« Florida Winter Tour | Main | Countdown to Kartfest »

January 23, 2006

Why do batteries explode?

We sometimes receive a gauge for repair which has damage resulting from battery acid leaking on the LCD and circuit board. In doing a bit of research I have found that all batteries sold here in the United States have plastic safety vents designed to release the buildup of hydrogen gas. This buildup of hydrogen gas is caused in part by the batteries being discharged below the common threshold of 0.7 volt. As an alkaline AAA battery drains down they become less and less alkaline which creates excess hyrdogen gas. This buildup then eventually triggers the safety vent to release caustic potassium hyrdoxide which can damage your gauge.

Two recommendations, first of all buy good quality alkaline batteries from a store which will have good turnover rate on its merchandise. This assures that you are getting the freshest batteries. Secondly if youre going to store your gauge for the winter or an extended period of time remove the batteries.

Posted by MyChron Mike at January 23, 2006 11:54 AM

Comments

Good stuff!

Posted by: MIke at January 23, 2006 11:47 AM

What brands of batteries do you recommend?

Posted by: Erik at January 23, 2006 12:09 PM

Here at AiM Sports SE we exclusively install Ray-O-Vac Super Alkaline's but any good quality batteries will do the job.

Posted by: MyChron Mike at January 23, 2006 12:13 PM

Mike, I recently found this fact on battery maintenance and care......

"Always position the battery cells away from heat sources if possible.

Heat will cause an increase in self-discharge, and will also decrease the life of the battery.

The old rule-of-thumb of is that the amount of self discharge will double for every 50°F increase in temperature."

Posted by: Scott Jessup at January 24, 2006 03:07 PM

Thanks Scott for the info. Hopefully this will help our users with their power management solutions.

Posted by: MyChron Mike at January 24, 2006 03:10 PM

Mike, next time you get one of these gauges in that's had a battery explode, you should post a photo of it so people can see how nasty it gets.

Posted by: Erik at January 24, 2006 11:48 PM