115 Johnson battery question

[GatorMike]

This probably could have been asked in another forum but Ya'll have been so helpful in the past I thought I would ask here. It has only been about 3 weeks since I took my boat out. My battery was bought in May so it is almost new. I opened up my battery compartment today to make sure I was charged up for in the morning and the entire compartment had a light green material splattered all over it. The battery was covered with green corrosion and the positive cable (which was in good shape just 3 weeks ago) was corroded in half. Has anybody ever seen this before and are there any ideas what may have happened?

Thanks and feel free to move it to another forum if it doesn't belong here.

 

[ezeke]

Re: 115 Johnson battery question

This will save a lot of typing:

"http://www.boatsurveyor.com/corrosion.htm"

Copy the link to your browser without the quotation marks.

I think that the best setup is a switch that cuts everything off except one automatic sump pump.

 

[F_R]

Re: 115 Johnson battery question

Whatever word you use to describe it, what you are saying describes a boat that has been submerged. An hour submerged in salt water will eat off all the positive wires and cables.

 

[GatorMike]

Re: 115 Johnson battery question

Interesting FR......It hasn't been submerged but a couple of weeks ago we got about 10 inches of rain and I forgot to pull the drain plug the last time I used it. I imagine betweed the water I used to wash down the boat and the 10 inches of rain the bilge may have been full of water. Since my battery compartment is in the bilge it may well have been under water for a day or so before I pulled the plug. It being a saltwater boat maybe there was enough salt residue in the bilge to conduct electricity.

The good news is I charged the battery, put new ends on the cables, cleaned up the mess and took her out this morning. No apearant damage done.

 

[F_R]

Re: 115 Johnson battery question

Fresh water will do it too. Just takes longer. At least the boat wasn't sunk. I was wondering if you were testing us. Ha!