So today my car battery died, couldn't even be revived with a jump. I was able to walk to an auto store to get tools and a new battery (damn that mfer was heavier than I expected). I had never had to replace my own car battery before.
I screwed the fastener nuts the wrong way for like 5 minutes, cut my hand, and ultimately accidentally crossed the positive and negative terminals with a wrench that exploded in sparks. I don't even know what stopped me from being electrocuted but I didn't feel a thing.
While I'm happy I was able to take care of it myself and will be able to in the future, I also feel like such a dunce for not knowing wtf I was doing and almost shocking myself
I've never replaced a car battery and wouldn't know how to begin, so you're ahead of me.
I always forget which terminal to start with but luckily they’re at the same height so I can set my wrench down on them while I look it up on yt
I'm assuming this is a joke :P put it anywhere else!
Yes! Though definitely have shocked myself enough to learn I don’t like it lol.
Always disconnect negative first, so that if you accidentally touch any metal parts near the battery while disconnecting the positive terminal, there's no path for it to complete a circuit. I also have a socket wrench with a rubber-coated handle that I like for working around batteries; I think it was some like $8 Popular Mechanics-branded thing from Walmart that I got like 20 years ago.
There’s a reason insulated hand tools exist! If electricians will spend extra money on it, you know it’s worthwhile lol
You probably know why I wasn't electrocuted. Was it just cause my feet were touching the ground? I've been shocked from an industrial kitchen outlet before and I was touching the ground then.
I was wearing gloves, is that all it was?
You'd basically have to roll around in salt water for 20 minutes to zap yourself on a car battery -- they only put out 12-13 volts DC, but there's a decent amount of amperage behind that (typically 550+ for cranking a gas engine, though I've had batteries that were capable of around 1,000). With car batteries, your two main safety concerns are going to be tools or metal parts (e.g., battery retaining brackets) getting extremely hot if they bridge between positive and ground -- and the risk of burn injuries that would come along with that -- and the battery just outright exploding and flinging hot sulfuric acid everywhere. The second one is rare, since the battery will usually discharge itself before that point.
Hybrid battery packs -- the ones typically stashed under the back seat, not the 12V starter/auxiliary battery that you may find under the hood or in the trunk -- are a very different beast, and typically put out closer to 48VDC. Those beefy bastards absolutely can kill you.
A car battery doesn't have enough voltage to even tickle you* so you wouldn't even know if you zapped yourself. (*assuming you are touching it with y'know your skin and not your tongue or something even sillier)
Buuuuut if you touched any bare metal bits of the car while touching the positive terminal, for example when fastening the bolt on the positive terminal with an uninsulated tool, then you did just zap yourself for however little that matters with a 12v battery. ;)
Oh wow, I didn't realize that was how little it was. I think the kitchen outlet I shocked myself with was like 200v and that gave me a jump and some tingling. I had no idea car batteries were so little voltage.
The flavor of current also plays a big role too. Car batteries are Direct Current, whereas your 200v outlet was likely Alternating Current. Essentially, even 200v of DC wouldn’t have been as “painful” as the AC you experienced although I’m not playing with either. Part of the danger is the way the alternating current has a tendency to contract your muscles, keeping you in contact with whatever the source is. DC tends just spark, bang, shove you away.