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Removing Battery Corosion from a Tiny Space

L

LifeLongWNYer

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Joined
Oct 23, 2013
Messages
1,231
Location
South of Rochester, NY
Last November, I purchased and installed a radiant, gas fired, wall heater, a small one, in a "terrace room" on my house. The goal was to keep it warm enough in there, so that I could keep some plants from freezing. The heater has worked well, and I am happy with it, and its' performance.

Well, spring hit WNY a couple of weeks ago, so I shut the unit down, thinking ( foolish me ) that I wouldn't need it again until the rapidly arriving fall. As luck would have it, we ran into a stretch of "cool" weather last week, and weekend, and I wanted to fire the unit back up. While doing so, it developed that the ignitor in the unit would not light the pilot light flame. I opened the ignitor and discovered that the AAA battery was dead, so no problem, I'll stick in a new battery. Then, while looking at the battery closely, I noticed that the negative end has that white corrosion which grows out of batteries when they are old. Next, while shining a light into the hole where the battery goes, I noticed that there is some corrosion at the bottom of the hole, on the terminal which mates with the negative terminal of the battery.

Now, this hole is slightly larger than the diameter of a AAA battery, and about the same depth, so I don't know how to get that corrosion out of there. The battery holder is recessed into the top of the heater, and there appears to be no way to get it out of the heater, without ( at least ) removing it from the wall, and taking it apart, something which I am not excited about.

So, my question is, how do I get that corrosion out of the battery holder, so it doesn't keep growing? This isn't like a flashlight, which I can just toss when it quits working.

Oh, yes, I did learn something from this. If I EVER buy anything again, which comes with a battery, THAT battery gets tossed in the trash, and I will install a brand new battery in the device, especially if the battery which was furnished contains only Chinese characters on the label. Also, to be safe, when I finally do turn this thing off for the summer, I'll pull the battery out until the next fall.

Thanks,


.
 
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rlitman

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Oct 18, 2010
Messages
24,651
Location
Long Island
A AAA battery hole is pretty small, but you can get in there with a pencil. So, cut a narrow strip of cloth sandpaper, run it over the pencil's eraser end, and "erase" the corrosion from the contact.

I usually use fiberglass scratch pens to clean alkaline battery contacts, and I think my thin one would fit in a AAA hole too.

I used to get these at Radio Shack, but it is positively too thick for a AAA hole:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FN8H52/?tag=atomicindus08-20

This should be thin enough:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003NHDITW/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
Last edited:
D

driz

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Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
701
Location
Northern NY
If you’ve got a dremel tool a 1” brush. Set on low speed will get a lot of it. Otherwise scrubbing with a 22 -30 cal gun cleaning brush and or toothbrush. When it’s cleaned up good as you can get it smear some tiny bit of dielectric grease on it. Permatex sells it on a card in gray tube at autozone ect $6 . Don’t use regular grease in there as it can heat and drool onto the board and short something out. If the battery box is off away from electronics then you can get away with regular grease.



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R

redmondjp

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Nov 25, 2014
Messages
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Location
Redmond, WA
mytimeyet said:
baking soda paste and a brush. works about the same way as cleaning car battery terminals.
Click to expand...

Wrong chemistry. We are talking about alkaline batteries. Use household vinegar on a cotton swab to neutralize the corrosion, followed by a distilled water rinse.
 
S

Stuart in MN

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Sep 8, 2005
Messages
23,157
Location
Minneapolis
I'd first use a pencil as mentioned above, but first just use the eraser to scrub the contact to see if that does the job. Using sandpaper or other harsh abrasive will remove the corrosion but will also remove the plating from the battery contact, making it susceptible to more corrosion in the future.
 
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AZ Pete

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Aug 15, 2011
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625
Location
Central Arizona
Stuart in MN said:
I'd first use a pencil as mentioned above, but first just use the eraser to scrub the contact to see if that does the job. Using sandpaper or other harsh abrasive will remove the corrosion but will also remove the plating from the battery contact, making it susceptible to more corrosion in the future.
Click to expand...



+1


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K

kbs2244

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
14,065
Snip the wires to the old holder and splice in a new holder.
Make it one that exposes the whole length of the battery for easy cleaning next time.

And buy better batteries.
The expensive ones do not leak.

(I remove mine if I am not going to be using them for a month or more.
That keeps them from discharging in place.)
 
Last edited:
C

Can I try?

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SE PA

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L

LifeLongWNYer

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Oct 23, 2013
Messages
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Location
South of Rochester, NY
Thanks for the replies, folks, I think I'll try the pencil eraser, and possibly some fine sandpaper on a pencil end. The solutions which suggested liquids won't work, the battery holder in mounted vertically, through a hole in the top of the heater case, and is almost flush, meaning that 90% of it is inside the heater. I have no way to get any liquid that I put into the battery holder out of the heater, without removing it from the wall and disassembling it.

I think I'll swing by Home Depot and fill them in, just to see what they say.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.


.
 
6

6PTsocket

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
4,593
LifeLongWNYer said:
Last November, I purchased and installed a radiant, gas fired, wall heater, a small one, in a "terrace room" on my house. The goal was to keep it warm enough in there, so that I could keep some plants from freezing. The heater has worked well, and I am happy with it, and its' performance.

Well, spring hit WNY a couple of weeks ago, so I shut the unit down, thinking ( foolish me ) that I wouldn't need it again until the rapidly arriving fall. As luck would have it, we ran into a stretch of "cool" weather last week, and weekend, and I wanted to fire the unit back up. While doing so, it developed that the ignitor in the unit would not light the pilot light flame. I opened the ignitor and discovered that the AAA battery was dead, so no problem, I'll stick in a new battery. Then, while looking at the battery closely, I noticed that the negative end has that white corrosion which grows out of batteries when they are old. Next, while shining a light into the hole where the battery goes, I noticed that there is some corrosion at the bottom of the hole, on the terminal which mates with the negative terminal of the battery.

Now, this hole is slightly larger than the diameter of a AAA battery, and about the same depth, so I don't know how to get that corrosion out of there. The battery holder is recessed into the top of the heater, and there appears to be no way to get it out of the heater, without ( at least ) removing it from the wall, and taking it apart, something which I am not excited about.

So, my question is, how do I get that corrosion out of the battery holder, so it doesn't keep growing? This isn't like a flashlight, which I can just toss when it quits working.

Oh, yes, I did learn something from this. If I EVER buy anything again, which comes with a battery, THAT battery gets tossed in the trash, and I will install a brand new battery in the device, especially if the battery which was furnished contains only Chinese characters on the label. Also, to be safe, when I finally do turn this thing off for the summer, I'll pull the battery out until the next fall.

Thanks,


.
Click to expand...
I have had alkaline battery corrosion many times. From one big batch virtually every one of the AAs leaked sooner or later. It always looks worse than it is and I found a quick and easy solution. Regular plain distilled white vinegar on a cotton swab takes that white or blue crud right off. You may have lost some plating on the contacts but what is gone is gone. Sometimes I will put a little dielectric grease on the contacts to stave off oxidation if all the plating is gone

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