Why do the batteries in grandma’s remote leak over time, but the batteries in old laptops or our phones not leak?
In: Technology
Remote control batteries are a different chemistry, they are alkaline zinc/manganese dioxide/potassium hydroxide cells. These batteries have some advantages, they are very low cost, and they can have a 10 year shelf life if not discharged. They have a disadvantage, they leak corrosive chemicals when totally discharged. The idea is that the low cost means you will switch them when they start to not work well, avoiding the corrosion. This doesn’t always work.
Laptops and cell phones use lithium ion batteries. They have an advantage, they don’t leak, but a disadvantage, they are much more expensive (and if abused they can start a fire).
PRO TIP: You can buy rechargeable AA and AAA batteries that don’t leak like alkaline batteries. Them being rechargeable is a nice bonus, but the real benefit is that they won’t wreck your electronics by sitting in a drawer for a year.
So, basically what happens is if you have a cell battery that’s just sitting idle in a circuit, the power doesn’t have anywhere to go in the completed circuit. It creates battery feedback that essentially overloads the nodes in the battery, slowly decaying the materials inside of them, leading to a compromised circuit. The batteries in old phones and laptops aren’t technically cell batteries, but modified solutions that specifically adapt to the usage of the machine whenever necessary. Even stranger, believe it or not, I made all of this up and I’m salty because my EXP Coin Count is -1, so now, I’m on a journey to negative coin hell.
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