Latest alkaleak

[louie]

The latest, a CO detector with OEM Kidde AA cells, Gold Peak branded, made in China. Several years old. It beeped, so I investigated. Luckily, the goo was all at the bottom of the case and the battery contacts here are just a crossover bar to make the 2 cells into a series, so the circuit contacts were safe at the top. It's a reminder that alkalines have the cap and seals at the negative end.

 

[Monocrom]

Cheap alkies. Good thing they did no major damage.

 

[Voider of Warranties]

Have you replaced the batteries yet? Some smoke and smoke/CO combo detectors are designed to keep beeping after batteries have been changed.

 

[louie]

Batteries replaced with Kirkland (Costco), now confirmed to be made by Duracell. They leak, too, but that's all I have! Detector appears to be working normally.

I can see that leaking is not necessarily a sign of voltage drop. The goo had some time to dry and leave crystals inside the plastic, more than shown.

 

[Broadcast_Eng]

Costco's Kirkland AAs and AAAs were acknowledged by Consumer Reports to be made by Duracell since at least twenty years ago. CU's objective testing found nearly identical performance. Unfortunately, that 'identical performance' now appears to include Duracell's proclivity for leaking.
'Procells,' now apparently sourced exclusively from China, seem to leak as badly or possibly worse than consumer Duracells. I find it amazing that Berkshire Hathaway is willing to so casually squander a once-reputable brand.
I've switched almost exclusively to Eneloops, rebadged Eneloops from Ikea and Energizer Ultimates.
For the very few devices still powered by alkaline cells, I've switched to Panasonic Platinums sourced from Amazon. So far I've received good performance from them with no leaks.

 

[DRW]

Some smoke and smoke/CO combo detectors are designed to keep beeping after batteries have been changed.

Hopefully just when smoke is detected!

Can you expand on the "designed to keep beeping" remark? Examples? Owner's manuals?

 

[Voider of Warranties]

Hopefully just when smoke is detected!

Can you expand on the "designed to keep beeping" remark? Examples? Owner's manuals?

The Kidde brand to which I am referring makes "countless" different models of smoke and combo detectors. As such, I have not kept up with all the models at the apartment complex where I am a maintenance technician. They change their models all the time, and we have over 1000 detectors of various ages (but not 1000 different models, of course) throughout the property so I cannot give examples. It is my understanding, or at least my inference based on experience, that to ensure that not only the dying batteries but also the detectors themselves are replaced periodically, they have designed some models to ignore the fact that the dying batteries have been replaced and to keep beeping which forces you to replace the whole detector. Some models even have built-in lithium-ion batteries that cannot be removed thus requiring that the entire detector be replaced if it determines that the battery is failing. I hope that this is of help to you.

 

[letschat7]

'Procells,' now apparently sourced exclusively from China,

Made in Belgium here.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

CO detectors will keep beeping if the internal detector is past it's useful life. I believe that's in the 5-10 year range depending on the type of detector. They have to do this so the user won't be lulled into a false sense of security if the detection mechanism stops working. The two most popular types of sensors are electrochemical and semiconductor. Both of these have finite lifetimes.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I ran across an old battery pack today that still had some AAAs in it. These have been sitting for many years, and I was dreading what I was going to see when I opened it up. To my surprise, these old Ray-O-Vacs with a 2016 date code showed no signs of leaking. German engineering FTW.

 

[letschat7]

Rayovacs actually do seem better. I haven't had any leaks yet. Varta is good too.

 

[MidnightDistortions]

I haven't tried using Eneloops in the smoke detectors, but hear they don't do as well but I'm thinking the sealed battery ones might be the way to go as alkalines have ruined a couple more of my lights, saved one Maglite but the Maglite Solitaire I used for work, the battery basically welded itself to the light and destroyed the emitter.

Would have taken photos. Luckily I had a couple extra Solitaires so opened it up and tossed an EBL AAA into it. I never did find out what brand did it but I think it was Duracell.

 

[louie]

Ho hum, another one today. One of 2 in a digital wall clock.

 

[MidnightDistortions]

Ho hum, another one today. One of 2 in a digital wall clock.

Ouch, hope the wall clock survived. If I recall I think humidity plays a factor in alkalines doing this. Thought of upgrading to rechargeable Eneloops?

 

[louie]

This leak was pretty trivial and barely any damage to the spring. I've put Eneloops in most of my AA devices, just not this one. Other cheap LCD devices often have a dim display angle when run on the lower voltage Eneloops, even if they don't trip the "low batt" warning. I'll have to test...

 

[MidnightDistortions]

This leak was pretty trivial and barely any damage to the spring. I've put Eneloops in most of my AA devices, just not this one. Other cheap LCD devices often have a dim display angle when run on the lower voltage Eneloops, even if they don't trip the "low batt" warning. I'll have to test...

I only have an issue on a few devices with low battery warning not showing up. I just put dates on when i charged it last and just pull them out every 4 months or so to recharge them. One of them is a weather station and they're not cheap so I won't use alkalines in them. I try to buy devices that can use alkalines, there's a couple though that say alkaline only but they work fine with NimH cells.

Glad it didnt do any damage to your device.

 

[Dave_H]

I needed to clean up a leak in a nice little self-setting clock which had been put out of sight (need to avoid this). It's not expensive, but older and a bit unique. Hydrogen peroxide 3% worked well on the contacts.

Dave

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Today I dug out an old green laser pointer when I realized that it's been sitting for years with the batteries inside. I was dreading what I might see when I opened it up, but I was shocked to see that there was no leakage at all. The alkaline batteries branded "ICX," made in China, were dated 2007 and were perfectly intact. They were dead of course, but dang - no leaks.

I'm now storing that pointer with the batteries removed.

 

[louie]

On a few devices I want to store, but with batteries included, I put the emergency alkalines in a 4 mil mini zip lock bag along with the device. I buy mini zip bags in a couple of sizes and in bulk and find them very handy.

 

[vicv]

I haven't tried using Eneloops in the smoke detectors, but hear they don't do as well but I'm thinking the sealed battery ones might be the way to go as alkalines have ruined a couple more of my lights, saved one Maglite but the Maglite Solitaire I used for work, the battery basically welded itself to the light and destroyed the emitter.

Would have taken photos. Luckily I had a couple extra Solitaires so opened it up and tossed an EBL AAA into it. I never did find out what brand did it but I think it was Duracell.

Any smoke detector I have ever seen uses a 9 V. I don't mind using alkalines in those because generally, those don't leak. But I switched over to nest protect and they have a built-in lithium ion battery.