argh... severe battery corrosion :(

[ZippyDan]

I have a Underwater Kinetics SL4 LED flashlight that I bought brand new a year ago.

I never used it. I kept it in storage for the past year with 4 brand new Duracell-brand C-bateries installed.

Today I am going diving, and I grabbed it out of its drawer...

Now, I'm not a complete idiot. I know that leaving alkaline batteries connected and in storage for a long time can be a recipe for disaster. Before I put the flashlight away, I inserted a thick piece of credit-card-like plastic at the top of the light, between the LED PCB in the head, and the positive contact on the top battery. I tested to make sure I could not turn on the light (no complete circuit) before putting it away to sleep for a year.

Yet, today I found the glass partially covered in corrosion, the reflector covered in corrosion, the PCB covered in corrosion...

1. How did this happen?
2. How can I fix it?

 

[ven]

Problem is the alki cells will leak if make contact or not, so breaking the contact will not stop it(maybe minimal on the contacts though!).

Contact the manufacturer and also Duracell as iirc they do offer some kind of protection for leaking cells and may(should) pay for another light . It sounds beyond repair if all corroded tbh...

 

[NoNotAgain]

They're called Durashit.
Provided they're within date, call Duracell then ship insured. They're going to need a replacement cost verses repair.

Replace the light, then purchase some NiMH batteries and don't look back.

 

[ZippyDan]

So, a Duracell battery will leak just sitting alone in a drawer?

I also bought a UK C8 LED at the same time, left it in the same drawer, with 8 C-cell Duracell batteries, and it is in perfect condition. Light turns on, and no leakage.



I'm really curious how and why the PCB got covered in corrosion without contact being made :/

 

[LeanBurn]

My guess would be the corrosive gasses precipitated on the other components it wasn't an airtight separation so it could be on all kinds of reactive surfaces.

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

I had the idea of wrapping plastic cling-wrap around the cells with small as possible openings for the positive and negative end, would this make a difference to alkaline leakage? I have nothing to go on as i have never had an alkaline battery leak on me.

John.

 

[Kurt_Woloch]

I would think that keeping batteries in a device increases the chance of leaking because they are more under pressure (from the spring) than if they just would sit in a drawer, hence the goo is more likely to escape the battery due to the increased pressure.

 

[MidnightDistortions]

Alkalines tend to leak. Some may be advertized not to leak but that's not always the case, though none of my new alkalines (that i get from my job) leak. Then again i don't store the cells in the light. C and D NiMH cells can be pretty expensive so i'd go with the C or D cell adapters with some Eneloops for right now as a cheaper alternative, unless the light is ruined that you can't use or clean it up. If you are going to continue using alkalines, i'd keep the batteries out of the diving light. Some people may prefer to have their lights ready to go in an emergency.. which is fine in which case i suggest having an AA flashlight with Eneloops, which would be ideal for an EDC that way it's ready to go for any disaster and you can put in all your alkalines in other lights at a calm time so they are ready to go when you need to use them.