I was cleaning out the trunk the other day and noticed that the battery had been replace with an Interstate Mega-Tron 1 battery. I'm guessing the factory one must of crapped out at sometime and the previous owner had replaced it.
Looking around i noticed that there is no vent tube for the battery...actually i don't even see the vent tube that must of been used for the factory battery.
So my question is...am I going to run into issues not having it vented. And if there is no vent on the battery (but you can pop the caps to add more water) do I need to replace the battery with one that has a vent?
I've never owned a car that had the battery in the trunk so this is new to me.

Thanks

 

there is no vent tube...the stock panasonic battery is sealed

there is a vent in the trunk on the driver's side

I'd consider getting your hands on a optima red top

 

+1

 

Do you have to vent an optima red top?

 

I dont for mine. Have not had any issues.

 

The vent tube is actually to vent the gasses the battery produces when charging to the outside of the car. It isn't for any fluids. Honestly I don't think it is much unless you overcharge the battery.

With that said though I may just get an optima red top. It does has vent holes on the top but I think it will only vent if it is overcharged. Or at least that is what I read on their site.

 

Hello, I noticed your conversation and wanted to offer some assistance. Even though our batteries have a “sealed” design, all lead-acid batteries can vent gas. Under normal operating conditions, an AGM battery will not vent gas. Since alternators or chargers can fail, the safest and correct mounting method for trunks and passenger compartments is to make sure that any possible gas venting will escape to the outside of the vehicle. All vehicles with original equipment battery locations in the trunks or passenger compartments will have a vent provision that should be used.

Our group 27, 51, 34C, and 31 batteries all have ports for connecting a vent hose. Although people do it anyway, we would never recommend installing an unvented battery in any enclosed space, because there's a legitimate, albeit unlikely, safety risk involved.

For example, IF there is a voltage regulator failure, and IF the battery is severely overcharged, and IF this goes unnoticed, and IF the battery vents because the internal pressure exceeds the release pressure of the vents, the gasses are both flammable and toxic. This may sound like a lot of “ifs,” but attorneys and engineers get paid to plan for every worst-case scenario. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

 

Thank you for the new wrinkle in my brain !