How to clean up battery leaks inside meter

By Dan Marinucci, special to Tire Business

AKRON — Rescuing a valuable meter or testing device after its battery leaks may be easier than many service personnel realize.

Here are some practical clean-up methods that may save you and your staff time, money and aggravation.

If you are a tire dealer or automotive service shop operator, you probably have a variety of devices around the facility that operate on AA, AAA or 9.00-volt batteries. This device, tester or meter may be at the front counter or back in the service bays. But regardless of where it's used, sometimes it sits idle and could be overlooked or forgotten for some time.

Countless meters, testers and useful little gadgets are powered by common alkaline batteries. Mind you, alkaline batteries may be cost-effective power supplies in a variety of applications. However, alkaline batteries may leak — especially when left unattended.

It's difficult to predict just when these batteries may leak. Suffice it to say that many alkaline battery users only recognize this potential shortcoming after the damage already has occurred. Leakage from old alkaline batteries may damage or destroy the battery terminals inside a device.

Ultimately, you or one of your technicians may have to replace a valuable meter or tester because battery leakage ruined it. At this point, knowing a safe, effective clean-up procedure could save someone at your facility several hundred dollars in replacement cost. What's more, exercising an ounce of prevention could prevent the damage in the first place — more on that topic in a moment.

Suppose some kind of device, meter or tester is dead. When you check the device's battery or batteries, you discover nasty corrosion deposits on its battery terminals. If so, avoid spraying those terminals with an electrical or brake cleaner. First, these aerosol cleaners may not work as well as you expected. Second, sometimes these cleaners attack the plastic in which the battery terminals are mounted.

Instead, try cleaning the corroded battery terminals with a cotton swab and a “neutralizer” such as white vinegar or lemon juice. First, dampen the swab with the white vinegar or lemon juice then patiently rub the swab against the corroded terminal inside the meter or tester. Work carefully and patiently because you don't want a dripping wet swab to allow the “neutralizer” to flow inside the device.

Eventually, the vinegar or lemon juice will soften the corrosion deposits enough that you can remove them. For example, gently wipe off the softened deposits with a clean, dry cotton swab, a piece of soft cloth or a tiny brush. An old toothbrush also works well here as a clean-up tool.

Let your technicians and staff make it a shop policy and/or work habit to remove batteries whenever meters, testers and the like are put away. Or, upgrade to the newer generation rechargeable batteries. Experience shows that these batteries — including lithium types — are much less likely to leak during device “down time.”

Dan Marinucci is a free-lance automotive service writer and former editor of two automotive service magazines who writes a regular auto service column for Tire Business. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. His previous columns are available at www.tirebusiness.com.