Electrical irritations?

[Uricanejack]

Having an older boat. annoying leaks, drips and a bit of condensation seams to lead to electrical irritations.
Every spring. at least one navigation light wont work. some other circuit some where seams to have gotten damp.
And my batteries went flat. One of which I was pretty sure was shot the other has been holding up quite well I start her up about once every week or 2. but this time no go.
Bought a new battery. good one are quite pricy, I was wondering if I should just bite the bullet and replace both even though after I got the boat running the older one is up to about 12.5 and has held overnight. Will it weaken my new one?

I was thinking of replacing all my nav lights with LEDs. but again with a tight budget and lots of little things to do the cost is a bit high. though I did get some LED bulbs for my current light fittings. Damp and corrosion have done for one of my side lights and I think my masthead has the same issue just haven't gone up yet.

Got a couple of replacement units. I think every boat I've had water gets in to at least one nav light every year. just saw some varnish like sealent for marine electrical fittings. as with anything from a chandler and labeled marine its a bit pricy. have any of you tried this type of product with any success.? Or does it just turn into a major pain next time you need to fix something.
Should I just stick with sillcone and the supplied gaskets?

 

[sailorman]

ACF 50
http://www.acf-50.co.uk/

 

[oldsaltoz]

The spray on varnish products are more suited to printed circuit boards, You something that will repell the moisture, a small dab of grease or even Vaseline.

Avoid spray cans with something like WD40 or CRC if spaying inside light fittings, or you end up with light oil stains around the fitting, Better to spray the connection (wire) before installing.

Best done at the end of the season.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[Graham_Wright]

Bought a new battery. good one are quite pricy, I was wondering if I should just bite the bullet and replace both even though after I got the boat running the older one is up to about 12.5 and has held overnight. Will it weaken my new one?

If they are connected in parallel, yes.

 

[William_H]

Welcome to boating and electrics combined. You must be new to it all to be beefing a bout electrics. Electrics to me a re consumable ie replace every winter with new wire etc. Well almost not quite that bad but then I live in a different latitude to you. Here in Perth we celebrate any sort of rain as a gift. good luck with the new season olewill

 

[William_H]

Welcome to boating and electrics combined. You must be new to it all to be beefing a bout electrics. Electrics to me a re consumable ie replace every winter with new wire etc. Well almost not quite that bad but then I live in a different latitude to you. Here in Perth we celebrate any sort of rain as a gift. good luck with the new season olewill

Ironic isn't it that just a few hours after posting this I go down to the boat for a last night race of the season. Get to the boat and start rigging up. 30 mins to start. Better do the radio check in.
No power at all. I always seem to have trouble with the terminals on the wet NiCad battery. Pos seems OK bypassed the fuse then tugged the negative wire which came off in my hand. Stripped that and jambed it under the terminal still no power. gave up.
raced home got a standby battery. 10 by D cell NiMh. Connected that to the solar charge terminals and away we go. Radio OK LED nav lights bright.
Just made it to the start line despite about 2 knots of wind. I have yet to resolve where the failure is.
A beautiful night race of 2 hrs as wind filled in a bit. Only sad part was so few competitors yet again first and fastest as only competitor in Div 3. But we did beat one faster boat. Just 2 of us on board and some beautiful spinnacker runs. The outcome next month at presentations night will be a carton of the sponsors beer. Great except I don't like beer. all good funb olewill

 

[Iliade]

Hint: When you replace wiring, use tinned copper (unless something better has come out recently.) It saves a heck of a lot of trouble in the long term...

I had a tube of silicone grease that I inherited from my grandmother who used to work at the Arsenal. That worked a treat.

I bought some italian LED sidelights off e-bay. Still perfect after a year. But then so is the cheap e-bay LED bulb that I stuck in the stern light and the ones in most interior lights. The power saving is superb and you can get red ones for night use inside. The ones I have are either not very 'warm' or not very bright. (I bought a varied lot as they were so cheap!) They only work when wired up the right way round, so don't get annoyed if they don't work when first fitted!

 

[Uricanejack]

Thanks for replies.
Not sure about battery series or parralell standard selector switch off 1 both 2.
Not back to the boat for a bit.

 

[Spi D]

If you connect batteries in series you will get the sum of voltage (12v+12v=24v)
In parallel you get the sum of ampere capacity (eg. 60aH+60aH=120 ampere hours at the nominal voltage, commonly 12v)

Electric power stored in batteries work equal to a bank account: If you take out more than you out in, you're in trouble.
Therefore you need to sum up the consumption. Then get a charging setup that will cope while maintaining the batteries intelligently

Of course minimizing consumption will make it easier for the charger to cope and/or allow for a less expensive device.

 

[Uricanejack]

I have a 12 volt system, 2 batteries. so it appears they are parallel.

 

[tim_ber]

Since someone on here mentioned contralube 770, I swear by it rather than swearing AT electrical items now.