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Bizarre Discovery: Flashlight batteries dead ! Guess why !

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Skybuck Flying

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Jun 12, 2023, 12:36:59 PM6/12/23
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Bizzare incident discovered on 12 june 2023 around 17:00, story writing at 18:22:

See if you can guess or hypothesize what happened:

1. I have a flashlight in my kitchen draw for emergency situations.

2. Today I tried to use the flashlight to shine into the washing machine which needed cleaning of the pump filter and drum. I tried to wash a baby towl, but the paper/strange subtance on it came loose and clogged the machine.

3. My sister cleaned it and used her mobile phone to shine a light on it.

4. Strangely enough I discovered the flashlight batteries were completely dead. I replaced them not so long ago. Maybe only a few, I used the power meter on the batteries to detect which where still half full and which ones were empty, but I am not yet sure. I will look at the batteries in my detail later on.

5. I put the flashlight on top of a duster/towel to protect the glass/see through part of the flashlight and also not to "bang" it.

Now guess and hypothesis what happened !
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Here is a further clue at least for my hypothesis..... towel/duster contains bacteria.
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Here is a further clue: on inspection of the inner workings of the flashlight I dicover a strange white subtance, like somebody spit inside of the flashlight halfwalf and it dripped past the batteries to the innerside of the flashlight
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My half-sister suspect this may be stuff from inside the battery, possibly... but how did it get out ?!
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Here is my hypothesis:

The bacteria/creatures living inside the duster/towel crawled through a few nanometers of the flashlight or perhaps were already inside the air as I re-filled the flashlight with batteries, or perhaps the bacteria were already on the batteries. But most likely came from the duster/towel.

The bacteria somehow managed to eat themselfes through one of the batteries. Maybe one of the batteries had a little defect/hole or the bacteria manage to eat right through it, I believe I see a little hole.

Another stranger hypothesis could be: that partially replacing the batteries may have caused a strange effect ? I loved to hear your thoughts on this.
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Furthermore I found this quite alarming, because the appartment also had some light defects, which were fixed by my family. But I was counting on my flashlight in case of darkness/failed lights or power shortage, therefore I found it quite alarming and still quite alarming that bizarra enough this flashlight FAILED to function properly !

LET THIS BE A WARNING TO FLASHLIGHT MANUFACTURERS THAT:

1. EITHER BATTERIES CAN LEAK AND CAUSE A SHORT CIRCUIT DRAWING ALL POWER.

2. EITHER BACTERIA CAN EAT THEIR WAY INTO BATTERIES AND CAUSE A SHORT CIRCUIT !

Jokingly at first I said to my sister before discovering this:

Perhaps a UFO flew over and drained the batteries, I did hear some strange craft fly over recently ! ;)

The subtance inside the flashlight and on top of the battery tray looks withish.

There was also some small black substance leakage onto my finger.

The white subtance was like a power.

The black substance like oil.

My advise to produce a better flashlight is:

1. Somehow wrap the batteries inside some kind of chemical wrapper that does not react with the subtances inside the battery, it should be a thight fit so that oize cannot leak through it.

2. TEST FLASHLIGHTS/BATTERIES IN BACTERIA RICH ENVIRONMENTS AND INSPECT WHAT IT DOES.

Finally:

I am not sure if the flashlight can be saved, it will need to be cleaned on the inside, it's a bit hard to clean.

I am not yet sure what to use to clean it.

My first guess would be :

Toilet paper or some kind of towel, with little bit of water and soap.

But I am not sure if this will be sufficient to get the white subtance of of it.

Perhaps the black oil leaked further into it in the top/glass part of it but probably not.

I was also considering simply holding it under the water the flashlight, but my sister warned me that would damage the device ?!

Further this is the second time that I write about the effect of bacteria on electronics.

The first time these newsgroups seemed to not believe me when I wrote that a motherboard capacitor/condensator blew up because of a bacteria controlling inside of it, eating the chemicals and producing gasses to blow up the condensator/capacitor.

This time I have much more clear evidence that this could indeed/actually be that case at least in this of this flashlight.

The substances is very clearly visible.

It's also quite bizarre because the flashlight mostly layed flat/horizontal... yet it looks like it dripped down there... from halfway the flashlight... so it definetly came from inside the flashlight.

My butt hurts but in this case I will go the extra mile and make some pictures for HARD CORE EVIDENCE/PROOF.

I already tried to clean some of it of though, but lots of it still in there.

HERE ARE THE PICTURES/PROOF, I WILL ALSO PHOTOGRAPH THE DRAWER AND THE DUSTER/TOWEL FOR FURTHER PROOF:

Link to pictures:
http://www.skybuck.org/Media/Pictures/BizarreFlashlightIncident/

(The first two pictures are somewhat dark, the next two pictures the flasher was set to always on/manual mode used so it can be clearly seen that that is some substance at the top dripping down and also dust particle on the bottom of picture, around the inner shaft)

Another thing comes to mind is a production defect, but I don't think so because the flashlight worked and operated perfectly/marvelously when I first bought it and used it the first few years.

I find it very alarming that an emergency device failed like this. :( :( :(

I hope you find it alarming too.

I hope that flashlight manufacturers take note and make improvements.

Maybe deliver it in future with something soft so it can be placed on it.

Then again maybe the soft thing becomes dirty too.

I think what I have learned from this is:

Do not keep a flashlight near bacteria !

HOWEVER !!!

The motherboard was kept in the box, in a closest, far far away from me...

Perhaps the bacteria already crawled inside of it.

So my caution conclusion is:

Bacteria are everywhere, especially in my dusty appartment and will crawl/reach anywhere.

However in this case the duster/towel may have speed up the process.

Therefore I do believe this can be a very serious issue for all kinds of emergency electronics long term and thus something better should be designed, constructed AND !!!! TESTED with REAL BACTERIA to see if it can survive bacteria or not !

Too many assumptions where made by this flashlight producer that such a thing could not occur...

Especially for electronics newsgroup:

Please explain how this substance could have "short circuited" or "drained" the batteries" ?! Constructed mistake, the side of the flashlight seems to be of metal ?! Did this cause a short circuit ?! I find this weird...

Should it have had a plastic finish on the interior instead to prevent this from happening or would it have still short circuited ?!?!

Also the top of it near the spring seems to contain a lot of metal for contact ?! It seems this flashlight has too much metal contact surfaces area which could cause short circuits like this ?! Plus I wonder if this leaking electricity could have flowed through my hand ?!

Maybe it could have even shocked me or injured me at the time that the batteries where somewhat charged ?!

This might actually still happened if I don't clean it properly ?!

What are the dangerous/risks of electrocution of 6 of these typical batteries ?!

Battery info:
Varta AA 1.5 volts alkaline best befoe 12-2018 made in germany.
LONGLIFE POWER
PD 1218

I purchased this flashlight probably around 2018 so it seems at time of purchase these batteries were already old... hmmm suspicion, bought at the same shop, kinda sucks to discover this now...

I did not know batteries are date dependent at least for long gevity ?! It says long life power ?! bit misleading I guess if these batteries deteriorate by themselfes ?! Or was it bacteria ?! Hmm weird.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.
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