Soldering instead of crimping
Hi, Would there be any reason not to solder battery connections versus crimping? The application would be for a solar charging system. Moved to Tech Issues forum from DIY.
Forum Discussion
da.bees wrote:
I have a Schumacher charger that I thought was going bad because charge rate jumps up and down. Noticed a spark from postive clamp handle and on closer inspection,the cripmed connection is bad. No corosion,no broken wires and no crack in crimp but gentely moving the handle or wire causes continuity to come and go. Who should know crimping technique better than Schumacher? I say crimp it then solder it. I believe corosion at soldered joints are the result of wrong flux,filler and/or failure to clean flux residue from completed joint.
I've seen the crimps of the schumacher chargers and they are NOT anything resembling a good crimp on the ones I've seen. They just flatten the ears over the wires. An indication of why a bad crimp or bad solder joint gives you problems. A good crimp is gas tight and will last. But as I mentioned earlier, the $10 crimper next to the solderless lugs at the hardware store is NOT a good crimper either. $50 will get you a Sargent crimper with removable crimp dies and one set of crimp dies. about $25 for each set of crimp dies. Will give you a quality crimp on wires between #12 and #24.
