Battery johnny

All right; it’s quite a nice day. Time for me to dust off my old wireless so I can go and listen to it outside. O dear me, it’s not working. I’ll have to change its battery. But yuchhh… What's that green and crusty gunge all over the alkaline cells, springs and contacts? I’ll have to pull them out, wipe this corrosive green mess out of the difficultly-shaped battery compartment and get some fresh cells. Vinegar helps, doesn’t it? But I’d swear it’s only been a couple of days since I changed them. Stoopid Duracells. Oh no! It’s still not working. Oh, I see, the corrosive spew has also attacked and dissolved the printed circuit board tracks. I need to dismantle the set, take the board out, clean it, locate the breaks in the tracks. Then I’ve got to solder some wires across to bridge the breaks, coat the repairs with lacquer, perhaps, and then reassemble it all. Grrr.

Actually, come to think of it, could there have been a leak-proof pouch made from silicone? You’d put your cells into the pouch, and plonk it into the radio. There’d be some contacts or electrically conductive patches on this sac to connect the ends of the battery into the battery compartment via the container bag material. There’d be a little nylon sealing zip down the side of it, similar to the one on the end of a packet of Cathedral City Cheddar, opened for checking, and changing, activities. Then, when the battery inevitably leaks, you can just chuck the whole mess away. The battery compartment will still be in mint condition. In the unlikely event that they don’t leak, you can simply pop some fresh cells into the liner and re-use it. e-waste volumes will be considerably reduced due to the large number of radios protected.