QL17 'better battery'

[captainslack]

Originally Posted by nwcanonman

.........................
I've read that the lifecycle of the "air cell" batteries has much to do with the humidity of the air it's used in. I've had one last 6 months and sometimes only a month.

I'd better give up on the Wein's then! NC Summers are so humid you can drink the air.

Originally Posted by nwcanonman

The merc cells I still have last 5 years + .
It's kind of silly that they banned the PX625's, but most thermometers have 50 times more mercury in them. Next time you go to your Doctor, look at the blood pressure meter on the wall - Yep that silver fluid ....... is mercury!

I think the difference is the mercury in the therometers, unless they're broken, tends to stay in them. Whereas, used batteries get thrown away and rust in the landfills, whereupon the mercury leeches out and into the ground. Not good.

[pabaker34]

Hi everybody. I have one of these zinc-air batteries in my Pentax spotmeter. The battery takes about a half hour for the voltage to stabilize once you've removed the cover. It also needs some air, so if the battery compartment on the ql17 is sealed then the voltage will drop back to zero and the battery will be dormant.

Paul

[dmr]

Originally Posted by nwcanonman

but most thermometers have 50 times more mercury in them. Next time you go to your Doctor, look at the blood pressure meter on the wall - Yep that silver fluid ....... is mercury!

When I was young we would actually play with mercury. My brothers used to collect it by breaking up old thermometers and old light switches. I remember coating coins with it to make them shiny.

[nwcanonman]

"
I think the difference is the mercury in the therometers, unless they're broken, tends to stay in them. Whereas, used batteries get thrown away and rust in the landfills, whereupon the mercury leeches out and into the ground. Not good.[/quote]
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But the thermometers (being glass), break all the time and where do they go? We just need to remember to properly dispose of ALL hazardous materials - batteries, paint, used oil, etc

[jlw]

Originally Posted by greyhoundman

Anybody check what mercury is selling for lately?
I need to weigh the jar I've been collecting.

I hope you're joking --- and if you're not, I hope nobody from the Ohio environmental department is reading this board!

There was a case a couple of months ago here in which carpenters remodeling an old gun shop found an old jar containing a small amount of silvery fluid, and accidentally spilled a bit of it. Of course this fluid turned out to be mercury. When the building inspectors found out about it, they called in the whole hazmat team, and the building's owners were required to do remediation, the cost of which ran into five figures.

Currently the present owners are suing the shop's previous owner, and the previous owner in turn is suing the remodeling contractors, saying the jar wasn't his and the carpenters must have brought it in from somewhere else.

Why all the fuss about a substance that many of us played with as kids? Because, like asbestos, people just didn't realize back then how dangerous the stuff is.

[pabaker34]

Actually, I think people just overreact to things. Freon, asbestos, lead, mercury, and a bunch of other things that people used to regularly come into contact with are now considered so dangerous that you got to call in hazmat? That's just crazy. Freon is still the best refrigerant ever discovered, asbestos is still the best insulator, lead paint lasts longer than any other paint, and mercury is still the only liquid metal at room temp (I think). Mercury batteries also had the flattest discharge curve of any batteries yet. Also, freon is inert, asbestos formed into tiles (like roofing tiles) were harmless until broken, lead paint was fine until kids ate it, and mercury is just a heavy metal like cadmium, tungsten, lead, and a bunch of other things that everybody has in their house right now, all of which are bad to have in your body.

[nwcanonman]

Jlw,
I think every state/provence/township has it's own rules and responce to hazmat. In a widely divergent manner.
10 years ago I worked in a lab, that among other things, received mercury be to "cleaned" from industrial users. It arrived at our location in metal containers, glass jars - all kind of stuff. We would repackage it in unbreakable nalgene containers, tightly sealed and taped up, then send it to a well-known petroleum companies lab to be sanitized and we would get it back and send it to the originator.
Being human we often spilled some. We'd sweep it up with a broom and dust pan (Yes, really) and pour it best we could into a safe container.
Who knows how much I've breathed or gotten on me. But other than the 3 heads and one huge eye, I've suffered no ill effects. ~ ; - )