andrewnewman
Enlightened
Ok, so not a formal explosion or hot cell but it could have been a close call. My wife was cleaning out (one of) our junk drawers and came across an old CMG Infinity 1-AA light in the back. She handed it to me and said, "it's stuck". (You can probably see where this is going...). I slowly unscrewed it assuming the O-ring had just swelled up. When I got it past the O-ring, the head shot off with a loud "POP!" and flew across the room. Inside a Duracell AA with a March 2011 "expiration" date came (surprisingly) easily out. There was none of the usual alkaline residue around the positive contact but rather a quantity of slippery oily material leaking out of the negative contact.
Curiously the flashlight still works fine!
Curiously the flashlight still works fine!