... to neutralize the alkali with Windex ...
Neutralize?
pH : 10.7 (at 25ºC)
I knew you'd be along to bust my balls.
Bottom line: Decent quality Windex (any with enough ammonia you can smell it) is very effective at breaking down battery electrolyte and stopping the corrosion it has caused from progressing; a few cycles of spray/scrub with a toothbrush works like magic. Follow it with water rinse (sometimes alcohol after that to help the water evaporate from under components) and blow with compressed air, then bake in the summer sun a few hours and the corrosion part of the repair is resolved.
While I have no doubt Saskia's process is BETTER, I've been resurrecting battery-fuxxored remote controls and other battery-powered gadgets this way for 40 years; I don't care how many ways you might argue it can't work. IT DOES. And YES, it works better than plain water alone.
mnem
Well, if you will say you're neutralizing an alkali with another alkali you can expect at least a hint at a minor correction. (Ammonia, "as any fule know" is an alkali. One doesn't neutralize an alkali with another alkali, one needs an acid.) If I was busting ya balls, you'd be feeling more pain.
I suspect that the Windex is doing you good because it contains water and some surfactant/detergent/soap, but most definately not becuase it contains ammonia. (I actually had to check the MSDS for Windex because although I suspected it contains ammonia I couldn't be sure. Ammonia based window cleaners were once common here, but the ammonia was phased out years ago*.
I don't care how many ways you might argue it can't work.
C'mon, nobody said that. I would have thought that using a Strawman argument was beneath you.
* I suspect because back in the 60s spraying ammonia in someone's face was the favoured method of robbers of armoured cars, banks and Post Offices here in the UK. So much so that in the 1968 Firearms Act "any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing" was classified as a "Section 5" prohibited weapon and
inter alia also a firearm by dictat, carrying additional penalties above and beyond mere misuse of a firearm. A classic case of unintended consequences as those gentlemen who had been civil enough to use noxious, but non-lethal, ammonia graduated to real firearms instead - seeing as if they used ammonia they were going to be prosecuted for all the firearms offences
and possession of a Section 5 prohibited weapon
as well.