Heavy Duty blew up

Its not a lithium ion battery, its not even an alkaline battery... its a zinc oxide[?] 9V.

I was locking up the office for the night when this little bugger catapulted itself out of the bulk packaging and slammed its head against the cabinet door, wham!
Unlike an energizer/duracell/more common alkalines the body is crimped sheet metal, these 9Vs have an "unbreakable" plastic shell. This battery, obviously long expired, somehow welled up enough gas inside to explode and blew little plastic bits everywhere. Voltage reading was zero, thought it was pretty interesting nonetheless.







No heat, no flames, I'm just lucky it didn't take out something important, like a smoke alarm :nana:

Illum said:

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No wonder, looks like counterfeit AAAA Ultrafires in there. I'm sorry you got scammed, Ilum. Happens to the best of us.

Illum said:

Its not a lithium ion battery, its not even an alkaline battery... its a zinc oxide[?] 9V.

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It's labelled "Alkaline". Did you open up one of the internal cells and find otherwise?

okay, now I've seen everything.

Had something very similar happen with a Duracell in a smoke alarm; one of the internal cells had jutted out almost completely from the bottom of the battery casing. No plastic or reinforced body, so no bits or significant damage.

more_vampires said:

No wonder, looks like counterfeit AAAA Ultrafires in there.

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That what the inside of a 9V looks like, individual cells soldered together.

Normally I say, Pictures or it didn't happen. Well, you got pictures and it happened! Bizarre. Kinda disappointing that you had no pictures of flames or gross personal injury! lol only kidding! Seriously, Glad you are safe and had no personal damages. Thanks for the pics.

I am showing this to my wife. She is famous for throwing batteries in a pile in a drawer. I get after her all the time.

Str8stroke said:

…………………...She is famous for throwing batteries in a pile in a drawer. I get after her all the time.

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At my local recycling center, there are large bins filled with all types of batteries, just tossed in. I am surprised there have been no fires or explosions.

SubLGT said:

At my local recycling center, there are large bins filled with all types of batteries, just tossed in. I am surprised there have been no fires or explosions.

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I've always been surprised about that too.

SubLGT, now that you mention it, I have seen those type of bins too. Amazing. At Best Buy, they have one that has Lithium/LIons just tossed in it. Interesting thing to ponder.

StarHalo said:

That what the inside of a 9V looks like, individual cells soldered together.

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Failed joke attempt, forgot the smiley. My humor went out of calibration last night.

Wow. I would not have expected that from as conventional 9v battery, especially from one that was just sitting around. Thanks for the photos.

I don't see any burn marks on the plastic insert. It looks like there was no actual ignition, just a sudden failure of the package due to built up gas pressure. I think a vent designed into the case would have avoided this.

Yamabushi said:

It's labelled "Alkaline". Did you open up one of the internal cells and find otherwise?

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I know, it says alkaline, but these expire quicker than normal alkalines. I don't know if its false advertising or... :nana:
Usually for alkalines they usually don't write 0% mercury on the side. That's what gave me the feelin


Inside a 9V battery is not always cylindrical
"Golden power" ones have waffles stacked up inside them, like the left mode picture on this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:9V_innards_3_different_cells.jpg

The "waffle" construction is what I remember 9v batteries looking like inside when I was a kid. I'm sure they were more prone to leakage but it seems they would also have higher capacity as all of the available space is used for active materials, not packaging.