12v Battery under Sea water

Folks I have searched for hours trying to find a video of what happens to a 12v battery on a boat submerged under sea water - NO LUCK

Now before I go and buy a 12v car battery and throw it in a bucket of salt water I'm hoping that someone on this forum either had personal experience of such an event or can give a Youtube link to something like that.

There are 1000's of videos of overcharged, damaged and exploding batteries of all different kinds, but nothing of either a 12v deep cycle or car battery on a sinking boat in sea water. Dozens of junk stuff but nothing that is the real thing.

 

You will have a fast electrolytic action and the positive terminal will corrode away. It works like electroplating.

 

I would not advise doing that. The reasons for no videos is that everone standing around to video it was killed by the clorine gas then burned up in the hydrogen explosion caused by the sparks from the video gear hitting the floor.

 

Hello Manie.

Not much will happen. The battery will begin to discharge and release some hydrogen until the battery is flat. If you ignite it you have a good chance of doubling the boat's size and make your own size a lot ..... well, less

That's about it.

To prevent battery run-down by the salt water, you make your contacts to the battery then conformal coat the terminals and the terminals will be isolated. I have some very good conformal coating you can use for this.

I would also suggest you look at some SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries, you get various types designed for different purposes. The biggest plus is these batteries can work in any orientation without spilling acid and if you don't overcharge them they emit very little gas if any. These batteries are better than normal LA because they don't leak, they charge up quicker and they can supply more low power over a longer time than can a LA battery.

I also make a solar charger which displays the battery voltage as well as the charging current.

 

A hint when you work out your solar power vs the battery size. The solar panels you are using to charge the battery must not exceed the battery's max current. It is always better to have a too large battery than a too small one. A solar panel still charges a little when it is overcast, but your consumption may exceed your charging, and it is for weather like this that you need the extra battery capacity. Once the sun is out again it will catch back up.

 

Between similar materials you should find the one terminal goes clean and the other dirty. 12V is a bit low, but if you have a nice power supply that can push a bit of amps then it is a way to clean your stainless steel parts.

If I remember right the negative goes to the part and positive to the bin. A good voltage is probably around 20 to 100V (adjustable) at around 30A.

LOL, don't use salt water, use deoxidine. It's a mild metal acid. It makes a LOT of dirty foam

 

I have seen batteries in sunk boats where the terminal was completely gone.