Now It's Alkaline Cells Popping Off!

[Gene]

Just wanted to relate a weird experience that I had recently. I drifted asleep several nights ago watching TV with the remote on my chest. I was suddenly awaken by a loud "pop". It seemed about half as loud as a firecracker going off which is pretty loud inside a house.

It seemed like the pop came from the remote but since I was asleep, I couldn't be sure. I checked around and didn't notice anything amiss. I even took the battery cover off of the remote but the cells looked fine and so did the remote itself. I figured I must have just been dreaming.

The next night I was watching TV and suddenly the loud pop occurred again! This time I knew I wasn't dreaming! I was sure it came from the coffee table where the remote was lying. Knowing I had just looked inside the battery cover the night before, I didn't check again and couldn't figure out what it could be. It was fairly cold inside the house, (the way I like it!), and I thought maybe it was some rare static electricity occurrence that I was experiencing. Strange!

Flash forward a couple of nights and I was changing the channel on the TV and suddenly I felt liquid on my hand and realized the remote was leaking battery juice! I put the remote down and removed the battery cover.

Again the cells looked fine but of course this time I removed them. The negative ends were severely corroded. You couldn't notice this by just taking the cover off because they install positive end up. They also did look like the ends had separated slightly from the cell body.

These were four Panasonic brand alkaline AAA cells and I had installed them in the remote about two months prior to this. They were old but they had never been used and kept in a cool room and I checked them with a volt meter before I installed them and they checked out fine as far as voltage.

Now I'll admit I've always intensely disliked alkaline cells. They've leaked and ruined more of my lights and electronic equipment through the years than I care to admit. I use Eneloops exclusively now but I had a stash of these Panasonic AA and AAAs that I put away a few years ago for emergencies and now wanted to use them up. I had used them before in lights and radios and such and had never had a problem except a few leaky ones and I've experienced that with new alkalines.

I've been using alkalines for well over thirty years and like I said, they're notorious leakers but I never had any blow on me. This was strange to say the least! The remaining stash of these have been disposed of.

 

[supes]

Interesting. Were these Panasonic batteries the blue and black ones from Dollar Tree? I have a couple of these packs stored for emergency uses, AAA,AA, D, and C cells.

What kind of remote do you have?

I've had a Duracell alkaline eat away half of the body of a Inova X1 before but no BOOM or SPLAT.

 

[DM51]

I had a stash of these Panasonic AA and AAAs that I put away a few years ago for emergencies and now wanted to use them up.

You say a few years ago - do you know how many years?
How had they been stored (temp, humidity etc)?
Had any of them leaked in storage?

 

[Gene]

Like I said, I've never had a "bang" with alkalines either, (but plenty of leakers!), until this. No, these were the black and gold Panasonics with "Alkaline Plus" in red script and not from Dollar Tree.

I got them from a friend on another forum. His business bought them by the dozens of gross at a time and he got them for me at a reduced wholesale price. They were fresh, new stock and not any kind of "specials" or clearance cells or anything of that sort.

It's sad because I had to discard dozens and dozens of each size because after this, I couldn't trust them.

The remote is just a stock Dish Network, EchoStar 3.1 IR that came with the box and dish that my son installed for me several years ago. I have to use satellite here because I'm so rural, I can't receive regular TV. I've used these same cells many, many times in the past in this remote.

I didn't start this thread to panic anyone who use alkalines. I'm just reporting what happened. I've never had a "bang" from any cell of any configuration and I've used many, many alkalines, lithiums, protected and unprotected Li-Ions, NiMHs and even NiCDs for years.

Funny because there was no damage whatsoever to the remote other than the usual white corrosion that I had to clean up. That suprises me too because as stated, these "pops" or "bangs" were pretty loud.

 

[Gene]

I've had these for probably a little over five years. I've stored other alkalines other than these in the past for several years also. These were kept in a cool, low humidity environment.

Yes, like I stated, a few leaked over the years but like I also stated, I've even had almost new ones leak.

 

[Burgess]

Any chance these cells could've been "imitation" Panasonics ?


Just curious.


Others have mentioned such a thing.


_

 

[DM51]

Good quality alkalines should be good for at least 5 years without problems. If you got them from a friend who bought them wholesale, it is unlikely he would have bought counterfeit stock. This is a bit of a puzzle. Probably just a bad batch of cells, but I think I will stick with Duracells when I want alkalines...

 

[n3eg]

I've never seen or heard exploding alkalines, but I have had fun over the last 44 or so years with Ray-O-Leak batteries. I always mention the brown contacts on my toys as a kid, but more recently I heard a mysterious ticking sound on my test bench at work. I never could find it, and it eventually stopped. A few days later I reached for the AAA batteries, and picked up a Ray-O-Vac battery with a blob of goo. Some time later I heard more ticking and found one bubbling.

 

[Gene]

No chance they were knock-offs. They were purchased legitimately and were brand new stock from a supplier that he had delt with for years.

DM51,
I agree that they should last a very long time especially when kept in a safe environment. Unfortunately, I've also had Duracell cellls leak. It seems like all brands of alkalines can and do leak.

I've also always checked my stored alkaline cells occassionally with a volt meter. If any cell's voltage dropped considerably, I got rid of them.

This was truly a weird experience and one that's probably rare as they come. I'm just thankful that nothing blew as bad as some folks' experiences with lithium cells.

I'll tell you what, other than the rare occasion where I'm away from home and need some cells for an emergency or whatever, I'm done with alkalines. This experience was just the capper to many other bad experiences I've had with them over the years.

 

[DM51]

Strange, my experience is the opposite - I've always done well with Duracell alkalines. If I had to count up the number of things I use them in, I would go crazy and if I used NiMHs in these things (TV remotes, ear-muffs, alarm clocks, voice recorders, phones, mouse, keyboard, yackadee, yackada) I would be running about recharging them the entire time. Also, I would forget half of them and they would be dead when I needed them. So I use the alkaline fire-and-forget method with almost all AA and AAA applications.

I also keep them as "stealers". My wife and daughters (and son), despite lengthy lectures, harangues etc from me, have yet to acquire any grasp of the concept of personal property, lol. They steal my cells. So I leave alkalines around for them to steal. That way they leave my expensive rechargeables alone. It's like people in offices taking pens home.

 

[VidPro]

LOL DM has the psycological aspect of kids and cells worked out too.
never leave a cell worth more than 75c in a device that the wifey or kids could extract it from

 

[Power Me Up]

Strange, my experience is the opposite - I've always done well with Duracell alkalines. If I had to count up the number of things I use them in, I would go crazy and if I used NiMHs in these things (TV remotes, ear-muffs, alarm clocks, voice recorders, phones, mouse, keyboard, yackadee, yackada) I would be running about recharging them the entire time. Also, I would forget half of them and they would be dead when I needed them. So I use the alkaline fire-and-forget method with almost all AA and AAA applications.

I also keep them as "stealers". My wife and daughters (and son), despite lengthy lectures, harangues etc from me, have yet to acquire any grasp of the concept of personal property, lol. They steal my cells. So I leave alkalines around for them to steal. That way they leave my expensive rechargeables alone. It's like people in offices taking pens home.

LSD cells would solve your first problem with them going flat without much use...

Won't really help you with your second problem of course - unless you could give them their own set of rechargeables and teach them how to use them so that they'd refrain from stealing others. From the sounds of it though, there probably isn't much hope of that.