My response to hydrogen tsurris is to consider that if the cabinet were
filled with water and the van upside down, the water would find plenty
of ways to pour out. Hydrogen "falls" up toward the ceiling and would
escape through the same passages. Unless you're charging a bank of
submarine batteries there would not be much of it and what there is
would escape through the fabric of the poptop as easily as water passes
through chicken wire. So generally speaking, in my mind there is not
much to worry about.

Like my aux battery, a honking but 130 A/h Trojan deep cycle, which
lives under the bench seat. That's hardly an airtight compartment. Any
hydrogen that bubbles out vents right out of the seat up to the poptop
and out to freedom! I don't think I'm running a risk.

But under the sink . . . the hydrogen leaking upward would pass right
next to sources of ignition, like the switch contacts in the faucet, and
the stove burners.

It might be dangerous. You go first.

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
Bend, Ore.
1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer from a defunct company in San
Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westralia.

Sent from my kitchen.

On 08/09/2011 10:11 AM, Steve Williams wrote:
> At 08:38 AM 8/9/2011, Loren Busch wrote:
>> Since that battery is not sealed do you have any concerns about out
>> gassing or vapors from the battery?
>
> The SRM-29 doesn't have any filler caps or a drain nipple, so I'm not
> sure what the risk is. Tell me more?
>
> Anyway, that space is no more enclosed than any other in the car,
> such as under the rear seat. Did you do anything special in your
> installation deal with venting?