Who uses Vaseline on battery connections?

[Changleen]

How many people are using Vaseline or Silicone grease on their battery to bike/motor connectors?

Why did you start?
Good things/bad things to report?

 

[Mikerb]

To achieve what? The best electrical connection is achieved with clean and dry terminals but if water ingress is what you want to protect against a lot depends on the type of connector. Vaseline is petroleum based and can damage plastics and rubbers used in connectors. It also has a very low melting point so not much good if a connector transfers high currents. A better solution is a dialectric grease but the male/female contact must be strong enough to break through the surface film of the grease since it does not conduct electricity. It is more normally used direct on the contacts on a connection that is permanent or semi permanent other wise it needs re applying. If the connector is effectively sealed at both ends that can lead to an excessive build up of the grease which has no means to escape. So it is not straight forward! Personally I focus on using grease to guard the mating surfaces of the connector and liquid silicone to help ensure rubber rings, normally found on IP7 connections, are effective water barriers.

 

[KennyB]

Silicon grease on the plug seal. As above nowhere near the terminals. Electrical contact spray every couple of months.

 

[dpdsurf]

I prefer dielectric grease since it is formulated for this specific use.

 

[KennyB]

Which use?

 

[Doomanic]

Preventing corrosion on electrical contacts.

 

[Mikerb]

The problem with our charging port connections is that any form of grease on the contacts will attract dust and dirt unless the port is well sealed and that in turn can cause problems and be difficult to clean. As I said above, applying dialectric grease directly onto the contacts is normally only done on a permanent or semi permanent plug connector which is also fairly well sealed. For example many car manufacturers use dialectric grease like Nyogel 760 G on multiple contact plug connectors but these are not only at least IP7 protected but also inside the engine compartment or bulkhead and could be undisturbed for years. Contact corrosion is caused by contact with air as well of course by damp and the best way to avoid that corrosion is with very occasional use of contact cleaner which both removes the oxidation and acts as an inhibitor.

 

[Changleen]

Thanks for all your responses. I’m in the Southern Hemisphere and it’s been a little (really really) dusty over here in summer, which has, after a few rides been getting into everything, including the connection between the battery and the bike. Had a few issues with the bike just ‘turning off’ when hitting particularly rough sections.
Started off with just trying to blow off the dust with a compressor but apparently this wasn’t thorough enough. Had been going back and forth between the above, but given the dust situation I went for some spray CO contact cleaner in the end. I can report this is highly effective, even against very fine dust.

 

[Changleen]

Regarding various greases I found this interesting:
Dielectric Grease vs Conductive Grease