Samsung really cant catch a break with batteries. Maybe the will announce a recall notice on the V2 hub, especially if the TSA bans traveling with it. I would say that they might end up remotely disabling them but ST does this on a regular basis already every time they push an upgrade 
Based on the number of complaints, this is a systemic issue. I encourage everyone to file a support ticket with support@smartthings.com.
Iām concerned this may be a fire hazard due to hydrogen gas being released from the leaking batteries, combined with the heat emanated from the hub.
3 Likes
I have the first version of the V2 hub (STH-ETH200), which I never installed but I pulled it out of the box and measured the voltage across the hub battery terminals and when I first plug it in it reads 3v but then begins to drop until it falls into the millivolt range after about a minute. Unplugging and plugging it back in jumps to 3v and then tapers off again.
Not sure if this is acceptable or not but I donāt think its a battery problem as I have the original Ray-o-vacās that came with the unit and they are still fully charged with no leaking. I do know that trying to charge standard alkaline batteries will cause them to leak.
I just checked my Batteries after reading this discussion in my Version 2 Hub kit and found my RAY-O-VAC Batteries were leaking also. I am also on a UPS so I know they should have been Idle!! I bought my kit in August 2016. Took out RAY-O-VAC batteries and cleaned terminals left out till problem solved by Samsung.
1 Like
A set of new Duracellās I installed in October are already completely stone dead, despite no power outages since. I also measures 62mv being applied to the batteries, which is not significant but still enough to cause long-term battery deterioration. The battery compartment was also very warm.
I believe there is a compound problem where heat and current leakage are causing reduced battery life. I am guessing the heat build up is destroying a diode installed to prevent reverse voltage to the batteries. The heat then also subsequently is shortening the life of the batteries and combined with the leaking voltage, causing them to leak.
1 Like
So basically remove the batteries and just deal with power outages or get an external power backup.
2 Likes
Add me as one who opened up the hub and found the batteries (about 7 months old) starting to corrode.
1 Like
Support got back to me and go figure, took no responsibility
Thanks for reaching out! Iām sorry to hear you experienced this problem with the corrosion of your Hubās batteries. There is nothing wrong with your Hub or batteries, and this will naturally occur when devices constantly draw power from batteries in a backup capacity.
We definitely apologize for not alerting people sooner but we did recently publish a support article that addresses why this occurs, how to clean the corrosion, and steps you can take to prevent this from happening again. Please check out the following link:
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000177703-How-to-prevent-battery-corrosion
Rick
Official communication? Good luck. A bunch of us havenāt had operating hubs for almost 2 months now - and really no communication except ācan the engineers look at your hub again?ā. SMHā¦
and this will naturally occur when devices constantly draw power from batteries in a backup capacity.
This should not be happening when it has mains power though. lol. There IS a problem with the hub, its just a design problem rather than a manufacturing problem.
1 Like
Wow. Your hub hasnāt worked for 2 months.
Whatās wrong?
Son of aā¦
Over the Christmas break I also was troubleshooting ZigBee issues and had pulled the batteries and they were NOT leaking at that time. My hub was installed June of 2016 and is also on a UPS.
1 Like
This is clearly a design flaw that instead of being addressed is being glossed over as something normal. I donāt care what kind of battery device you have, if it causing batteries to leak in less than a year, you got a problem. Jeezzz!
1 Like
I checked six different devices that have some kind of RF radio, such as a Bluetooth alarm clock, and that have a battery back up.
All of them have a low battery alert, which would prevent the parasitic drain corrosion problem by letting the user know that the batteries are about to die.
1 Like
Iāve not seen one reported battery issue with someone that has the ETH-250 model of the v2 hub, like myself.
It seems clear (to me, anyway) that Samsung caught this issue and corrected it with the ETH-250 revision of the hub.
Someone up-post said their hub was smoking from battery leaking on the main board. This seems like a recall waiting to happen to me.
2 Likes
No leaking from my rayovac batteries. I have the 200 series but only had the hub for a month.
Nonetheless, I removed them to be on the safe side as this issue seems to be problematic with the 200ās since I figure it is just a matter of time before the same thing happens to mine.
1 Like
Since the outage in early Decmeber, it seems anything that requires ācloud processingā is not working (like turning on/off a switch via the app). Resetting the Hubās connection to the cloud by a power reset or network reset will ākickā the cloud back into gear for an hour or two at most.
Support kept blaming our network gear until we found enough users on this forum with different network equipment to rule that out. Then they blamed our hubs - but we pointed out that we all had different hubs with different purchase dates and finally conceded that the engineers would need to look into it. Support has been very polite, but the group of users with this problem must not be big enough to consider it ābrokenā. The engineers look at our hub every so many days when we get tired of waiting for a response and start emailing support for an update.
In the end, weāve been down since the first days in December. Its like ST just stopped working. Makes me think seriously about going to a home automation system that does not require the ācloudā to operate since this is what it would be like if Samsung decided to drop ST. We would all be out to dry. Well, I should say the rest of you would be - some of us already are!
(hereās the thread where the discussion about our situation is being tracked:)
2 Likes
Holy sxxt. Thatās not good. Must admit this post has passed me by.
Cannot say I blame you for looking at other alternatives. I would if I was in your shoes.
2 Likes
Wow! Thanks for the heads up. I would have never thought to look had I not run across this thread. I really wish Samsung would at least send out an advisory email about this 
2 Likes
Thanks for the info here everyone, Im glad I check because they were leaking but I caught it before the batteries did any damage. I took the batteries out in Oct after 10 months with no issues when I moved and they were fine, I reinstalled them in late Nov when I got my system back up and running and 2 months later batteries are leaking. Glad I decided to check.
1 Like