That's not too bad. Be glad they weren't in the flashlights. Many years ago, I had to throw away several mini-Mags (had a collection of different colored ones) and one full-size flashlight (torch) because the batteries had leaked inside, bonding the cells to the inner wall or welding the cap on so you couldn't get inside. That's when I began my crusade to eliminate alkalines from my life. ![Rant :rant:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/rant.gif.pagespeed.ce.koOB_HE-VX.gif)
I lost a beautiful vintage USAF inspection light with interchangeable perspex light guides and 2 different mirrors to a pair of those evil bunnies that way. I was not able to get the front one out, even using a drift punch. At one place, they have eaten through the tube.
![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xshocked.gif.pagespeed.ic.CrwtrNUjLO.png)
Cor this thread is just depressing accounts of death and acid attacks this morning. Sounds like BBC News ![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif.pagespeed.ce._hfWAz_QHO.gif)
I'm tempted to grab some of those Ikea NiMh cells after reading the above. They are apparently pretty good.
@Kosmic: that's what happened to the one I had that exploded.
You left out the fire. Nowadays, it is common part of a safety and facility indoctrination that workers are told where to put used batteries. That always something I am waiting for. When I ask for details, I am regularely shown a cardboard box with a hole in the top, where people should insert their discarded batteries until the box is full.
That is when I ask what they assume is happening IN that box and if they ever hat a look into it. As opposed to the spider-in-the-vacuum-scare, taking that look can reveal oxidative horrors.
It is a fact that in multiple instances those battery recycling boxes have started fires, with just non-combustive contamination in certainly even more cases. In one case a test lab or electronics workshop was affected. It is by the mechanism of leakage and also by the danger of a closed circuit spontaleously forming over a number of those galvanic monsters by shifting or dropping the missing one in.