Alkaline Battery Leak Cleanup

Believe it or not, plain old H2O works better than just about any solvent you can try.

method=20

solvent you can try.

This is a timely posting, BeeJ. I have had 2 alkaline batteries show = up leaking this year -- first time in 40+ years I have ever seen one = leaking. One was inside a clock and the other in a camera. =20

I wonder if the standards have changed lately? I don't recall what = brand these were, but they were name brands and bought at different = places.

I prefer household ammonia, followed by an isopropyl alcohol flush.

Ammonia is a base, as is the electrolyte -- like dissolves like.

I use a pinch of "cream of tartar" (look in the kitchen spice rack) and a few drops of water to make a thin paste. If it's really bad, substitute white vinegar for the water. In either case, rinse well.

--
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

distilled water, was everything off that is corroded or wet if you can. Scrub with an old toothbrush.

regular tap water can leave mineral deposits and corrode stuff as well, plus distilled water is really eager to dissolve electrolytes from anything. It's a good solvent and harmless and pretty cheap.

I use 409 household cleaner and scrub with an old tooth brush. When

409 is sprayed on the white crud left by a leaky battery, it foams and fizzes. After that, I rinse with tap water, blow away the residual water with an air compressor, and/or blot whatever is left with towel paper. Sometimes, the white stuff is thick enough that I have to scrape it off with a small dull screwdriver or piece of plastic. Not much can be done to replace the chrome plating that is commonly used on equipment battery contacts. Left alone, the base metal will rust or corrode. I smear on some grease to slow down the corrosion, but find that it's not really adequate. I wouldn't mind painting the contacts with clear acrylic after masking the contact area, but that's often difficult or awkward to accomplish.

Although it doesn't help for all types of battery leaks, I sometimes wrap the batteries in household cellophane wrap (especially in flashlights). It doesn't prevent leakage or do anything when it leaks out the ends, but does help to limit the spread of the corrosive goo.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

I was surprised my big grocery carries distilled. Bought a couple gallons for camp coffee. Makes good coffee.

Greg

That reminds me, your not supposed to use distilled water in stainless pots. Deionized, ok. Maybe the coffee fixes that situation. I have a stainless reservoir at home, glass at camp.

Greg

Here in Israel amomonia based window cleaners were replaced years ago with vinegar ones. They do a great job of removing the crud left by a battery.

I usually put it on the tip of a cotton swab, and apply carefully. Battery door covers that are removable and loaded with it get removed and sprayed directly.

After they are clean, I dry them thoroughly. The part that actually makes contact, I do a final cleaning with DeOxit (the red liquid on a cotton swab), and remove any residual deoxit with a clean swab.

As part of a kit, I got DeOxit brand contact enhancers, and occasionally I use them after the contacts have been cleaned and the device tested.

If you are in the EU, you can buy a better cleaner called Cramolin, which used to be sold by the people who sell DeOxit. Post 9/11 the Cramolin products can not be shipped by air in the US, so DeOxit was created by their US distributor to fill the gap.

There is a competing product called Stabilant-22 made in Canada. I have not used it becuase it is very expensive. You buy a small bottle and dilute it with alcohol, so the per use price is low. Motorola sells it for repairing LMR radios.

The price to me would be over $100 for the smallest bottle and shipping, so I stick with the $5 tubes of DeOxit, which can be sent in a regular envelope airmail.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379

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And soup beans. Hard water ruins them.

Then why do they make electric stills out of stainless steel?

There are different stainless varieties. Some water baths and incubators I used to work on said, don't use distilled. It leeches nickel and puts holes in them.

Greg

That sounds like a reaction between the steel and other chemicals.

There must (and are) many types of stainless. Small PCB washers made from modified (these do exist commerically) kitchen dishwashers have all sorts of upgraded parts so they don't fail instantly. Distilled water is a really strong solvent, it just seems harmless as it doesn't burn your skin off and smell bad like other stuff.

I've had reasonable results using the green anti-oxidant grease to ressurect some old metal flashlights that got seriously crudded up. I think it's original use is for copper-aluminium connections.

...

Urban Legend Alert!

I sure as hell wouldn't try carrying it in my luggage, but I've got an old posting somewhere in my archive from some salesman at Cramonlin, (made long before 9/11), that they broke off the distribution deal because the American distributor was claiming they invented it. (There was also some reformulation going on around that time for the spray can versions, due to the Freon ban).

"Real" Cramolin is the factory recommended treatment for connection problems with engine control computers for various German made cars. "Recommended" might be too weak, more like "Only method allowed". Try the parts department at your local VW or Beemer dealer.

Available, in a dilute form as "Tweek" at your local high end audio store. Never really seemed to do that much.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

What is the chemical reason for the potency of pure water?

FWIW

I did some reading and found little advice I thought to be helpful.

So I got out the CLR and some cotton swabs and carefully dabbed. As soon as the CLR hit the alkaline battery goo it foamed up. I continued until the foaming stopped. Then I rinsed with RO water and dried the equipment on a air purifier in a room with a wall A/C unit so I had really dry air. So far so good. The batteries were put in and the unit works!

Now that all the alkaline goo is gone, what to do about the corrosion?

In one case I just scrubbed more with the cotton swabs; they are pretty good at scrubbing.

In another case I got out my Harbor Freight battery powered diamond tip rotary pen and carefully de-crudded the electrical contact area. That worked OK too but was a little rough on the surface.

But now I am wondering about use phosphoric acid on the contacts. That will convert the corroded steel (at least) to iron phosphate effectively stopping corrosion. But now the questions is, what are the conductive properties of iron phosphate and will it make a reasonable electrical contact surface? Anyone know about that? Not just iron phosphate, but about electrical contacts made of what, converted to whatever phosphate.

Strangely, all the electrical contacts that had goo on them were on the removable cover and not in the deep innards of the units I am repairing. Well, OK, there was a little goo in there but not the corrosion.

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