battery leakage

[pinball god]

Please put this in the tips section if I am correct. I am told that a lot of the pcb damage due to bad batteries is not necessarily due to physical liquid leakage but due to vapour leakage. So using a remote battery pack does not necessarily immune you to battery problems. So the tip is to replace batteries regularly whether you have a remote battery holder or not.

[femto]

I am no expert on this but my thoughts are that it is the acid leakage that causes the problems. Have a read here under Leaks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_battery. It seems the production of hydrogen gas within the battery cell ruptures or causes leakage of potassium hydroxide which interacts with carbon dioxide to produce the substance that destroys the PCB. That is how I see it anyway.

[Homepin]

...it's actually alkaline leakage which is the opposite of acid. That's why it is usually recommended to clean the affected area with a mild acid such as watered down vinegar to neutralise the alkaline from the "ALKALINE" batteries.

[studley67]

Hazardous Decomposition
When heated to decomposition, potassium hydroxide emits toxic fumes of potassium oxide. Will absorb moisture and carbon
dioxide from the air to form hazardous potassium carbonate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_carbonate

[pinball god]

Hazardous Decomposition
When heated to decomposition, potassium hydroxide emits toxic fumes of potassium oxide. Will absorb moisture and carbon
dioxide from the air to form hazardous potassium carbonate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_carbonate

could this vapour them attack other parts of a board in theory that is not in direct contact with the battery?

[Marty Machine]

Hazardous Decomposition
When heated to decomposition, potassium hydroxide emits toxic fumes of potassium oxide. Will absorb moisture and carbon
dioxide from the air to form hazardous potassium carbonate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_carbonate

could this vapour them attack other parts of a board in theory that is not in direct contact with the battery?

YES!

Vapour is nothing more than 'seperated liquid' just like steam is nothing more than 'seperated water' (becoming fine droplets).
The light weight of the vapour droplets mixed with warm thermal air currents from the pinball machine is more than enough to spread corrosive vapour all over your headbox boards.

MM.

[beaky]

replacing the original batteries with a lithium battery is the way to go except for games like twilight zone and any other game that uses the clock on WPC / WPC 95 machines.
even though the clock doesn't reset to default on WPC and WPC95 with a 3 volt lithium battery they do lose time.

[Zarnet]

replacing the original batteries with a lithium battery is the way to go except for games like twilight zone and any other game that uses the clock on WPC / WPC 95 machines.
even though the clock doesn't reset to default on WPC and WPC95 with a 3 volt lithium battery they do lose time.

Please excuse my ignorance, what exactly do you mean?  I assume lithium AA batteries would give no problems or is this a mod where you can fit another lithium solution.

I've been using remote packs on mine and lithium AA on high end ones that I don't won't to tamper with.

[beaky]

replacing the original batteries with a lithium battery is the way to go except for games like twilight zone and any other game that uses the clock on WPC / WPC 95 machines.
even though the clock doesn't reset to default on WPC and WPC95 with a 3 volt lithium battery they do lose time.

Please excuse my ignorance, what exactly do you mean?  I assume lithium AA batteries would give no problems or is this a mod where you can fit another lithium solution.

I've been using remote packs on mine and lithium AA on high end ones that I don't won't to tamper with.

I remove the AA battery holder and fit a round button battery holder to the board, similar to what they use on the stern CPU boards