Copper Battery Terminals

From Farm Show magazine:

"They have 10 times more conductivity than commonly-used lead terminals, the leading cause of battery failures," says Don Fleming, president of DF Sales.

Fleming feels many farmers mistakenly blame battery failure on the battery itself when the problem is with the connecting cables. "Most batteries are hooked up using conventional copper cables with bolt-on terminals made of lead affixed to each end. Lead has a conductivity of only 8 to 10%, compared to 97% for copper." To get batteries hooked up with virtually no loss in conductivity, DF Sales has introduced crimp-type connecting terminals, constructed of copper with a corrosion resistant-plating, for making your own highly-efficient battery cables.

"We think our new copper terminals are, by far, the best choice available for hooking up batteries. The connections are copper to copper so there are no dissimilar metals involved to cause resistance or to create corrosion. We also have developed an exclusive teflon-coated heat-shrink sleeve which seals cables and connectors against battery gas, moisture, oil and anything else that can cause corrosion."

In fact, according to my handy-dandy "Reference Data for Radio Engineers" book, the conductivity of copper at room temperature is approximately 13 times that of lead. HOWEVER, unless you are trying to pass current through a small cross section of material or over a long distance, the intrinsic properties of the material would have little to do with voltage drop.

In the case of a battery connector, there is so much lead that I suspect the total resistance through the connector is trivial compared to the resistance of the wire attached to it. The biggest single problem with battery terminals is corrosion inside the crimp.

Finally, the dissimilar metal part is also nonsense. You either have a lead to copper interface where a conventional terminal connects to the wire, or you have a lead to copper interface where a copper terminal connects to the battery post.

Keith

Show me the sun in Southern Wisconsin!

I go to the welding supply house for the cable, and my CNH boys for the copper terminals. Rosin core electrical solder works best for the connections and doesn"t require mass amounts of heat. Put the terminal in a vise, insert your cable, and then slowly heat it with a propane torch. Fill the terminal full of solder. As you heat the terminal the copper cable will come up to temperature too. As that happens you will actually see the solder start to creep back up the cable. It"s the best water tight connection that can be made! It"ll cost you about $50 to make a set, but it"s the cats *ss for both 6V and 12V systems.

Nice idea but think about what you are connecting the cables to. Lead battery terminals connected to lead plates in the battery. If they are so inefficient then why have lead terminals been around for ever? I agree that the bolt on type repair terminals are not that good though. You can either get good solder-on or crimp-on terminals or buy pre-made cables and be just fine. JMHO Jf