Oily substance in my battery box

[Matthew Priest]

I’ve been been using Duracell 9 volt in my bass. But recently here for the last couple of times when I would check my battery, there was this oily substance on the battery? Any ideas on what could be causing this and is it a major concern?

 

[Beej]

Leakage? I'd toss that battery and wipe everything out of the spot.

 

[Johnny Fingers]

Seepage from the battery. Happens sometimes. Easier to clean up than the white crusted stuff.
Time to replace. Check it more frequently going on.

 

[JZQuantum]

Wipe down the insides of the battery compartment with a slightly moist cloth and baking soda. This will neutralize the acid, assuming it is an acid leak.

 

[vid1900]

Wipe down box and terminals with Acid toilet bowl cleaner.

Rinse after it stops fizzing.

Baking soda makes it worse, because it, and the corrosive alkaline battery juice, are both alkaline

 

[Bob_Ross]

Wipe down box and terminals with Acid toilet bowl cleaner.

!?!?! Is that just a generic reference to any commercially-available toilet bowl cleaner, or are there specific brands that are known to be acidic? Or is "Acid" the actual brand name?

Must confess I've never looked at the ingredients on the bottle of toilet bowl cleaner.

 

[vid1900]

!?!?! Is that just a generic reference to any commercially-available toilet bowl cleaner, or are there specific brands that are known to be acidic? Or is "Acid" the actual brand name?

Must confess I've never looked at the ingredients on the bottle of toilet bowl cleaner.

Sno-Bowl or Zep are both thick, so they don't run everywhere; and say "acidic" right in the product name.

In this thread, you can see some **miracle** circuit board saves, after leaking batteries corroded them:

Invalid Link Removed

 

[Arie X]

toilet bowl cleaner in your bass? really?

 

[vid1900]

toilet bowl cleaner in your bass? really?

If you don't neutralized the alkali salts from a leaky battery, it corrodes up the wires and onto the preamp board.

The alkali keeps corroding, even after the battery itself has been replaced.

Even the fumes from the battery juices will corrode metals inside the cavity.

How many vintage pedals have you bought at garage sales where the batteries have leaked and ate up 1/4 of the circuit board traces...

 

[vid1900]

Or how about this acoustic guitar preamp where the battery leaked and the fumes corroded everything in sight?

 

[Arie X]

why not something less aggressive -like vinegar for example?

 

[Lesfunk]

toilet bowl cleaner in your bass? really?

If it’s a Bongo, yes

 

[digmeout]

I use equal parts of white vinegar and lemon juice on a swab to clean up that stuff up, and then blot up with a damp paper towel. Doesn't take much.

 

[vid1900]

why not something less aggressive -like vinegar for example?

Not strong enough.

There are tons of "just use vinegar" posts on the internet, but the corrosion returns.

If you don't see the corrosion literally fizzing off of the metal, your acid is not strong enough to permanently remove the alkali salts.

Here you can see the damage that has traveled along the ground plane from 3 leaking duracell batteries, on this $300 board:

Here you can see the thick Sno-Bowl eating off all the corrosion. It does not eat the copper, nor remove the conformal coatings. When it stops fizzing, there is no alkali remaining:

Look at all that clean copper; no vinegar could do that. There are 2 places where the alkali ate all the way through the traces, those will be jumpered over. The corrosion will not be returning here, lol:

 

[Arie X]

huh, interesting. thanks for sharing!

 

[Bob_Ross]

The hell with circuit boards, I need to get some of that stuff for my toilet bowl!

 

[iiipopes]

Guys, if you need acid to neutralize an alkaline leak, a drop of diluted distilled vinegar on a clean no-lint rag to wipe clean the battery compartment does the best and doesn't affect the bass, your fingers, or anything else. After you wipe out the compartment, go back and do it again with another rag slightly damp with plain water to clean up any residue, then let dry before putting everything back together.

But the point is made above: use a touch of dissolved baking powder to neutralize a leak from an acid battery (most commonly used to clean car battery terminals, probably from which the advice came from), and a touch of acid if the leak is alkaline. And ALWAYS wipe it down with plain water slightly damp rag to remove any residue, and let dry.