Soldering instead of crimping

Bianchi wrote:
Hi, Would there be any reason not to solder battery connections versus crimping? The application would be for a solar charging system.

solder alone should never be used as a mechanical connection. therefore,you also need to crimp to provide the mechanical connection, then solder if you choose. YES I KNOW that many videos etc. on the web advocate heating a lug, melting the solder and stuffing the wire in and end up with no mechanical connection and rely on the solder as the mechanical connection. If you look at any quality mfg connectors that are soldered, you will find they are crimped and soldered.

However, that also assumes you have the proper equipment for both crimpng and soldering along with the skills for each. From my experience in building and designing electronics, it is much much easier to learn to do a proper crimp with available tools than to learn proper soldering techniques.

And proper tools for crimping is NOT the $10 hand crimper at the hardware store next to the crimp lugs. Figure at least $50 for a good crimper for #10-24 wire, and about the same for the minimum quality connector for lugs down to #4.

if you are skilled at soldering, and want to go ahead and solder the crimped connector.

Personally I spent decades in the electronics industry designing equipment to meet spec's that are far more abusive, corrosive, etc. than RV's would ever see. We found that for terminal connectors proper crimping alone passed these tests with flying colors. Soldering didn't show any decrease in field failure rate, in fact when we went from crimped and soldered joints to crimp only our Field failure rate went down. to easy to have a solder joint with solder up the wire and end up with a failue in vibration at the transition from solid soldered section to stranded wire.

But, this solder vs. crimp discussion comes up every few months, both sides have valid points. I just go with the actual data from my experience and I crimp with a set of high quality crimp tools I've purchased over the years. then, depending on the application I often strain relief and protect the crimp with adhesive lined heat shrink if I think it is appropriate. And I've never had a failure in a crimp connector.

Either method done properly should last a many decades under typical RV use. Either method done improperly will within months give you decades of frustration, problems, and head scratching trying to find a bad connection.