A Cautionary Tale

I have to admit, I’m fairly new to the current generation of wireless gaming. I never bought a wavebird for my Gamecube; I just didn’t play it enough to justify the expense, and I don’t do 3rd party controllers anymore. Hell, I didn’t buy my 360 ’till about 6 months ago or so and I purchased the Wii through work last Christmas to give my wife, so really we’ve only had wireless controllers in the house for just over a year.

Normally wired controllers always went on the shelf next to the console. Wired controllers (and really all other systems but the Wii) are played on the couch, so when you grab a controller, you’re usually in the mindset of “I’m gonna just go sit down,” and place it in a position where it’s easier to play it. My 360 controller, for instance, sits on the end table next to my couch, because I play the 360 in a seated position.

But the Wii? We typically play it standing up. Or rather, we played it standing up when we first bought it, so our first instincts on where to put the controllers were based on how we played. Where would they be easy to access while standing?

So we stored them on top of our TV. Easy and convenient to reach while upright and demonstrating our superior two legged balance over the four legged lesser species in the house. It seemed logical. Besides, the IR receiver was up there already anyway. Maybe they’d like to have a closer chat after the game or something? Added bonus: 3 year olds can’t reach them up there.

As it turns out, there’s a problem with this idea. See, our TV we play the Wii on is an “old” CRT one. It gets hot. Wireless controllers use batteries. Batteries don’t like heat. Can you see where I’m going with this?

One of the Wiimotes was dead, and we were about to play a new game (standing up), so I popped it open to replace the batteries, and was shocked to find this:

Hooray! Cooked and dried battery acid!

It all pooled up here in the lid.

I usually only see that kind of corrosion on toy guns I’ve forgotten about in storage since college (hint: think mesozoic era) , so my natural instinct was to either blame a faulty Wii controller or the batteries (they were supposed to be good ’till 2013 for crying out loud), but let’s face it, you’re not supposed to store batteries on top of a heating element. This is just stupid human error. It’s easy to forget about what’s in a controller; to think about it only as something you play a game with, and not about its individual components.

So consider this a public service announcement. Don’t keep your Wiimotes (or other wireless controllers) on top of your TVs. No matter how easy it is to reach them there.

And yes, after cleaning the battery case and the contacts thoroughly (and drying them thoroughly as well) the Wiimote still works.