Hi. Not exactly electronics, posting here.
A very healthy plain lead-acid battery in my car died. While on trickle charge ! Died dead shorted with no way to even attempt recharging. Applying 14V refuses by sparking. Next to the car, another with a battery that survived just fine.
What fails; what makes a battery be prone to die at sub-freezing temperatures ? Some chemistry to avoid ? Brand ? Same thing happened last january, but only one cell died then, rendering a 10V disabled.

If the battery got shorted, how come the huge amount of energy from the short circuit did not melt / cause a fire ? Where did the energy go ?

 

Edit: Had the stratified layers reversed--
If a battery is discharged, the battery fluid turns to water and can freeze.
If a battery hasn't been used in awhile, the liquid can stratify with the heaver acid on the bottom and water on top, even when being trickle charged, so the battery can still freeze at the top.
A flooded-cell battery needs to be occasionally driven in the vehicle or charged at its maximum rate for awhile to minimize this stratification.

Glass mat batteries are less prone to this, since the liquid is trapped in the mat and not free to circulate and stratify.

 

If the battery got shorted, how come the huge amount of energy from the short circuit did not melt / cause a fire ? Where did the energy go ?

For a short, the charger likely limits the current, and thus the voltage, so the power across a low-resistance short is likely relatively low.

 

It doesn't make sense that it has become a dead short circuit while on trickle charge. Maybe one cell has, it's a 10V battery now?
A common failure with lead-acid batteries is the plates and interconnects crumbling due to corrosion and vibration.
So a cell can short or go open-circuit = entire battery goes open.
Expansion due to the electrolyte freezing damages the plates and interconnects pretty much wrecks the battery for life. You can see the separators are no longer straight inside.

You can't charge (or discharge lol) a block of ice! Have to bring it into the house to thaw out first.

 

All this talk about batteries made me go out to my old truck and start it, I don’t use it hardly at all these day since my home remodel is finished.

Took a try or two and started right up, going to pay more attention to starting more often lol

kv

 

it's a 10V battery now?

No, It is 0.4V and applying any voltage briefly to it just sparks and collapses the source to ~0.8V that is out of the car after warmed in my basement. No expanded case. Not even click when in the car. Nothing melted nor deformed. Did work fine 5 days before starting the car and run for 20 minutes.