i took the battery out of my car and charging it inside the house. i've got a battery tender/smart charger and i'm planning to leave it connected until spring or summer. is this safe leaving it inside the house? will there be fumes that causes harm?

 

leave it in the basement, you should be fine. Batteries can release hydrogen, but a battery tender should minimize this. Hydrogen is pretty unstable and does not remain in the free form very long, but if it were to accumulate in a small area it could explode. Other than that there are no other physical hazards

 

hey thanks for the reply. i don't have a basement in the house. i am storing it at the main level living room which is not used, but beside that room are bedrooms so i'm scared that fumes might go through under the doors into the bedrooms. should i just store it in the garage instead? my garage is not heated though.

 

Do the garage, maybe pack some old towels around the battery. The fumes are not hazardous, just explosive. Doing it in the living room would not be that big of a deal, like I said hyrogen is really unstable and light. It would first need to travel under the door, but since it is so light it will go up vs. down. Plus even if it did find a way into the room the hydrogen is so unstable that it would not accumulate before it found a stable form.

The only reason I say to move it to the garage, is because while cold temps. effect a idle battery it takes super cold temps to effect a battery that is active (i.e. on a tender). Even with cold temps in the garage, a tender and some towels around the battery (not on top) will be plenty. If you can do this and keep it out of the living room this may be best, because there is some very localized corrosiveness that a battery can have, and me personally would like to keep that away from nice things that you may keep in the living room.

 

Another tip is to check the H2O level in the battey periodically, if it is low replace it with distilled water

 

hey bgoetz, thanks for ur replies. another thing i'm wondering about is if i store it in the garage, the garage is shared which has another car that goes in and out, would starting the engine of that car ignite the hydrogen that is filled up in the garage then?

 

That most likely would not happen. Do you use your garage as an entrance/ exit during the winter at all?

 

No you will be perfectly fine, really the only time I could ever see this as being even remotely an issue is in a very, very small room (like a closet) and if the tender is over charging the battery and not working properly. You will be good.