Battery Overheating?

[chefg101]

I have a small bass raider 8e and when coming in from the lake today I was unscrewing wing nuts on my sears die hard deep cycle battery and I noticed (with some pain) that the wing nut on the + was extremely hot. I have never had this happen before but it is a little older battery. What would be the cause of this and is it safe to use? I put it on a trickle cherger overnight after every outing and have had no problems. Just wondering....

[slonezp]

Check the water level and if it's low, add distilled water to cover the plates. Fully charge it and take a voltage reading. You should be 12.5v or more. If not your battery is toast. You can also take it to an auto parts store and they should be able to load test it for you. 

[K_Mac]

If the wing-nut was a little loose that could be the problem. A loose connection along with a heavy current draw will generate a lot of heat.

[aavery2]

I assume the terminals from your trolling motor are also connected to the battery under the wingnut.  You mentioned when coming off the lake, my thoughts would be that it was hot from the current draw from your trolling motor. Larger wire might help.

[nycgrip]

i had a similar problem but on my negative post. my problem was a poor soldering job on the wire to the lug. cut it off and did a proper job on the connection. if thats not your issue get a tube of this and apply a lot on the terminals, it will prevent any arcing that could be happening and will protect the connection.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AL8VD2/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Comfortably Numb]

What K-mac said. I have had + wires burn up (literally) from not bein tight.

 

Load test on deep cycle batteries does not work properly.

 

Voltage shows your amount of charge left. Fully charged should be near 13v

[Fishing Rhino]

I have read in several places that the best way to test the charge in a battery is with a hydrometer.  It shows the specific gravity of the electrolyte in a battery's cells.  Supposedly a more accurate measurement of a battery's condition.

[Way2slow]

Hot terminal/nut is a caused by a bad connection. If you insist on using wing nuts, use a pair of pliers to tighten them. Also, make sure the terminal is clean. If the cable lug is crimped on, it could be a bad crimp. If it is crimped, might want to look at get a solder on lug and replace it, and solder the lugs on.

Any way, it was either loose, dirty or the crimp was bad on the cable. I have had the studs leaded into the battery have bad connections and actually melt themselves out, but that is rare.

As for the trickle charge every time, that's not good for the battery. You should be charging it at approx. 10% of it's rated capacity, 8 - 10 amps normally.

[WIGuide]

Hot terminal/nut is a caused by a bad connection. If you insist on using wing nuts, use a pair of pliers to tighten them. Also, make sure the terminal is clean. If the cable lug is crimped on, it could be a bad crimp. If it is crimped, might want to look at get a solder on lug and replace it, and solder the lugs on.

Any way, it was either loose, dirty or the crimp was bad on the cable. I have had the studs leaded into the battery have bad connections and actually melt themselves out, but that is rare.

As for the trickle charge every time, that's not good for the battery. You should be charging it at approx. 10% of it's rated capacity, 8 - 10 amps normally.

X2 Anything adding resistance to the system is going to add heat, so make sure all terminals are good and clean. Then check connections to make sure they're tight and also see if the wire heats up as well.