[RE-wrenches] Strings and series of batteries

[William Miller]

Friends:

Regardless of what material you prefer to protect battery posts, I don't 
recommend applying it until after the connection is torqued.  The cable 
ends and the terminals need to be wire brushed immediately prior to 
assembly.  We had to dis-assemble a set of batteries and move them for 48 
hours.  The terminals had been cleaned the previous day.  After sitting 
under a cover for 48 hours, when re-assembled, the terminals had enough 
invisible corrosion to cause a significant inability to charge 
correctly.  After cleaning the terminals the problem was corrected.  We use 
a small Makita grinder with a wire brush.  This does require care to avoid 
arcing and brushing away knuckle skin.

Napa Auto has a spray-on terminal protectant that skins over nicely, making 
less of a mess when checking electrolyte levels.  It also has an attractive 
cranberry color.

William Miller



At 01:21 AM 12/3/2009, you wrote:
>I was just picking up on where everybody is located. The cold weather boys 
>like vaseline, and obviously you warm weather folks need the grease.
>I think this affects the battery sizing debate too: if I size a battery 
>for 4 days storage, it only has 2 or 3 days of storage in really cold weather.
>
>R. Walters
>ray at solarray.com
>Solar Engineer
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