What was lost is found with corrosion

[Gerald C Koch]

I am doing some home renovations, amazing what things turn up so I have recently had the same problem. First try some household ammonia on a swab. It has the advantage of leaving no residue when it evaporates. Anything else needs to be removed with distilled water.

[Worker 11811]

A few drops of stop bath on a Q-Tip, perhaps?

Clean out as much as possible by manual methods, first. Carefully dab on some stop bath. The yellow indicator will tell you when the battery "juice" is neutralized. Use clean water to get the stop bath out. If used sparingly, there shouldn't be much to clean out in the first place. Right?

Use a gray, ballpoint pen eraser to polish any leftover corrosion off the contacts. Clean out the dust and eraser flakes. Dry well.

I've done this a couple of times before on both camera and non-camera equipment. Works for me.

[Bill Burk]

Well, I usually use water, Q-Tip and a small amount of fine abrasive polishing grit... Yes sometimes it works through the plating, but I find the result makes better long-lasting contact than scratching with sharp points.

[ME Super]

Vinegar or vinegar + baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Vinegar is a weak acetic acid (somewhere around 5% I think), I wouldn't recommend using glacial acetic acid for something like this.

[Patrick Robert James]

What brand of battery was it? Duracell will replace the meter if it isn't working. I had a Sekonic 508 that a battery leaked in and they sent me a check after I sent them the meter.

[Worker 11811]

I wouldn't recommend using glacial acetic acid for something like this.

Stop bath at working dilution, I mean. I thought that would be understood but, just to be sure, that point should be clarified.

Full strength, undiluted stop bath or glacial acetic acid might even do more damage than the battery goop has already done.

[mark]

What brand of battery was it? Duracell will replace the meter if it isn't working. I had a Sekonic 508 that a battery leaked in and they sent me a check after I sent them the meter.

They were duracells. I will look into this if it does not work.

[Patrick Robert James]

They were duracells. I will look into this if it does not work.

I believe they will clean it or do whatever as well. Put the batteries back in and send it to them. The warranty is a little obscure on their website, but if you google it you can find it. If the batteries leaked then you will have a problem sooner or later.

[AgX]

I found that "warranty" at their US sub-site, not at the german equivalent.

Furthermore they state at the warranty that it is about defects, whereas at both sites they indicate that their batteries may leak.


A recent test from a german consumer organisation indeed showed differences between the chances of used batteries to leak. The most cheapest, the ones I use, are most prone to leakage. (Which means I should either only install them where they are typically not drained at all, or where they are drained till exhaustion resp. could be taken out after use wihout hassle.)

[David Lyga]

Acetic acid, which is twenty times as powerful as white (hops) vinegar can, indeed, be used, but I should have said that one should first impregnate a bit of clean tissue, or a Q-tip, with it and NOT apply it directly to the battery contacts. I have yet to have problems with this method. Sometimes the vinegar is simply not strong enough.

But, other recommendations are also good, even the one using a pencil eraser. And, as far as getting 'bits of steel wool' into the meter: one assumes that all the debris will be wisked away with a small brush before those gremlins get a change to get inside. - David Lyga