Batteries leaking transparent fluid?

[Murasaki]

Today I found out the TV's remote control in the living room isn't working. When I opened it batteries looked bad so i took em out. After that I saw all this transparent liquid everywhere.. What IS that??? Never seen this happen before.

[Ryujin2003]

It's the internal chemicals leaking. Definitely clean it out and yeah the batteries. Dinner get the stuff in your fingers. It's super corrosive. Don't let small children lock the batteries.

[ItsMitch]

3 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

Today I found out the TV's remote control in the living room isn't working. When I opened it batteries looked bad so i took em out. After that I saw all this transparent liquid everywhere.. What IS that??? Never seen this happen before.

Most likely the acid inside, I guess it got so hot it turned into pure liquid, I'd throw that shit away instantly. 

[gnomecannon]

To add to that, since they're leaking you'll want to use a hazardous chemical recycling procedure and not just toss them in the trash.

[Sakkura]

Common when alkaline batteries get left to drain empty. The liquid will be pretty strongly corrosive, but not harmful once cleaned with plenty of water.

1 minute ago, SC2Mitch said:

Most likely the acid inside, I guess it got so hot it turned into pure liquid, I'd throw that shit away instantly. 

Opposite of acid, though the corrosion is pretty similar anyway. And it is always liquid.

[GDRRiley]

2 minutes ago, gnomecannon said:

To add to that, since they're leaking you'll want to use a hazardous chemical recycling procedure and not just toss them in the trash.

you should always with batteries.

 

[LAwLz]

It's the magic liquid that makes electronics work. Once it starts leaking out, things stop working.

[gnomecannon]

Just now, GDRRiley said:

you should always with batteries.

 

And yet so many don't  

[Murasaki]

Yeah I've washed my hands thoroughly, gonna take care of this mess.

[manikyath]

9 minutes ago, gnomecannon said:

And yet so many don't  

many people ignore railroad crossing lights

 

on topic: that's the electrolyte, wipe it all up with something disposable, and then clean everything it touched PROPERLY. i've dealt with some "more extreme leakages", and if its on your hands for a short while, it starts to feel really unhealthy 

[MedievalMatt]

You can clean battery Acid off with Coke.  regular Coke.  it does a damn good job.  just give it a rinse with some isopropyl to kill the sticky.  as long that the contacts arent too corroded, you can pop new batteries in and your good to go.

[manikyath]

9 minutes ago, MedievalMatt said:

You can clean battery Acid off with Coke.  regular Coke.  it does a damn good job.  just give it a rinse with some isopropyl to kill the sticky.  as long that the contacts arent too corroded, you can pop new batteries in and your good to go.

tbh.. you can clean battery acid with just about anything..

 

as for the corrosion, i found steel wool works really well, as long as no circuits were broken or strength wasnt impacted, just a good scrub gets you all you need to get going.

[Canada EH]

2 hours ago, ModuleLFS said:

Today I found out the TV's remote control in the living room isn't working. When I opened it batteries looked bad so i took em out. After that I saw all this transparent liquid everywhere.. What IS that??? Never seen this happen before.

Could be electrolye from inside the battery.

I was using an adapter which stated the right voltage and 4 amperes, so I started charging and it wasnt 4a but more and the battery gassed so I throw it out in the snow. Liquid was clear.

[Unimportant]

Alkaline is a base, so you can neutralize it with some normal kitchen vinegar. Keep adding drops of vinegar to the affected contacts until it no longer fizzles. Then clean the vinegar away with some alcohol.

[Unimportant]

11 hours ago, Pangea2017 said:

how about water? you also don't neutralize your pipe cleaner with vinegar.

The vinegar neutralizes the alkaline upon contact and it can reach every (microscopic) nook and cranny. With water you still need to scrub and it's pretty hard to scrub in each microscopic hole or imperfection in the metal. Anything left behind will continue to corrode.

You also get much more feedback. You can easily tell all the alkaline is removed when there is no more reaction to the vinegar (it no longer visibly and audibly fizzles). With water it's pretty hard to know if you got it all.

[Murasaki]

Stuff is all cleaned up and slapped new batteries in there, all good.

[Canada EH]

On 3/17/2018 at 10:30 AM, Ross Scarlet said:

Stuff is all cleaned up and slapped new batteries in there, all good.

Yeah I was dissecting a tool pack battery for the 18650 battery, on parallel group was dead. My angle grinder cutoff went to deep and it opened the entire can, it smoked and spat out clear liquid. So I turned on the fan and hurried the extraction process, then threw the pair out into the backyard. I had a large pack of LiPo explode and do a fireworks display as commonly seen on the news and Youtube. That is whY I never use LiPo anymore, I use a much safer chemistry, the safest chemistry there is but any battery can smoke and erupt clear liquid even without physical damage. In my case I drained the battery so low that when I went to recharge it, even at 0.5C it was too much and flames started happening. A simple AA or A battery probably wont do much of anything. I have seen people crush all different kinds of batteries with a 10 ton press. Its fun to watch, just search Youtube and you can enjoy watchin git.

[Murasaki]

8 hours ago, Canada EH said:

text

In my case it's just cheap ass batteries that came with the remote, I really wish they don't include them at all.

[wirs]

3 hours ago, Ross Scarlet said:

In my case it's just cheap ass batteries that came with the remote, I really wish they don't include them at all.

It still can and will always happen, even with super expensive batteries. That's one of the drawbacks of having little tanks filled with acid

[Murasaki]

51 minutes ago, wirs said:

It still can and will always happen, even with super expensive batteries. That's one of the drawbacks of having little tanks filled with acid

still havent had a case of batteries leaking for like what... 20 years? lmao

[wirs]

40 minutes ago, Ross Scarlet said:

still havent had a case of batteries leaking for like what... 20 years? lmao

Looks like you've been lucky, I've had plenty of leaking batteries. Also keep in mind that most batteries are EXACTLY the same with exception of the branding.

[Murasaki]

1 hour ago, CUDAcores89 said:

yes

I didn't get any burns or anything, was just cautious since I don't know much about battery chemistry. At the end I washed my hands a bit too much I needed to moisturize them  

[Canada EH]

On 4/20/2018 at 3:23 AM, Ross Scarlet said:

In my case it's just cheap ass batteries that came with the remote, I really wish they don't include them at all.

I always throw them out and install brand name batteries purchased from a national retail chain. The worst batteries to buy are the Crap-O-Rama batteries from Dollarama type dollar stores, and I refuse to buy from independant corner stores.

[mariushm]

The "heavy duty" batteries (non-alkaline) will typically leak more often and they're typically cheaper built. They're typically good for TV remote controls, wall clocks etc.

 

Modern alkaline batteries are better built and should leak less but sometimes they still leak.

 

Good quality rechargeable batteries should leak even less.

 

There's also lithium batteries, these should not leak at all but they're more expensive: https://amzn.to/2FgyHKA

 

Just don't puncture these and throw them in the water, they can explode or make flames if liquid mixes with the lithium inside them.

 

[Zando_]

On 3/15/2018 at 5:56 PM, manikyath said:

tbh.. you can clean battery acid with just about anything..

 

as for the corrosion, i found steel wool works really well, as long as no circuits were broken or strength wasnt impacted, just a good scrub gets you all you need to get going.

you couldn't really clean acid off with coke, since it contains acid and would just add more. It works because like @Sakkura said it's the opposite of an acid (base/alkaline) so it will help neutralize and probably dissolve it. If you were to clean up actual acid though you would want a base like baking soda or something to neutralize it AFAIK.