Hi All…
So I was sitting in the living room enjoying a beer when I heard a loud “crack” from the kitchen. I had a look around and noticed a big black mark on the bench where I’d put some old batteries and cells for recycling. I hadn’t yet got round to taping the contacts. Some of the cells were fairly new.
Where there used to be 8 AG10 alkie button cells, now there were only 7. One must have shorted against another, heated up then popped its top. After hunting around I eventually found the bits - the +ve case was ten feet away from the rest of the bits which comprised the -ve cap, a thin plastic separator and a plastic ring full of a black powder, presumably manganese dioxide. If a little button cell can do this, what could a bigger one do?
Now a lot of stores have battery recycling containers and looking at them they’re just a jumble of various kinds of battery and cell. In the container I had a look in, none of the batteries had any tape etc over the contacts. It just makes me wonder if there have ever been any fires caused by this, to me anyway, very scary practice, and if the shop owners are aware of the hazards of just dropping batteries into a box for recycling
I’ll post pictures of the remains of this unfortunate AG10 when I work out how to do it!!!
Cheers
Malc