The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Dielectric hygiene

Close up of dielectric grease tube on bank of golf cart battery

We decided to replace the battery cable I was wire brushing last week

My new system will include a generous dab of Permatex dielectric grease to prevent future rust and corrosion.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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comment 1
I never heard of this stuff.....I think I need some. I recently took my minivan into the shop for "electrical issues" and they think my connectors were just really yucked up and not making good battery connections.
Comment by fostermamas — Tue Oct 23 22:30:52 2012
comment 1
The other connectors in the picture look like they could use a bit of brushing as well. They look quite rusty.
Comment by Roland_Smith — Wed Oct 24 06:17:20 2012
Dielectric Grease

Dielectric grease is great for automotive and especially marine applications. I've stopped counting all the jobs that I've redone with dielectric grease and never had to touch again!

Another great preventative maintenance grease is Anti seize grease. It's great for bolts and nuts. Great feeling to do it once and be done!

Comment by BSmith — Wed Oct 24 07:55:28 2012
comment 4
@fostermamas: dielectric grease is not conductive. A connector conducts electricity through metal-to-metal contact. The grease is mainly there to prevent corrosion of the contact surface.
Comment by Roland_Smith — Wed Oct 24 11:44:24 2012
grease is the word

fostermama-I had that same issue on our 94 Toyota Corolla this Summer. Tried splurging on the gold plated connectors in hopes of making it last longer. Gold was about 8 dollars each compared to 3 for the lead.

Roland-I had an inner debate on if I should clean those rusty connectors and decided they're probably making decent contact.

BSmith-It's a strange but good feeling to be clued in on what seems like a greasy secret. Now that we have a whole tube I will more than likely start protecting other connectors. The guy we bought our utility trailer from included a small bottle of anti-sieze gunk. Now that you mention it I'm thinking maybe I should do a post about it.

Comment by mark — Wed Oct 24 19:24:25 2012
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