Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

[pcswann]

Hi all,

I've recently acquired a Pentax Digital Spotmeter in excellent condition. My question is about the battery and storage. I'm using a Duracell Lithium 28L battery. Is it safe to store with the battery installed? Do you all generally remove the batteries after use? Don't want to risk corrosion.

Thanks!

[BrianShaw]

I remove batteries unless planning on using a meter in the foreseeable future. Better safe than sorry.

[Sal Santamaura]

No problem leaving the battery in, even for extended periods. However, I'd strongly suggest using a silver oxide PX28, not a lithium wannabe. Here's why:


https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?2706-Lithium-battery-in-Pentax-Digital-Spotmeter&p=14945&viewfull=1#post14945

[Alan9940]

Like Sal, I leave mine in for extended periods. Also, +1 his comment regarding use of a silver oxide battery.

[Vaughn]

I keep the battery in the PDS Meter, but now that someone posted about it, it will go dead the next time I use it. A battery last too many years for me to keep track.

[Eric Woodbury]

I don't remove them, but I should. After a battery leaks, it is a big mess and hard to recover. Another thing I should do, but don't, is to simply replace all batteries every year. Changing batteries in the field is always inconvenience and a bad time.

I agree that the need for lithium batteries is unnecessary. Alkaline bats last as long or longer in low current applications (meters) and are less expensive. Lithium are good for high current applications (power winders) because their output impedance is so low.

[Greg]

Before putting the battery inside the meter, I clean it and its chamber with alcohol swabs. Battery is only held and inserted by hands with cotton gloves on them. Years ago was told that natural occurring skin oils and chemicals passed onto objects by handling them were the greatest initiators of battery corrosion. Have always done this and have never had a case of battery corrosion since then.

[Drew Wiley]

Always, always, always remove batteries before any kind of long-term storage. I could tell many electronic gear horror stories from failure to do this, referring to non-toys like HVAC multimeters, power tools, etc. And I'm not speaking from just anecdotal personal incidents, but from a wide spectrum of factory training and binding warranty contracts. Under my former dept, at least a million of dollars of industrial batteries were sold per year, and there was a very large repair dept adjunct to my purchasing role. Seen it all. Lithium batteries can be downright hazardous if they are underbuilt and corrode; even alkaline batteries can be flammable. Millions of counterfeit ones are out there, often mixed into shipment of the real deal to hide the subterfuge.

But the more common problem, especially in humid area storage, is potentially irreversible corrosion in the piece of equipment itself. So what is a reasonable compromise for short-term storage, week to week? A tight plastic box and desiccant, either silica gel or something like Dri-Our or Damp Rid. Just don't get any of those canister desiccant crystals onto gear itself, or even onto gloves and then onto your gear. It leaves a hydrophilic deposit very hard to remove. If you need to travel with something, use baked out silica gel instead, just like new camera lenses are packed with.

Now as per type, I'd second the opinion about silver oxide; but high-quality name-brand alkaline ones like Duracell can be fine too. Just inspect the packaging well, because popular name brands do attract counterfeiting. If something seems to cheap to be true, it is.

[Sal Santamaura]

No problem leaving the battery in, even for extended periods...
Always, always, always remove batteries before any kind of long-term storage...I've owned my Pentax digital spot meter since purchasing it new in the 1980s. It always has a silver oxide PX28 in it. The batteries have lasted up to three or four years before needing replacement. Never has one leaked, developed any surface film, shown any signs of corrosion or caused problems for that meter.

Other battery chemistries, other devices (that could actually place a small drain on the battery even when not turned on) and extreme environmental conditions are instances in which I might give different advice. For the Pentax digital spot meter, don't worry, be happy. :)

[Drew Wiley]

Sal, please don't take this personally and start another useless argument. Multiply any of your anecdotal personal experience about this topic and multiply it by about 100,000 times. We were not only one of the largest contractor suppliers in the nation during my time, but had a major military and defense contractor department too. Do you even know what a true nonflammable aerospace battery is, and how it specifically differs from anything you've ever seen? I was on a long-term first name basis with the CEO's and top engineers of the German and Japanese manufacturers who made them. Of course, we're all retired now, so that alignment of the stars isn't likely to happen again.

Our service staff was factory trained. We were the warranty contract center for the whole of northern Cal for multiple industrial lines. We obviously had to deal with all kinds of battery-equipment test instruments of our own. Even ordinary little batteries like those under discussion had to be specially wrapped in individual plastic packaging for disposal - the city fire Marshall mandated that. And at that time, we purchased even the little ordinary ones in multiple full truck pallets at a time. Which of these careers have you held? The head of our service dept was also the official union leader for the AFL/CIO jobs at the Port of Oakland, where a tremendous quantity of Chinese goods for the whole country arrived. The big box chains had all kinds of slippery tricks for timing and mucking up paperwork to sneak entire cargo containers out of Port without inspection. Based on successful spot inspections, It was estimated that 20% of all the Duracell batteries coming into the country were counterfeit.

No, I don't remove the batteries in the meters I have in my regular day bags and packs, which are stored with good ventilation around them.
But anything like a meter put away for months at a time - you betcha! I have a number of specialized darkroom meters too which cannot be replaced. No way I'm going to gamble with those either.

[pcswann]

Thanks for all the great responses to my first ever post on the Large Format Photography forum! My 15 year old daughter and I are learning to shoot 4x5 together, and this forum has been a wonderful resource. Going to order a couple of silver oxide PX28s now.

[Drew Wiley]

Varta is one of the better brands. But some of these brands have a new numbering system. Somewhere in the fine print PX28 will be mentioned.

[pcswann]

Hi Drew,

Yep, I found a Varta in stock at my local camera store (Precision Camera in Austin) and I'm going to go grab it tomorrow.

Phil

[Sal Santamaura]

Sal, please don't take this personally and start another useless argument...It wouldn't be possible for me to do that, since I've never started a "useless argument." :)


...We were not only one of the largest contractor suppliers in the nation during my time, but had a major military and defense contractor department too. Do you even know what a true nonflammable aerospace battery is, and how it specifically differs from anything you've ever seen? I was on a long-term first name basis with the CEO's and top engineers of the German and Japanese manufacturers who made them. Of course, we're all retired now, so that alignment of the stars isn't likely to happen again.

Our service staff was factory trained. We were the warranty contract center for the whole of northern Cal for multiple industrial lines. We obviously had to deal with all kinds of battery-equipment test instruments of our own. Even ordinary little batteries like those under discussion had to be specially wrapped in individual plastic packaging for disposal - the city fire Marshall mandated that. And at that time, we purchased even the little ordinary ones in multiple full truck pallets at a time. Which of these careers have you held?...I'm a retired aerospace engineer with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Not that any of your or my education or work experience is relevant to the topic of this thread. I don't claim to know everything about everything, just something concerning the things I answer questions about.


...No, I don't remove the batteries in the meters I have in my regular day bags and packs, which are stored with good ventilation around them.
But anything like a meter put away for months at a time - you betcha!...As is your prerogative. I've had my Pentax digital spot meter sit unused for periods as long as six months with a silver oxide PX28 in it (previously Panasonic, which is no longer available, otherwise Varta) and, as described above, seen no ill effects from doing that. I have no compunction about recommending the OP do the same with theirs.

[Drew Wiley]

Any basic HVAC repairman knows not to leave batteries in a piece of test equipment over time. Just a year or two ago a multi-billion dollar satellite under construction was burned to pieces, along with the whole building around it, because one of the techs left around an ordinary lithium battery drill, which had absolutely no rightful place in an assembly operation like that. Whoever that guy was, he no doubt knew a hundred thousand times more than me about engineering, but didn't know a rat's arse about certain critical common sense things. But I'm not going to quibble about six months of anything, as much as the fact that conditions vary, and damp humid conditions especially risk corrosion. Some batteries are awful, like some of the Kodak ones. Some devices have good corrosion-resistant battery contacts, some have awful ones. I don't take anything for granted. Just read any electronic or digital camera manual : take the battery out when in storage. Wonder why they all state that?
When in doubt, better safe than sorry. You'd agree with that assessment, wouldn't you, Sal?

[Sal Santamaura]

...When in doubt, better safe than sorry. You'd agree with that assessment, wouldn't you, Sal?As a general rule of thumb, sure. Other than under extreme environmental conditions, I consider leaving a silver oxide PX28 sitting in an unused Pentax digital spot meter for six months (possibly longer) perfectly safe.

[Ulophot]

Great info above, agreed. Leaving the technical knowledge to the experts -- and this is by no means to ignore their valuable advice -- there are simple things one can do as well, which I do because my photography is now necessarily sporadic and I have a memory like a steel trap -- that, as a friend once replied to my joking boast, never opens.

Button batteries may not be easy to mark, but larger ones can be marked with a date of initial insertion. (Yes, of course, they could be older or not already.) Alternately, or in addition, one can create calendar reminders, electronic or otherwise, to remove, check, or change batteries. Such reminders are my savior for many things, including maintenance scheduling.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, as a potentially extreme condition, I'd point out just how fast salt water or ocean spray can corrode materials and electrical contacts in a manner ordinary water cannot.
Anyone who owns a boat or, like me, has property near the coast, knows just how bad the problem is. Whenever returning from an oceanside shoot, I wipe down the meter well with plain water, and hose my boots off too - saltwater is terrible for leather. Periodically, I unscrew the battery cap and check it for corrosion. It's gotten in there. I have an old beater meter for those torture situations. It still reads correctly, but sure won't win any beauty contests.