This invention relates to a multi-cell storage battery including a housing and, enclosing the housing in gas-tight fashion, a housing cover assembly having an upper cover panel and a lower cover panel with a degassing duct between the upper and lower cover panels which encompasses a multiple array of interconnected, mutually matched labyrinth chambers, fluidically links all cells, opens out at a forward end into at least one gas vent, and is closed off by a spark suppressor. To arrive at a storage battery in which adequate degassing is assured under all operating conditions while at the same time any leakage of acid accumulated in the degassing duct is largely prevented even when the internal pressure is high, the invention proposes a design whereby the gas vent is positioned at an essentially perpendicular angle relative to the direction of gas flow through the spark suppressor while in the area between the spark suppressor and the gas vent the degassing duct is provided with a widened section forming a collecting chamber which, when the storage battery is in its normal position, is situated underneath the gas vent.