Tektronix heirloom Maglite - destroyed by Duracell AA - last straw !!

[BravoV]

Not sure what's going on there, there's no staining at all in the other side of the paper (inside the red circle):

In my case at above Panasonic 9V, the corroded battery's snap terminal looks like caused by corrosive gas/vapor that was vented slowly, no leaked liquid mark/stain at all inside. 

Maybe, but I never heard of "corrosive gas" from batteries before. 

Me too, but how do you explain the severely corroded terminal at the tab, and also happened from the inside the battery's terminal ? 

I re-attached bigger tab photos below, so you can see more in details.

The corrosion did heavy damages at the nickel plated outer case, and also the brass inside.

Also from both terminals position, as I stored the Fluke lie down on it's back as usual, and the corroded one (negative) was on the top, while the good one (positive terminal) was at the bottom.

Fyi, I have OCD, and I'm 100% confident that I didn't miss spot it, if there was a corrosion at terminals when I installed it, and clearly I would replace the tab asap, or stop the battery installation.

The black goop thingy at the bottom in the photo, is just a hardened, darkened & crushed foam, for preventing the battery from rattling, and its not the culprit as I have many similar hardened foams else where too.

[deadlylover]

Thanks for sharing, I immediately ordered one of those Energizer 9V Lithium batteries for a Fluke 87V.

I only use eneloops or "IKEAloops" for my AA and AAA devices so I haven't had to deal with a leaking battery for a decade. (though you do get a bit salty when you lend something out and they change the batteries for you as a favour... ahh I miss those ~2009 eneloops relegated to game controller duty, I make sure to tell people to never change the batteries now  )

[james_s]

I've been using NiMH 9V batteries in my Fluke 87 for years. Actually I'm not sure it has had a primary cell in it since the one it came with. I typically get a few months out of a charge, if I use it heavily and use the backlight a lot I might get a month. When the battery gets low I swap in a fresh one and pop it in the charger. I use the LSD NiMH 9V batteries in my smoke alarms now too, I tried one of those lithium ones once and was disappointed, it lasted only a few years, not the 10 years claimed. The NiMH cells I recharge whenever the first one starts to chirp, usually about twice a year.

[macboy]

I noticed that the local Costco has 20-packs of AA lithium cells, Energizer brand, for just under $20 CDN (equates to ~$15 USD). It seems like a good deal considering the many benefits over alkaline: basically everything including higher capacity, longer shelf life, lower internal resistance, lower weight, flatter discharge voltage curve, no leakage, ...

[james_s]

They're good for things like emergency flashlights that are kept in your car or other rarely used emergency devices. I see no real advantage over NiMH cells for most other things though.

[dropkick]

I've switched to Lithiums in all things expensive or that I care about and really try not to leave batteries in anything not frequently used.  The only thing to watch out for is the higher voltage on the Lithiums.  One or two or probably four is fine.  However in two of my Fluke network testers which use 6 cells, the increased voltage shuts down (thankfully not blowing up!) the backlight.

[Berni]

Yeah primary lithium AA cells have a higher open circuit voltage and can cause problems.

Sometimes the designers think of this, for example my Agilent U1273A (OLED handheld DMM) running on 4xAAA even has a menu option for selecting alkaline or lithium. As far as i know this setting is only there to make the battery charge indicator icon in the corner of the display show correct charge remaining for both types. Due to the flat nature of lithium it would probably otherwise show 100% all the time and then just plummet towards 0 in the last few hours of life remaining.

Maybe in the case of that 6 cell Fluke you could make a dummy cell out of a wooden dowel so that it could run on only 5 cells.

Oh and energizer actually has a really nice datasheet for the lithium AA cell (Lots of graphs and shows the difference to alkanine):
https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf

[james_s]

Why not just use NiMH? They're about the same price, and you can recharge them. Having used them almost exclusively for around a decade now I have difficulty grasping why someone would use anything else.

[kaz911]

I have found fresh or bottled lemon juice works perfectly for cleaning up after leaked batteries.

Then maybe if possible a good clean in the ultra sonic afterwards - followed by DeoxIt.

I have not found a single brand yet that has not leaked. Toshiba(Panasonic?)/GP/Duracell/Duracell Industrial/Energizer - have all leaked.

[Fungus]

Why not just use NiMH? They're about the same price, and you can recharge them. Having used them almost exclusively for around a decade now I have difficulty grasping why someone would use anything else.

Self-discharge means they don't last very long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93metal_hydride_battery#Self-discharge

[JDubU]

After multiple alkaline battery leak disasters, I now use old fashioned AA and AAA carbon zinc batteries in all my very low power devices (like remote controls, digital scales, clocks, etc.).

[james_s]

Why not just use NiMH? They're about the same price, and you can recharge them. Having used them almost exclusively for around a decade now I have difficulty grasping why someone would use anything else.

Self-discharge means they don't last very long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93metal_hydride_battery#Self-discharge

It's not 1998 anymore, self discharge is a thing of the past. Modern NiMH will hold 80% charge after more than a year in storage. They will have a usable charge remaining after several years.

[wizard69]

For anything I care about I use lithium cells.  Apart from lasting longer and having excellent shelf life (meaning it will power on when I use the tool three times per year over the next ten years) they also won't leak.

I've heard this before and frankly are in the process of trying to phase out all alkaline batteries around the house.  Part of that involves getting rid of battery powered devices when I can.   For example the set back thermostat is gone (batteries leaked) replaced with a round mechanical one.   Mind you the batteries leaked after instituting a program of changing all batteries everywhere on my birthday.

I actually now have a number of 12 VDC flashlights using the same batteries as my tools.  Probably saving money even t the rip off prices for the batteries.

[rsjsouza]

I have been noticing a higher number of occurrences of leakage lately but, at least on my side, I have been losing less equipment - I simply remove the batteries and leave them on the side of the equipment inside a small sealed bag. That or I use Lithium on the more expensive ones (my fancy meters).

There was another discussion here in the EEV where I mention how my impression of Duracell changed immediately after having a nice gadget (HP95LX) destroyed by what it looked like ejection of the internal material of the battery. Having prior bad experiences with Energizer, I had moved on to Ray-o-vac and, for the longest time, I had no issues. Recently all batches I got had leaky batteries.

I have experience with a particular chinese brand of batteries (Tianquiu, included in several of my kids' toys) that have seen quite the abuse and discharge without showing signs of leak.

[james_s]

After multiple alkaline battery leak disasters, I now use old fashioned AA and AAA carbon zinc batteries in all my very low power devices (like remote controls, digital scales, clocks, etc.).

I use NiMH even in that sort of stuff now, clocks, remotes, thermostat, I tend to get the Japanese made variety of Amazon Basics cells for those things. I'd call it a waste since they are so rarely recharged but they don't leak like alkaline and they're about the same price as lithium primary cells. They'll go 2-3 years between charges in many things, the clock I usually swap out the battery once a year.