https://notalwaysright.com/about-to-get-charged-with-battery-part-8/140784/

Basic story: woman calls a store, saying she bought a takeaway coffee, reheated it at home in a microwave, found a button battery, calls store to complain, manager calls her a liar because the battery would have exploded in the microwave.

Several of the comments under the story debate whether a button battery in coffee would explode in the microwave. I didn’t read all the comments, I got a bit lost. In any case, I’m not about to test it.

What say you?

I suspect the battery will have survived.

• What say you?

Straight out asking for coffee for life? Regardless of whether the battery would explode or not, I’m falling on the ide of “she’s lying”…

coffee(water) absorbs most of microwave energy.

the coffee is a load, a fairly normal load of typical MWO use, + that near load around the battery reduced the heating of the battery.

guessing.

We need someone with the right setup to do the experiment safely. Pity the Mythbusters are now defunct.

party_pants said:

We need someone with the right setup to do the experiment safely. Pity the Mythbusters are now defunct.

lithium might be just what the whinger needs

• We need someone with the right setup to do the experiment safely. Pity the Mythbusters are now defunct.

Didnt they do some kind of “talent show” where they got new hosts?

furious said:

• We need someone with the right setup to do the experiment safely. Pity the Mythbusters are now defunct.

Didnt they do some kind of “talent show” where they got new hosts?

I don’t know.

It would not be Mythbusters for me without Adam and Jamie. I did watch The White Rabbit Project which Tori, Grant and Kari did, but that wasn’t quite so good. Hard to see any new crew filling their shoes. Besides which, I think they had run out of myths to test towards the end, the last series was good but they deliberately wanted to go out on a high.

party_pants said:

furious said:

• We need someone with the right setup to do the experiment safely. Pity the Mythbusters are now defunct.

Didnt they do some kind of “talent show” where they got new hosts?

I don’t know.

It would not be Mythbusters for me without Adam and Jamie. I did watch The White Rabbit Project which Tori, Grant and Kari did, but that wasn’t quite so good. Hard to see any new crew filling their shoes. Besides which, I think they had run out of myths to test towards the end, the last series was good but they deliberately wanted to go out on a high.

What I know is that mucking about with batteries other than the way instructed can be destructive.

The button cell battery case is metal. Metal reflects microwaves and does not get heated by them.

The contents of the battery would be shielded by the metal case and so the only heat that the battery would be exposed to would be by convection from the coffee.

The coffee would need to reach a temperature that would exceed the tolerance of the battery to be able to explode.

fsm said:

The button cell battery case is metal. Metal reflects microwaves and does not get heated by them.

The contents of the battery would be shielded by the metal case and so the only heat that the battery would be exposed to would be by convection from the coffee.

The coffee would need to reach a temperature that would exceed the tolerance of the battery to be able to explode.

Mostly all it would do would be, pollute the coffee.

roughbarked said:

fsm said:

The button cell battery case is metal. Metal reflects microwaves and does not get heated by them.

The contents of the battery would be shielded by the metal case and so the only heat that the battery would be exposed to would be by convection from the coffee.

The coffee would need to reach a temperature that would exceed the tolerance of the battery to be able to explode.

Mostly all it would do would be, pollute the coffee.

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

fsm said:

The button cell battery case is metal. Metal reflects microwaves and does not get heated by them.

The contents of the battery would be shielded by the metal case and so the only heat that the battery would be exposed to would be by convection from the coffee.

The coffee would need to reach a temperature that would exceed the tolerance of the battery to be able to explode.

Mostly all it would do would be, pollute the coffee.

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

Even if you could get such a battery to explode it would be a minor event. People don’t even notice when it happens on their wrist. Their watch stops, so the bring it to me. I’m the one who sees whatever has happened.

roughbarked said:

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

Microwaves have difficulty penetrating small apertures. The holes in the door of your microwave oven effectively block the microwave radiation, so I doubt that the distance between the two halves of a button cell case would be a problem.

fsm said:

roughbarked said:

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

Microwaves have difficulty penetrating small apertures. The holes in the door of your microwave oven effectively block the microwave radiation, so I doubt that the distance between the two halves of a button cell case would be a problem.

Yeah. I can grok that.

roughbarked said:

fsm said:

roughbarked said:

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

Microwaves have difficulty penetrating small apertures. The holes in the door of your microwave oven effectively block the microwave radiation, so I doubt that the distance between the two halves of a button cell case would be a problem.

Yeah. I can grok that.

Further on them exploding in the watch. I see heaps of batteries, I just toss them without testing them and a shop assistant asked me, “why don’t you test those batteries?” I replied that your younger eyes should be able to see that the battery is swollen.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

fsm said:

Microwaves have difficulty penetrating small apertures. The holes in the door of your microwave oven effectively block the microwave radiation, so I doubt that the distance between the two halves of a button cell case would be a problem.

Yeah. I can grok that.

Further on them exploding in the watch. I see heaps of batteries, I just toss them without testing them and a shop assistant asked me, “why don’t you test those batteries?” I replied that your younger eyes should be able to see that the battery is swollen.

There is no need to test the old battery unless a new one doesn’t maake it work or unless it is still under some warranty..

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

Yeah. I can grok that.

Further on them exploding in the watch. I see heaps of batteries, I just toss them without testing them and a shop assistant asked me, “why don’t you test those batteries?” I replied that your younger eyes should be able to see that the battery is swollen.

There is no need to test the old battery unless a new one doesn’t make it work or unless it is still under some warranty..

I mucked about with my Citizen multitester and added the light bulb from a digital watch to the battery test circuit so that whilst testing the battery, if I pressed a button, the bulb would light and I could thus see the capacity of the battery under load.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

Further on them exploding in the watch. I see heaps of batteries, I just toss them without testing them and a shop assistant asked me, “why don’t you test those batteries?” I replied that your younger eyes should be able to see that the battery is swollen.

There is no need to test the old battery unless a new one doesn’t make it work or unless it is still under some warranty..

I mucked about with my Citizen multitester and added the light bulb from a digital watch to the battery test circuit so that whilst testing the battery, if I pressed a button, the bulb would light and I could thus see the capacity of the battery under load.

Anyway, this stuff is only for when you are troubleshooting problems with a particular watch that someone actually wants me to fix, not run of the mill battery changes. If the battery has swollen and exploded, I usually quote them a new movement or a new watch.

Yeah, reading the op right through for the first time, my thought was, maybe you’d have thought differently had the battery actually gone down with that last sip.
It would be a far bigger issue if she had swallowed it. Particularly if it was a lithium battery.

roughbarked said:

Yeah, reading the op right through for the first time, my thought was, maybe you’d have thought differently had the battery actually gone down with that last sip.
It would be a far bigger issue if she had swallowed it. Particularly if it was a lithium battery.

But she’d probably have to be quite young or maybe with diverticulitis?

fsm said:

roughbarked said:

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

Microwaves have difficulty penetrating small apertures. The holes in the door of your microwave oven effectively block the microwave radiation, so I doubt that the distance between the two halves of a button cell case would be a problem.

any (potentially explosive, or tending cause leakage or expulsion) internal heating would be from voltage difference (radio frequency) between two faces of the button, one of which is smaller.

i’d think in a typically loaded MWO (with a coffee in it for example) that the battery is unlikely to heat much.

in an unloaded MWO (ignoring the battery) the situation may be different, and depend on positioning of the battery.

so it depends on to what extent you can liven up one terminal plate of the battery like an antenna.

guessing

transition said:

fsm said:

roughbarked said:

Between the metal plates that are basically the case is a seal that both insulates and protects against leakage to a degree. This may get damaged but not having tried it, I have no idea what setting to start with.

Microwaves have difficulty penetrating small apertures. The holes in the door of your microwave oven effectively block the microwave radiation, so I doubt that the distance between the two halves of a button cell case would be a problem.

any (potentially explosive, or tending cause leakage or expulsion) internal heating would be from voltage difference (radio frequency) between two faces of the button, one of which is smaller.

i’d think in a typically loaded MWO (with a coffee in it for example) that the battery is unlikely to heat much.

in an unloaded MWO (ignoring the battery) the situation may be different, and depend on positioning of the battery.

so it depends on to what extent you can liven up one terminal plate of the battery like an antenna.

guessing

This is the sort of stuff that happens when moisture gets on the battery or indeed when the battery leaks.

An exploding battery isn’t a risk the customer was concerned about and it seems they weren’t aware it was a risk.
They were complaining about finding a battery in their coffee, which is a legitimate thing to complain about. Whether or not they put the battery there or if there was ever a battery in the first place is an entirely different issue.

There are many, many videos of batteries being microwaved, with various outcomes, but I’ve not seen one that shows a battery submerged in fluid and then microwaved.

kids swallowing lithium batteries was on the news again this morning. The slippery little buggers are everywhere in our environment.

roughbarked said:

The slippery little buggers are everywhere in our environment.

Just like single use plastic, the government should introduce legislation to limit the impact of kids on the environment.

Lary said:

roughbarked said:

The slippery little buggers are everywhere in our environment.

Just like single use plastic, the government should introduce legislation to limit the impact of kids on the environment.

and cardinals.

Divine Angel said:

https://notalwaysright.com/about-to-get-charged-with-battery-part-8/140784/

Basic story: woman calls a store, saying she bought a takeaway coffee, reheated it at home in a microwave, found a button battery, calls store to complain, manager calls her a liar because the battery would have exploded in the microwave.

Several of the comments under the story debate whether a button battery in coffee would explode in the microwave. I didn’t read all the comments, I got a bit lost. In any case, I’m not about to test it.

What say you?

Bear in mind that this not a recorded transcript, just a biased person’s rendering of the conversation. Seems near impossible she said “I demand free coffee for life”, no one would be that unsubtle.

Button batteries can use all different kinds of anodes and cathodes but yeah you’d expect them to get hot in a microwave oven. On the other hand they are small and can ditch heat easily because of the big surface area to mass ratio, and if it surrounded by coffee then the convection will help.

Back on the other hand, the opportunities for a child to put a battery in a cup of coffee at home are probably greater than the chances that it could end up in a coffee from a store. They keep the cups stacked.

dv said:

Seems near impossible she said “I demand free coffee for life”, no one would be that unsubtle.

You’ve never worked in retail, obviously.

On the other other hand I personally would not drink a coffee if I knew it had been microwaved with a button battery in there. I don’t think it would explode but it could leak.

dv said:

On the other other hand I personally would not drink a coffee if I knew it had been microwaved with a button battery in there. I don’t think it would explode but it could leak.

The lithium may aid with your wild mood swings.

sibeen said:

dv said:

On the other other hand I personally would not drink a coffee if I knew it had been microwaved with a button battery in there. I don’t think it would explode but it could leak.

The lithium may aid with your wild mood swings.

Sunday morning is everyday for all I care, and I’m not scared

dv said:

sibeen said:

dv said:

On the other other hand I personally would not drink a coffee if I knew it had been microwaved with a button battery in there. I don’t think it would explode but it could leak.

The lithium may aid with your wild mood swings.

Sunday morning is everyday for all I care, and I’m not scared

coffee’s poor mans’ lithium

if you’re lucky you live in a part of the world where there’s plenty in the ground water, naturally.

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

https://notalwaysright.com/about-to-get-charged-with-battery-part-8/140784/

Basic story: woman calls a store, saying she bought a takeaway coffee, reheated it at home in a microwave, found a button battery, calls store to complain, manager calls her a liar because the battery would have exploded in the microwave.

Several of the comments under the story debate whether a button battery in coffee would explode in the microwave. I didn’t read all the comments, I got a bit lost. In any case, I’m not about to test it.

What say you?

Bear in mind that this not a recorded transcript, just a biased person’s rendering of the conversation. Seems near impossible she said “I demand free coffee for life”, no one would be that unsubtle.

Button batteries can use all different kinds of anodes and cathodes but yeah you’d expect them to get hot in a microwave oven. On the other hand they are small and can ditch heat easily because of the big surface area to mass ratio, and if it surrounded by coffee then the convection will help.

Back on the other hand, the opportunities for a child to put a battery in a cup of coffee at home are probably greater than the chances that it could end up in a coffee from a store. They keep the cups stacked.

Probably similar to the probability of a needle getting into a strawberry at a packaging factory.

But I suspect the whole story is invented anyway.

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

https://notalwaysright.com/about-to-get-charged-with-battery-part-8/140784/

Basic story: woman calls a store, saying she bought a takeaway coffee, reheated it at home in a microwave, found a button battery, calls store to complain, manager calls her a liar because the battery would have exploded in the microwave.

Several of the comments under the story debate whether a button battery in coffee would explode in the microwave. I didn’t read all the comments, I got a bit lost. In any case, I’m not about to test it.

What say you?

Bear in mind that this not a recorded transcript, just a biased person’s rendering of the conversation. Seems near impossible she said “I demand free coffee for life”, no one would be that unsubtle.

Button batteries can use all different kinds of anodes and cathodes but yeah you’d expect them to get hot in a microwave oven. On the other hand they are small and can ditch heat easily because of the big surface area to mass ratio, and if it surrounded by coffee then the convection will help.

Back on the other hand, the opportunities for a child to put a battery in a cup of coffee at home are probably greater than the chances that it could end up in a coffee from a store. They keep the cups stacked.

Probably similar to the probability of a needle getting into a strawberry at a packaging factory.

But I suspect the whole story is invented anyway.

Have we established what sort of coffee it was?

transition said:

dv said:

sibeen said:

The lithium may aid with your wild mood swings.

Sunday morning is everyday for all I care, and I’m not scared

coffee’s poor mans’ lithium

if you’re lucky you live in a part of the world where there’s plenty in the ground water, naturally.

Wrong, coffee is about 3x more expensive than lithium per month.

poikilotherm said:

transition said:

dv said:

Sunday morning is everyday for all I care, and I’m not scared

coffee’s poor mans’ lithium

if you’re lucky you live in a part of the world where there’s plenty in the ground water, naturally.

Wrong, coffee is about 3x more expensive than lithium per month.

chuckle

poikilotherm said:

transition said:

dv said:

Sunday morning is everyday for all I care, and I’m not scared

coffee’s poor mans’ lithium

if you’re lucky you live in a part of the world where there’s plenty in the ground water, naturally.

Wrong, coffee is about 3x more expensive than lithium per month.

Government subsidised?

Michael V said:

poikilotherm said:

transition said:

coffee’s poor mans’ lithium

if you’re lucky you live in a part of the world where there’s plenty in the ground water, naturally.

Wrong, coffee is about 3x more expensive than lithium per month.

Government subsidised?

No, even privately it’s still cheaper. E.g Nescafe 500g (ugh) is ~$20 for 500g (about a month for those with no taste such as smokers), a bottle of 200 lithium tablets is ~$16.5

pizza shortly, when lady gets back from shopping

coffee landed

poikilotherm said:

Michael V said:

poikilotherm said:

Wrong, coffee is about 3x more expensive than lithium per month.

Government subsidised?

No, even privately it’s still cheaper. E.g Nescafe 500g (ugh) is ~$20 for 500g (about a month for those with no taste such as smokers), a bottle of 200 lithium tablets is ~$16.5

Mind if i quote you on that next time the topic comes up for discussion?

mollwollfumble said:

poikilotherm said:

Michael V said:

Government subsidised?

No, even privately it’s still cheaper. E.g Nescafe 500g (ugh) is ~$20 for 500g (about a month for those with no taste such as smokers), a bottle of 200 lithium tablets is ~$16.5

Mind if i quote you on that next time the topic comes up for discussion?

mind, less than 50% of the sample are smokers.