Energizer 2013 AA Cell already leaking

Happened to try a seldom-used tv remote control last night, dead. opened it up, one 2013 AA Energizer battery was fine, the other was dead and leaking. I stupidly thought that the date on batterries was how long they were supposed to last if they were not used - shelf life.

Since the battery was not used more than a few minutes since it was put in the remote a couple of years ago, and had been in an air- conditioned and heated room in the house for its entire time since I brought it home from the store, I thought that it was safe to leave it in the remote without having to periodically check for leakage. Fortunately, the leakage was minor and because of the physical position of the remote, the leakage went onto the inside of the back cover and did not get into the electronics in the remote.

Just thought I would post it here as a reminder not to assume anything about battery life.

Reply to
hrhofmann
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A few days ago a relative asked me to find a rear bicyle lamp for them, the only one I could find contained a pair of Energiser AA marked "best before

2008" - apart from being dead flat there was no sign of deterioration.
Reply to
Ian Field

It depends upon where the batteries are made. From what I see, the ones made in the EU (Belgium to be exact) are fine, the ones made in Singapore are not. I don't know what are sold in the US.

My guess is that some places sell ones made in the US, and some places sell ones made in Singapore. It also would not surprise me if there are ones made in Hong Kong, or mainland China, which are fakes sold at flea markets, etc.

Geoff.

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

Before you blame the batteries check that no current is being drawn in the rest state of the device.

If the remote was drawing power (say 10 - 100ma) when just sitting around then you would get that result - leaky batteries no matter what make.

John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

That's a standard magnesium dioxide and zinc alkaline battery. Rated shelf life is 7 years, so it should have lasted. Weird.

How it failed:

Some marginal drivel with some interesting stuff mixed in:

Energizer alkaline batteries:

Humor me and insert an amps guesser in series with the batteries on the remote. Does it draw any current in standby? Any chance that someone put something on top of the remote and pressed one of the buttons for an extended period? Measure the current the remote draws when you punch a button and estimate the battery life (2A-hr) assuming continuous accidental operation.

Another anecdote for the collection. My palatial office building includes a maintenance closet, where we store several emergency flashlights. It's a random assortment of alkaline D cells in mostly plastic flashlights with incandescent bulbs. The batteries will first swell and then leak after about a year, even if not used. It doesn't seem to matter what brand of battery, they always leak. This has been going on for about 20 years. My guess(tm) is that one of the volatile cleaning chemicals stored in the closet is attacking the batteries. We put all but one flashlight inside zip loc bags to see if that helps. Too soon to tell as it's only been about 3 months.

Has anyone been using spray cleaner on the remote or nearby? That's my guess(tm) as to the culprit.

I had the not so bright idea of wrapping my batteries in cellophane wrap when installed in devices that I care about (Geiger counters, instruments, test equipment, emergency radios, GPS, etc). The problem was that the batteries usually leak from the end terminal area, which cannot be covered with cellophane wrap. Oops. My next attempt will probably be to add a sponge at both ends of the battery (with a hole in the center for the connection). The plan is to localize the damage, not prevent it. Maybe seal the battery compartment.

There should be a warranty on the batteries.

Ugh... 1 year.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Unless they are flashlights and you need to turn them on to see them, then why not just wrap the batteries in ziplock bags? Or if you have a vacuum sealing machine, one of their bags?

When I was traveling, I had a suitcase packed and in it a kit with various things I would want, such as an electric kettle, a small portable radio, a flashlight (so that I was not stuck in the dark in a strange place because I did not know where the light switch was) and so on.

I was careful to choose devices that used the same batteries, and keep them in a ziplock bag. In order to not have to go searching for them, I kept the devices and the bag of batteries all in one larger ziplock bag.

At one time I had a cellphone that used AA cells but that was a long time ago. I don't think you can get one now.

About six months ago I replaced the D cells in my backup AM/FM home radio (a GE SRIII) with AA cells in adaptors. Last week I took them out. They did not leak, but one of them was was swollen enough I had to push it out.

Geoff.

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

ed text -

Good pont about the idle/leakage current. I just checked it, 25 ma draw when pushing a button, 0 ua standby, so I guess idle/leakage current is out of the picture.

Reply to
hrhofmann

See my reply to John, I wish I had seen some leakage (current that is, not chemical).

Reply to
hrhofmann

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@cable.mendelson.com:

I wonder if a protective GREASE would keep the electrolyte from harming the contacts,which seems to be what takes the most damage from leakage. Maybe a thin coat of Vaseline or other grease would work. it might even neutralize the electrolyte.

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Reply to
Jim Yanik

Silicone spray helps a bit.

Reply to
Ian Field

Good question with a complicated answer. The short version is that we need at least 5 functional flashlights in the maintenance closet, which is also crammed full of various emergency supplies. I've been trying to get the cleaning supplies out of this closet for maybe 10 years, without success.

Leaving the batteries outside the flashlights is possible. However, I suspect it would be difficult to find the batteries and flashlight in the dark, without at least one functional flashlight. Last time we had a drill, some people walked off with flashlights but no batteries. They didn't realize that they didn't function until much later. There are also some scanners, a WX radio, gas detectors, etc in the closet. All have batteries that eventually leak. Every summer, I get to remove everything, check for leakage (and theft), and provide the necessary repairs. We rotate the batteries every 2 years, but I haven't bothered to test the ones I remove.

I carry a key chain LED light, an LED mini Maglight, and a Ray-o-Vac head light. Actually, I have several head lights, one attached to my hard hat, and another at my workbench. The headlight is much more useful since it points to where I'm looking, and leaves both hands free to work. I also have a hand crank no-battery flashlight, but that's to keep the kids occupied.

Good idea, but not very practical for my setup. I just carry lots of spare batteries. When we had the earthquake here in 1989, FEMA was passing out tons of D cell batteries for flashlights, and nothing else. You couldn't find a AA battery for about 2 weeks. Lesson learned is to stock everything.

Yeah, I had a Rotomola flip phone with a AA alkaline battery pack. It worked, and was about right for the time. These days, everything is

3.7V Li-Ion. The trick is to carry a DC charger, and find a source of 12V to charge the battery. During a recent week long power outage in this area, I had several spare batteries and was recharging them in the car as I drove. I also have a hand crank charger, but again, that's to keep the kids busy. I have a similar system for the laptop. If I have time, I may even rewire the bicycle trainer into a generator suitable for operating the TV or charging the laptop.

Ouch. They bulge first, then leak. Here's the chemistry:

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Well, if your remote uses 2 batteries, you would have a total of 4000 ma-hr of capacity. At a 25ma draw, that's 4000 / 25 = 160 hrs = 6.67 days if someone sat on a remote button.

Could I trouble you to double check the standby current, possibly with a more sensitive amps guesser? To drain the 4000 ma-hr batteries in 2 years (17,520 hrs), you only need: 4000 / 17520 = 228 ua of leakage.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yeah, I did double check it, two separate measurements a couple of minutes apart andredid thechecking wiring to make sure it was going thru the remote, hence the pushbutton current draw and the idle. The other battery of the two AA Energizers in the remote still functioned. Just luck of the draw I guess. Today is the day to check up on all the things that I am too busy to do the rest of the year. Hard to believe I've been retired from Bell Labs fo exactly 10.5 years and still so busy doing things that I have to schedule a day to do catch up on things I would rahter not do at all.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Well I know it's a contentious thing to talk about which brand but we have just stopped buying Eveready products because to us they are just inferior to another popular brand in most ways, like endurance and leakage etc. IMHO it is also a good idea to wipe the contact surfaces with an oily rag or a thin smear of grease when installing batteries that are used in flashlights and the like. Whilst it's hard to remember, following most manufacturer's advice to remove the batteries if the device is to be unused for long periods is sound :-)

Rheilly P

Reply to
Rheilly Phoull

2
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The remote was sitting on the back of the tv table with the keyboard up. The leakage was on the negative spring and on the removable trapdoor so I wiped the spring and washed the trapdoor off, everything works fine. It would not be worth the trouble to ship it to Energizer to try to get a replacement reote. I will call them to let them know what happened tomorrow when most everybody is back to work and see if they will send me free coupons. I'll report back here what happens.

Reply to
hrhofmann

It's hard to get excited about one anecdote with unknown conditions. I think the most plausible explanation so far is that the remote got stuck between the cushions or somebody laid something on it long enough to run it down. And sometimes batteries just fail.

If it's seldom used and the standby current is zero, there's no reason for the battery to have failed...other than battery failure...which happens.

Reply to
mike

Use a mix 50/50 of water/white vinegar to neutralize the base (alkalye) that leaked from the batteries.

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John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

Well, I could chime in here to point out that we have opened a number of video and pinball games that were factory sealed since 1980 - and they all contained either Royovac, Eveready Energizers, or Duracels as battery backups for 5101 CMOS RAM. In a number of cases the batteries (all brands) still had a charge, a few were still very close to 1.5VDC, most were around 1.0VDC.

John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

That aside, batteries are not meant to leak anymore. Some of us can no doubt remember when batteries were sold in two varieties - ordinary, and (more expensive) leak proof - the point being that the ordinary ones were pretty much guaranteed to leak when discharged, whereas the leak proof ones would not. The ordinary ones have long since vanished.

If it's damaged the remote, take the matter up with whatever is the current name of the company behind Energiser in your part of the world.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

You are right of course, I reckon they tend to use better construction or materials for some uses. OTOH I have seen "Golden Elephant" type units last for years too. A bit of a lottery at best and lets not get onto re-chargables :_)

Rheilly P

Reply to
Rheilly Phoull

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