Protecting lights against alkaline battery leakage

I notice that many of us own a Mag with a Luxeon or something similar, and quite a lot of them are DD'ed off conventional alkaline/zinc carbon D cells. Anybody has an idea for protecting the interior of the lights against damage caused by leaking cells? I plan to firstly start with good quality cells (4 Duracells sitting here), of course. The main problem is, how are we going to send the light to the manufacturer for warranty claims once it has been heavily modified? How are they going to be able to appraise our claims accurately and give us back another light especially if the light is handmade? I'm thinking it may be better to avoid the whole mess in the first place. Inspect every month.. what if the darn thing leaks a week after it's last inspection? that's still 3 weeks of damage. There aren't many lights that come with the nice ChemKote interior and those that do usually do not end up needing it (lithium, after all.).

I'm thinking of sleeving the batteries in a thin plastic sleeve or something, hopefully this will hold off the worst of the damage till I find out and unload the light. It might also be useful for a 'quick change' holder of sorts.

Just that I have no idea of what plastic to use, or how to go about it..... any comments? Or is leakage such a rarity with good quality cells (hmm.. didn't help my dear departed 4D Mag) that it doesn't happen often enough to warrant such measures?

just a suggestion - try using overhead projector film - wrap the batteries in it then stuff them into the lamp -
kinda roll all the cells up then tape the ends down - should be cheap enough for a box of film that you can use new film each time

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Avoiding leakage is one of the big reasons I've migrated to NiMH and Nicad in all but a few of my lights. I actually now have some lights that have never had alkalines in them, and won't unless the power goes out long enough that I have to go into my emergency stash.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Kevin, your experience may be different but I've had about the same (or greater) percentage of Duracells leak, over the years, as other brands.

Ray O Vac has given me leak free service in the past five years. A long time ago Ray O's were the worst - that seems to have reversed, nowadays.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Read you loud and clear about the NiMH. All the NiMH I've had over the years have never given me a leakage problem.
The thing I like about primary cells is the lack of 'infrastructure', if you will. The problem with NiMH is that all of them require their own chargers, with their own wallwarts, which eat up valuable AC sockets. One concern is what happens if there's a blackout and I need to grab the light.. only to find the batteries are in the charger and I now have the unenviable task of loading it blind. (of course, redundant lights fixes that, but should the spare lights be primary or NiMH? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

I suppose an ideal situation would be to have the Surefires sitting around loaded with non-leaking stable lithiums and the rest of the commodity lights migrated to NiMH.. then again the Surefires are getting lithium ion R123s with associated chargers and whatnots.. heh!

Realistically, I've only had one incident involving Energizer cells. It could have been any other brand really, so I'm not blaming them (though I wish they would hurry up on the replacement, it'd be easier to write me a check, really.. cost them less than shipping the Mag to them, then to me, AND paying for the Mag. Envelopes cost just a few cents.).

And on top of that the flat discharge curve of NiMH is perfectly suited to my resistored Luxeon mods.

But the real question here is what can primary cell users do to protect themselves?

Echo: thanks for the suggestion about OHP film. I was thinking of going one cheaper: I have a plastic bag sitting here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Agree with jayflash, Duracells are IME the worst for leaking, especially in Mags (for some reason I don't know). In a Mag, with that tight fit, the Duracell paper makes a tiny bit of leakage cause the battery to jam. Other brands don't have that "paper" to suck up the leaking stuff and jam. Bottom line is no Duracells in any Mag for me, I've learned my lesson, but didn't know you could returned ruined light bodies to Duracell for (possible) replacement until I found this forum. Hmmm, I just recall that Duracells ruined my previous GPS too, already got a new one (no Duracells for you...).

I hate to say it, but I have NEVER had the Radio Shack alkalines leak, they seem to be well sealed. This is a terrible example of what not to do, but I have some RS D alks in a Ray O Vac industrial light in the trunk of my car. It's been in various trunks since '86, same batts, same "brilliant light", no leakage. I take the batts out and inspect every so often, test the light. It's not by any means the only flashlight in my car though, I have no other use for it, but it has that magnetic thing that is really good for sticking to the car where you need it.

I am pleased to learn that Ray O Vac is now making good batteries again. Options are good, and they are favorably priced. I have avoided them because they were IMO really bad for a long time.

To be fair, I have had very good luck with Energizer alks too. I have had some GP alks leak.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Another agreement with Jayflash and Craig. I've had 2 4-C cell maglights destroyed by Duracell leakage (batteries stuck in the tube). Throw in 2 Cateye bike headlights, 1 tail light, and a couple of radios damaged (but repairable) by Duracells. Time to switch brands.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Todays quest to cram ever more mAHs into alkalines has resulted in thiner layers inside AND outside and even form factor drift. The thinning of the layers makes them more fragile. On another thread someone who worked in a store that sold alkalines said that he had opened whole cases of new batteries that were already leaking. I suspect that the cases had been dropped in transit.

I would suggest buying batts from someone who has quite a few packs of what you want on display and flipping through ALL of them to check for leaking that may be the result of transit dammage. If I found one pack leaking on display in the size I wanted I would assume that they all came from the same shipment and I would pass and buy another day.

FWIW I have had very good luck with Duracells. Go figure.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Crazy Idea follows:

There is this stuff called encapsulating resin, somewhat similar to the resin used in fibreglass. Holding your cells by 2 points, one at the positive nipple, the other on the negative plate, dip the cell in to the resin. When it cures, just scrape off a tiny bit of the resin on the nipple and base to allow electrical contact, but leaving as much encapsulant on as possible.

May not work. Cell diameter may increase just that little bit that it won't fit in to a Mag anymore. Very wasteful as the sutff needs a hardener and you need to make up enough to submerge the cell.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Hello there,

Crazy idea #2 is as follows...

Similar to steel's except using Aligator glue.
This stuff is waterproof, and you can paint some on
where the metal meets the paper or whatever on each
end of the cell. Of course paint might work too.

Trouble with any 'sealant' ideas is that if the cells are
leaking on a regular basis then there must be pressure
building up inside the cells. Perhaps the fit is
too tight so the body cant expand as normal would be?
Perhaps temperature is rising too high?
Perhaps it uses a very very strong spring?
...Just some ideas.
Point is, there may be some other reason why the cells are
leaking on such a regular basis.
I've had lanterns and flashlights and all kinds
of battery operated devices kept inside the home
and none of them leaked except in cases where they
were left for years and years and the batt's went
dead. These were always alkaline type.

I've had NiCd's leak once or twice but only a tiny
amount of stuff came out so it really didnt bother
anything.

I even 'drop' tested one light with D cells so hard it
actually dented in the tops of the batteries -- still
no leak after maybe two years.

Take care,
Al

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

What actually causes the cells to leak?

Does it happen when they just sit and wait?
I use China made AAA's in my air-conditioner remote. They're so cheap and poorly made that breaking the shrinkwrap actually bent then out of shape. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon8.gif

But I think the've done OK because there is a steady current drain (display and clock) on them and they don't just sit there waiting to leak...

Cheers.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

[ QUOTE ]
MrAl said:
...Perhaps it uses a very very strong spring?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is a very interesting idea. Hmmm...


Crazy Idea #3

A few days ago while rereading some of these posts it occurred to me that there could possibly be some value in 'dusting' the battery compartment and the cells themselves with baking soda. Of course, it couldn't be 100% effective, but most of the leaked battery acid I've seen has been some pretty thick, slow moving stuff. At least it doesn't seem like it could hurt anything. ANY amount of acid neutralized after a cell started leaking would be a step in the right direction.

Simple Idea #1

When I EDC a light I invariably build a sheath that will always hold the light in the 'bezel up' position. Part of the reason I do that is so that if one of the cells does leak I would hope that gravity would do its dirty work and generally pull most of the acid away from the head and toward the tail where I perceive that it would both do less damage AND be easier to clean out. I don't know if it works that way. Luckily, I haven't had the problem in some time. At any rate, I know that your EDC is probably the least likely light you have to worry about leakage getting away from you, but the practice could easily be applied to any tail-stander anywhere.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Sub Umbra: Erm... the reason why we call them alkaline cells is because the electrolyte is alkalinic. No acid in alkaline cells, so baking soda won't work.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

[ QUOTE ]
Steelwolf said:
Sub Umbra: Erm... the reason why we call them alkaline cells is because the electrolyte is alkalinic. No acid in alkaline cells, so baking soda won't work.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh...That sounds like it makes sense...I guess. News to me. Sorry. So, forgive me, alkalines are corosive like acids then? Hmmm. Geeze. Life is sure complicated sometimes.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

Yup, a strong enough alkali will burn you just as bad as an acid.

Someone else suggested shrinkwrap in another thread, it sounds like a good way to go.

Re: Protecting lights against alkaline battery lea

The problem as I see it is that you have to deal with several problems.

First is that the fit may be tight to begin with. Certain brands may be a little tighter fit than others which will reduce the amount of space to begin with.

Second is that when batteries leak, they often come apart at a seam and swell. This is what partly causes the jamming. The batteries unravel and if the steel casing is too weak, it splits. Otherwise, the leak swells the plastic and cardboard wrapping and that swells.

The third part no one mentioned is that when the corrosive alkali hits the aluminum barrel, it eventually eats through the anodizing and attacks the bare metal. This results in "white rust" or aluminum oxides. This rust builds up and forms another layer jamming the batteries.

Also, the chemicals that leak can dry out into a kind of glue.

Only things I can recommend is regular swapping of batteries (I change them at Christmas and "donate" the batteries for toys.) That or you could try coating the inside of the barrels with something that would be slick like teflon or similar to: keep the chemicals from reaching the barrel and causing it to corrode, and to lubricate the battery when it comes time to ream it out after it leaks. Hopefully it will pull out a little easier.