Leaking Battery in New T2i?! Help!

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ProtectingVeil

New member
Hey Folks!

I just recharged the battery of my T2i (for the second time since purchasing it) and when I pulled it out of the charger, I noticed what looked like condensation on both the battery and the charger. Closer inspection showed that it was, actually, some kind of oil. I placed it back into the charger for a few more minutes, and a bit more oil came out.
Has anyone else experienced this? I seriously hesitate putting it into my brand new T2i...
Thoughts as to how to proceed?
Thanks in advance!
 
Wow! Okay, I got my t2i two to three months ago from Costco. I was just shooting a little video and the battery indicator came on red so I finished shooting and pulled out the battery and it had that oil on the contact large flat side closest to the contacts - the side with the " + - " printed on it.

I'm just a casual user with full time employment unrelated to photography -- so I doubt I've done more then 5 or 10 charge cycles on the battery.

And yes this is the brand new OEM Canon LP-E8 that came with the camera.

Here are the tests I performed on the unknown liquid, and the results:
Color: Appears clear in thin quantities.

Smell: I Can't detect any scent.

Burns: like oil, with regular color of flame.

Water: Does not mix. Water beads up.

Mixes with oil.

Electrical Conductivity: zero.
~~~~

This eliminates alcohols and antifreeze and break fluid type substances since those mix with water.
Also eliminates water based chemicals.

These leave two likely candidates of petroleum oil or silicone oil.

But why in the world would a battery contain oil?!

I suppose it could also be an organic non-water type electrolyte from the LiIon/LiPo cells, but I did once smell the fumes from a damaged Lipo and it was a strong solvent smell.

I don't know whether the liquid came from the battery or the camera. Neither makes sense.

However, considering your battery showed up with the liquid while in the charger, it's pointing at the battery.

~Jesse
 
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if you paid with credit card, check if they have some sort of purchase protection. For Amex, I can claim and full money back within 3 months if the item broke. Otherwise, contact Canon. It's a $55 battery. I would expect more from them.

I am using generic LP-E8 batteries with 1440mAh. It's a little bit more juice then the stock Canon 1120mah.
 
UPDATE:

I did contact Canon via support email and after a couple email exchanges they sent me a new battery and a label to print out to send them the old one so that they could take it apart and look inside. I sent it off with a note that I would really like to know what they find out.

I'm still not absolutely sure that it's the battery that leaked (and I told them as much) since the battery was in the camera at the time. But I don't know where that much oil would leak from inside the camera, either. If a capacitor spewed out all its electrolyte, I doubt the camera would continue to happily work. Very strange indeed.


~Jesse
 
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