Battery exploded in Steam Controller

[Chanseykisses]

I was just watching some Netflix and using my Steam Controller as a mouse/remote when I heard a loud pop. The battery in the left handle of the controller exploded and is now leaking battery acid. Due to the explosion, it has lodged itself in the battery compartment and I can't get it out to dispose of the battery or clean the controller. The battery keeps making bubbling noises. I was using 2 Duracell batteries. Anyone else have this issue before?

[cammelspit]

Do you have a T6? I would immediately dismantle the controller and get it out of there. The 'acid' in an alkaline battery is caustic but not enough to actually harm you without very prolonged exposure so if you want to save the controller, you will have to open it up and get that thing cleaned out immediately. Though, if you are not concerned much about the way the controller looks you can just get a flathead screw driver and pry it out but you will likely not be able to properly clean it out without dismantling.

Once or twice there have been people who have had bad batteries leak in the controller before but never a violent reaction, to my knowledge. ALkalines simply do not explode, they don't have the kind of chemistry that does that. So my first knee jerk reaction is that the battery itself was defective in some major way that is to blame. If it happens more than this one time, then there has to be a defect in the controller and that is a completely different animal right there.

How long have you had the controller? Is it newish?

[Chanseykisses]

Thanks for your info and help! I managed to pry the battery out with a flathead. I cleaned the battery compartment as best as I could with some paper towel and q-tips. Hopefully that should be sufficient enough! The controller is about a year old and this is the first issue I've had with it.

The battery itself has some damage done on the negative side. It has puffed out a bit right around the entire negative edge of the battery. There's some damage done to the casing of the battery itself where it was probably stuck and scraping when I was trying to pry it out. Weird stuff.

I'll probably test it out sometime later. Hopefully it will be functional. Thanks again for your help!

[cammelspit]

No worries! I am very interested as to how this all turns out so try popping a new set of batteries in there and test it out. Did you by chance use any rubbing alcohol? If you didn't, I would HIGHLY recommend it. The electrolyte in those batteries can cause some real nasty corrosion in there it 100% of it is not cleaned out. So even if it works again for a bit, it may still end up failing due to the 'acid' just sitting there corroding the hell out of you controller's PCB, traces, battery contacts or any combination thereof. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

[geebee666]

If you have some CRC, WD40 or similar spray some on a Q-tip and wipe the battery contacts with it, it will help stop the electrolyte corroding the metal.
I would wipe it on any other visible metal as well for the same reason.

[sombrez]

If it doesn't work out in the end, I think Duracell will replace any products that their batteries explode in. So they could give you another Steam Controller if it doesn't work once you test it later.

[HW Support]

Originally posted by Chanseykisses:

I was just watching some Netflix and using my Steam Controller as a mouse/remote when I heard a loud pop. The battery in the left handle of the controller exploded and is now leaking battery acid. Due to the explosion, it has lodged itself in the battery compartment and I can't get it out to dispose of the battery or clean the controller. The battery keeps making bubbling noises. I was using 2 Duracell batteries. Anyone else have this issue before?

We would like to address the controller issues with you so you can get back to gaming.

Please submit a ticket through our Help Site.

You can reference this thread so we have information regarding your setup.

[Kakuchifujimoto]

This *just* happened to me too! Similar situation: Kirkland Signature battery in the right handle portion made a loud pop and started bubbling out fluid. I got a good video. Controller seems to still be working. Crazy!

[Chanseykisses]

Dang! That sucks, um316b. Good luck!! It's pretty crazy.

Yeah, it all turned out just fine for me. I got at the controller in good time and managed to clean up any of the battery acid. The acid ate away some of the back sticker behind the back panel but it seems to just be a cosmetic thing. I've been using it just fine since it happened with no other exploded batteries or anything else. I know this is a little bit late (like 9 months late) but thanks everyone for your help last August!

[Suppenkoch]

I had exactly the same. I took out the batteries, kept the battery side opened and put the controller in the dishwaser. Afterwards gave it to dry for 48h. Works like a charm again.
I think cheap batteries are the cause.

[•]

Originally posted by Suppenkoch:

I had exactly the same. I took out the batteries, kept the battery side opened and put the controller in the dishwaser. Afterwards gave it to dry for 48h. Works like a charm again.
I think cheap batteries are the cause.

Wait what? Are you kidding??

[cammelspit]

Don't laugh... My brother spilled a whole beer on TWO of my controllers and I just cleaned them at the sink with some mild dish soap. As long as the batteries are out and it is allowed to 100% dry before you power it on, you can actually be pretty safe with it. I also rinsed it with denatured alcohol though to wash out the water and allow it to dry much faster. I also let mine sit for over a week before I turned them on just to be on the safe side. Though I must say the dishwasher is not something I would have done or recommended, mainly because of heat that can warp the plastic. Maybe if you turn the heating off it might just work. lol

[Suppenkoch]

Heating doesnt bother too much. Just use ECO mode of your dishwasher, which is usually around 30-40 °C (some plastics may melt or deform on +60°C). I already washed all kind of parts of electronics there, like power supply units, motherboards, graphic cards, cpus, whatever for whatever reasons. As Im on an oil-submerged computer I usually clean the parts in this way if I exchange for a newer part (e.g. last autumn when I bought my Vega64, cleaned the old graphic card).
Also don't use the normal dishwasher tabs and dont wash it together with dirty dishes, just the electronics. Use normal dishwaser soap (we always have ultra-sensitive for my wife in the house, they are without any additives), can be even plenty of it if you are heavily dusted/dirty.
Important is just to give it to dry and to remind, that you wash thermal compounds off, too (e.g. graphic card).

[QDP]

@Suppenkoch I'm intrigued, an Oil-submerged PC? After a quick google search I presume you're talking about mineral-oil tank, but that still leaves so many questions. Do you still have large fans/heat sinks on your CPU/GPU? What kind of cooling setup do you run to keep the oil cool, and how does performance turn out for you compared to an air-build, or even a water cooled custom loop?
The idea of fully submerging a rig sounds like an awful lot of work and presumably a significant amount of maintenance keeping it in a functional state. Would you recommend submerged rigs?

[Suppenkoch]

Yes, it's a mineral oil bath.
To recommend it, it depends on your goals. If you are a common user, than I strongly recommend NOT. You have to know what you do and why you do.
For me it had two reasons. First I wanted an absolute silent computer. Second and even more important, I study chemical engineering and wanted an ongoing project for myself to see, if I can put knowledge by my own hands into reality (mathematic, e.g. heat dissipations, determined flows, etc.).

Maintanence you have less than with a standard computer, but only if you make it correctly. I am absolute free of dust. So no more computer cleaning. :)
First steps were to get the system leckage free and fully isolated from air flow.

Pre-planning was a lot and much more time-intensive than any water-cooled system can be. I made a full pre-measurement with everything I wanted to be inside (PSU, the PCI-E addin-card, pumps, etc.), and handcrafted an aluminium-rack on which I mounted all lose parts (pumps, motherboard, PSU), which was designed to fit perfectly in a pre-measured aquarium. The aquarium is sealed with pipes (and even a dust-filter, just in case) from the pumps going to an heat exchanger, which I unbuild from an old VW Golf.
So yet it is, due to the heat exchanger, which I put on a seperate self-build rack, a pretty ugly design, but effective and I reached my goal. I am free of noise and dust. I kept the fans and heatsinks for the simple reason that I want to maximize heat dissipation among the whole oil bath (they dont make noise, due to the resistance by the oil they dont make any noises). Oil has a very high heat capacity, due to which the temperature of CPU and GPU keeps equal as the temperature of the oil bath, even under high workloads. I run a 18c Intel CPU and a Vega64 in it, so we speak about peak loads of 700W plus PSU efficiency degree. So from a performance point of view, I am not limited to put hardware to its limit.

From a point of cost I also do NOT recommend such oil-submerged cooling. Even trying to keep the costs low (I took the heat exchanger out of the Golf on a scrap yard, haha), I was not cheaper than with a sufficient water-cooled system.

But if you have ambition and wish to learn something or to test your abilities (like me), or are just bored, than I clearly recommend.
Actually I am planning on exchanging the aquarium by an aluminium-only tank. Basically for maximazing heat dissipation and mobility (I want rolls under the tank :) ), but more important to make it appealing by appearance, unlike it is now.

[skyguy]

Sounds like http://www.calyos-tm.com/