SR44 Silver Oxide Batteries: Quality does not leak

ic-racer said:

Some batteries seem resistant to leaking.

I got these "Roland" branded musical instrument C-batteries in 1983. This still look like new.

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Cool!

Vaughn said:

A year ago I bought a pack of four LR-44s as back-up while in Japan. They did not work and back home I noticed one was slight expanded. They were sitting on my kitchen table in the sun when the expanded battery exploded (sounded like a 22 caliber pistol shot) and put marks on the ceiling. I was outside and heard it. It could have put an eye out if someone was looking at it.

Lots of energy in a small package.

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Must have been a shock. I can't get my wife to stop leaving her cell phone near the oven ranges. Went ahead and bought some extra fire extinguishers.

loccdor said:

Must have been a shock. I can't get my wife to stop leaving her cell phone near the oven ranges. Went ahead and bought some extra fire extinguishers.

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Hopefully this can be used to extinguish burning lithium batteries?

Andreas Thaler said:

Hopefully this can be used to extinguish burning lithium batteries?

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Hopefully. I have heard they are almost impossible to extinguish.

I haven't had any Silver Oxide battery leaked either. I do have a lot of alkaline batteries leaked.

loccdor said:

Must have been a shock. I can't get my wife to stop leaving her cell phone near the oven ranges. Went ahead and bought some extra fire extinguishers.

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I got curious, and located a handy document issued by the FAA:
https://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/TC-13-53.pdf
And the recommendation is not what I would have expected: Need water, or water-based agent to stop thermal runaway.

4season said:

I got curious, and located a handy document issued by the FAA:
https://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/TC-13-53.pdf
And the recommendation is not what I would have expected: Need water, or water-based agent to stop thermal runaway.

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Thanks very much for the information. I hadn't heard it before and it's the kind of thing that can save lives. Makes perfect sense, when you consider water's thermal mass - water is a heat, or cold, battery.

Andreas Thaler said:

Hopefully this can be used to extinguish burning lithium batteries?

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No. But the good thing is that the fire created by something the size of an AA or 18650, while very fierce, will in itself be small. This means that the extinguisher can be effective in preventing the fire from actually catching on whatever the battery is near. Extinguishing the battery fire as such won't work. This is also why electrical fires in EV's are not actually extinguished (they virtually cannot be), but in some cases the entire vehicle (while on fire) is dunked into a big container filled with something to help dissipate the heat, and/or the vehicle is doused in foam to keep the fire from spreading.

loccdor said:

Must have been a shock. I can't get my wife to stop leaving her cell phone near the oven ranges. Went ahead and bought some extra fire extinguishers.

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Certainly do not want to have little kids swallowing those little shiny candies! Or keeping them in one's pocket. The exploding LR-44 chipped a bit of paint off the ceiling at 4 feet distance. It was new -- not drained of any energy yet.

I have two 500W lithium batteries in my kitchen (on the eCargo Bike). I also have a half gallon of acetone around here somewhere (part of my printing process), some 'white gas' campstove fuel in a couple different containers, and a questionable electrical system in a 100+ yr. old what-code? structure. Outside, I have a couple car-enclosed 15+ gallon gasoline tanks parked on the road (which is a truck route) just 3 feet from my house, powerlines above, and the natural gas line strapped around 3/4 of the house with earthquakes common. But I love it, and the volunteer fire dept is just a few blocks away -- and they'd be here quickly...they won't let the only town bar (nextdoor) catch on fire!

I was probably safer when I was fighting fires in the wilderness for the US Forest Service...

One thing to keep in mind is the LR44 batteries, (sold almost in bulk at the dollar store) are built to just passfor batteries, the Name brand SR44 do sell for 50 cents or more and so may be better built. I did have a leak so far in one Non-branded SR-44, so the silver oxide construction alone is not a guarantee.

I've had SR44s expand on me. No large pop, but, I shouldn't have left them in a pocket while on my way to a FB marketplace deal.

Here I have just recovered two Maxell LR44 from one of the two battery compartments of a Minolta Program Back Super 90 (for Minolta 9000).








The date printed on it is "86-04".

The battery compartment is clean, there may be tiny traces of electrolyte on the bottom of one battery but it could also be the seal.

These were high quality cells from Hitachi, made in Japan. Nowadays you may not find any made in Japan LR44 anymore. But many chinese no name cells of doubtful quality for nearly nothing. This is one more reason for me to prefer SR44 instead.