Get the batteries out and wipe the electronics with a soft towel soaked with a little vinegar to neutralize the corrosion. Then a damp towel with just water to get the vinegar up. Let it fully dry before putting in new batteries. This happens to batteries that have sat unused for a long time installed. It can also happen if at the end of charge, you pull the batteries out, and put them back in to squeeze a little more use out of the batteries. Do it too many times and there is a leak risk. Cheaper batteries do it more often but the top brands will occasionally leak as well.
Vinegar here really does the trick in neutralizing the acid. do not skip it!
Vinegar (Acetic Acid) does not neutralise any acids at all.
It does however, neutralise the caustic, alkaline contents of a non-rechargeable alkaline cell (potassium hydroxide).
That just sounded factual.
Acid is just upside-down base
Neutralise the corrosion with a conjugate pair acids/base buffer.
Neutralise was a confusing term to pick, but they’re not wrong.
How the shit? Just use baking soda in water instead.
I believe the comment you are replying to meant to say corrosion not acid.
This is some sort of electrochemistry, more complex than just acid/base
I’m just going to say alkaline batteries have a strong hydroxide so use any acid.
I’m pretty sure its an acid/base conjugate pair buffer, but I could be wrong
Alkaline batteries use a base, hence the name. Baking soda would work as you can neutralize a strong base with a weak one. Same with acid…
I found an old plush that had a voicebox in it… I’ve not touched it in 25+ years but wanted to show it to my daughter, so I pulled out the battery box, expecting the worse, and there was no corrosion at all. I pulled out the generic brand batteries and put in new batteries and it started speaking.
I was amazed.
In the future, someone will have this same story but the ending will be the toy telling you to connect to WiFi and update your subscription information…
:(
I remember hearing that alkaline batteries that contain mercury don’t leak, they’re just much worse for the environment. So maybe that’s what happened?
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This is the way. Sometime I even file down the spring/contacts with a nail file to expose fresh metal rather than corrosion. Just a few light scratches helps greatly.
If you have access to one, use an ultrasonic cleaner with vinegar and water in it to clean the parts you can take out (NOT the batteries themselves! Those are done)
How does vinegar compare to a can of CRC?
Doesn’t smell as good but tastes a bit better.
OP must be pretty young 😂, we old fucks have seen this happen 100 times
I’m only 21 lol
Oh you sweet summer child
I prob have batteries doing that exact thing that are older than op (tho this can happen in a few years easily, especially if in a circuit).
Old batteries get spicy.
Yes? It was extremely common as a child because all our toys were battery powered (but not included)
Many times. When buying old battery-powered electronics, there’s like a 50% chance that there’s a leaked battery in there. Make sure to wash your hands if you touched that.
No. I had an OG gameboy and my parents wouldn’t buy more batteries so every remote in the house had its batteries liberated for the glory of super Mario land 2 6 golden coins. They didn’t get the safety and security of rotting in a tv remote. They were fed to the Tetris vampire.
Wow, until you mentioned it, I had somehow completely forgotten about this gem of a game and mostly thought of mario land 1 or wario world when thinking of the gameboy era, even though wario was introduced in Mario Land 2 iirc. Thanks for that hit of nostalgia.
Running a gameboy on non-rechargeable batteries is a bold choice.
Not really an option everyone had or even knew about back then.
Bold how?
As a millennial: all the time
What I did only experience once, was a leaking alkaline battery while in use
Mouse stopped working. Opened it up, only to be greeted with freshly squeezed battery juice dripping out of the battery
Mouse worked fine with new batteries, so no short in there.
Was even high end Duracell
high end Duracell
This has become an oxymoron in the last few decades.
Bought out by berkshire hathaway in 2016 and they’ve been absolute garbage since then. I haven’t bought them for years, they aren’t worth anything.
Yeah I just threw out half of a 30 pack of procells because they look like this. Expiry date is next year.
Now that I think about it, that’s about when I switched to energizer. Were they owned by berk?
Energizer is not owned by berkshire.
That explains a lot. The last package of Duracell batteries I bought all died before their expiration date. Store-brand is better than that.
Gen Z too.
Oh my sweet summer child… Just don’t taste it.
See now I have to know why.
This was so incredibly common before rechargeable batteries. Alkaline batteries may have had the best life but the worst death.
Yes, this is definitely worse ‘than average’ but have seen this before.
DO NOT TOUCH WITH BARE HANDS, EXTREMELY TOXIC.
This was very common pre 2010s.
Do not leave batteries inside things your not gonna be using for a long time. And if you don’t want this to happen buy NiMH batteries
This happens when alkaline batteried are completely empty.
False. Alkaline batteries are never completely empty. They are just too low to be used for what they are in. Move them to another device and they again.
The heat death of the universe will be delayed by a bag of AA’s in a landfill
Well, if I cannot operate an IR remote anymore I consider the batteries empty because I won’t be able to do anything else with them. I’ll dispose of them properly, but I won’t tell you ;-)
Completely empty? You’re sure that there isn’t any juice left? I haven’t tried opening a leaky one, but I’d guess that there’s still at least a few drops left.
Thats my, favorite sweet&sour candy
No, thankfully, I’m not a battery. But I’ve seen it plenty.
Ah, the forbidden salt. Yes, I remember it fondly from when I was but a young boy, playing the GameBoy Color.
