Alcoline battery rot

[Refugee]

This set of batteries must be close to the most extreme example ever found.
They look like they were suffering with Acute Internal Decomposition Syndrome (AIDS).
They have become highly infectious and the battery holder springs have died.
I just held the instrument over a land fill bin and flicked the hazardous waste out complete with the chunks of rust that were once battery holder springs.

Can anybody find a better rotted set of batteries to add for a hall of shame?

[Terry]

Ooh nasty!

I'm surprised as I thought Panasonic were a reliable brand - there are quite a few around that aren't.

I bought a box of 100 alkaline AAs from Maplin about three or four years ago which had a nasty habit whereby one cell in a set of, say four, failed prematurely and would then reverse charge so that a 6V battery would suddenly drop to 4.5V then head rapidly down to 3V as the duff cell reverse charged, giving 4.5 -1.5 = 3V!

By the time I'd sussed out why I was suddenly getting short battery life in more that one piece of equipment and took the whole box back for a refund, I could see that some of the new cells were just starting to leak.

The best alkaline cells that I've found, both for consistently even capacity and failure to leak are the Kodak Extralife batteries widely found in Pound shops in packs of 4 - but I buy mine in Poundland where they are always sold packs of 4 with 2 extra free, so 6 for a pound or 16.66p each.

[boater sam]

Megger rot! I suppose that the inverter in the megger gives them a hard life.

[Refugee]

I just could not believe the amount of green slime they produced without shriveling up like dried prunes.
I have another Megger of the same era with a duff movement so it will be a good one made out of two duff ones.