Alkaline Battery leak prevention ?

[Grijon]

I actually sat on Santa's lap one year and asked for batteries and specific kinds too.. I was like 5

That is GREAT!

 

[Kurt_Woloch]

Yeah I have a speak n math that takes like 4 C or D batteries or something ridiculous and lasts 10 hours according to the manual. The toy is basically a glorified calculator so I don't know how it uses that much power (must be a lot of power processing in there or something...)

According to the Wikipedia, it's C batteries. And the 10 hours might very well apply to zinc-carbon batteries (or are alkaline specifically mentioned in the manual?) which were very common back in 1980 when they sold much better than alkalines due to their low price. Those only have a fraction of the capacity of alkalines. Back in 1981, Philips rated theirs at 1650, 1900 or 2800 mAh at a draw of 10 mA (if I remember correctly), depending on model. And since there are a few hours unusable at the low end of the charge, this would mean an actual current draw of about 110 to 180 mA according to my estimations. Keep in mind that the Speak & Math contains a microcontroller to control the overall program in addition to a speech synthesizer and an amplifier. Maybe it also contains a fluorescent display, but I can't see that in the Youtube video. All of this takes power... I can remember the electronic games with VFD displays appearing in 1980-1982, which usually also took 4 "C" batteries and lasted about 20 hours on a set of alkalines, so using zinc-carbons would put this even under 10 hours. The words spoken on the Speak & Math were not stored as samples, but encoded in LPC and decoded on the fly to calculate the samples (I think 8000 samples per second) which does take some processing time (at least 20 values get calculated for each sample with a multiplication and two additions each).

 

[SaraAB87]

I am sure the manual specifically mentions alkaline as most toys did back then from what I remember. Getting parents to buy the right batteries was tricky due to the price points. Also KB toys had a massive campaign to recommend only alkaline batteries at that point as I remember they put stickers on almost all toys that said Kb recommends alkaline batteries.

 

[Norm]

I remember they put stickers on almost all toys that said Kb recommends alkaline batteries.

In the past Alkalines were a far better at not leaking when compared to the Carbon Zinc alternatives.

]These cells have a short shelf life as the zinc is attacked by ammonium chloride. The zinc container becomes thinner as the cell is used, because zinc metal is oxidized to zinc ions. When the zinc case thins enough, zinc chloride begins to leak out of the battery. The old dry cell is not leak proof and becomes very sticky as the paste leaks through the holes in the zinc case. The zinc casing in the dry cell gets thinner even when the cell is not being used, because the ammonium chloride inside the battery reacts with the zinc. An "inside-out" form with a carbon cup and zinc vanes on the interior, while more leak resistant, has not been made since the 1960s.[6]

Norm

 

[MidnightDistortions]

I am sure the manual specifically mentions alkaline as most toys did back then from what I remember. Getting parents to buy the right batteries was tricky due to the price points. Also KB toys had a massive campaign to recommend only alkaline batteries at that point as I remember they put stickers on almost all toys that said Kb recommends alkaline batteries.

I remember seeing some of those, back then i wasn't sure if it was a joke or not considering i thought all batteries were alkalines, at least until i discovered Ni-Cad.

 

[LiteTheWay]

Like all the others here, I replace alkaleaks with lithium or NiMH - especially in valuable gear like multimeters which are come with alkaleaks in them.

 

[MidnightDistortions]

I just had an AAA Duracell leak with the expiry date (or best used by date) for March 2017. It didn't leak much, the cell is still holding 1.5 volts. It was being stored but now i just threw it in a light but keeping the cells out of the light when it's not being used. I'll probably get the cells drained out in a few days.

 

[Keeper Oath]

I have been able to clean the connection in my Radios where the AA Alkaline Batteries have leaked a bit. I am thankful for that, but I've notice that the run-time of my Alkaline Batteries have been way down of late. I am switching to the eneloop AA 2000 mAh batteries.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I just had an AAA Duracell leak with the expiry date (or best used by date) for March 2017. It didn't leak much, the cell is still holding 1.5 volts. It was being stored but now i just threw it in a light but keeping the cells out of the light when it's not being used. I'll probably get the cells drained out in a few days.

You're taking a risk using alkalines that have already started leaking. The more alkaleaks are drained, the more hydrogen gas builds up in them to push that corrosive goo out even more.

Give your alkaline collection to someone you really hate.

 

[zipplet]

Spot on advice from WalkIntoTheLight there, I have also taken that risk in an "emergency" with a low drain device (TV remote control). I spent longer cleaning up the mess than it would have taken for me to go to the store and get some new batteries...

 

[MidnightDistortions]

You're taking a risk using alkalines that have already started leaking. The more alkaleaks are drained, the more hydrogen gas builds up in them to push that corrosive goo out even more.

Give your alkaline collection to someone you really hate.

lol, i could just leave the cells in the lobby of my apts, someone will probably take them and try putting it in their remote. Anyway the cells are in a chamber for easy access, i'm not worried if they leak further, i'm checking the cells every 15 minutes when they are being used and afterwards are taken out to avoid this. They are already at 1.2 volts, when they reach 1.1 volts i'll stop using them and toss them in a device i don't really care about like a non working temp sensor (which shows the temp but doesn't transmit).