Editorial: rechargeable batteries are a vintage gadget's Achilles' heel

One of my favorite activities around the holidays is visiting my ever-growing collection of discontinued (and often hilariously outdated) mobile hardware that I keep in storage. It's an annual tradition for me -- an opportunity to pull stuff out of the box, make sure all the devices, accessories, and documentation are insect- and vermin-free, clean the battery contacts, blow off a years' worth of dust, and generally check that everything's in good working order. Let me tell you, I feel like a kid in a candy store each and every time I pull out and open those bins. I'll know that when I stop feeling that way, it's time to sell off the collection -- but for now, it's still every bit as exciting as when I started buying random gadgets from my childhood a decade ago.

On the surface, you might assume that electronics are timeless. They're made of materials that are designed for daily use and abuse, after all, and it'd be easy to think that a gadget left in storage -- unused -- would remain in exactly the same condition as the day you left it. I've learned the hard way, though, that the reality is a little more unpleasant: plastics seem to dry out and become brittle as the years go by, and things start cracking and shattering. Boxes and packaging degrade, almost as if they're recycling themselves whether you like it or not. And batteries -- particularly alkalines -- will leak all over the place, eating through circuitry and oxidizing contacts beyond repair.

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Editorial: rechargeable batteries are a vintage gadget's Achilles' heel originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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