Remotes

[Rsteahr]

I have 5 Roku devices. Some are years old, the newest is about a year old. The remote of the newest device has been slower and slower, so I opened the back to look at the batteries, there is clearly white corrosion on them. This has happened to every Roku remote I have had for the devices they originally came with. I’ve seen posts about similar issues, Roku needs to fix this way too often problem. Anyone have actual solutions besides putting new batteries in- like Roku providing you with solutions or anything by the company??

[Emissary35]

The Roku remotes are a junk product, they have so many issues with batteries and other pairing problems. Roku knows all this but does nothing.

The moderators do nothing but copy and paste the same useless steps to try from a troubleshooting script, none of which ever work for most people.

The Roku streaming players are good but the remotes are terrible and so is the customer service.

I wouldn't expect anything other than another lame copy/paste from a moderator to try something you already did because it's common sense, like change the batteries or pair the remote again, which doesn't work.

[RokuCarly]

Welcome to the Roku Community, @Rsteahr1

Thank you for joining us here and we appreciate you letting us know about what you have observed on the batteries of your physical Roku remotes. No worries! We'd be happy to help.

Kindly provide us with additional information so we can assess your concern better and help you find the best resolution:

• Is this the battery that also came with your physical remotes? If not, what brand did you replace it with?
• Kindly send us a photo of it for reference. 

We'll be looking forward to your response so we can continue assisting you from there.

Best regards,
Carly

[makaiguy]

@Emissary35  -

Over the years I've had battery compartment corrosion occur in the remotes for a variety of different devices: stereo receivers, satellite and cable boxes, televisions, as well as in battery powered flashlights, radios, cassette and mp3 players, and other devices themselves.   This is not a phenomenon restricted to Roku remotes.  As it turns out I've not had this occur in any of my Roku remotes over roughly 8 Rokus in the last 10 years or so, but they should be as susceptible to it as any other battery powered devices.

It's a fact of modern life.  Replaceable batteries can leak, and when they do they deposit white powdery stuff.  I've had to resurrect many a device by scratching through these deposits with a file, knife, or screw driver in order to re-establish electrical connection to the (new) batteries.

I suspect some battery brands, especially some generics, may be more prone to leak than others.

[Strega2]

There are plenty of theories about which brands leak more or less than others.  If you find a plausible theory, buy a bunch of those and put them in all your remotes.  I haven’t convinced myself that there is a consistent winner yet.

[Rsteahr]

I have only ever experienced this happening over the years in electronics that had been sitting idle for months/years at a time. Just odd that each Roku I have purchased in the last couple of years all end up having corrosion so quickly. It happened with the batteries included, I haven’t had to replace any of the batteries yet because none of them have died on me yet.