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What’s So Special about Boat Battery Cables?

Two situations are possible at the outset of this article. Either you are familiar with electrical wiring or you are not. Taking this a step further in the event that you are familiar with electrical work, there are two more dichotomous routes you could take. Either you are familiar with marine electrical wiring or you are not. That will dictate how this article sits with you.

If you do not fall within the latter cohort, then you might be surprised to learn that not all electrical wiring takes the form of the familiar copper conductors with which most people are well familiar. There are many other kinds of electrical wires and cables out there that are highly specialized to their purposes.


It might surprise you to learn then, that some cables are made from aluminum instead of copper. In fact, at one point in history, most cables in the United States were made from aluminum, partly due to copper rationing. This is not necessarily because aluminum is superior; it does have good conductivity, it is affordable and it is highly flexible, but because it can pose a fire risk when not carefully connected, most homes are once more made with copper.

If you were to take a look at boat battery cables, also known as marine grade battery cables, you might think you were looking at some kind of aluminum cable. This is not the case, although marine battery cables are silvery in appearance.

In fact, marine cables are made of individually tin plated copper stranding, and although they look like aluminum this is for a very specific reason. The ocean is a rough place, and not just physically. Saltwater is highly reactive, and so is copper wire.

If you’ve ever seen exposed copper in a marine environment, you’re lucky, because there is a short window of opportunity for that. Chances are that that copper will be turned green within the week after you saw it.

Therefore, boat battery cables are made of tinned copper to resist corrosion that will extend their serviceable lifetime by just long enough to make them useful. This, however, is not the only thing that defines marine grade cable. It is typically plated, but high-quality marine cables come with another trick up their sleeves.

This is that they are made up of as many fine strands of copper as possible to make them highly flexible. This type of battery cable must not only be flexible so that it can be worked into location, but it must also resist the mechanical influences of the water and of the boat.

On the one hand, the sea occasionally pitches, and on the other, the engines from a boat are constantly subjecting the electrical wiring to incessant vibration. The additional flexibility helps to safeguard the wires against premature wear and breakage.

In a nutshell, these two features are what make marine grade cables what they are, but if you want to learn more about it in further detail, contact the electrical wire and cable specialists at EWCSWire.com or give them a call at 800-262-1598 today. They’ll fill you in on the fine details.

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