Vaseline or similar on battery connections

[Poignard]

Jabsco specify it for the toilet pump so it does have some use on board

Yes, that's true. It's in the user manual.

 

[Roberto]

I have heard of these "dry locations" of which you speak.
...
Also the Atacama,

Except during El Niño years
El árido desierto de Atacama se cubre de flores gracias al Niño

 

[Moodysailor]

Jabsco specify it for the toilet pump so it does have some use on board

Not sure what that has to do with electrical connections, but thanks

 

[ducked]

Plenty of dry areas to fit electrical equipment on the vast majority of boats. If something has to be fitted in a high moisture area, just as a bilge pump, for instance, use waterproof connectors, rather than slopping grease, Vaseline or any other such substance on everything.

WD40 would be a total waste of time.

Varnish isn't designed for battery terminals, which is the subject of this thread, neither is it designed for other terminals on a boat. If you read the description from the link you posted, it states "Prevents and repairs short circuits in coils and transformers" .

Re "Plenty of dry areas to fit electrical equipment on the vast majority of boats" I dunno about the vast majority of boats, but the sort of boats I have experience of (admittedly not many), have tended to get quite wet.

I'd speculate this was due to them being in salty water which was splashing around quite a bit, and also to being watertight, pretty much a boat design limitation but an inhibitor of free drainage.

Mostly, though, my limited electrical experience is on cars and motorcycles in humid, monsoonal, typhoonal Taiwan, which tended to get quite wet.

Perhaps all that humidity has warped my outlook.

Engine after sitting in humid environment

RE"WD40 would be a total waste of time.", well, as it stands that would be a totally unsupported assertion, but if it was in fact true, I can only regret the loss of all those 2 seconds spent skooshing. But I wont bother regretting it much more than Edith Piaf does.

RE "Varnish isn't designed for battery terminals, which is the subject of this thread" The OP's opening post has

But what about all the other connections fuses etc Best to cover all of those too? so battery terminals are NOT the exclusive subject of this thread.

RE "neither is it designed for other terminals on a boat" I wouldn;t know about boat-specific stuff, but I think you are the first-in-thread to suggest that anything used must be designed for use on a boat, surprising given your view of the vast majority of boats as areas of aridity.

TBH I'd be sceptical that such "design" generally went much beyond taking a general-purpose product, sticking Marine on the label and applying a multiple to the price.

Call me cynical.

 

[lustyd]

Not sure what that has to do with electrical connections, but thanks

Well I quoted your post saying it has no use as a grease on board a boat so I thought it was obvious why it was relevant