Really bizarre incident with AA battery...

I was at work last night (covering a nursing shift at a nursing home) and the following crazy incident happened. I went into one resident's room to give her her pills, and she showed me her TV remote with only one of the batteries in it, and it was partway out, and it was HOT--so hot it was melting the plastic of the remote!! She said she had tried to get it out but it was too hot (fortunately she didn't appear to have burned her fingers), and handed it to me. I grabbed a big wad of TP from the bathroom and used that to pull out the battery without burning my fingers; the battery was making some weird fizzing sounds which made me drop it (well, sort of throw it) on the floor. Then I thought, this sounds like it's going to explode, so I threw a towel on top of it to contain it if that happened but then realized that was probably a fire hazard given how hot the battery was. Fortunately this building had windows that could be opened, so I opened the window and tossed out the battery into an area covered with gravel. Is that the weirdest thing, or what?

did you get a Jolt from it? (sorry I couldn't resist)

That IS strange, glad no one was hurt.

I once bumped a CFL bulb in the basement while carrying boxes in (low ceiling) and it suddenly started growing brighter and brighter... and BRIGHTER.. At first I'm like OK.. that can't be good. I know they contain lead or some other nasty particles. It kept growing brighter and I was afraid it would explode, much like the battery, but I finally managed to reach in and pull the chain to turn it off. It was VERY hot to the touch so I grabbed a towel and took the bulb out and set it on the concrete to cool before I pitched it.

Shannon

battery - sounds like an acid leak. I've had bulbs explode on me too, scary.

yikes.

Household batteries are alkaline. I've had plenty of batteries leak over the years, but nothing like that ... I wonder if maybe someone put it in with the polarity reversed??

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

yikes.

Household batteries are alkaline. I've had plenty of batteries leak over the years, but nothing like that ... I wonder if maybe someone put it in with the polarity reversed??

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I think she did actually have it in with the polarity reversed...not entirely sure as that's not really what I was paying attention to at the time but I think it was in backwards. Yikes is right! To answer Mimi's question, there was no shocking experience involved ;).

One of the morning shows just had a thing on batteries and I admit I was only half listening, but I heard him say something about if changing change both because if you put in a new battery with an old one that it can cause one of them to get hot and even explode/catch on fire.

Here is a link, since I probably didn't catch it all right. :)
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?...ewsVideoArea.0

I teach indoor cycling at a club that makes us supply our own batteries (lame right?), but I've had the experience of having two 9volts in the same pocket get super hot...not enough to melt through my backpack, but enough to fuse my ear buds.:eek:

Not all that weird for a battery to get so hot that it can cause severe burn temperature wise and chemical burn from leaking electrolyte. This happens when the battery terminals are shorted or/and are installed in reverse direction.

I know that lithium ion batteries carry something like 10% of energy in gasoline for the same volume. And gasoline doesn't even carry its own oxidizer. Put it another way, that small battery can heat a mug of water as much as burning a two tablespoon full of gasoline.

NimH battery is only as third as powerful as lithium battery but still think of burning two teaspoon of gasoline.

And yes batteries can explode or catch on fire if there is uncontrolled reaction. This occurs when battery terminals are shorted.

You did the right thing by tossing it outside. Hope you or someone went to retrieve the dead battery. If not please do so. The leaking electrolyte is very bad for the environment not to mention hazard to anyone who comes in contact.

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Originally Posted by smilingcat

You did the right thing by tossing it outside. Hope you or someone went to retrieve the dead battery. If not please do so. The leaking electrolyte is very bad for the environment not to mention hazard to anyone who comes in contact.

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I didn't have a chance to retrieve it, but I did pass it on in report and mention that somebody should do so and dispose of it properly. Hopefully they did...