Best way to connect solar panels


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Tim Colgan
Tim Colgan
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Have had a lot of trouble with solar panel connectors.  Can anyone recommend the best connectors to use as well as the best way to treat (anti-corrosion gel, cleaning, taping, etc.)?
Simon Currin
Simon Currin
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Tim Colgan - 31 Aug 2022
Tim I'm not expert but this is what we use and they seem to function well.
Have had a lot of trouble with solar panel connectors.  Can anyone recommend the best connectors to use as well as the best way to treat (anti-corrosion gel, cleaning, taping, etc.)?

Tim
I'm no expert but this is what we use and they seem to function well.

Dick
Dick
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Tim Colgan - 31 Aug 2022
Have had a lot of trouble with solar panel connectors.  Can anyone recommend the best connectors to use as well as the best way to treat (anti-corrosion gel, cleaning, taping, etc.)?

Hi Tim,
Is your question related to solar panels or is the question more to do with making electrical connections that will be subject to the weather and salt water?
My best, Dick Stevenson
Dick
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Dick - 4 Sep 2022
Tim Colgan - 31 Aug 2022
Have had a lot of trouble with solar panel connectors.  Can anyone recommend the best connectors to use as well as the best way to treat (anti-corrosion gel, cleaning, taping, etc.)?

Hi Tim,
Is your question related to solar panels or is the question more to do with making electrical connections that will be subject to the weather and salt water?
My best, Dick Stevenson

Hi Tim,
All electrical connections on Alchemy get a coating, before assembly, of a product called KoprCoat, a conductive copper-based paste. This includes, especially for outside connections, spreading out the wire strands and brushing them with KoprCoat (or the like), prior to their being twirled together and crimped into the terminal.This pretty much prevents water migration up the wire strands were water to intrude.
I have pretty much given up heat-shrink wrapping (people who use them all the time make them work, but, as an occasional user, I always messed it up: chose the wrong size or over-heated the wrap, etc.) and I have an alternative which works better for me.
It is a 3M product (130C) called Linerless Rubber Splicing Tape. It is a very stretchy self-amalgamating tape and what makes it work (unlike the disappointment with other self-amalgamating tapes, is that it also has an adhesive coating: together the covering fuses itself together in a way that has never failed me.
Between the two, my outside connections have stayed pristine when years later, I had occasion to take them apart.
I hope that helps: come back with questions.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Tim Colgan
Tim Colgan
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Dick - 4 Sep 2022
Tim Colgan - 31 Aug 2022
Have had a lot of trouble with solar panel connectors.  Can anyone recommend the best connectors to use as well as the best way to treat (anti-corrosion gel, cleaning, taping, etc.)?

Hi Tim,
Is your question related to solar panels or is the question more to do with making electrical connections that will be subject to the weather and salt water?
My best, Dick Stevenson

Yes Dick.  It is the connections that I'm concerned about.  A few times I have found that my battery was not charging.  Then after disconnecting and reconnecting things work, indicating a connector issue
Dick
Dick
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Tim Colgan - 5 Sep 2022
Dick - 4 Sep 2022
Tim Colgan - 31 Aug 2022
Have had a lot of trouble with solar panel connectors.  Can anyone recommend the best connectors to use as well as the best way to treat (anti-corrosion gel, cleaning, taping, etc.)?

Hi Tim,
Is your question related to solar panels or is the question more to do with making electrical connections that will be subject to the weather and salt water?
My best, Dick Stevenson

Yes Dick.  It is the connections that I'm concerned about.  A few times I have found that my battery was not charging.  Then after disconnecting and reconnecting things work, indicating a connector issue

Hi Tim,
It is my observation that a basically well-designed system will sometimes sabotage their product by using poorly design support parts, usually to save a few pennies. Perhaps that has happened here.
I know that good all-weather connections exist, but I have no suggestions. Perhaps the product Simon mentioned? Let us know what you end up with.
My best, Dick


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