how to remove alkaline battery residue

Ordinary household ammonia on a Q-tip with dissolve it. I usually follow that with an isopropyl alcohol flush.

Possible problem... Aluminum can be attacked by ammonia and other alkaline solvents. So, be careful.

Plain tap water with a nylon scouring pad seems to work. Alcohol can then be used to remove the water.

Thanks, anything else? Ammonia is restricted here. :-(

Geoff.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Geoff.

-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it. :-)

Isn't acid the opposite of alkaline.......

Such as ordinary acetic acid (vinegar) found in any kitchen.

As long as you don't make any ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel bombs. Be glad that it's restricted because the "ammoniated' cleaner will streak the anti-reflective coating on some LCD displays. It's almost impossible to find glass cleaner in the US that does NOt have ammonia in the formulation.

The electrolyte in alkaline batteries is KOH (potassium hydroxide) which is NOT very soluable in liquid ammonia. What does the cleaning in most spray cleaners is n-PropoxyPropanol, which is a form of alcohol. Looks like 409 spray cleaner has ammonia in the form of ammonium chloride:

I use 409, Fantastik, or similar cleaner. If it foams when it hits the KOH, it's working.

"ian field" wrote in news:N5feo.132535$S46.76190@hurricane:

even household ammonia? sheesh.

vinegar works great. and a lot easier to use than nasty ammonia with it's fumes.

It was restricted because there was a spate of people mixing chlorine bleach and ammonia to clean their toilet. This is a country of immigrants, and no one could figure out how to write the warning in enough languages that it would be safe.

Luckily the glass cleaner here is made with vinegar.

Ok, there are some cleaners like that, and maybe one of those.

Great, thanks to you and everyone else for the info and the links.

Please note that I said "household ammonia". Not ammonia, not ammonium nitrate fertilizer, not any other form of ammonia. Okay?

Although acids neutralize bases, I don't like the idea of using acids inside electronic equipment. Acids are more-likely to attack metals than bases.

I've been doing this on and off for years, and never had the least trouble. Household ammonia, followed by some neutral liquid to wash away anything that might be left.

Teaching them to read Hewbrew would be too expensive? Instead you get a nation of dirty toilets. I would think that sacrificing a few immigrants so that the rest could have clean toilets would be a suitable exchange. I guess international safety symbols won't work when mixing to non-toxic products. Maybe a toilet with a nuclear mushroom cloud coming out of the bowl might work.

Well, maybe there's a chemical solution to the problem. Adding any sulfur compount to the chlorine bleach would be easy. It would be non-reactive until it hits the ammonia, where it's converted to ammonium sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs.

I have to make my own for cleaning LCD's. Vinegar, filtered water, cheap rubbing alcohol, a little dish washing soap (for the wetting agent), and a few drops of kerosene. There are plenty of similar do it thyself formulas on the web.

I use plain water and scrub the surfaces. After, I rub in some contact cleaner if there are contacts involved.

Jerry G.

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Teaching them Hebrew is a national industry for the last 15 years the cost of abosrbing new immigrants has exceeded the defense budget. Schools of Hebrew are called "ulpan". There are ulpan for free, subsidized uplan, private ulpan, people giving uplan lessons in their home, an Ulpan High School, and the "Wall Street Institute" an ulpan which teaches English to Hebrew speakers, plus Berlitz and other international schools of language.

The problem is how do make the point to someone before they learn Hebrew.

We don't have dirty toilets BTW, there are lots of other cleaners, including "mai cham" (literally hot water), which is a dilute muratic acid solution. The most common is "economica", which is a brand name that has become a generic term for cholrine bleach with soap and optional lemon scent.

I was here for five years before I found out you can buy plain bleach with no soap or lemon in it, and most immigants never learn that.

I like the mushroom cloud idea, but I'm not sure everyone would recognize it. It's become a cultural icon in the west, but I'm not sure about rural China, India, or Africa.

We also get most of our batteries from Singapore and mainlaind China, often sold as well known "American" brands. The particularly bad ones were Office Depot house brand, made in Hong Kong, but some were Duracell or Energizer brand, made in various western European countries (or at least claimed to be). :-)

Geoff.

I use Sno Bol, a hydrochloric acid solution. I cuts right through the schmutz, something chlorine+determent products cannot do.

A while back Harpic released an acid based bog cleaner that they claim to be best on the market for shifting limescal, I've found if the limescale is stained at all it takes an awfull lot of bog cleaner to shift it - whiten the limescale with bleach first.

When I say "schmutz", I mean hardened fecal schmutz.

There's an American product called CLR (calcium-lime-rust) specifically for such stuff.

I don't think that's correct. I don't think most acids will attack porcelain.

This is all I could find. It isn't clear what the relationship between "porcelain enamel" and the porcelain used in bathroom fixtures is.

The by-product from air oxidation of lemon oil (d-Limonene oxide) is one of the most allergenic chemical known. It forms in part-used bottles of lemon-scented products and I have seen the horrible results of the sensitisation it causes. (One of my work colleagues lost most of her facial skin to it)

Even if you aren't allergic to it, other people may be, so please don't use it.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:i5evld$8nu$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

acids are what's used to etch porcelain bathtubs for "refinishing" with epoxy paints. even leaving chlorine bleach solution puddled on the tub surface will etch it,I found that out the hard way.

Which acid or acids? Decades before I saw "Breaking Bad", I knew that hydrofluoric acid attacked glass and porcelain. But hydrochloric?