Re: [electricboats] How to avoid corrosion of motors, batteries, electric devices, BMS and power lines in cold and humid conditions ?

I thoroughly coated all electrical connection surfaces with dielectric grease when building my system.  And I used quality components to begin with - fully tinned high quality wire and connectors.  And best practices like heat shrink over crimped lugs.  The heat shrink with glue/sealant inside. 

Same goes for the motor mounting and reduction gear assembly.  Contact surfaces and fasteners are treated with anti-corrosion coatings.  TefGel is my choice for SS fasteners in aluminum.  This goes for all hardware on the boat, not just the electric drive parts.  

The only issues I have had over 5 seasons of operation now and almost  500 days of use (6400+ miles logged sailing) has been traced to a bad contact in the plug connecting the throttle unit to the motor controller.  I was getting some flaky behavior from the motor and when I disconnected and re-connected this 6 pin molex connector that was original to my Thunderstruck kit the problem was fixed.  I had some light corrosion on those contacts.  This is perhaps the only connector that I did not treat with dielectric grease.  Lesson learned.

And I am in a similar climate environment with the boat in storage out of the water from Nov to May.  Similar temperatures and humidity but I am in fresh water so a less challenging corrosion environment.   If I had the option I might leave a work light on in the engine space to keep it a bit warmer and dryer over the winter.  With an old fashioned incandescent bulb.  40 watts would do?  But I don't have access to continuous power. 

My traction battery stays on the boat over the winter with no charging input.  I leave it at about 85%.  It looses almost nothing over the winter.  Maybe it will be at 84% in the spring?


Dan Pfeiffer
Info on my electric drive (I have some updates for this to do over the winter...)
http://dan.pfeiffer.net/10m/electric_drive.htm

On 2025-11-10 12:14 pm, Carsten via groups.io wrote:

Hi, Carsten here

 

I want to plan my project to exchange my old Volvo MD6A stinky dinojuice motor to clean electric propulsion.

 

How do you guys deal with your system, when it is unused for weeks or months in humid conditions, like wintering ?

I live in Denmark, so it's humid and cold from October to April.

 

Thank you for your kind inputs ;-)