Battery Terminals

[Steve3]

Suffering with battery terminal corrosion or crud build up, do not know the technical term. I have cleaned off with boiling water and reassembled only to find weeks later it all returns.

Should i cover the terminals with vaseline or grease and if so does one cover the terminal before attaching the clamp. Please advise.

[bottle]

Vaseline, covering before connection will not do any harm but remember to cover after connection as well.

[RLWP]

I used stern tube grease because that's what I had available...

 

Richard

 

Anything is better than nothing.

[alan_fincher]

I'd say vaseline - not sure what grease would do for you.

 

I always apply to both battery and connector, so yes I put it in the joint, but if they are the type with tapered posts, then the action of putting on and tightening the connector will squeeze most out.

 

It's worth tidying it up when all together, so that the head and threads of the bolts are fully covered, as well as the nuts.

 

If the crud comes back quickly chances are something else is wrong - battery overcharging, maybe, so acid is leaking from the vents ? Or batteries getting unduly wet or damp ?

[sociable_hermit]

Grease works fine.

[Smelly]

How about a quick spray with WD40?

[stuart]

I used copper grease, works a treat.

[sociable_hermit]

How about a quick spray with WD40?

 

I don't think it would last long enough. Thick grease will stay on there for ages and protect everything. You could use WD40, or even better electrical contact cleaner, to sort out a problem, but it'll keep playing up without something long-lasting to protect the terminals.

[Nickhlx]

ACF-50 ?

 

Apparently designed to be used on electrical conmnectors and very corrosion retardant - good creep ability as well so seems perfect - however, it always seem to go against logic to put an insulator between two conductors unless you are trying to make a capacitor - yes it still seems to make connection - perhaps all the microscopic pointy bits push through the insulating layer, but if you are trying to achieve as low a junction resistance as possible, ......

 

I am not going to sleep tonight

 

 

Nick

Edited November 19, 2008 by Nickhlx

[Guest]

I used copper grease, works a treat.

Seeing a lot of this on car batteries etc.

[Nickhlx]

Seeing a lot of this on car batteries etc.

 

I think this is a bit of a misconception - "Copper conducts so must be good "

 

If you stick a couple of multimeter leads in a pot of copper grease it reads high resistance - so high that even on the 20M setting with electrodes close together it still reads nothing on the display. I assume the copper particles are each individually encapsulted in grease so are unavailable to touch each other and conduct electricity.

 

Nick

[Sir Nibble]

Vaseline for sure, every time. See if you can lay your hands on a little bit of felt. Cut a hole to make a close fit to the battery post. Melt some vaseline and soak the felt, then place it over the battery post before fitting the terminal. I have been looking after batteries since Ceasar was an apprentice and this outperforms all the products sold specifically for the purpose.

[Gibbo]

I think this is a bit of a misconception - "Copper conducts so must be good "

 

If you stick a couple of multimeter leads in a pot of copper grease it reads high resistance - so high that even on the 20M setting with electrodes close together it still reads nothing on the display. I assume the copper particles are each individually encapsulted in grease so are unavailable to touch each other and conduct electricity.

 

Nick

 

But............

 

When you tighten the terminals up it squeezes most of the grease out and just leaves the copper behind which gets pressed into the terminals. But as the terminals would be making good contact in those places anyway it makes no difference.

 

I still prefer vaseline.

 

It doesn't insulate anything as some people have mentioned. What happens is that the vaseline gets completely squeezed out where the post makes contact with the terminal. The grease only remains on the bits that are not in contact with each other and therefore open to corrosion.

 

Gibbo

 

Edited to fix broken fingers.

Edited November 20, 2008 by Gibbo

[Steve3]

But............

 

When you tighten the terminals up it squeezes most of the grease out and just leaves the copper behind which gets pressed into the terminals. But as the terminals would be making good contact in those places anyway it makes no difference.

 

I still prefer vaseline.

 

It doesn't insulate anything as some people have mentioned. What happens is that the vaseline gets completely squeezed out where the post makes contact with the terminal. The grease only remains on the bits that are not in contact with each other and therefore open to corrosion.

 

Gibbo

 

Thanks everyone will try the vaseline as from experience copper grease gets every where.

Steve

[jake_crew]

You can buy a spray can of "battery terminal treatment" which a yellow grease like material, and has the advantage over Vaseline that it kills acid.

[blackrose]

I've tried vasaline and some green spray on stuff from Halfords on my battery terminals. Both get everywere and I still don't know whether I need to clean the terminal completely if I take a cable off a terminal (before I put it back on)? Although some people seem to be saying it's ok if this stuff goes between the clamps , cables & terminals, I would have thought that anything used to electrically insulate a terminal will do just that, which surely is not what we want?

On the other hand, something like WD40 is an electrical conductor, but I think it's too thin so not suitable for battery terminals. Although it's a great lubricant I've always found that unless you apply WD very frequently it actually leaves moving parts more susceptible to corrosion.

 

Edit: I've also got a tube of Durite battery terminal dressing from Vehicle Wiring Products, but I haven't tried that yet.

Edited November 20, 2008 by blackrose

[Gibbo]

Although some people seem to be saying it's ok if this stuff goes between the clamps , cables & terminals, I would have thought that anything used to electrically insulate a terminal will do just that, which surely is not what we want?

 

It doesn't insulate anything as some people have mentioned. What happens is that the vaseline gets completely squeezed out where the post makes contact with the terminal. The grease only remains on the bits that are not in contact with each other and therefore open to corrosion.

 

It really doesn't insulate it. Honest.

 

If the terminals were finished like glass then you might have a point. But they're not. They're rough as hell. The vaseline simply goes into the gaps that wouldn't be in contact anyway.

 

Gibbo

Edited November 20, 2008 by Gibbo