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Thread: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

  1. #1

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    Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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!

  2. #2

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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

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

  3. #3

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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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:


  4. #4

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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

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

  5. #5
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  6. #6
    Eric Woodbury
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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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.

  7. #7

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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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.

  8. #8
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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.

  9. #9

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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Santamaura View Post
    No problem leaving the battery in, even for extended periods...
    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    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.

  10. #10
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Pentax Digital Spot Meter battery/storage

    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.

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