What happens when you hook your battery up backwards?

[FourString]

Most likely this:

 

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e120/Sugarfuzz/WTF2.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e120/Sugarfuzz/WTF3.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e120/Sugarfuzz/WTF1.jpg

 

That is what I found upon arriving to work today (Advance Auto Parts). A customer brought this in claiming that his battery had "gone bad" and that he wanted it exchanged under warranty. He also claimed that he had not hooked it up backwards. I am certainly not a battery expert, but I believe this has to be the result of reversed polarity. Maybe someone could shed some light on that one for me. I obviously facepalmed when I saw this, followed by laughter, and then the obvious cellphone pic for your viewing.

 

The car was a '38 Buick. The manager exchanged his battery under warranty.

[Guest Removed]

that not from reverse hook up...

 

maybe reversed charging, or over charging.

 

 

but that exploded from the inside out. and if it was in the car. that car has to be a mess

[FourString]

that not from reverse hook up...

 

maybe reversed charging, or over charging.

 

 

but that exploded from the inside out. and if it was in the car. that car has to be a mess

 

Thanks for shining some light on that Rob. I know very little about batteries other than the basics. This was the first time I had ever seen a battery that had exploded.

 

The guy said that it was in his car. I have not seen the Buick personally, but one of my coworkers said that it was a nice car. It would suck trying to clean that all up from an engine bay.

[Guest Removed]

bet he had the battery charger on 200 amp to long, and bang!

 

battery could have internally failed, since as it charges and discharges the plate sulfate and fall to the sediment chamber along the bottom. very possible one plate was bad, filled it pocket, and shorted out. but it looks more like it got over charged

[Mensan]

When charging the battery it creates 02 and H2 at the plates. If you introduce a spark, what you see is the result.

 

I have a lot of pics like that from work.

[nurkvinny]

My guess is the old car was dead and he didn't hook the jumper cables up right.

[ChevyMan1972]

<----a AAP employee myself (Sunbury) we sure do see some crazy stuff at work!!