How to Clean Jumper Cables

Video Transcript

"We are going to discuss how to properly clean your jumper cables. Now that we have successfully got it jumped, all we want to throw these things away, get in our car and go about our business. It is real important that we get the proper maintenance on these. They've just been connected to highly corrosive connection on an automobile electrical system. There is a good chance of corrosive acid on these terminals. If that is not cleaned off, that will cause these connections to start corroding and give you problems in the future if you don't correctively use them. You can also get that corrosion on the interior or other places, your car, your person and start a corrosive action thus eating holes in cloth and interior causing skin burns, a number of various things can be caused by battery corrosion. So prior to putting these away, you want to wipe them off with a rag, some water, anything that you might have available. I'll go over later how to clean them once you get back. But it would be a good idea to wipe them down, rinse them off if you can, wrap them up and store them in a plastic bag until you get home to properly clean them. To properly clean them, you will need something to neutralize that acid. Baking soda and water works, coca cola and there is a number of variety of products that are readily available in automobile repair shops that can assist you in correctly cleaning these off. Just rinse them off, brush a little baking soda and scrub them down real quick and rinse them off, dry them off and put them back in a plastic bag. A plastic bag will make sure that they stay clean and dry, ready to use and not get any corrosion in the interior of your car. Watch the next segment in storing your cables."