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How do you protect your handheld meters from battery leakage?

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robert.rozee:

--- Quote from: wraper on September 18, 2022, 02:02:11 pm ---Carbon-zinc batteries leak just as bad as alkalines. It's just that currently alkalines are more prevalent now so you see them leaking more often.

--- End quote ---

i'm not entirely convinced of this.

from reading the wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_battery), an alkaline cell has a "pressure expansion seal" at the base (under the negative cap). that such an expansion seal is needed points to pressure build-up inside not being uncommon.

a zinc-carbon cell, again from a wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93carbon_battery) is mechanically far simpler, lacking an expansion seal. it appears that any pressure is alleviated via the carbon rod (that exits the cell-proper under the positive cap) being porous. however, the zinc casing of the cell is consumed over time, and that may release contents.


so both have issues, but different issues. certainly, in the last 10 years i have noticed alkaline cells having a disproportionate proclivity to damage/wreck equipment; i don't recall ever having something damaged by a leaking zinc-carbon cell.

one solution may be the invention of a 2xAA case, containing a Li-Ion 'pouch' cell and series dropper diode. i have seen Li-Ion cells being used as single-use in some chinese-manufactured products.


cheers,
rob   :-)

wraper:
I don't care about what wiki says since I had both types leak into my devices.

Traceless:

--- Quote from: robert.rozee on September 18, 2022, 04:34:35 pm ---one solution may be the invention of a 2xAA case, containing a Li-Ion 'pouch' cell and series dropper diode. i have seen Li-Ion cells being used as single-use in some chinese-manufactured products.
cheers,
rob   :-)

--- End quote ---

Yeah I had something like this in mind when in my original post:


--- Quote from: Traceless on September 18, 2022, 09:27:17 am ---I wonder if there are Li-Ion packs available, that fit into a standard 2/3/4 AA or AAA battery compartment.

--- End quote ---

I have seen LiIon battery packs in phones, notebooks etc. bulge but they did never spill any liquids. If one would simply make an 2/3/4 AA or AAA shaped plastic casing with contacts on the top and bottom put a LiIon pack inside and then seal the plastic casing that would be pretty much leak-proof. It would also likely have a much longer durability and capacity compared to regular AA/AAA rechargables.

RoGeorge:
I'm using low self-discharge Ni-MH rechargeable, brand TRONIC energy eco (bought from LIDL).
They really are low at self-discharging, I recharge them (for the DMM) once a year or so.

Their color scheme looks like this:  https://budgetlightforum.com/node/55247
They come in format AA, AAA, C and 6HR61 9V(7.2V), all the same brand, name and color scheme.

Vincent:
Is it possible that alkalines and carbon-zincs will leak in different contexts?

In my experience, you better not forget alkaline batteries in a device for extended periods, they'll almost invariably leak.

Carbon-zincs do leak, but very often did I open up the battery compartment of some device, found 20+ years old carbon-zinc batteries in there, and they were 200% dead, but cosmetically pristine. One recent counter-example was some sort of battery-powered fan for camping. I suspect the batteries were quickly drained, giving enough time for the magic juice to be released instead of the batteries just drying like raisins.

Just a hypothesis though, I'm no expert in the battery department LOL.

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