Hi unfortunately. Um, this fluke 3000 Fc multimeter has a problem. Um, it doesn't switch on because well, uh, let's take the back off. Look at that.

Um, not Duracells. For once, we've got ourselves energizers. Oh, so the magic alkaline has escaped, it's all crystallined, and I'll put a video. I'll link in a video up here where I actually caught one rare, actually caught one in the act of actually leaking its liquid out, spewing its guts everywhere before it had time to crystalline.

Um, and yeah, normally you see this with duracells, but uh, it happens to energize us too. So um, yeah, we have a problem. Uh, isn't this sad? I am shooting this in four glorious 4k resolution for you leakage aficionados, because I know the leakage aficionados like their leakage porn in 4k resolution. So anyway, let's get this out.

see how far the damage has gone? Um, and it's on the back of the you get it on the back of the case as well. That's pretty easy to clean up and has it. I don't see it gotten down into the Pcb down in there, which is good. It's on some of the it's on that contact there that's not good.

Um, so yeah, I don't know how long it's been in the state, but don't let that be a lesson to you: Don't leave batteries in multimeters, especially when you've got a metric crap ton of multimeters like I do. So ah, oh look at that. Wow, is that a that's a bit of plastic? Um, that that's that's a bit of plastic. Okay, where'd that come from? I'm not.

Oh okay. Yep. yeah. Look, a bit of plastic came off there.

I think it came from there. Wow, how does it eat away the plastic? I guess that's possible. But anyway, we're gonna have to get in here and clean her up. So first thing, um, you can use like some people use, lemon juice.

Um, but white vinegar. You need like a mild acid like this. So we'll get some white vinegar and a cotton bud and we'll just get in there and give that a wiper dip and that will prevent any further, hopefully any further degradation in the metal. This actually seems pretty good.

It's certainly salvageable. All right. I'll get in there now with the oh oh uh yeah. it's look.

it's eating away the top of the plastic there. That's not good. I'm just gonna say get in there with the stiff bristled brush. Um yeah, it's not terrific is it? Then we'll get in there with some 100 isopropyl and we'll just flood that sucker and uh, and get in there and start brushing and try and get the try and get the remaining gunk out of there.

Good thing about the isopropyl is you don't have to worry if it gets down into your board or anything. it's just going to evaporate. No workers, but uh yeah, that's yeah. that's look.

it's broken off down in there as well. Um geez, that's not terrific. There you go, Poor fluke. There's the large chunk.

Um, like. it attacks plastic, usually doesn't. I found it. usually doesn't do that so it usually only attacks the usually only attacks the metal.

Yuck. Anyway, a bit more cleaning and uh, that I reckon is that is salvageable. Yeah, she'll be right. Still got the protection sticker on it.

I mean come on now if we can, it's worth removing. Yep, yeah, I thought so. Worth removing that so we can give that a complete and thorough clean and also get any remaining gunk out of there as well. But unfortunately you can't do that with the ones well down on the board.

You could take it apart and you can get access to the board down in there, but I don't think that one's been affected at all. We can get this one out too because it might have gunk down the back of it. There's actually a fair bit of gunk down in there, so you definitely want to clean that out and stop any more rot. So let's take this off and oh, have a squeeze.

Oh look at that. Didn't look back at that one. It's all black. Is it supposed to look like that? Oh, unfortunately.

yeah, I'm glad I took that back off. That's terrible. Muriel, that's I think that's eaten into some tracks too. Rip the the fluke.

Oh yeah. look look ah. they're eaten away. Oh no.

ah. the horror. Oh don't know what to make of it. Um, might have to get this under to the a microscope and and have a squares because I reckon that's gotten into the tracks.

Oh no. See, it just seeped in through that little gap. It didn't look that bad at all from the outside. Ah, the absolute horror.

Oh Oh no. Rip. Rip The Fluke. This is not good.

Let's have a look down here. look. that's that's interesting. That looks almost like it's got a almost ah okay, so that's got some liquid on it.

Maybe that came down because I haven't put anything on this yet. It wouldn't be the actual battery leakage because it crystallized pretty quick. But uh. anyway.

Oh yeah. look at that. That's crusty as that does not look good at all. Wow.

What What the heck? What? Look at that? is that? something? like like the plastic? That's that. That's the plastic right? So it's attacked the fluke plastic. It's attacked the fleet yellow. It really likes the fluke yellow.

Um, oh hopefully. yeah, that's I think that's gotten down into. yeah, that. that looks right? Yeah, Yep.

that looks corroded away. And the and the two resistors down there. they've copped it Like yeah, that that Via looks corroded, doesn't it? Look at them? Oh no, no. Anyway, all right.

let's um. let's spray some isopropyl on here. so 100 isoprop and get a better look at. I mean, oh, that's it's.

almost stuck on there. The yellow plastic. Wow. that's unbelievable.

Let's get the stiff right. Even with the stiff brush, it is eaten through. The solder mask. Wow.

I don't think I've ever seen that. leave it in. the comments down below. Have you seen it eat through the solder mask? What the hell are they putting in these energizer batteries like I've seen it like corrode? Like you've seen videos before when I've done like retro teardowns and old-school batteries? um, leak and stuff.

Of course you know, like all alkaline batteries aren't the same like they have like secret squirrel secret sauce in them. Um, so they might. You know they might vary slightly. You know their basic principle is still the same as all alkaline batteries, but oh no, no.

that looked really good. From the outside, all those components at the top look really good. So they've survived. No workers? Um, yeah, that's just bare copper because these you know traces.

This is like Smobc. This is a solder mask over there copper. Once you, once you remove the solder mask, you've got access to to the bare copper and uh, it looks like I don't see any, but actually haven't been eaten away though. So sorry this.

Um, this microscope is not in 4k like my camera was. so you're seeing this upscaled. oh look at that. Is that a potential eat through there? Oh no no no it's not.

No, it's just a bit of a bit of stuff. Whatever the heck that is hasn't hasn't eaten away, the traces, hasn't had long enough. I think. Oh, that one.

Oh look, oh the poor resistor. Ah, the top of it's come off. all the electrons are falling out. Poor resist.

Oh sorry, it was. I don't think it was in 100 in focus. there. There you go.

Look, it's just come off. It's just come off. I wonder if we can measure those? Oh wow, look at that. There you go.

You wanted to see what's under the epoxy, the top epoxy cap on a resistor? There you have it. Oh wow, that's terrible. Muriel: Okay, unfortunately my National Instruments um on screen um Scope has failed. Initialization error Don't know.

I've tried turn off and on again doesn't work so I'm going to have to use a regular Joe Blogs multimeter here off screen. sorry about that. Uh, that's a hundred and I'm measuring 111 k. Don't know what I'm supposed to measure 121k.

You know it's like I don't know. You know, see 147k the other way. that one's 300 and that's three meg and climbing. whatever.

like I I don't know. So you can see the uh block in there. You can see the resistive block. It's really interesting, isn't it that's deposited on the like the ceramic base of it and you can almost see the trace coming off the one side there as well.

So if you were to do this properly, you would try and get the service manual. Get the value for those two parts, you definitely, uh, definitely replace them as a matter of course. Um, I don't know what you do about the traces. you know you can.

All you can do is stop the stop the rot and then either like conform or coat it or get some, um, you know, Uv curable, um, solder mask. You can get liquid solder mask and you can, uh, cure it. I don't think I've got some somewhere. No, I don't have any here.

But anyway. but yeah, that's because you wouldn't leave the bear. You wouldn't leave the bear copper like that. Um, the poor thing.

But jeez, it's not good is it? Anyway, let that be a lesson to you: Do Not leave batteries in your multimeters. I'm gonna have to systematically go through all my meters now. Yeah, there's then there's the solder mask. Okay, so it hasn't hasn't all come off yet.

There you go, it's it's on my finger now. Yep. so I gotta get in there with some paper towel or something and lift it all up. Well I gotta say that's a first sponging up solder mask.

Um come on. Really wow. Gone up in there too. starting to look pretty good.

Now you would have to protect this. I do have. uh, conformal coat spray. Well what I'm gonna have to do is at least um, power this back up and go through some basic functional tests.

I mean like you don't need to check for calibration and stuff like that. Just you know, basic. all the all the functions, check that they all still work. I think they will.

I mean, I don't see how it's eaten through any of those traces. So really, the only concern here is like long term like has it is that one is that being eaten away? There is that under the solder mask there? What's the issue there and you can see it's almost made it to the main Msp micro over here. Look at that. Got to clean that up better.

There's lots of fiber on there for my, um, I should use. better than just a paper towel should use. Like a lint. you know, a lint-free wiping cloth or whatever.

But anyway, and that via there is black as look at that. that's sucker. I mean like what? and has it gotten through? Like does it leak through down through the other side of the board as well? I might have to take the whole thing apart. I hope you get the idea of what, uh, damage can be done leaking alkaline batteries? They're absolutely horrible.

Um, yeah. I'm gonna have to go systematically. I thought I had at one point systematically checked all my multiple boxes and multimeters and removed, uh, the batteries from them. Um yeah, oh god.

it pays to use like Zinc carbon, Jobbies or old-school zinc carbons or uh, nickel metal. Um, you know, rechargeable ones or something. But they can leak too. Everything can leak like alkalines.

Yep, Yep. and those Duracells. And it's this one here that's done the business. So made in the Usa, Usa, Usa.

Not for retail trade because these are proper industrial ones. 2024 expiry date. So yeah, there you go gotcha. Um, Energizers.

Duracells. Duracells seem to do it a lot more than Energizers, but Energizers do it. Too many other brands do it. And for those who ask, no.

My Alkaline battery leakage test. Not a single one failed. I checked in the bunker a while ago. I still got them down there in the tubs that I was storing them in.

Not not not a single one as leaked. It's the White Coat syndrome. So yeah, that was. uh, that was an epic fail that test.

I obviously. um, just the conditions that I discharged him under weren't. um, weren't any good at all. Look at that.

Look at that. Oh a few leakage aficionados. Beautiful. I won't even charge you for it.

So this poor fluke 3000 it. It may survive. but um, I don't know. I is bitter anyone.

I'll start. I'll start the bidding at a dollar. Who wants it? It's a bargain. Well, I found the rest of the solder mask.

It's on the bottom of the case here. Oh, come on. Seriously. So yeah, that's so oh wow.

Have you? I've never seen that. Hands up leave it in the comments down below. If you've seen the solder mask come off aboard like like I've seen it get through solar mass. but I haven't seen like the solar mass just like completely getting.

I don't think I have my maybe in other videos, I don't know. My memory is a bit rusty, but certainly not to that extent. And check it out. Yeah, like it's starting to eat away.

The plastic started to eat away the fluke plastic like a yellow pointer on a yellow yellow fluke case. Yeah, it's and it's almost as if it's is. it. Is that cracking as well? Is that like a giant giant crack? Once again, I don't think I've seen an alkaline battery leak that's eaten away the plastic before.

Is there something particular with the fluke plastics? Dunno. if you've got any idea, if you've seen it before, leave it in the comments. I put some batteries in it and I get a fleshy flashy on there and what? what? What is dead wrapped in plastic. So there you go.

It's a bit disappointing. Ah, we've killed this. Perfectly good otherwise. almost practically brand speaking New Fluke 3000 Fc and it so it still hasn't look.

still got the protective film on the front so let me know what you want me to do with this thing. Should I? um, should I just auction it off on ebay starting at a dollar 99? Or should I try and repair the thing? I? don't don't know if it's worth my time and effort. It's what it'd be worth. somebody's time and effort.

Um, to get in there and buzz stuff out. I don't think it's easy as those resistors. You can go in there of course and start. You know, buzzing out the try to buzz out the traces.

You know that one's still intact. You have to go systematically that one's still intact. So yeah, I think they're I think they're still going to be good. So why it's not working? I don't know there could be one somewhere.

I haven't checked them all yet. I'd have to look for a service manual. Um, I could try and actually take the board out and look on the other side. I mean, it might have gotten down there, might have gotten down through the vias and flippity-doo-dah Oh yeah.

oh no, no, that's I was gonna say I can see some liquid there. No, that's that's got to be my that'd be my isopropyl. This area here. Oh yeah, yeah yeah.

Look got its way to the other side as well. And even onto the switch contacts. Look at that. it's gotten through everywhere.

Oh yeah, that's under the sponge there. Oh come on. I don't see them. Like as I said, don't see them being hideously eaten away like you've seen in other videos.

But that does take a long time. But oh geez, that's not good, Is it? Maybe. but that's just like a button like that's that's not going to stop the thing powering up and working. Oh well.

What? What's in there? Has that been completely eaten away? Oh no, no, no, that's just a bit of solder mask. That's a bit a bit of solder mask. It's got it over here too. What? Oh, that's terrible.

Once again, the switches aren't really a problem. I have to look for a 3000 service manual and hopefully we can get a get a schematic out of it. I don't know. Like is it? Let me know in the comments down below.

I'm not going to do this today. Rip Fluke. Thank you Energizer. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay anyway, thoughts, comments and prayers down below.

please. um, let me know what you think. Oh cool thing. All right.

I'm gonna have to go through my box. Which is literally. I'm not kidding. This is only this is one of my boxes.

This is a What It's A. It's a box of multimeters. It's a box of multimeters, right? And that's just one of them. I've got another box of multimeters at the Uh bunker as well.

I I thought I systematically went through them. But anyway, catch you next time you.