Removing battery corrosion

k the entire circuit board in an ammonia and soap solution. But *first*, e verything that can trap water must be removed. Back then, that meant SMPS transformer, HOT and flyback XFRs, inductors,etc. A lot of work but it fix ed stubborn symptoms and no call backs. "

acetone with a brush and then blew dried it on hot to evaporate everything . And then sprayed with spray solvent to make it cold. That squeezes the sh it out of the board, which is quite porous. Repeated about 4 times. The las t time left the acetone or alcohol on it, heated it up with the blow dryer and waited a while until you could not smell it anymore.

Seems like a lot more work than a one step soak. We received a bulletin fr om RCA about coolant leaks, and they suggested ammonia based detergents as the most effective way of removing the coolant and it's associated contamin ation. I had a PTK195 that would do all sorts of very intermittent weird t hings in the vertical circuit even after a regular cleaning. I found a pro duct called Parson's Sudsy Ammonia and used that diluted in a parts washer. The board were spotless and even glossy after drying.

letts which impeded their soldering. And those were about 90 % of the probl ems with those sets.

My brother (the hero) used to hard wire those GEs through the griplets but I used to just solder the bottom, solder the top, then resolder the bottom again and give it a good spay of Flux-Off (the original stuff). That took less time than it might seem and they never came back.

Nice. Like the story about the streaker in the old-folks home. Poor vision just made the on-lookers think his clothes needed pressing...

Mike.

Yep. I've made my own rosin flux. Lots of instructions online for both paste and liquid flux:

However, things went awry when I tried to use my home made flux for reflow soldering a BGA chip. It was too thick and too difficult to clean after resoldering. When I dissolved it in some alcohol to thin out the solution, I had a small fire. It also disappeared long before the solder melted. I ordered "reflow flux" which is designed for reflow soldering, which worked much better: Such fluxes are either active or mildly active. Such rosin fluxes contain abietic acid which acts as an oxidation inhibitor. Other additives break down when heated and produce hydrochloric acid or ammonia for the same effect. You could mix your own formulation, but I suggest buying the commercial product when dealing with anything that requires temperature control (such as BGA chips) or thorough board cleaning.

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I use tap water and let the lime accumulate until I can see it. Then, a rinse the iron with 75% water and 25% white vinegar. Let the iron get hot, and push some steam through the plumbing. Also, I empty the old water from the iron between uses.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

It's *almost* not worth it. More than once, when the iron starts spitting out precipitate, we've thrown it away and bought a new one. I've cleaned them too, but it doesn't work 100% and pretty quickly builds up again.

We've bought new irons for as little as $12.

And you get to salvage a nice heavy duty cord for another project.

Distilled water does work really well of course, if you are religious about using it... at 89 cents a gallon I can't see where it adds to the cost of anything. A gallon goes a long way, in an iron or in cleaning electronics.

De-ionized water is a very different animal.

water from a/c is free

NT

And FULL of nasty biologicals. No thanks.

If you are writing of condensate water - that is, perhaps, some of the leas t 'healthy' water on the planet.

a) It condenses on (mostly) aluminum that is exposed to (typically) 90% ret urn/10% fresh air. The return air is freighted with whatever is in the hous e/building/whatever that passes through typically very coarse filters. So, dander, dust, bacteria, grease, and whatever virus is in circulation. The f resh air could have very nearly anything in it.

b) Whatever corrosion exists on the fins becomes part of it.

c) And it drains via channels and/or tubes that could be 'growing' in their own right. Even if anti-mold tablets are utilized, *THAt* chemical is no f un either.

Perhaps over-use of condensate water might explain a great deal in your cas e?

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

ast 'healthy' water on the planet.

eturn/10% fresh air. The return air is freighted with whatever is in the ho use/building/whatever that passes through typically very coarse filters. So , dander, dust, bacteria, grease, and whatever virus is in circulation. The fresh air could have very nearly anything in it.

ir own right. Even if anti-mold tablets are utilized, *THAt* chemical is no fun either.

so in summary an ideal water source for irons that boil it in use.

ase?

I'm not the one engaging in gratiutous insults.

NT

On Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 10:56:03 AM UTC-5, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote :

case?

No, but that was a question, not an insult - and the need for an answer is clearly demonstrated by your summary. Broadcasting fungicides, concentrated allergens and other nasty stuff not deterred by boiling, much less embeddi ng same in one's clothing seems to me to be a poor practice.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

anything in it.

It was the Legionnaires disease that was traced to the AC water.

te:

least 'healthy' water on the planet.

return/10% fresh air. The return air is freighted with whatever is in the house/building/whatever that passes through typically very coarse filters. So, dander, dust, bacteria, grease, and whatever virus is in circulation. T he fresh air could have very nearly

heir own right. Even if anti-mold tablets are utilized, *THAt* chemical is no fun either.

Yeah, but what are the odds a Legionnaire will be using a steam iron? But in all seriousness, wasn't it the AC duct work that was thought to be the b reeding ground for the bacterium?

No, no, NO! Sorry Peter, you missed this one. And your advice is normally spot-on!

Batteries use an AKALAINE (a base not an acid) so using another alkaline product (baking soda) will only exacerbate the problem.

To neutralize a base (alkaline battery leakage) you need to use a mild acid. Get some white vinegar and mix with distilled (if your water is hard) water 50:50 and use that solution to wash the residue away and to stop incipient leakage from continuing.

I wrote up a page back in the late 90s after talking with an engineer from EverReady about battery leakage:

Um, again you are recommending using a base to try and arrest the action of another base... Lye is a strong base, and bases are what are used to etch circuit boards, eh?

Running circuit boards through dishwashers can be fine, just skip the detergent! Seal DIP switches, pots, relays, etc. first...

John :-#)#

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This is a vintage transistor radio, likely using a carbon-zinc battery (LeC lanche Cell). They use an acid-based electrolyte. As carefully detailed. La tter-day batteries *tend* to use alkaline-based electrolytes - making most of the discussions herein accurate. But - not in all examples of all cases.

I try to advise based on good chemistry based on the data as presented.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

e least 'healthy' water on the planet.

0% return/10% fresh air. The return air is freighted with whatever is in th e house/building/whatever that passes through typically very coarse filters . So, dander, dust, bacteria, grease, and whatever virus is in circulation. The fresh air could have very nearly

their own right. Even if anti-mold tablets are utilized, *THAt* chemical i s no fun either.

t in all seriousness, wasn't it the AC duct work that was thought to be the breeding ground for the bacterium?

Legionnaires bugs are killed by heating above 60C.

NT

And, were Legionnaires' Disease the only issue (it is not), then condensate water might be just fine. But it is not. Again, impregnating one's clothes , sheets, and so forth with concentrated allergens, concentrated fungicides - or the actual spores of same - and various other materials, easily avoid ed, is simply stupid. Advocating such behavior repeatedly in the face of ob vious evidence otherwise is both stupid, and possibly criminal. What you do in your own house with only you as the victim is up to you. But visiting s uch idiocy on others, friends, family and so forth, is *NOT* up to you.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Crap, right, as the OP stated zinc-carbon battery using either ammonium chloride or zinc chloride in the electrolyte which are indeed mild acids and thus you are certainly correct to recommend using a base material to neutralize it.

Should have realized you wouldn't make that sort of mistake and double checked my own assumptions.

Sorry!

John :-#(#

But in all seriousness, wasn't it the AC duct work that was thought to be the breeding ground for the bacterium?

Perhaps more likely to be indulging in ex-st[r]eam ironing? More seriously, I think shower heads have been implicated too.

Mike.

yes that's the stuff.

what it does is when heated decompose into acids which dissolve oxides, and into hydrocarbons which reduce oxides back to clean metal, all of which which helps the molten solder to wet the metal.

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