Can an Ocean Guardian device cause electrolysis on my vessel?Updated 8 months ago

Electrolytic Corrosion (commonly referred to as stray current corrosion) is corrosion that results from an electrical source causing a metal in contact with an electrolyte (water) to become anodic with respect to some other metal in the same electrolyte. 

In simple terms if a wire touches something it shouldn't, like a faulty bilge pump float or degraded wiring lying in the bilge sending current into the water, causing one metal to give up electrons and corrode. Any vessel suffering from this type of corrosion is likely the master of its own disaster, but the culprit could also be a neighbouring vessel. This type of corrosion can eat metals at an alarming rate. 

Any Ocean Guardian device, whether it is a FREEDOM7, BOAT01, BOAT02 or FISH01 or FISH02 tethered off a vessel is powered by an internal lithium-ion battery and a printed circuit which creates a pulsing DC current between two stainless steel electrodes. The current creates the protective electrical field and is effectively a closed circuit between the two electrodes making it very unlikely to cause any electrolysis on the vessel. 

Both the BOAT01 (and the new BOAT02) & FISH01 (and new FISH02) can also be powered from the vessel's 12/24V DC, in this scenario it could be possible for the DC cable connector on the device to leak current into the water and thus back to the vessel, however it would be very difficult to see this leakage occurring given the electrical connectors used are industrial subsea pressure rated to 10,000 PSI. 

As normal protection against electrolysis vessel owners should consider ground fault protection systems, galvanic isolators, isolation transformers and impressed current systems which are some of the various methods used to combat corrosion.