how to remove alkaline battery residue

Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:39 pm   

Between the combination of the hotest day in many years and really bad batch
of alkaline batteries, I have several devices with a crystaline residue from
the batteries leaking.

Besides brushing with a succession of stiffer brushes, is there some chemical
that can safely remove it? It's all on metal contacts in plastic, but some are
surrounded by anodized aluminium.

Thanks in advance,

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:39 pm   

Ordinary household ammonia on a Q-tip with dissolve it. I usually follow
that with an isopropyl alcohol flush.

Possible problem... Aluminum can be attacked by ammonia and other alkaline
solvents. So, be careful.

Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:39 pm   

William Sommerwerck <grizzledgeezer_at_comcast.net> wrote:


Plain tap water with a nylon scouring pad seems to work. Alcohol can
then be used to remove the water.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:21 pm   

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm_at_mendelson.com> wrote in message
news:slrni7isgn.hrd.gsm_at_cable.mendelson.com...

Isn't acid the opposite of alkaline.......

Such as ordinary acetic acid (vinegar) found in any kitchen.

Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:11 pm   

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:34:04 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
<gsm_at_mendelson.com> wrote:


As long as you don't make any ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel
fuel bombs. Be glad that it's restricted because the "ammoniated'
cleaner will streak the anti-reflective coating on some LCD displays.
It's almost impossible to find glass cleaner in the US that does NOt
have ammonia in the formulation.

The electrolyte in alkaline batteries is KOH (potassium hydroxide)
which is NOT very soluable in liquid ammonia. What does the cleaning
in most spray cleaners is n-PropoxyPropanol, which is a form of
alcohol. Looks like 409 spray cleaner has ammonia in the form of
ammonium chloride:
<http://www.thecloroxcompany.com/products/msds/409products/formula409antibacallpurposecleaner807.pdf>

I use 409, Fantastik, or similar cleaner. If it foams when it hits
the KOH, it's working.
<http://www.ehow.com/how_2341688_clean-battery-leakage.html>
<http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Battery-Leaks/Spills>

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl_at_cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:16 pm   

"ian field" <gangprobing.alien_at_ntlworld.com> wrote in
news:N5feo.132535$S46.76190_at_hurricane:


even household ammonia? sheesh.

vinegar works great. and a lot easier to use than nasty ammonia with it's
fumes.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:34 pm   

William Sommerwerck wrote:


Thanks, anything else? Ammonia is restricted here. :-(

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:39 pm   

Adrian Tuddenham wrote:


Thanks, I'll try that.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:58 pm   

Please note that I said "household ammonia". Not ammonia, not ammonium
nitrate fertilizer, not any other form of ammonia. Okay?

Although acids neutralize bases, I don't like the idea of using acids inside
electronic equipment. Acids are more-likely to attack metals than bases.

I've been doing this on and off for years, and never had the least trouble.
Household ammonia, followed by some neutral liquid to wash away anything
that might be left.

Sun Aug 29, 2010 1:29 am   

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

It was restricted because there was a spate of people mixing chlorine bleach
and ammonia to clean their toilet. This is a country of immigrants, and
no one could figure out how to write the warning in enough languages that
it would be safe.

Luckily the glass cleaner here is made with vinegar.


Ok, there are some cleaners like that, and maybe one of those.




Great, thanks to you and everyone else for the info and the links.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

Sun Aug 29, 2010 1:44 am   

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:29:04 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
<gsm_at_mendelson.com> wrote:


Teaching them to read Hewbrew would be too expensive? Instead you
get a nation of dirty toilets. I would think that sacrificing a few
immigrants so that the rest could have clean toilets would be a
suitable exchange. I guess international safety symbols won't work
when mixing to non-toxic products. Maybe a toilet with a nuclear
mushroom cloud coming out of the bowl might work.

Well, maybe there's a chemical solution to the problem. Adding any
sulfur compount to the chlorine bleach would be easy. It would be
non-reactive until it hits the ammonia, where it's converted to
ammonium sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stink_bomb>


I have to make my own for cleaning LCD's. Vinegar, filtered water,
cheap rubbing alcohol, a little dish washing soap (for the wetting
agent), and a few drops of kerosene. There are plenty of similar do
it thyself formulas on the web.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl_at_cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:12 am   

I use plain water and scrub the surfaces. After, I rub in some contact
cleaner if there are contacts involved.


Jerry G.



On Aug 28, 2:39 pm, "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <g...@mendelson.com>
wrote:

Sun Aug 29, 2010 1:24 pm   

Jeff Liebermann wrote:


Teaching them Hebrew is a national industry for the last 15 years the cost
of abosrbing new immigrants has exceeded the defense budget. Schools of
Hebrew are called "ulpan". There are ulpan for free, subsidized uplan, private
ulpan, people giving uplan lessons in their home, an Ulpan High School, and
the "Wall Street Institute" an ulpan which teaches English to Hebrew speakers,
plus Berlitz and other international schools of language.

The problem is how do make the point to someone before they learn Hebrew.

We don't have dirty toilets BTW, there are lots of other cleaners, including
"mai cham" (literally hot water), which is a dilute muratic acid solution.
The most common is "economica", which is a brand name that has become a
generic term for cholrine bleach with soap and optional lemon scent.

I was here for five years before I found out you can buy plain bleach with
no soap or lemon in it, and most immigants never learn that.

I like the mushroom cloud idea, but I'm not sure everyone would recognize it.
It's become a cultural icon in the west, but I'm not sure about rural China,
India, or Africa.

We also get most of our batteries from Singapore and mainlaind China, often
sold as well known "American" brands. The particularly bad ones were Office
Depot house brand, made in Hong Kong, but some were Duracell or Energizer
brand, made in various western European countries (or at least claimed to be).
:-)

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

Sun Aug 29, 2010 5:39 pm   

I use Sno Bol, a hydrochloric acid solution. I cuts right through the
schmutz, something chlorine+determent products cannot do.

Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:05 pm   

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer_at_comcast.net> wrote in message
news:i5e2hg$cbe$1_at_news.eternal-september.org...


A while back Harpic released an acid based bog cleaner that they claim to be
best on the market for shifting limescal, I've found if the limescale is
stained at all it takes an awfull lot of bog cleaner to shift it - whiten
the limescale with bleach first.