On advice from this forum I purchased Maha Powerex batteries for my flashes which I used very successfully on two weddings. They work great but this last summer they destroyed my Canon 550EX Flash. So far Maha has offered no help. Are there safe batteries or is everyone having this problem?

What!!! And I just purchased eight of this batteries.. I should have stayed with my Sanyo Enerloop. So what happend? Did it just blow out or what.. Please give us details.

Mufutau

yosemitehiker wrote:
On advice from this forum I purchased Maha Powerex batteries for my flashes which I used very successfully on two weddings. They work great but this last summer they destroyed by Canon 550EX Flash. So far Maha has offered no help.

The flash was placed in the trunk of the car while driving across Texas and they just discharged. I believe that one battery started to discharge and its heat started a chain reaction where they all went off. The batteries were only a year old and had been used regularly with no problem up to this failure.

What was the ambient temperature when this happened? Could possibly be a heat related issue. You might want to check the manufacturers recommended storage temperature.

Texas is not in the summer and so is most of the USA. If Powerex temperature requirements are that low that you can not be placed in the trunk of your car in Texas then they are not a useable battery. Yes let’s make a battery that discharges once the car gets to 120F and then everyone will need to keep their flash in the ice box.

I agree with you. I think I will not purchase any Powerex in future, eventhough people here say good things about it. I have not used the ones I just bought, now I am scared to even open it. Is the Canon flash repairable or that is it?
Sorry about the whole incident.

Mufutau

yosemitehiker wrote:
Texas is not in the summer and so is most of the USA. If Powerex temperature requirements are that low that you can not be placed in the trunk of your car in Texas then they are not a useable battery. Yes let’s make a battery that discharges once the car gets to 120F and then everyone will need to keep their flash in the ice box.

Send MAHA a link to this post. Perhaps seeing their product (faulty) in a public forum will have some weight.

FWIW... I will not be purchasing MAHA batteries. I will continue to use rechargable energizers from Walmart. Never had any problems and available in most places I shoot, just in case I forget a charger (like that has ever happened )

Edited by takurpic on Oct 27, 2007 at 10:04 AM GMT

Why won't the company replace the flash for you? That's pretty poor customer service and PR, IMHO.

Wow. Personally, I have used Powerex for 2 years with no problems and only good results. I don't think this is common, but it is scary nonetheless. I have read that NiMH rechargeables are more sensitive than regular alkalines, etc.

Batteries just don't discharge. With any voltage source, there has to be a flow of electricity to ground. If the battery itself short-circuited, then I would imagine there would be a heck of alot more damage going on to the battery itself. Your flash tube would also have melted down far before the battery voltage would of physically damaged your camera, so there has got to be another reason.

Have you had your flash verified? Is it possible your flash malfunctioned and pulled too much current from the battery? I'm not saying the batteries arent bad, but you should avoid jumping to conclusions on this.

Its very odd that the batteries have a "rust" on them. I cant be sure if that is that is, but can you confirm there was no moisture involved (that would cause a short in a battery)? The other explanation I can think of is maybe a small leak in one of the batteries?

Either way, I can tell you 120 degrees isnt healthy for any electronic device, battery or otherwise. It may be within specs, but higher heat = higher resistance. Higher resistance = higher current flow. Higher current flow = higher heat. Rinse, repeat.

I guess I'm like Brian, I thought battery corrosion was a white residue or something, I could be very wrong. I've owned MAHA's in the past, but use Energizer because I can just pick them up when I'm at Target or something.

I think it might be due to the heat, it can easily still be 90+ degrees in Texas in the afternoon's, atleast it is in Arizona. That could mean a sweltering 120+ degrees in a trunk, real easy, much easier if your car is a darker color. Still stinks.

All I know is what you see in the picture. The flash was working just find with the Powerex batteries. After the drive this is what the batteries and flash look like now. I really have no idea how it happened or what happened I just know the end result, the flash does not work and the batteries are corroded. Camera equipment is too expensive for this kind of damage to happen.

yosemitehiker wrote:
All I know is what you see in the picture. The flash was working just find with the Powerex batteries. After the drive this is what the batteries and flash look like now. I really have no idea how it happened or what happened I just know the end result, the flash does not work and the batteries are corroded. Camera equipment is too expensive for this kind of damage to happen.

Well there is definitely corrosion, or more importantly, rust on the batteries and flash terminals. The fact there is also rust on the outside of the flash would indicate you had a moisture issue. Heres the odd thing though.. the flash would have to be almost fully immersed for this to make sense. The rust started at the seam of the batteries and only affected the battery and not the actual terminal. You can actually see the rust had run down inside the battery compartment (when there was moisture). How long had it been since you had taken the batteries out? Did you switch from very dry cold air to very hot humid air multiple times without ever pulling your gear out and letting it acclimate?

I can understand your frustration and im sorry this happened to your flash, but I can't see any way possible the batteries are the main fault here. All the photos and evidence really point to water/moisture causing the issue here.

Odd that one of the batteries shows very little damage compared to the others. Also it doesn't look like a leak, at least like alkaline batteries, as the wrappers look intact.

I thought they were good too but having use them over the last 2 yrs, I won't be using them any more since they don't hold their charge at all any more I find. I'm already having to buy new ones and I paid good money for them too.
Try reconditioning and all that but to no available.
Trying out the Sanyo 2500 from Costco for now to see how they fare.

That looks like rust to me which wouldn't be a battery failure as far as I figure. If it is rust, there is a root cause elsewhere.

Rene

I have seen this with Alkaline batteries long ago. It happens once in a while and can happen to any brand of battery. The difference is now you can post your once in a blue moon issue and the entire world can freak out about it.

davekone wrote:
I have seen this with Alkaline batteries long ago. It happens once in a while and can happen to any brand of battery. The difference is now you can post your once in a blue moon issue and the entire world can freak out about it.

so true.

davekone wrote:
I have seen this with Alkaline batteries long ago. It happens once in a while and can happen to any brand of battery. The difference is now you can post your once in a blue moon issue and the entire world can freak out about it.

and THAT is what makes the internet such a powerful tool for the once muted customer. A company can no longer hide behind small legal print and avoid exposure to bad PR. Smart companies know that keeping customers happy is a must in this age of the internet.

I had battery leakage as shown here when I tried some el cheapo rechargeables from a dollar store. Luckily they discharged during a charge and not while in my flash.

I've used MAHA batteries in my Duracell 15-minute charger before and they have acted weird. I never get a flashing light indicating charging error with regular Duracell Rechargeables but with the MAHAs, they seem to have a 30% error rate. . They are great batteries but i guess this post confirms my worries.

I hope everyone here is aware the biggest impact you can have on your batteries is the charger you use... using cheapo chargers will really hamper the life of the battery. Pony up the $50-$75 and got a good quality charger thats intelligent and not based on a timer.

I have been using Power Ex batteries for 3 years. Currently I own the Power Ex 2700 and they have a 5 year warrenty. I have never had any problems.

All the comments have been interesting and I can see that battery discharge is not that common. I was just un-lucky. The flash or batteries did not get wet from any outside source of water or condensation. The corrosion on the battery ends seems to have been caused by the discharge of the batteries. When the case was opened it was wet inside with the red battery fluid. I can even see the red stain on the inside of the flash control window.

Thanks for the post, i was just about to buy them....but, better safe than sorry, i guess i'll buy Sanyo 2700 mAh instead..

I use Powerex's in all of my gear (not just cameras), as well as a VERY expensive and nice intelligent charger, and I have never had a single problem with them, ever. I will still use Powerex batteries, think of all the people that use them fine, then you have 1 person who had a problem, thats a pretty low failure rate.