[SandyC]

My Gel Cell battery CAUGHT FIRE today while my SPF was in a shop for service. One of the guys in the shop tried to start the car and nothing happened (it turned out he never turned on the battery switch) so he thought the battery was dead. So he attached a 40 amp conventional charger to the battery, an Optima Red Top, that was still in the car. A miracle happened in that he just happened to come back to the car a few minutes later and glanced in the trunk. To his horror he saw a small flame 2 to 3 inches high coming up out of one of the vents in the battery. He blew out the flame and shut off the charger. This flame was about 6 inches away from my fuel cell, whoa.

I think the moral of this story is NEVER charge a gel cell battery with a conventional battery charger. It must be a charger designed for gel cells. Things like a fully filtered output and smart technology are required.

No damage to the car or cables and the shop replaced the battery with an exact duplicate at no charge (no pun intended). Dodged a bullet on this one.