Fighting the Great Green Monster

There could be a Stephen King movie about electrical corrosion. It's a tiny, green and white, crusty, invasive little beast that sneaks in one dot at a time. Before long, the creeping crust has engulfed your electrical connections and eaten an entire town leaving only you and your hillbilly mother in law to fight the stuff, except she thinks butter kills germs and motor oil is a good cure for poison ivy. This may be an exaggeration, but electrical corrosion is the silent killer of electrical systems. If you've ever had a trailer connection on the back of your vehicle, you know how fast it can turn into a headache if left to the elements.

It's a good idea to treat any electrical connections that could be exposed to the elements. If left unprotected, they will surely develop a layer of corrosion that will make the connection fail. This may leave you without headlights or turn signals, and now you've got a safety hazard. Protecting electrical connections is fairly easy. All you need to do is keep the connections clean, and apply dielectric grease to the metal parts to keep moisture from coming into direct contact with them. Take good care of your electrical system and you shouldn't have any problems. I can't suggest putting dielectric grease on a burn, but it's probably at least as effective as butter, and you won't be stalked by hungry cats.

_{photo of corroded trailer connection by Matt Wright, 2008}