Okay, so the plan was to go over to Landlady’s powershed with an old steel bowl, a box of baking soda and an old toothbrush. I had already prepositioned several gallon jugs of water for rinsing and scrubbing the battery tops after I boiled the corrosion off the positive connections.
Note to self: Next time make it an old ceramic bowl.
It was exactly the right size to bridge those two contacts. Couldn’t have planned it so well. Or badly. Whatever. Scratch one bowl.
Fortunately the powershed is connected to the chickenhouse, and chicken raising tends to collect old bowls for all sorts of things. Shouldn’t have even brought the bowl. So I was able to continue, and…
The whole rest of the powershed is a big mess but the battery tops and connections are clean.
I turned on the big window fan and left the powershed door and the window to the chickenhouse open, and it’s a warm windy day so hopefully most of the water will have evaporated off the floor when I go back for the final step…
I got a bottle of this late last year for my own batteries and it works fine, but my battery terminals aren’t prone to corrosion for some reason so that’s not a real test. If it’ll cure Landlady’s batteries I’ll believe, brother. I’ll believe. Because I don’t know why, something about the conditions in her powershed maybe, but her batteries have always been the worst for corrosion.
My 2 cents (and if you’ve already heard this you can still keep the 2 cents). I’ve read somewhere that if a battery terminal gets cranked on a bit too enthusiastically the seal between the battery case and the terminal post can be broken loose allowing acid to wick up along the post and create the corrosion.
Musta been a helluva flash. I’ve heard of people doing that with a wrench, too.
Oh I’ve done it with a wrench a few times over the years. Startling but it doesn’t hurt anything. Just leaves a burn mark on the wrench which is where the term “idiot mark” comes from. When it gets scary is when you accidentally weld something to a post – then you might have some ‘splainin’ to do to the boss and/or customer.
‘Minds me of the safety poster we had in the shop showing a wedding ring accidentally welded to a wrench while still on the guy’s finger. Them electrons can get frisky.
Joel, the idiot mark comment reminded me of teaching a new guy how to boost a car back in the eighties before they got all computerized. Black on black, red on red, simply right? I explained it to him and he replied “Ya, black on black, red, whatever.” Then, as I watched, he proceeded to hook up the jumper cables the wrong way. I know it’s evil, but whenever I think of the kid’s reaction, a smile comes to my face.
Chickens? Nitrogen? I’m not a chemist but could that combo cause some of the funk? In the past I’ve had some vehicles that the posts just seem to stay corroded while others wouldn’t, even with different batteries the same ones corroded.
Sounds like it was a good “brown shorts” opportunity!
I have exactly that corrosion preventative goo. Do please report on how it works for this setup. I’ve had mixed results. Mostly it worked great, but one car battery has stubbornly corroded no matter what I’ve tried to do to it. It may work better to keep new batteries clean rather than to stop corrosion on old batteries.
My wife got mad at me when she found out I always took my ring off at work and thought there must be a nefarious reason.
Oh yeah, that scenario is familiar. Still have the ring although it no longer applies…
Fortunately my wife is/was an elec tech and fully understands the ramifications of jewelry around voltage.