Today's Battery Gripe

[Stepan Novotill]

The other thing about baking soda, is that you can "rub it in" and so
it does a very nice job of cleaning up a leaked battery mess. I can't
say the same for vinegar, which is a bit too reactive to spray into
some electronic circuitry.

I have to conclude that I should be using a mixture of Baking Soda in
Vinegar, to clean up leaked alkalines :---)

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 22:30:09 +0000 (UTC), don@manx.misty.com (Don
Klipstein) wrote:

In article <bjpn1h$i0s$1@bob.news.rcn.net>, Chuck Harris wrote:
A clue as to what the electrolyte is could be found in the
battery's name: Alkaline.

Funny thing about baking soda. It is neither an acid, nor a base.
It is what is known as a buffer. It likes to keep the pH of its
solution at a nice neutral 7.0. So, if you add baking soda to
an acid, it will release CO2 to neutralize the acid. If you add
it to a base, it will neutralize the base.

Close, but not quite. Although baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a
buffer, it is not perfectly neutral but instead a little noticeably on the
alkaline side.

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

 

[larry]

Greetings
I might have missed this piece of information but what kind of current were
you putting through the batteries, to charge them?
Larry


"Watson A.Name - Watt Sun" <alondra101@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.19c55cece31cc049989718@news.dslextreme.com...

I asked about finding a AAAA battery holder a few weeks ago, because I
couldn't find one on the web. So I made a single AAAA cell holder out
of a piece of pc board and some spring clips.

I tore apart a couple 9V batteries and found that usually 5 out of the
6 AAAA cells inside were not dead, usually only one cell was bad and
caused the battery to fail.

I've been putting those halfway good cells in the battery holder and
running a V boost circuit to drive a white LED. I put one in the
holder and it might have a beginning voltage of 1.35 or so volts, and
I let it run until it is well below a volt, usually below .8V.

What gets me is the every single cell fails by the same process. The
top (negative) contact pops open and the cell leaks some juice, and of
course the contact doesn't make contact with the inside of the cell.

This means to me that every 9V battery will fail and leak juice inside
of the radio, usually corroding the contacts and doing other damage.
This is something that I feel shouldn't happen. The cells shouldn't
make a mess or do damage.

But every single cell has failed in this same way. Doesn't this seem
to be a defect that should not happen, or rarely happen? Has anyone
else verified this?


--
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Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
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@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Tim Williams]

"Stepan Novotill" <snovotill@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:qbd2mvsimo1f40f9t39dfptjtdo3ikqf6h@4ax.com...

I have to conclude that I should be using a mixture of Baking Soda in
Vinegar, to clean up leaked alkalines :---)

Well, if it does clean it out, it'll clean *everything*

Tim

--
In the immortal words of Ned Flanders: "No foot longs!"
Website @ http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

 

[Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun]

In article <9Fj8b.4912$Rm1.470@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>,
larya24@hotmail.com mentioned...

Greetings
I might have missed this piece of information but what kind of current were
you putting through the batteries, to charge them?
Larry

Charge them?!?!?!

They're primary cells, not rechargable! They're just regular alkaline
cells.

"Watson A.Name - Watt Sun" <alondra101@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.19c55cece31cc049989718@news.dslextreme.com...
I asked about finding a AAAA battery holder a few weeks ago, because I
couldn't find one on the web. So I made a single AAAA cell holder out
of a piece of pc board and some spring clips.

I tore apart a couple 9V batteries and found that usually 5 out of the
6 AAAA cells inside were not dead, usually only one cell was bad and
caused the battery to fail.

I've been putting those halfway good cells in the battery holder and
running a V boost circuit to drive a white LED. I put one in the
holder and it might have a beginning voltage of 1.35 or so volts, and
I let it run until it is well below a volt, usually below .8V.

What gets me is the every single cell fails by the same process. The
top (negative) contact pops open and the cell leaks some juice, and of
course the contact doesn't make contact with the inside of the cell.

This means to me that every 9V battery will fail and leak juice inside
of the radio, usually corroding the contacts and doing other damage.
This is something that I feel shouldn't happen. The cells shouldn't
make a mess or do damage.

But every single cell has failed in this same way. Doesn't this seem
to be a defect that should not happen, or rarely happen? Has anyone
else verified this?


--

--
@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@
###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:###
http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm
My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it
goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the
Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 <at> hotmail.com
Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL
that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half).
http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did!
Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't
changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@

 

[Mark Jones]

Watson A.Name - Watt Sun wrote:

In article
9Fj8b.4912$Rm1.470@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>,
larya24@hotmail.com mentioned...
Greetings
I might have missed this piece of information but what kind
of current were you putting through the batteries, to charge
them?
Larry

Charge them?!?!?!

They're primary cells, not rechargable! They're just regular
alkaline cells.

Just because they use potassium hydroxide as an electrolyte doesn't mean
they are impossible to recharge... try it sometime.

 

[Lizard Blizzard]

Mark Jones wrote:

Watson A.Name - Watt Sun wrote:

In article
9Fj8b.4912$Rm1.470@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>,
larya24@hotmail.com mentioned...

Greetings
I might have missed this piece of information but what kind
of current were you putting through the batteries, to charge
them?
Larry

Charge them?!?!?!

They're primary cells, not rechargable! They're just regular
alkaline cells.

Just because they use potassium hydroxide as an electrolyte doesn't mean
they are impossible to recharge... try it sometime.

Alkaline cells say they're not supposed to be recharged. "DO NOT
RECHARGE,...etc."

We all know that it's possible to recharge them. The RayoVac Renewal
cells are alkaline and they're meant to be recharged. But they don't
hold much of the recharge and they rapidly deteriorate to where the
charge lasts only a short time, and then it's time to trash them. So
forget it.

 

[Bushy]

But they don't
hold much of the recharge and they rapidly deteriorate to where the
charge lasts only a short time, and then it's time to trash them. So
forget it.

I get a good half a dozen cycles out of most of the cheap and nasty
batteries and all that extra power costs me is a little time in the mains
charger. Certainly runs a few toys for an extra few four year old attention
spans!

I know it helps me,
Peter

 

[Ian Stirling]

In sci.chem.electrochem.battery Bushy <please@reply.to.group> wrote:

But they don't
hold much of the recharge and they rapidly deteriorate to where the
charge lasts only a short time, and then it's time to trash them. So
forget it.


I get a good half a dozen cycles out of most of the cheap and nasty
batteries and all that extra power costs me is a little time in the mains
charger. Certainly runs a few toys for an extra few four year old attention
spans!

I know it helps me,

NiMH cells will last longer and last for hundreds rather than 5 cycles.

--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | mailto:inquisitor@i.am | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
"Give a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set him on fire, and he's warm
for the rest of his life" -- Terry Pratchett-Jingo

 

[Clifton T. Sharp Jr.]

Ian Stirling wrote:

In sci.chem.electrochem.battery Bushy <please@reply.to.group> wrote:
I get a good half a dozen cycles out of most of the cheap and nasty
batteries and all that extra power costs me is a little time in the mains
charger. Certainly runs a few toys for an extra few four year old attention
spans!

NiMH cells will last longer and last for hundreds rather than 5 cycles.

I've noticed over the years that two manufacturers, Black & Decker and
Norelco, seem to give me abnormally long life out of NiCD batteries.
One day when I get time I plan to investigate. The first B&D drill I
checked (lost to a shorted cell after fifteen years) seems never to have
fully charged the batteries, just got them close. I'll check a few other
gizmos one of these days to see if they do the same trick.

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