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Old 5th Feb 2023, 10:57 am   #21
PaulR
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

I recently resurrected a battery toy for my granddaughter which must have laid in the loft for 25 years through summer heat and winter cold. When I took the battery cover of I was initially dismayed to find that the PP3 battery was still there. In fact it looked like new although, obviously, flat. It was a Tandy one, probably bought cheaply at the time.
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Old 5th Feb 2023, 11:49 am   #22
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

Kirkland batteries are on my no go list (made by Duracell) I had a lot of them, quite a few leaked in the packet with loads of date on them.
Had a few items ruined by them leaking.
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Old 5th Feb 2023, 12:42 pm   #23
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

The first time I saw one of these PP3 batteries in this state it was a Duracell Procell and it sat in the corner of a colleagues desk for a couple of years. Must have been at least 5 years ago.

One of the graduates decided to have a closer look, there was a noise crackling and a small amount of smoke and it proceeded to throw some more of it cells out!

So not as dead as we had all assumed just moribund with one final hurah

Traditionally the office had always used "profesional quality" dry cells but due to a change in the procurement process a few years back the area secretaries have just been buying them on Amazon so usually branded Amazon or sometimes Kodak. So far I haven't heard anything negative about them and because they are so cheap they are much easier to get than the horrendous process we used before.

I have seen layer batteries swell but this particular failure mechanism seems to be unique to the tubular cell high capacity batteries like alkaline PP3's.

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Old 7th Feb 2023, 7:41 pm   #24
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

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Originally Posted by PaulR View Post
I recently resurrected a battery toy for my granddaughter which must have laid in the loft for 25 years through summer heat and winter cold. When I took the battery cover of I was initially dismayed to find that the PP3 battery was still there. In fact it looked like new although, obviously, flat. It was a Tandy one, probably bought cheaply at the time.
Can you remember the Tandy Free Battery Club? 12 PP3s a year free gratis!

Obviously PP3s, because they were worth the most
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 5:56 am   #25
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

When I was younger, I remember batteries leaking. But I never recall one exploding like this, nor was it ever mentioned to my knowledge in the Press, or in any of the electronics magazines that I read. So I guess it didn't happen.

What has changed so that common primary batteries fail in this rather dangerous way?
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 10:00 am   #26
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

Thinking about it, other sizes of battery do often bulge and expand as they leak. Sometimes I have come across a set with a load of C cells where you have to physically hack them out. So I suppose in the case of the PP3, the behaviour is simply caused by the cells being packed so close together.

At a risk of going OT, what is interesting is why some brands are likely to do this, while others can lie flat for years without leaking.
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 10:49 am   #27
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

Were those old or modern cells? I don't remember cells bulging 40-50 years ago, but I might be mistaken?
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 11:15 am   #28
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

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When I was younger, I remember batteries leaking. But I never recall one exploding like this, nor was it ever mentioned to my knowledge in the Press, or in any of the electronics magazines that I read. So I guess it didn't happen.

What has changed so that common primary batteries fail in this rather dangerous way?

I was thinking that too, imagine the headlines, 'killer duracel batteries, burnt family house to the ground'
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 11:26 am   #29
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

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Were those old or modern cells? I don't remember cells bulging 40-50 years ago, but I might be mistaken?
Fairly modern I would say. Probably around 20 years old.
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 12:07 pm   #30
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyDuell View Post
Were those old or modern cells? I don't remember cells bulging 40-50 years ago, but I might be mistaken?
Fairly modern I would say. Probably around 20 years old.
Agree, seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon. You used to get leakers, but I don't remember one going bang, even old Duracells.

I had one of these Procell go off like a rifle shot whilst in the scrap battery bucket, waiting for disposal, really loud!
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 12:18 pm   #31
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

Perhaps a symptom of improved battery technology, which has reduced the cells ESR over the years.
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 12:22 pm   #32
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

I've seen three PP3s do this. Two Duracell (actually sat together on a shelf at the MiLs), and another that I can't remember the brand.
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 4:15 pm   #33
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

IMHO battery manufacturers should be legally obliged to pay for replacement costs of repairs ( or replacement) of any item ruined by their leaking batteries if within the supposed shelf life. If I ruled the world………..

I have just had some Kirkland( Costco own brand, but I believe they are made by Duracell) AA batteries emit some nasty goo inside the storage box of my battery powered mini PCB drill, two years before their “ expiry” date. A rather ironic choice of words?
Fortunately they weren’t in the drill at the time, for exactly this reason
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Old 8th Feb 2023, 5:00 pm   #34
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Default Re: Unusual PP3 Battery failure.

I think the problem related by the OP is a 'thing' associated with the trend for PP-type batteries to be made of bundles of cylindrical Alkaline cells rather than the stack of flat carbon-zinc layer-cells these batteries were originally made using.

Can you sensibly make 'layer' type cells using Alkaline technology? There was the Eveready "Silver Seal" Zinc-Chloride technology too, which was used in PP-type square batteries in the 70s.
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