Loose connection inside D cell battery
 

Anybody ever see a D cell flashlight battery with a poor connection
inside?
I had a flashlight that was giving me fits. The light would always
fade out or quite at the most inopportune time. A shake or bang would
sometimes get it working again.
I cleaned battery connections and every other connection inside the
flashlight. No help.

Finally when I had the batteries out I happened to shake one and it
sounded like liquid inside. There was a rattle in it! It was a
duracell alkaline. The battery still had good voltage but an
intermittent connection inside.

New batteries solved the problem. Anyone else ever hear of a problem
like that with D cells?

73
Gary K4FMX

I have seen this problem in quite a few flashlights and they don't seem
to be brand specific either and it even includes a new maglight. It
would always seem to show up when I was up in a very tight crawl space
that took 20 minutes to get to :-). Maybe the D cells did get internal
damage from being dropped because the symptoms were the same. Good
thinking on your part, I would have never considered that.

With kind regards.

Mike Burch K8MB

Apache Junction, AZ

I have seen this problem in quite a few flashlights and they don't seem
to be brand specific either and it even includes a new maglight. It
would always seem to show up when I was up in a very tight crawl space
that took 20 minutes to get to :-). Maybe the D cells did get internal
damage from being dropped because the symptoms were the same. Good
thinking on your part, I would have never considered that.

With kind regards.

Mike Burch K8MB

Apache Junction, AZ

On Fri, 21 May 2004 06:51:34 GMT, Mike Burch
wrote:



I have seen this problem in quite a few flashlights and they don't seem
to be brand specific either and it even includes a new maglight. It
would always seem to show up when I was up in a very tight crawl space
that took 20 minutes to get to :-). Maybe the D cells did get internal
damage from being dropped because the symptoms were the same. Good
thinking on your part, I would have never considered that.


I had a similar problem with a 5A slowblow fuse in a TCVR, on RX it
was fine, but when I went to TX the fuse acted like a re-settable and
went O/C. I spent hours looking in the TX strip for a problem ;=(

On Fri, 21 May 2004 06:51:34 GMT, Mike Burch
wrote:



I have seen this problem in quite a few flashlights and they don't seem
to be brand specific either and it even includes a new maglight. It
would always seem to show up when I was up in a very tight crawl space
that took 20 minutes to get to :-). Maybe the D cells did get internal
damage from being dropped because the symptoms were the same. Good
thinking on your part, I would have never considered that.


I had a similar problem with a 5A slowblow fuse in a TCVR, on RX it
was fine, but when I went to TX the fuse acted like a re-settable and
went O/C. I spent hours looking in the TX strip for a problem ;=(

Gary Schafer wrote in message
...
Anybody ever see a D cell flashlight battery with a poor connection
inside?
I had a flashlight that was giving me fits. The light would always
fade out or quite at the most inopportune time. A shake or bang would
sometimes get it working again.
I cleaned battery connections and every other connection inside the
flashlight. No help.

Finally when I had the batteries out I happened to shake one and it
sounded like liquid inside. There was a rattle in it! It was a
duracell alkaline. The battery still had good voltage but an
intermittent connection inside.

New batteries solved the problem. Anyone else ever hear of a problem
like that with D cells?

73
Gary K4FMX

Yes... but I had the problem on one or two occasions with 9v
batteries---Wallgreen store brand. Considering the large number of
batteries I used the issue is a minor one in my instance. BTW, those
Wallgreen batteries are a good deal, especially when they are on sale.

RG

Gary Schafer wrote in message
...
Anybody ever see a D cell flashlight battery with a poor connection
inside?
I had a flashlight that was giving me fits. The light would always
fade out or quite at the most inopportune time. A shake or bang would
sometimes get it working again.
I cleaned battery connections and every other connection inside the
flashlight. No help.

Finally when I had the batteries out I happened to shake one and it
sounded like liquid inside. There was a rattle in it! It was a
duracell alkaline. The battery still had good voltage but an
intermittent connection inside.

New batteries solved the problem. Anyone else ever hear of a problem
like that with D cells?

73
Gary K4FMX

Yes... but I had the problem on one or two occasions with 9v
batteries---Wallgreen store brand. Considering the large number of
batteries I used the issue is a minor one in my instance. BTW, those
Wallgreen batteries are a good deal, especially when they are on sale.

RG

On Fri, 21 May 2004 03:07:32 GMT Gary Schafer
wrote:

Anybody ever see a D cell flashlight battery with a poor connection
inside?

I had one once which seemed to just have very high internal
resistance. It measured fine for voltage using a high impedance
voltmeter, but wouldn't get the bulb much above a dull glow. There was
no rattle to it, however, and I only solved the problem by throwing it
away.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

On Fri, 21 May 2004 03:07:32 GMT Gary Schafer
wrote:

Anybody ever see a D cell flashlight battery with a poor connection
inside?

I had one once which seemed to just have very high internal
resistance. It measured fine for voltage using a high impedance
voltmeter, but wouldn't get the bulb much above a dull glow. There was
no rattle to it, however, and I only solved the problem by throwing it
away.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

I have used that technique on quite a few circumstances. It works
pretty good. A good G-Force test against a cinder block wall never hurt
anyone and is most just good entertainment Time is money! :-)
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