Important cold weather note....

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to relate an experience with my Explorer to help you guys from having the same thing happen to you. This winter, many of you will be out in cold conditions with your detector, only because you are a "diehard" detectorist who doesn't know the meaning of cabin fever, and you may encounter ground that is at or below freezing temperature.
This happened to me one morning at the Hartford Hunt and as I was recovering targets, my detector was laying on the ground. Well the ground was covered in a heavy frost and after about 30 minutes, my fully charged set of alkalines went dead. I went back to the truck and put in a fresh set of alkalines and they died in about 5 minutes. Now I realize that battery life is shortened as the temperature gets colder, but 5 minutes?
Well, in the course of investigating the battery pack a second time I noticed what looked like water dripping out of the end of the battery pack. I coudn't imagine how water got in there and when I went to blow the moisture out of the end of the battery pack, I got a surprise.... some of it splashed on my lips and BURNED.... that wasn't water, it was battery acid. When I pulled the batteries from the pack I noticed 2 of them had turned black, swollen, and leaked the acid out of them. Now I have used thousands of alkalines before without any problem, so I concluded that the batteries must have frozen from the cold weather. Since the battery pack is in the handle of the machine and that part lies on the ground when you set it down, it wouldn't take long at all for the frosty cold to freeze the batteries. I don't know the effect for the rechargables, and I certainly don't plan on finding out, but I definitly will not allow the detector to directly contact the ground or anything else at or below freezing temperature.
Luckily the battery acid didn't get into the machine anywhere, and luckily the batteries didn't heat up and melt the machine.... so hopefully you'll read this and heed it to avoid any similar problems. In any event, detectors are sensitive electronic items, and exposure to temperature extremes can invite unwanted problems, so be careful with them.... maybe insulate them or use them for only short periods of time in the cold.
Also remember.... moving them from hot to cold and back can cause condensation to form inside of the machine with damaging results.... don't subject them to sudden temperature changes, allow a slow acclimation.
Take care, and the best of luck in the coming New Year, Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Mike,
I have had similar problems with the packs even in normal weather, it is caused by the contact springs internally shorting out between a couple of cells outer casings on certain makes of battery that arn't insulated to well, check your springs stay centered on the ends of the alkaline cells, there is an overcurrent cut out fitted inside near the connector but it only operates from external shorts to the whole pack.
p.s.
some top covers are glued on and the only way i found to get them off if gentle prising wont work was to slam it full of batterys flat onto a hard surface a few times to crack the glue.

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting.... thanks for the tip <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""> HH, Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Cause I have had mine out in 20 degrees for a few hours with no problems using the nimh packs ad I always set it on the ground while digging..the last couple times the ground was froze solid the first few inchesand snow on the ground.. then again I never use alkylines...

 

[Anonymous]

The ones that went bad on me were alkalines.... I have left spent ones outdoors in the back of my truck over a freezing night and saw how they would swell.... presumably from freezing. Alkalines are much more suseptible to the electrolyte inside leaking out... I don't think the NIMH Rechargeables contain any similar electrolyte. Rob noted above that it might have been from the spring contact at the end of the pack causing the short.... which might have been, but I didn't see that the spring was bent or otherwise altered at the time. Maybe I did have a defective battery, but as I said 2 of them were bad, so who knows for sure. I just don't want to take any undue chances with this machine.... it's too expensive to replace because of a little lack of foresight or proper care. Take care, Mike.