Leaking batteries. A reminder, a warning.

[ppalped]

Originally Posted by stuarth

For tracking brands, it’s the ratio of leaky cells to not leaky cells which is important.

It’s all a numbers game. Any cell could leak, so it’s very good advice to remove cells from equipment which is not in use, but that’s not always convenient, batteries in clocks, remote controls and torches, or test meters and occasionally used radios for example. For those applications, you want to avoid brands with a leakage problem.

I’ve been collecting data on significant numbers of four different brands of cells from many sources for several years now. Three brands had leaks on less than 1 to just over 2 cells per hundred. Duracell’s had 18 leaks in 110 cells. Guess which brand I no longer leave in equipment?

Anecdotally on here we get reports of leaky cells from many brands, for example, Varta have been mentioned a couple of times lately, but without knowing how many of each brand are in use, it’s hard to know if they’re a problem to be avoided.

If folk on here who get to replace significant numbers of cells of any particular brand could collect data on cell numbers, leaky and not leaky, it could help identify problem brands we should avoid, or give early warning on brand changes, for example a previously good brand could have gone bad.

Stuart

Yes, the ratio is what matters, but according to some information in this thread, a ratios based on brands might not be the best way to reflect any kind of truth in the battery/cell world - I believe the year and factory where the cells were manufactured that would matter the most, and that's a lot more difficult to track.

For example, you claim that Duracell is what fails the most for you - for me, I had 2 failed Duracell cells in at least 20 years (and I know why they failed), accounting for at least 100 cells used (and this total number of used Duracell cells is extremely low for sure, I'm just playing safe). Of course this doesn't mean Duracell is great - I might just got lucky. But as I stated before in this thread, I still buy Duracell because they are always with some red price somewhere around here - and I have very little to complain about it so far.

As stevehertz pointed out a few times, it seems that brands switch their production location, or source cells from different locations/manufacturers every year, based on where they get the best price - so this will make any brand-centric data a lot less useful than it would be some years ago where stuff were mainly manufactured by the brands themselves.

On the other hand - yes, any cell will fail. The only hope is that it holds until its expiration date, but that's not a guarantee anyway, for any brand.

Alex

[The Philpott]

Silly names are an easy indicator of something that may not be up to the job. Something arrived at work recently with 'Mustang' AAA cells in it.

Thankyou for the PP3 vape cell idea Phil, if the 500mA/550mA ones are too large i'll use some of my 350ma for this. They seem to be the same diameter at least.

Dave

[emeritus]

I had a Maplin own brand PP3 blow a hole in its end a few years ago. It was an unused one in the box where I used to keep my supply of fresh batteries.

These days I normally get my batteries from CPC. I recently got a box of ten PP3s (Pro-Elec Ultra) for just over £14. As well as my various multimeters, our "Slater" digital kitchen scales uses a PP3.

I use a long life Lithium PP3 in our smoke alarm, which due to its age must now count as "vintage" for Forum purposes. It certainly hasn't lost its sensitivity. It's in the hall, goes off when the toast burns, and can also be triggered by the steam from a boiling saucepan if you forget to turn on the cooker hood extractor.

[Philips210]

Originally Posted by The Philpott

Silly names are an easy indicator of something that may not be up to the job. Something arrived at work recently with 'Mustang' AAA cells in it.
Dave

If they turn out to be leakers perhaps they could be renamed Must Stain.

Symon

[The Philpott]

Update on PP3 substitutes built up from vape cells- 500mAh 13350 cells are a suitable size, 550mAh 13400 may just conform if the terminal block isn't too deep. So that's a good capacity with a slight voltage drop. May trigger low voltage warnings in some devices, and any rechargeables probably shouldn't be used in smoke or CO alarms designed for primaries.

Based on what i've seen so far....they probably won't leak unless abused, and there's not much electrolyte in there anyway. Bespoke Li-Ion charging protocol required needless to say.

Dave

[AdrianH]

Just as an aside to leaky batteries. I just had a look inside an old Pye Radio tester a TM1A. Although not used for many years I decided to have a look internally and pulled out a Ever Ready Blue R14B 1.5 Volt cell which still read 1.4 Volts with the DVM and showed no external leaks, I think that could be from the 1970's.
I suspect the cardboard layer separating the cell from outer metal case may have soaked up any leakage without it showing externally and that as battery manufacturers try to squeeze every last mAH from a battery that this idea was scrapped in favour of a plastic label around the cell, so any leakage has nothing to soak into.



Adrian

[The Philpott]

I think that's 1980's Adrian, i can't remember which name was used first- BLUE, or BLUE SEAL. Same sort of period though, and it's Zinc Carbon.
The Zinc Chloride were badged SILVER SEAL (but coloured mainly red) and the new alkalines were badged GOLD SEAL (but coloured mainly black!)
Quite feeble even by the standards of the day, apart from Gold Seal which would eventually leak.

The previous generation were, i think, SP11 or HP11 depending on chemistry. white/blue, and orange/blue respectively. Leak wise, not too bad; as you say, they weren't trying to squeeze loads of unwise capacity in.

Dave

[Uncle Bulgaria]

I've bought some boxes of RS brand AA and AAA alkalines as I thought they were reasonably priced compared to the Duracells etc. So far I have had no leaks, and have used them to replace some that have leaked. I'll keep an eye...