The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Leaving Ignition Switch On

I see a battery kill switch in my future. I installed one on my boat not too long ago and it works great!

I remove the negative terminal which accomplishes the same goal but It’s the recommended and safest way to disconnect the battery. The reasoning is if your loosening the bolt on the positive terminal and your wrench accidentally hits ground it will create a spark. A spark near the battery potentially can ignite the hydrogen gasses the battery generates during charging. I personally saw a battery explode in my father face while he was hooking up a set of jumper cables. It wasn’t a pretty sight. He was fortunate he was wearing large reading glasses that saved his eyes. I gained allot of respect for batteries that day almost fifty years ago.