I should know better than to get in the middle of a cat fight..... but what the heck!!.
I think everyone would agree that No-lox is at least good enough. The question is whether the Carbon Conductive grease is better.
That has to be evaluated several ways.
- Which is lower cost.
I don't think anyone is debating this, the Noalox is lower cost)
- Which provides the best protection from oxidation? (this must include long term protection...... can one dry out?)
Since the reason for putting anything on the terminals is to prevent oxidation....if it does not do this then it is not an acceptable choice.
I am willing to assume the Conductive grease is good enough..... so let's call this a draw.
- Are there bad side effects of either.
Does it negatively interact with the aluminum? We don't know, but if it keeps out oxygen, it probably is not a problem.
Does it create shorts? (conductive grease would if you are messy with it, but if you are careless there are lots of ways to create shorts)
I am willing to call this a draw but it would be good to know if the galvanic corrosion can occur
- Which provides the best electrical connection?
This is the big question. At first blush, I would think the conductive grease would be better. However.... there is a possibility it makes a worse connection. The way noalox works is that it is squeezed out an does not inhibit the faces of the lug and terminal from making a strong electrical connection. Does the carbon based grease adequately squeeze out? I don't know..... I think this is dependent on the size of the carbon dust that is used in the product. If a thin layer of carbon dust keeps the two surfaces from mating, it could actually create a much higher resistance connection. In the examples from the manufacturer it is all contacts that are sliding over each other so we can't safely assume a press connection would work well with the product.
Without more data I have to call this an unknown.
After careful analysis, the answer is that I don't know which is better functionally. I would have to do some experiments to test the two and see if there is a detectable difference. (How is that for saying a lot of nothing?
)
So..... let me throw a bit more on the fire. If we are looking for conductive grease (and price is not an issue) lets go for a grease with Volume Resistivity of <0.01 ohm-cm
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However, for the same reasons as the carbon grease, I don't know if it would be functionally better or not.