Most of my life, I was told not to leave batteries in watches or other items that take AA or AAA batteries because eventually they will leak and destroy the watch or other items requiring these batteries to function.
If true, how long can these batteries be left in situ generally before they become damaging? Or are the batteries made in such a way that one doesn’t have to be concerned.
Would appreciate your input.
First, what kind of watch do you wear that takes AA or AAA cells?
Seriously, this has happened to me once, but it was with D cells. I left them in a radio that I didn’t use for a couple of years. When I went to look, there was rust all over the battery case. Was it corrosive chemicals leaking from the batteries that caused the rust, or was it the rust that caused the leak? I don’t know. No permanent damage was done; the radio still works.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde)
Bib: I ran 2 different things in my OP. What I meant is:
Do all of the above batteries leak with time and if so, roughly how long can the batteries remain in place without concern of damage from corrosion?
Don’t ever say 288 in polite company. Its just two gross!
Depends on the battery.
Lithium cells are designed to stay in place for years, so much so they used to be soldered into place on some computor motherboards and are often used in battery backup to ensure that critical data is not lost or in situations where it is used only rarely but must be constantly present.
The moment a cell is constucted it will have an internal electrical leakage which is very small but over time will cause the cell to discharge.Once a cell has done this it is likely to leak.
Although I don’t know anything about the chemistry I guess that the electrolyte gel changes as the charge is given up into a corrosive fluid.
It always pays to purchase your batteries from an outlet that has a high turnover, that way you get the longest active and the longest shelf life.
Raovacs leak, avoid them. However, if you look at the battery itself, it says on it if it ever leaks, they pay for what it does.
“‘How do you know I’m mad’ said Alice.
'You must be, ’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’”
I believe older carbon-acid-zinc batteries were much more prone to leaks but today it is much rarer for this to happen due to better technology.