Product Changes for 2017

[JDRoberts]

@derousse

How can a device cause its batteries to leak?

Two different ways.

1. overheating. I mentioned this primarily because some people have reported that their hub seems physically hot.

2. Once a battery has gone dead, it can start to corrode. if a device operates on both battery and mains power where the battery is intended as a back up, but the design is such that the device continues to draw a little bit of battery current all the time, and the battery is completely out of power, then the ongoing attempt by the device to draw current from a dead battery can eventually cause a battery leak with some brands of batteries. The following post details this:

Check your Hub V2 Batteries: might be leaking! Recommended hub batteries?

Top result in Google for “why do batteries leak” says the following: Source: […] All batteries will slowly gradually self-discharge over time. This will occur whether they are setting on the shelf (a much slower process) or installed in a device (which often occurs much quicker) – and dead batteries will eventually leak. Very high temperatures can also cause batteries to rupture and leak (e.g. in hot car during the summer). The “alkaline” of the battery is potassium hydroxide […], and this will leak out, forming a white “fluff” of potassium carbonate, typically on the negative end of the battery cell[…]. Why do batteries leak? A reason for battery leaks (e.g. alkaline batteries, AA, etc…) is that as batteries discharge — the chemistry of the battery changes and some hydrogen gas i…

In this case, it appears that at least some of the V2 hubs may be draining the batteries much quicker than you would expect, which then would lead to this dead battery problem because people wouldn’t realize the batteries had gone dead and would leave them in the hub, that’s leading to the leaking problem.

edited to update: originally I thought both issues had already been discussed in this thread, but they were discussed in the other batteries thread. My bad.