It am starting out with anecdotal observation. It seems to me that say 20 years ago, batteries rarely failed. It also seems like today batteries nearly always fail. When I say fail, I mean that batteries leak and frequently ruin the device in which they are placed.

I use to believe when batteries were treated poorly for instance left in a hot vehicle for years, those were the cases where we would see a battery failure.  I can understand that.  I now deliberately keep batteries out of devices unless I am going to routinely use them.  You can see from the photo above that the battery in question was well within expiration date and kept at room temperature (below).

What you are seeing is my weather center display that is plugged in on the kitchen counter and has batteries for power back-up for things like the clock setup.  It is less than two years old.  That also means that the batteries have been in place less than two years.

Batteries that are labelled as ‘alkaline’ mean that the overall chemistry of the battery is basic or a pH higher than 7.  This is different than the chemistry of a car battery which uses sulfuric acid with a pH lower than 7.  Why does that matter?  If you are going to salvage the device, you need to neutralize the reaction in the right direction. 

Looking at the chemistry of the situation, the leaking battery forms potassium hydroxide which then reacts with carbon dioxide to form a crystal of potassium carbonate.  That then reacts with the plating on the terminals.  You must first stop the reaction.  Use an acid like vinegar to clean the corrosion of the terminal.  Then, neutralize acid with a base like baking soda.

Hopefully, the device is still salvageable at this point.  I have even gone to the point of filing terminals to try and get a new conductive surface with mixed results.  The only reason I even checked this was because my time was off and I unplugged the device to reset the time and date.  

There may be more to this story.  I am debating about calling the guarantee number because I am upset about so many battery failures.  I also have a remarkable situation as well that I might talk about this week.  Suffice to say, the weather center that this replaced was ruined by leaking batteries.  Remote controls, portable radios, LED lights and flashlights are all things I can think of off the top of my head that have been ruin in the last couple of years due to leaking batteries.

End Your Programming Routine: I also used to believe that brand and cost mattered.  It seemed like I had consistent failure with one brand over the other.  I also thought that paying more for batteries was less likely for failure.  I do not hold that belief anymore.  Like I said at the beginning, the only safe way to protect your devices is keep the batteries out of them unless you are using them.