Check your connections!

[sparky]

Dear husband, now demoted to galley slave, recently checked the water level in our batteries. To do so required losening and moving some of the cables that run all over the tops of the batteries.

A few days ago I noticed a badly melted nylock nut atop our stern thruster battery. Pictures are in the Starry Night album under Problems and Maintenance.

Lose electrical connections caused/aided by the constant vibration of the engine are a leading cause of fires aboard boats.

Lessons learned, and shared with others.

Sparky

 

[Ainokea]

Good Tip

Frank

Ainokea

 

[captain's cat]

Sparky, if you get a USCGAUX courtesy inspection and have battery terminals exposed, they will usually not give you a sticker. The batteries should be in boxes with tops secured or at least have terminal protectors over the securing nuts and wire ends. They make both red and black for this purpose. In any case, the battery should be held down with a strap that is secured to the battery shelf. Outside the box if you have a box on the battery.

There is always a danger that you will drop a wrench when working near there, a dead short across a battery with something like that that can carry a large amount of current can cause the battery to explode in extreme cases. 😱

Glad your damage was minimum. You might think of reassigning hubby to "battery boy" from "galley slave".

Charlie

 

[sparky]

Charlie

My battery bank is set up just as it came from the factory. These were not the nuts connected to the main battery terminals. I will take pics later today.

Sparky

 

[johnniethek]

By the way, how long have you had your boat and what was the water level in the batteries?

 

[sparky]

The boat was 9 months old, the starting battery is about 5 months old (long story having to do with the non starting engine needing a new ECM), and the water level in all the batteries was fine.

Remember, you have to use distilled water for this, which seems to be getting harder to find.

Sparky