Yes, you are being a little too OCD about this. Instrument washing
issues come up often, and there are plenty of opinions available -
here are some of mine:
In the 419s that I have, the battery leakage crud has not gone beyond
the circuit boards or maybe the edge connectors. Cleaning the
Potassium Hydroxide absorbs carbon dioxide from the air quite rapidly, so what
you find on a circuit board is much more insoluble potassium carbonate and/or
bicarbonate. Being an ionic compound you may well find copper carbonate, zinc
carbonate, tin carbonate and lead carbonate from other
On 11/03/2015 06:26, Chuck Harris wrote:
Does KOH really evaporate, and spread in the wind?
I don't think it does.
In my experience, the damage done by nicad's is limited to
where the electrolyte dribbles, spatters, or wicks.
Powdered electrolyte can get all over things, but usually
it can be
Now that I've restored my HP419A to running order for the meantime, I have
nagging questions regarding the continuous use of the attenuator switch.
The main board of the instrument, A4, was badly polluted with an invisible
layer of potassium hydroxide from the 30 years of being in the same box
