How do you get a stuck battery out of a mini-mag?

I just picked up an old mini-mag at my folk's house and the batteries had leaked. How do you get the stuck battery out of it without damaging the body? The battery is stuck by the head and I have tried banging the body, and using a screwdriver to unstick it.

have you tried spraying some WD40 inside, to see if it will loosen the battery.

regards.

John.

Throw it away and buy a Fenix L2P that will NEVER fail on you!

Hows that guys?

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll try the WD40 first and if that doesn't work, I may keep the usable parts for spares, then buy something new.

If you have to pitch it, you may want to consider the new Mini Mag 3AA LED, it seems to be getting a whole lot of positive talk for an inexpensive and easy to acquire light.

I had that exact situation with a 4D MagLite, It spent a winter in the trunk of a vehicle, unused.

I beat it on the ground and eventually they came out.

But the body was ruined.

So was the insides.

So was the focusing.

I am going to do a Nite Ize conversion, since it costs so little

Get some 99% pure pork lard and heat it to 178 F and then pour it all around the battery and wait for it to run down between the battery and the body. This should release the batteries grip on the tube. Oh, and welcome to CPF.

You can drill it out if your careful. Use a 1/8 bit and take your time, drill several holes
until most of the center is loose and then use a punch or screwdriver for the rest.
Shouldn't take too long, remember to mark your drill bit so you don't drill to far. I've
done this several times and it usually work's well, just be patient and take your time.
If it doesn't work a new LED minimag............

chances are the inside will be ruined if the acid's gone out enough to jam the batteries in. same thing happened before to me. even if you get it out, you'll find patches on the inside corroded, making it hard to insert new batteries even if you got the old ones out.

I had the same problem with a Mini-Mag five years ago. I contacted Maglite via e-mail, and they informed me that they have contracts with Duracell, Eveready, and Ray-o-Vac and would warranty the light if one of those brands caused the damage. I mailed it back to Maglite and they shipped me a new one at no charge. If you can identify the battery, Maglite should take care of it for you.

I learned a lesson from my experience with leaking 4D:

1) Do not leave Lights in your vehicle for the entire winter

2) Do not leave cells in any flashlight for a long time, especially if you don't use it. Take them out.

3) If they leak and stay there for a long time, especially doing the freeze/defrost cycles, it's probably ruined, although you can beat on the
ground and get the cells out. I ruined the thread doing that. Then it's truly a lite you can toss in the back of the pickup truck or give someone truly desperate.

4) All brands leak under these misused conditions. All sizes leak too.

Well I guess sucking it out would be a bad idea... How about drilling a hole in it and using a corkscrew?

unscrew the tailcap, take off the bezel, temporarily remove the "do not remove cap under the bulb....then push down with something blunt on the inner plastic [bulb holder]

york2 said:

I just picked up an old mini-mag at my folk's house and the batteries had leaked. How do you get the stuck battery out of it without damaging the body? The battery is stuck by the head and I have tried banging the body, and using a screwdriver to unstick it.

Click to expand...

I once got a freebie Minimag with leaked batteries stuck inside. I removed the plastic thing on the top that says "DO NOT REMOVE". Soaked the thing in a bucket of warm water, then I punched out the batteries with a dowel.

I got the batteries out, but I couldn't get the plastic parts from the head back together correctly so I threw it out. A new Minimag is about $10, so anymore effort is not worthwhile.

Throw it out and get a new Minimag or pay some more and get a Minimag LED. The 2AA if you want something closer in size to original Minimag. The 3AA if you want something REALLY bright (for someone used to regular Minimag...), but awekwardly long.

You beat me to the punch... I was going to say "Scrap it and buy a light that is worth the effort" LOL

spacetroll said:

Throw it away and buy a Fenix L2P that will NEVER fail on you!

Hows that guys?

Click to expand...

spacetroll said:

Throw it away and buy a Fenix L2P that will NEVER fail on you!

Hows that guys?

Click to expand...

If he wants to pay $45 shipped for an L2T or an L2P when he can get a 3AA Mini MagLED for $20 or 2AA MiniMag LED for $24.

Saw off the front end of the light, salvage the bezel, reflector, switch and tailcap for spare parts, throw away the rest, then buy a new MM.

You can try soaking and pushing out the internals with a dowel, but if that doesn't work then it isn't worth the effort to salvage it when you consider how inexpensive a new one is.

put it into the freezer over night. If lucky enough, this might press the batt a bit and/or loosen the mess inside.
Let it come to temperature (or better heat it with a hair dryer).
Try to get it out now (beat it into a not too hard surface like wood not to damage the body or, finally, remove the "do not remove" plastic and try to push out)

the idea of th 2aa-mag-led has been mentionned, but I would also get a fenix (I have both Magleds, and dont like them).
L2T / L2S if You want 2 levels (imho everything else than 2 levels at least makes no sense), or L2P and do the "head mod" for YOUR version of the low level

I had the same problem. I found a long wood screw that could reach the battery (an eye bolt would work even better) and then drilled a hole in the end of the battery to screw into. Using a pair of vice grips on the screw, I was able to twist the battery out of the flashlight. Actually, I twisted the battery out of it's wrapper, as it was the wrapping that was stuck to the inside of the flashlight. After thoroughly cleaning the inside of the flashlight, I found that new batteries would not fit as the inside wall was slightly corroded, so I used a dremel to grind the surface back down.

Good luck!

It happened to me so many years ago.
I pushed a tight fit battery into minimag, it stuck.
A permanent marker pen "tail" glued the end of battery with crazy AA glue.
Then turn the marker pen slowly, not pull. It worked in this case.