Yeap as a reseller happens quite a bit and I found battery that expirebbsck in the 90s in a portable speaker
Yes.
Basically if you leave Alkaline batteries in the device for a long time (years) without using them they will loose all charge and there is a chance of them leaking.
Leakage is significantly more common with the Zinc-Carbon batteries (the tech in use for most batteries in that format before Alkaline) though those leak something that forms blueish crystals.
I once saw old D cells inside the toy train my father had as a kid. They basically looked like they liquefied and then re-solidified in the basic shape of a D cell.
Get the batteries out and wipe the electronics with a soft towel soaked with a little vinegar to neutralize the corrosion. Then a damp towel with just water to get the vinegar up. Let it fully dry before putting in new batteries. This happens to batteries that have sat unused for a long time installed. It can also happen if at the end of charge, you pull the batteries out, and put them back in to squeeze a little more use out of the batteries. Do it too many times and there is a leak risk. Cheaper batteries do it more often but the top brands will occasionally leak as well.
Vinegar here really does the trick in neutralizing the acid. do not skip it!
Vinegar (Acetic Acid) does not neutralise any acids at all.
It does however, neutralise the caustic, alkaline contents of a non-rechargeable alkaline cell (potassium hydroxide).
Acid is just upside-down base
I found an old plush that had a voicebox in it... I've not touched it in 25+ years but wanted to show it to my daughter, so I pulled out the battery box, expecting the worse, and there was no corrosion at all. I pulled out the generic brand batteries and put in new batteries and it started speaking.
I was amazed.
In the future, someone will have this same story but the ending will be the toy telling you to connect to WiFi and update your subscription information...
No. I had an OG gameboy and my parents wouldn’t buy more batteries so every remote in the house had its batteries liberated for the glory of super Mario land 2 6 golden coins. They didn’t get the safety and security of rotting in a tv remote. They were fed to the Tetris vampire.
Wow, until you mentioned it, I had somehow completely forgotten about this gem of a game and mostly thought of mario land 1 or wario world when thinking of the gameboy era, even though wario was introduced in Mario Land 2 iirc. Thanks for that hit of nostalgia.
OP must be pretty young 😂, we old fucks have seen this happen 100 times
I'm only 21 lol
Oh you sweet summer child
I prob have batteries doing that exact thing that are older than op (tho this can happen in a few years easily, especially if in a circuit).
You know, at first glance these looked like 2 dollar bills rolled up to do coke with and these were after a couple of hours of use and the coke was getting gummed up around the snorting side. My first thought was "Yeah, I'm familiar with that."
"who is hungry, thinks of bread"
Yes? It was extremely common as a child because all our toys were battery powered (but not included)
Oh my sweet summer child... Just don't taste it.
Every '90s kid remembers this!
Ah, the forbidden salt. Yes, I remember it fondly from when I was but a young boy, playing the GameBoy Color.
Old batteries get spicy.
how old are you?
21
As a millennial: all the time
What I did only experience once, was a leaking alkaline battery while in use
Mouse stopped working. Opened it up, only to be greeted with freshly squeezed battery juice dripping out of the battery
Mouse worked fine with new batteries, so no short in there.
Was even high end Duracell
high end Duracell
This has become an oxymoron in the last few decades.
Bought out by berkshire hathaway in 2016 and they've been absolute garbage since then. I haven't bought them for years, they aren't worth anything.
The forbidden frosted sugar.
It has happened enough times to me being really aware of removing batteries of any device that does not see constant use
I suspect some (not enshitified) devices even designed around it because I remember it killing devices back in the day but the more recent times I've had it happen, like with a wireless guitar controller, the device was fine, just a bit crusty in the battery area. Though if you've ever opened up a guitar controller, they are mostly empty space, so it might just be the nature of their use case vs something like a gameboy, where everything is packed in as much as the thermal situation allowed.
Many times. When buying old battery-powered electronics, there's like a 50% chance that there's a leaked battery in there. Make sure to wash your hands if you touched that.
Yeah, get accu cells. More environmentally friendly and they break without running out.
This was so incredibly common before rechargeable batteries. Alkaline batteries may have had the best life but the worst death.
Yes that's what they're called alkaleaks.
Do not leave batteries inside things your not gonna be using for a long time. And if you don't want this to happen buy NiMH batteries
Yes, this is definitely worse 'than average' but have seen this before.
DO NOT TOUCH WITH BARE HANDS, EXTREMELY TOXIC.
This was very common pre 2010s.
This happens when alkaline batteried are completely empty.
False. Alkaline batteries are never completely empty. They are just too low to be used for what they are in. Move them to another device and they again.
The heat death of the universe will be delayed by a bag of AA’s in a landfill
No, thankfully, I'm not a battery. But I've seen it plenty.
So often that I have banned alkalines from the house, everything gets NiMH rechargeables.
Sure, dust our with a paintbrush...wipe down with some alcohol. If the contacts are corroded either file or use a dot of lemon juice and a toothbrush to remove and then either spray with contact cleaner or wipe again with alcohol.
I lost my favorite mouse this way :(
Make sure to take ya batteries out if you're putting electronics in long storage!
I should go pull the batteries out of my game boy color because I'd rather not experience this again.
Several times in my own electronics and many times in secondhand items. The potassium hydroxide electrolyte never quite evaporates and seeps under the crevices, requiring a full disassembly to prevent further corrosion.
Worst offenders are the pesky little alkaline button cells. Every alkaline cell inevitably evolves hydrogen gas as the electrochemical reaction proceeds and in those tiny canisters, the gas very quickly has nowhere to go but out along with the cell's guts. The secret is to get the silver oxide versions, same voltage, a bit pricier, but far less leakage.
I guess the silver lining to the declining popularity of AA and AAA powered devices is that I can finally afford to use only Ni-MH or primary lithium cells in all of my devices. Those chemistries are mostly immune to leaking.
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