Rant: leaked battery from Tek

[blueskull]

I used to hate Tek scopes with passion, and now I have to say, eff you Tek service centers.
About 3 years ago I sent my Fluke 289 to a nearby Tek calibration center, and they were kind enough to replace the old batteries, which is good.
Until today I found out one of the 6 batteries is leaking and has already corroded a negative battery contact spring.
Not only it corroded the spring contact, it also left quite some crystals and liquid nearby in plastic parts, and thank god the electrolyte doesn't corrode plastic.

So, my question is, is there s non leaking battery available out there? I've been using Energizer for years without a single leakage incident, but this Duracell Procell "Professional" battery did.
Also a side note to whoever read this from Tek, can you spend one or two more dollars on a better battery brand? I paid $150 to calibrate a handheld multimeter, and I certainly don't want to get this.

[Zero999]

It's a bit unfair to blame the service centre. It's very common for any battery to leak after 3 years. Unfortunately, I can't suggest a battery which will not leak. There's always a possibility any alkaline battery will leak.

[HighVoltage]

I have found that there are only two types of alkaline batteries:
- Those that leak, and
- Those that leak eventually
And it seems it got worse over the years.

Just a few month ago I had an Energizer battery leak badly in to one of my instruments and it was only 1 year old.
I have also tested the Duracell Industrial and so far after a couple years, I had no problems.

[KE5FX]

Never use Duracells.  They (as you've noticed) leak.

[WackyGerman]

The best solution to avoid leakage damage is to remove the battery from the multimeter . No battery is safe from leakage . Well you have good luck that the electrolyte didn t eat the traces from the pcb . Some IPA on a cotton swab will clean the contact spring

[BravoV]

Been there too, but with Energizer, even though not severe, still its pretty nasty.

  -> Rotten Energizers ruined Fluke 287 battery contacts 

Also check out this thread that I made recently ... -> YARA ... 

Now practically all my T&M gears are sterilized from alkaline cells.

[Zero999]

The best solution to avoid leakage damage is to remove the battery from the multimeter . No battery is safe from leakage . Well you have good luck that the electrolyte didn t eat the traces from the pcb . Some IPA on a cotton swab will clean the contact spring

That's good advice but sometimes impractical. Some test houses place the "calibration void if removed" sticker over a panel which needs to be removed to change the battery which is terrible. If I was the person in charge of sending the instruments in the company for calibration, I'd complain and never send it somewhere which does that.

[Gyro]

One protective measure you can take is to smear the contact surfaces (not the plastic) with Vaseline. It won't stop batteries leaking but it will help to protect the contact plating when they do. It also prevents contact resistance rising over time.

[electr_peter]

Sadly, any brand of alkaline battery can leak. I would not blame Tek service center at all.
Duracells also leak (documented on this forum as well) as do other brands. I had few almost fresh VARTA leaked AAA batteries (with "Made in Germany" label).

Heat (mostly), age and compression force seem to be factors in leakage. The biggest problem is massive induced corrosion. If you are lucky, corroded spring contacts can lose contact with a battery and stop device from working (leaked battery can still be good in terms of power delivery).

In my opinion, solutions mitigate battery leakage problem are:

• check battery condition each 6 months or more often
• remove batteries from devices if not used
• use alternatives to alkaline batteries - rechargeable NiMH or non-rechargeable lithium

[SeanB]

I opened up a few cordless phones ( Siemens and AEG) and checked the AAA NimH cells in there, and found that around half of them has a cell in there that was venting KOH electrolyte, and had visibly corroded the cell positive end to a dull colour. so pretty much any battery technology will leak with time.

About the only ones I have never seen leak are the Tadiran primary lithium cells, they are really well built, which is reflected in the cost of those cells.

[SeanB]

No experience with primary 1V6 lithium, but they likely also leak, but the bonus is the electrolyte is very volatile, so evaporates off really fast.  No water but some ionic hydrocarbon, which likely is not going to hang around long enough to corrode, though it could transport nasty ionic compounds to the board, which probably can react with atmospheric moisture.

would like to get one of those cells that are flat, and put it in some crimped copper pipe and punch a nail through the lot, then leave in ambient outdoor air for a month to see what corrodes.

[KE5FX]

Informally, what I've seen is that reports of Energizer leakage tend to come from outside the US, while reports of Duracell leakage seem to be more common in the US market.  It seems likely that they're formulated differently based on regional regulations or market conditions.

I use a lot of AA and AAA Energizers and have never seen leakage from them, whether alkaline or lithium.  Meanwhile, easily half of the Duracell alkalines I've left in place for more than a couple of years have shown some evidence of leakage.  Some much sooner than that... as in, leaking before removal from the retail package.

Duracell rechargeable NiMHs haven't been a problem so far.

[mmagin]

One protective measure you can take is to smear the contact surfaces (not the plastic) with Vaseline. It won't stop batteries leaking but it will help to protect the contact plating when they do. It also prevents contact resistance rising over time.

The somewhat more sophisticated version of this is silicone dielectric grease -- found frequently in automotive connectors and light bulb sockets.  Unfortunately I find the trouble of cleaning up battery contacts much less than the trouble that happens when the battery leakage reaches PC boards :/

[nidlaX]

Not only it corroded the spring contact, it also left quite some crystals and liquid nearby in plastic parts, and thank god the electrolyte doesn't corrode plastic.

Beware the type of plastic used in the casing and the electrolyte used in your batteries of choice. For example, if you have a poly-carbonate case and alkaline batteries, you're gonna have a bad time...

[Cubdriver]

I've seen far more Duracells leak in recent years (starting perhaps 10-15 years ago?), but can't recall seeing any Energizers do so.  I have stopped buying the Duracells; whatever was changed (chemistry for environmental purposes, construction for bean counting purposes or some combination thereof), as far as I'm concerned they're dangerous crap at this point.

-Pat

[Berni]

Ouch that is an awful thing to happen to the nice meter.

But thing is i see batteries leaking all the time in products. If i had a cent for every time i had to clean a battery terminal in something. But its one thing when the contacts belong to a 10 dollar universal TV remote, another thing when it happens to a expensive piece of professional test gear.

So far i have not seen much in the way of lithium coin cells leaking. But that doesn't mean that larger ones cant leak. But i have had good experience with all my rechargeable Ni-MH cells. I have a heap of them around and i never seen one leak, however Ni-Cd are a different story, the things are horrible. I still have over 10 year old Ni-MH AAs that had a lot of cycles go trough them and they still don't leak. Tho they have dropped in capacity quite a bit and developed a pretty high internal resistance, but they still hold a charge just fine and show no corrosion on there contacts.

EDIT: This reminds me... i should go check the alkaline batteries in my Agilent DMMs

[BravoV]

Update: the electrolyte made its way to the meter's PCB, and it reads ~450M on resistance mode even without test leads attached.
I think I need to take some high res photos and file a claim with Tek, while in the meantime try to clean it.
Luckily I have a second handheld, but it's not nearly as easy to use as my F289.

Ouch .. what a bummer.    Please post the close up photos here as a reminder to others.

[Neganur]

Varta Lithium AA? Not seen those leak yet.


http://www.varta-consumer.com/en/products/batteries/overview/lithium/aa

[Electro Detective]

Update: the electrolyte made its way to the meter's PCB, and it reads ~450M on resistance mode even without test leads attached.
I think I need to take some high res photos and file a claim with Tek, while in the meantime try to clean it.
Luckily I have a second handheld, but it's not nearly as easy to use as my F289.

It's 2017 and battery 'technology' is going backwards ? 

A public tar and feather (and rodgering if anyone is into that) of battery company CEOs is justified   

and a good multi billion SUE job to seal the deal   

Then MAYBE we can put overpriced s*** batteries in our overpriced meters, and not have to buy overpriced meters again because we put overpriced...   

 

[Electro Detective]

any chance that leaked crap did some bridge work and the unit went into a wierd cal set up mode?

Dial, legs, and track stuff all ok?

Insulation test done with dial on VDC?

U1461A tested on another meter to verify accuracy?

[Berni]

Ouch those are pretty significant effects to its operation.

Id guess disassembling it and giving the PCB a good wash in some soapy water followed by washing in alcohol and oven drying would fix it just fine. But its just not the same in terms of trusting the measurements...and that likely not cheap calibration is useless now.

I don't think the calibration company will take any responsibility for that, but its worth trying.

[retiredcaps]

The F289 in resistance mode displays 400M when input jack is not connected at all,

A good 91% IPA PCB bath with some light clean toothbrush scrubbing and thorough drying may resolve the above.

edit: Or if you have an ultrasonic bath, that would work as well too.

[edavid]

So I called Tek and Fluke.
Fluke: even without battery leakage they won't offer their "limited lifetime" warranty to me for whatever reason. I will have to pay $241 flat rate to fix it.
Tek: the customer is responsible for battery management.

Did you try contacting Duracell?

[retiredcaps]

I guess I will have to absorb the $241 loss and send it to Fluke repair center myself.

Did you try the IPA bath?  A lot cheaper than $241.

[james_s]

Most battery manufactures will repair or replace equipment damaged by leaky batteries, I sent Energizer a AA Maglite once and they sent me a check for $20. It's obnoxious though, I've had a LOT more leaky batteries in recent years than I ever used to. Just a few weeks ago I replaced some badly leaking Duracells in my mom's thermostat, they said best by 2023 on them!

I avoid alkalines in general now, I use Eneloop and Fujitsu NiMH cells in everything I can.