Cleaning Corroded Battery Terminals

My kids recently decided to break out their "amphibious" remote-controlled cars, which they haven't played with in probably 6 months. Of course, as children's toys are basically expected to do, they had leached the batteries dry in the interim. To be clear, they have off switches. I just stopped trying to enforce "turn them off when you're done with them" a long time ago... probably shortly after they got them for Christmas last year.

Anyway, the point is this: 9 new AA batteries all together. And in the process of changing them, I discovered that one (somehow only one) of the battery compartments was encrusted with that lovely white destroyer of metals. Corrosion. Eww.

Instantly, I thought of the time my MP3 player got lost under a huge piece of furniture at my mom's house and was destroyed by that crust by the time I found it. I did not want to have to surrender this toy to effects of material degradation just as the kids found renewed interest in them, so I resolved to fix it if possible.

First, I broke out the rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. I knew it was safe to use. I've read of others using it to clean metal fixtures in bathrooms and kitchens. Why not battery terminals?

That worked to a certain degree, but there was no way I could get enough scrubbing power in those tiny,  AA compartments to get the rough patches off of the springs and plates. So I did some research and some experimenting. Here's what worked:

Baking soda and water.

Things you need:

• Baking soda
• Water
• Tooth Brush (clean - I used the one I have set aside for stain removal purposes)
• Cotton Swabs

How we did it:

Remove the batteries - Obviously? How else are you going to access the terminals? I'm not really sure what would happen if you didn't, actually. Just do.

Sprinkle the soda - Sprinkle baking soda on the terminals. This process doesn't require a lot of baking soda. They don't need to be coated, just dusted. And any extra you put in there now is going to be extra for you to get out of there later. A little is enough.

Dampen your brush - dip your tooth brush in water. Here again, you don't want it to be too wet, just damp. I patted mine out on a rag a bit before I used it. You don't want to have so much water in the tooth brush that it puddles in the corners of your battery compartment, just enough to wet the baking soda.

Scrub - Use your damp tooth brush to scrub the baking soda onto the metal surfaces, then to clean the baking soda out of the battery compartment. This should result in clean, shiny, like-new surfaces. If you have trouble getting the baking soda out of the corners or crevasses , a toothpick will help.

Dry - I used cotton swabs to dry any remaining dampness out of the battery compartment. I suppose you could probably blow dry it if you're impatient, or air dry it if you really like waiting. Either way, make sure it's dry before you put new batteries in, for safety purposes.

Tips - This apparently also works for car batteries (and probably batteries of all sizes). If you disconnect the wires from the terminals of a car battery and follow these steps, probably with considerably more zeal, you can clean those as well.