could alkaline battery leak onto circuit board cause problems ?

If the battery is a Duracell, they will replace the entire unit or pay the price of a new one. That happened to me with a £100 radio.

Yes. The best way to clean it up is with household ammonia on a cotton swab. You should then use alcohol for a final "flush".

oh how i wish,

no these were panasonic and probably 10 years old

thanks for info, good to know, rob

swab.

denatured alcohol or is isoprophyl (91%) ok sustitute ?

thanks for the helpful reply, rob

Either should work, but I've always used isopropyl, and have never had problems.

Proper electronics grade isopropyl alcohol, is 99.7%

Arfa

"robb" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Yes,electrolytes and their salts ARE conductive.

for an -alkaline- leak,you need to use a weak acid,like white vinegar;inexpensive and readily available. then rinse with distilled water,dry thoroughly.That's where your alcohol wil help get rid of moisture.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:-IidnY2aC-Q_qHXbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

neutralize alkaline with an acid;cheap household white vinegar is effective and widely available.

Ammonia is nasty compared to vinegar.

Nasty or not it is also not acid, but alkaline.

John Popelish wrote in news:Pq-dnSieUa5vDnXbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

I wasn't sure about that. I'd rather breathe vinegar fumes than ammonia fumes. Vinegar is probably safer to use,too.

I've been using household ammonia for years, and have never had problems.

Household ammonia is alkaline, and dissolves (alkaline) battery leaks quite nicely.

I was about to ask if using an alkaline would help dissolve or remove alkaline better than say using an acid which would have a reaction and is there any possibility of damage to board with reaction taking place there even though it is a neutralizing reaction ?

the leak seems to have spread up under some ICs as well would flushing be sufficient ? as i cann ot get swab under well maybe i just get a thin strip of paper and feed under the ends

thanks for the help and suggestions , rob

quite

Water is probably all you need to remove conductive (ionic) contamination. Use a blast of hot water through a small piece of tubing, if you can manage that, to jet the water under components. Finish with a distilled water rinse and remove most of the water with a jet of compressed air, if you have that, and a thorough dry in a warm place before turning power back on. I wouldn't force anything other than water or air under parts.

I have used small pressure washers (with very small nozzle openings) for this task; even a consumer dental pressure washer may be helpful here.

Regards,

Michael

I would just use air after the fluid has a chance to flow under the components. I use a Weller hot air gun. I set the temp so the air is slighty warm, because air and alcohol can form water. This process has to be repeated many times, at times.

greg

slighty

repeated

Methyl alcohol can be used to chase the distilled water, then blow it dry.

Using an acid wil create conductive salts that may be difficult to remove.

I once had a geiger counter - obtained at a Civil Defense Surplus Sale for US$20 - that was destroyed by Eveready batteries. And lest you ask why, my wife collects Fiesta Ware and its clones, some colors are radioactive so we keep a gieger counter to put those in the "do not eat from" set.

Anyway, based on the guarantee, I sent it off to Eveready. About four weeks later, along came a check (and I remember it well) for $329.51 representing the "inflation-adjusted original price of the damaged unit", together with a brief little note suggesting that I not leave the batteries in the unit when not in use, especially as they were over five years old.

Needless to say, from that point forward, nothing but Eveready is used in our household.

I did replace the counter with a USN surplus unit, far nicer and more sensitive than the one lost. $50 from a similar sale. I splurdged. That was 15 years ago and it still serves on rare occasion.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

My experience has been that Duracells are far more likely to leak than Energizers. (Other people have had exactly the opposite experience.)

Several years ago, the Duracell AAs in my digital dictating machine (provided with the unit) oozed and damaged the cover door. Duracell promptly paid the $16 it cost to replace the door.

The manufactured in 1969 Polaroid 360 I bought a few years back had Eveready alkaline batteries in it that still worked. They've worked since I bought it, and only recently started to fade. Amazing. This is a quirk, of course, the luck of the draw. I doubt Duracell or Eveready knows how to make batteries of this consistent quality.