rendering the light useless. What are your remedies? Is there any solution that can get that crud off?

Contacted the company that makes and sells the light (NEBO) to see if I can buy the part, and their answer is "We don't repair nor do we sell parts". WTF is this? You make and sell lights but no repair or parts to sell? They went on about making warranty claim. The light has passed the 1-year limit already. Told them I wasn't making a warranty claim, just want to buy the replacement part to make the light function again.

Without actually seeing the offending unit it’s difficult to say. I have had luck with using something such as a dental pick to scrape away the buildup.

Q, you just need something that conducts electricity well (metal) to connect the battery to the light's electronics. As already mentioned, if the corrosion hasn't completely destroyed the metal's integrity, you may be able to remove the corroded material to allow the base metal to contact the battery again. Otherwise, you may be able to replace the metal. If there is good metal connecting to a wire, you can probably pack the area with aluminum foil. If it is a damaged spring, you may be able to put a new spring in with some aluminum foil on the base. Pictures would help to provide better advice.

Baking soda and water will neutralize the acid, and help loosen things up. I would mix up a thin slurry for this purpose. A bore brush of the appropriate size, metal assuming an AL body light, so bronze would/should do the trick. A toothbrush, or perhaps a bronze bristled AR-15 gun cleaning brush if 'that crud' is particularly stubborn for the other crudded up areas. It 'may' take a bit of time/effort to get it sufficiently cleaned up and it still may not work if the electronics, if any, are damaged but you don't have anything to lose at this point, so I'd give it a go. Good Luck...

To add, pics may be helpful to assess what needs to be de-crudded and the extent of the damage. Checking the NEBO website, I'm finding Rechargable and Alkaline LED Flashlights, from quite small to quite large, so it would be helpful to know what model flashlight you're you've got. If I'm a betting man, my money's on an Alkaline model being the culprit here.

Worst case, they're probably just a "marketing and distribution" company. They buy stuff from the manufacturers, have the factory put the Nebo brand on it and that's "their" product. As such, they don't have an engineering function to speak of or a parts list for each product, just a SKU number for the product itself. That would explain why they don't have any parts to sell.

If you're lucky, maybe the only things that got corroded are the battery contacts. I would try first shake out any debris. Then use a swab with white vinegar. I forget what it's called but we used something like a pencil eraser. Google says they're called "fiberglass scratch brush pen" but I don't remember the fiberglass part. In a pinch, you can use fine sandpaper. but you only need this part for good battery contact.

After this, then you can clean with alcohol. let it dry then put some dielectric grease on things that you see. If you don't have that, then just a very thin film of petroleum jelly, emphasis on very thin especially with Vaseline.

Good luck.

Next, toss out all your alkaline batteries, and only use lithium batteries.

No more ruined small electronics from leaking alkaline batteries.

Well worth the extra few cents per battery.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Baking soda and water will neutralize the acid, and help loosen things up.

I have used this, followed up by a cue-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol, to clean up the infected area and the device worked fine afterwards.

And yes, lithium batteries are worth the cost to avoid this pain-in-the-ass corrosion

I don’t know. I’m “that guy” whose alkaline batteries never leak. Many AA, several D, one 9-volt. Mostly Duracell.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Worst case, they're probably just a "marketing and distribution" company. They buy stuff from the manufacturers, have the factory put the Nebo brand on it and that's "their" product. As such, they don't have an engineering function to speak of or a parts list for each product, just a SKU number for the product itself. That would explain why they don't have any parts to sell.

Would it kill them to disclose this information, and refer the parts seeker to the actual manufacturer who would be more likely to be able to provide repair parts? I guess if you can fix it, you're probably not going to buy a new one.

There are many items in the marketplace that are made in the same factory and differ only in the label that is affixed as they come off the line. I don't have a problem with this, per se, but I do have a problem about vendors not being honest in this regard. Full disclosure, please!

Back in my more innocent days, I was part of a team that visited the HP minicomputer plant in the Palo Alto area. We watched as the freshly-built machines came off the assembly line and were packaged for customer delivery. At the time, HP offered the HP3000 series running their proprietary MPE operating system, and the HP9000 series running HP-UX, HP's version of Sys V Unix. The 3000 was about twice the price of the 9000, and far less capable (MPE at that time was batch processing only, no multi-user or interactive command line). At the end of the production line there were two small plastic bins, one had HP3000 placards in it, the other HP9000. Which got applied to the chassis was determined by the order sheet, not anything internal to the hardware. I was shocked, mostly because HP steadfastly denied the evidence before our eyes, claiming that 3000 hardware was somehow "better" than 9000 hardware, and that justified the steep price difference. I haven't taken computer manufacturer statements at face value since.

Another option is that some battery manufacturers will pay to replace an object damaged by their batteries leaking. If you know the brand, check it out on their website. I have used that option once, for a flashlight.

Clean the contacts the best you can. Use a light sandpaper or file to get down to clean bare metal. Then use a generous amount of dielectric grease which will help stop any future corrosion.

I have an old two D cell Maglite that's been locked up for years. I'm going to soak it in a baking soda slurry and then put it between a vice and pipe wrench and see if I can get it freed up.

Baking soda is the wrong direction to deal with this in most cases as dry cells are typically alkaline, so using acid (white vinegar) would be used to remove and expose "good metal" contacts.

Some "heavy duty" batteries use acidic components. But you would still use same procedure to clean and neutralize.

Then a solution of baking soda and water to neutralize the acid, and then water rinse with distilled water, and heat gun/blow dryer to dry everything and then see if it will make good contact with fresh batteries.

As long as you get everything cleaned and dried, the liquids should not do any further damage.

Duracell has replaced a few items that their leaking batteries have destroyed.

I'm guessing Duraleaks and if you contact them they'll want pics and they'll pay to replace the light. After having a few things ruined because of leaky batteries I contacted them when my wife's weather station got destroyed. They were very helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I don’t know. I’m “that guy” whose alkaline batteries never leak. Many AA, several D, one 9-volt. Mostly Duracell.

I was that guy until I wasn't.

An ordinary pencil eraser does a decent job rubbing off light corrosion.

I’d at least talk to the manufacturer of the leaky batteries. Maybe they’d cover the flashlight under the battery warranty. As stated by someone earlier, Duracell has replaced flashlights destroyed by Duracell batteries for me.

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
I have an old two D cell Maglite that's been locked up for years. I'm going to soak it in a baking soda slurry and then put it between a vice and pipe wrench and see if I can get it freed up.

If you get the old batteries out and working look into Malkoff replacement bulbs. About 12 years ago I bought them for my four D cell Maglite and it turned into a beast of a flashlight. Although I see the price is about double what I think I paid. Just my two cents.

https://malkoffdevices.com/pro...r-universal-d-c-size

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Baking soda is the wrong direction to deal with this in most cases as dry cells are typically alkaline, so using acid (white vinegar) would be used to remove and expose "good metal" contacts.

+1

The OP has an alkaline battery leaking which means the precipitate that forms from the leak is basic so the acidic vinegar is the the correct approach.

If the OP had a lead acid car battery leaking then the baking soda slurry would have been the right method because the precipitate that results from leaks is acidic so using the basic baking soda slurry is effective.