Grease for Battery Terminals?

[Mike]

What sort is used for the battery terminals/posts or can I use any general motoring type grease?

[ragitty]

Mike I seem to recall that it is petroleum jelly?? can anyone confirm this ??

[GreyGhost]

That's the stuff Vaseline.

[Dave Goody]

That's the stuff Vaseline.

You could try KY Jelly? Oh no thats for something else entirely:o

[Mike]

Thanks guys - I've now located the Vaseline and will apply it in the morning!

[Kandyman]

Thanks guys - I've now located the Vaseline and will apply it in the morning!


We don't want to know where from ;)

[Greeners]

Make sure you put it over the clamp, and not between the clamp and the post.....

[Raistlin]

Why do you put any grease at all on battery terminals please?

[GreyGhost]

To prevent corrosion / build up of pale green crystals. Sorry don't know the chemical name.

[Kandyman]

the grease is preventing moisture and air from corroding the terminal.

[Raistlin]

Sorry Mick, that was a clumsily phrased question.

I know the generic purpose.

I was meaning more specifically for ZT and 75 because the battery seems fairly well protected and I've never seen the slightest corrosion on either of my 75 batteries.

It surprises me that there would be a corrosion problem.

[Raistlin]

the grease is preventing moisture and air from corroding the terminal.


Hmm - I don't suppose it'll do any harm. I know we have some vaseline somewhere in this house.

A little bit of preventative maintenance for tomorrow, IF SWMBO will let me.

[podge]

Electrolytic Corrosion, when one metal of a higher or lower order in theAtomic Weight table is next to another one and in a damp atmosphere i.e. Pb...lead and Fe clamp + H20...........there you go guys, chapter and verse......this sort of corrosion a big problem on aircraft. Cannot say I have ever covered a 747 in Vaseline though!!

[T-Cut]

Electrolytic Corrosion, when one metal of a higher or lower order in theAtomic Weight table is next to another one and in a damp atmosphere

More to do with their electrode potentials than atomic weights, but near enough. Pure zinc billets are attached to ships and oil rigs below the water line, and sometimes vehicles, to act as sacrificial anodes. They create an electrolytic cell where the Zinc corrodes away while the iron bodywork remains rust free. That's the idea behind those zinc rich primers you get for treating bare metal under paintwork. If you can keep the bodywork at a certain voltage as part of an electrical cell, it won't rust. That's the theory anyway.

TC

[podge]

Should have read periodic table not atomic weight(mass), had to do all of this last year for work (aircraft!).On a lighter note, we borrowed a canal narrow boat last year that was about to have its sacraficial anode replaced, on talking about it in the pub a guy thought we belonged to some strange druid sect!!..I kid you not!..........sorry going off thread.

[windrush]

Should have read periodic table not atomic weight(mass), had to do all of this last year for work (aircraft!).On a lighter note, we borrowed a canal narrow boat last year that was about to have its sacraficial anode replaced, on talking about it in the pub a guy thought we belonged to some strange druid sect!!..I kid you not!..........sorry going off thread.


Well Podge coming from North Warnborough I am not surprised

[podge]

I have been rumbled!, mind you we did have Uther Pendragon (from Farnborough no less!) down here at the St.John's castle a few years ago. Now I must go out and get some water from the well whist the cooking range is on the boil!.....and to think I nearly bought a Tourer in Black!!!!!

[podge]

..............and check my spelling before posting!

[sf8752]

GG
the word you are looking for is verdy grease hope the spelling is right
steve.................

[T-Cut]

GG
the word you are looking for is verdy grease hope the spelling is right
steve.................

Verdigris is the common name for the green coating or patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater over a period of time. It is usually a basic copper carbonate, but near the sea will be a basic copper chloride[1]. If ethanoic acid is present at the time of weathering, it may consist of copper(II) acetate. Its name comes from the Middle English vertegrez, from the Old French verte grez, an alteration of vert-de-Grice ("green of Greece"). The modern French spelling of this word is vert-de-gris.

(From Wikipedia)

TC

[Jules]

Make sure you put it over the clamp, and not between the clamp and the post.....

My Father & I have put the grease actually all over the terminal posts & on the clamps for the last 40 years!! With no contact problems at all during the cranking phase. And no voltage drop detectable either, (when measured between post & clamp)
The forces involved when the clamps are tight are sufficient to ooze the grease out from the contact surfaces.
Many Garages use copper grease which will conduct to a certain extent, but my view is that copper is adding a 3rd different metal to the 2 different metals that are already in contact with each other.

The "Cathodic effect" is another term for the tremendously impressive descriptions T-Cut & Podge came up with.:D
This undesirable effect is also the very reason for the failure of the Airbag connectors under your seats,( female side of the plug has copper contacts, the male side has nickel plated pins)

[sylvester]

Did you know - if you take a pair of egg cups, fill them with vaseline and put them over the terminals of a battery it will retain its charge almost indefinitely. Useful if you have a 'summer' car or motorcycle which may stand for two or three months unused.

[podge]

No more "vaseline trivia" comments from me then!....only digging a bigger hole!!

[Jules]

Did you know - if you take a pair of egg cups, fill them with vaseline and put them over the terminals of a battery it will retain its charge almost indefinitely. Useful if you have a 'summer' car or motorcycle which may stand for two or three months unused.

How does that work then??
My RAF training notes stated that batteries in general "discharge" through themselves due to their internal resistance.:shrug:

[podge]

Jules, I will see what our Avionics bods (Coneheads!) have to say tomorow when I am back on shift,my training too told me that batteries will eventually fail due to internal resistance.