something here (often the case)?
>
>

I believe the problem with batteries and concrete has to do with the lime in the
concrete reacting with the acid from the battery.  The way I was told was that
putting a battery on concrete, especially "green" concrete could cause the
concrete under the battery to explode.  Charging a battery on concrete was even
worse, for obvious reasons.  That is how I understood it as it was explained to
me.  No one ever said anything about concrete causing a battery to discharge to
me, but any story changes each time it is told.  Most wives tales and urban
legends have a basis in fact, but it is often almost impossible to find out what
the fact was through all the distortions.

Mike


--
    Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are
visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a great
blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a
mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your
passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space.
Mark H Hunt


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