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Installing new battery


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3 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Spreading an insulating material on the mating surfaces before making an electrical joint intuitively seems wrong.

 

I accept plenty of evidence says it is done regularly and works, but equally Bizzard's and my empirical evidence illustrates it doesn't always.

That's because it is wrong.

 

I'm surprised no-one has referred to battery manufacturers instructions.

 

Trojan for example recommend applying a corrosion protector after securing the connectors.  I very much doubt you will find any battery manufacturer that suggests applying grease, vaseline or anything else before fitting connectors to the terminals. 

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

I'm surprised no-one has referred to battery manufacturers instructions.

 

 

That's because we are blokes, and blokes only resort to reading the instructions as a last resort.

 

 

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Just now, WotEver said:

Just the one?

 

That is duck ABUSE, not USE.

 

That's how the Nottingham Goose Fair got its name.

Goose farmers walked their geese for many miles and many, many days to get them to the annual 'fair'.

 

Goose Fair has been a part of the Nottingham calendar for over 700 years. Goose Fair goes back so far that no one knows for sure exactly how it got its name. Most historians agree the fair probably started just after 1284 when the Charter of King Edward I referred to city fairs in Nottingham.

 

Goose Fair became famous as a ‘cheese fair’ but it is the Michaelmas Goose which is remembered and marked in its name. Geese hatched in the spring were ready for the table by Michaelmas and it became customary, – for those able to afford it, – to celebrate with a meal of a well fattened goose. It was also customary for tenants to present their landlords, – in part payment of rent, – with a fine brace of geese.

Geese for the Michaelmas market were driven into Nottingham from all over, but mainly from, Lincolnshire. Preparations for the long walk started with tar being applied to the bird’s feet. It is recorded that anything up to 20,000 geese were driven up through Hockley and along ‘Goose Gate’ into Market Square.

 

 

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If your batteries are in a relatively dry place rather than in a damper wetter location does this make a difference? 

We finally got our own oldish boat 12 years ago. The batteries are in the engine room under a ventilated floor cover. They smelt a bit ' rotten eggy ' so I replaced all four domestic ones then. With motorbikes and cars I have always used Vaseline but here I thought....It's a nice dry place so I won't bother. 

Six years on....in 2012 the same bad egg smell appeared and I thought they werent charging quite so well.....so...all four replaced again....no Vaseline applied this time either.

Then we put solar panels on the boat and I sort of hoped the batteries might last a little longer. No, they haven't. Same vague bad smell eventually and so last month after another six years a new set of four have been installed. I didn't put Vaseline on again and the terminals looked reasonable on the ones I removed.

I use cheap and cheerful batteries from the same large supplier ...Ribblesdale....in Preston. They supply to local authority vehicles with the same brand.

One tip I was given as a youngster. When changing batteries use a spanner with electrical tape wrapped around it just in case!

I add this to the discussion because I find this subject has views poles apart....

 

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21 hours ago, cuthound said:

Yup,

 

That is what I was taught to do over 40 years ago, after first burnishing the post and inside of clamp to bright metal.

Proper little wire brush things for do that. I always greased first but I only had about 200 batteries to look after. SG was a pain in the bum as well

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25 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

That is duck ABUSE, not USE.

Au contraire. He’s taking them across town to another lake in a different farm. He does it every year and boasts that he’s never lost a single duck. 

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19 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

Don't you have any Vaseline about? Its been used for donkeys years so no point in spending cash f you have any.

 

The Holts terminal dressing comes in small tubes so should be cheaper than a tub of grease.

I have not been able to find any of that, its what we used Offshore but in tins

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2 minutes ago, Peter-Bullfinch said:

If your batteries are in a relatively dry place rather than in a damper wetter location does this make a difference? 

We finally got our own oldish boat 12 years ago. The batteries are in the engine room under a ventilated floor cover. They smelt a bit ' rotten eggy ' so I replaced all four domestic ones then. With motorbikes and cars I have always used Vaseline but here I thought....It's a nice dry place so I won't bother. 

Six years on....in 2012 the same bad egg smell appeared and I thought they werent charging quite so well.....so...all four replaced again....no Vaseline applied this time either.

Then we put solar panels on the boat and I sort of hoped the batteries might last a little longer. No, they haven't. Same vague bad smell eventually and so last month after another six years a new set of four have been installed. I didn't put Vaseline on again and the terminals looked reasonable on the ones I removed.

I use cheap and cheerful batteries from the same large supplier ...Ribblesdale....in Preston. They supply to local authority vehicles with the same brand.

One tip I was given as a youngster. When changing batteries use a spanner with electrical tape wrapped around it just in case!

I add this to the discussion because I find this subject has views poles apart....

 

 

The rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide, and is produced when batteries are overcharged.

 

Either your charger and/or solar controller are set to too high a voltage for your battery type, or one or more cells are host circuit. 

 

Check the float voltage for the former and look for cells which are gassing or getting warmer than the others to check for shorted cells.

  • Greenie 1
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6 minutes ago, Peter-Bullfinch said:

I find this subject has views poles apart....

I don’t think that’s likely to change. I can’t see how adding a non-conducting substance between the post and the clamp is a good idea myself but there are plenty who swear by the practise, as you’ve seen in this thread. So do whatever you feel happiest with. It’s certainly a good idea to have grease/Vaseline smeared on the outside of the clamp and on any exposed copper strands though whether or not you put it between the faces. 

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3 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

The rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide, and is produced when batteries are overcharged.

 

 

beware when the smell disappears - it may be the result of the concentration of H2S rising to fatal levels......  in the petroleum exploration, drilling and production industry H2S is recognised as the most lethal danger to life; it doesn't asphyxiate, it just kills ..  quickly.

  • Greenie 1
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