I couldn’t find my Clip+ earlier this week. Then I found it. In a pair of pants I’d washed Monday evening. Amazingly, the player still works but only on external power. It won’t charge at all. Having looked at the battery, it’s pretty clear that it isn’t a hermetically sealed unit. 
So if anyone has a busted Clip+ with a working battery, I’ll gladly give you a few bucks for it.
It was firmly attached. The battery is sticky-taped in place. It can’t move or be jostled no matter how much the player is banged around. Trust me, it’s dead. The battery “case” is just pressed foil crimped around the terminals. Keeps the bulk down but the result is a fragile power storage unit that just can’t handle a simple run through a washing machine. :)
jtown wrote:
It was firmly attached. The battery is sticky-taped in place. It can’t move or be jostled no matter how much the player is banged around. Trust me, it’s dead. The battery “case” is just pressed foil crimped around the terminals. Keeps the bulk down but the result is a fragile power storage unit that just can’t handle a simple run through a washing machine. :)
There have been a large number of people here whose players have gone for a swim. Those who don’t immediately try to turn it on (and consequently short it out for good) have had good success in reviving it by drying it out thoroughly either by letting it air-dry (open or closed) or by sealing it up in a bag with a desiccant like white rice for several days.
We haven’t heard of any where the battery was completely hosed by the experience. More likely is the possibility that there is some residual moisture somewhere on the circuit board, or minerals and/or soap suds that are providing a electrical conduit between 2 adjacent solder points effectively preventing it from powering up.
Although it sounds counter-intuitive, a good thing to do would be to take it for a few more laps in some distilled water to throughly rinse out any residue from the wash cycle and flush any conductive minerals away. Then . . . give it a good drying-out.
I appreciate the effort but please, please take my word for it. The battery is dead. It’s not pining. It has passed on. It is no more. It has ceased to be. Expired and gone to meet its maker. Yada, yada, yada, ex-battery.
It didn’t just take a dunk. It was washed and dried.
The Clip+ initially did not turn on under its own power but I plugged it into a USB power supply and it fired right up. All functions working perfectly. So I plugged it into a computer and it showed up with 0% charge. Left it plugged in for half an hour, then unplugged it and tried to start it under its own power. Nothing. Plugged it back into the USB charger. It initially looked like it was going to charge but then the charge indicator stopped moving and the icon changed to an empty battery with a line through it. I unplugged it and let it sit in the warm exhaust of a computer for the day. This didn’t change its behavior. Plugging it back into the computer, it now registered a 100% charge, though it was unable to turn on without external power. I then opened the clip+ and let the exposed circuitry and battery (which was fully connected) sit in a warm flow of air for a few more hours. Changed nothing. I tried to initiate a reset but it didn’t work. I don’t know if it’s supposed to work while there’s an external power source connected. It didn’t do anything witout external power, either.
So, after proving to my satisfaction that the battery was dead, I dissected it out of curiosity. Full autopsy. As I said, it’s just a foil wrap crimped and taped shut. Fine for a sealed device and maybe a dunk in the pool but over half an hour of sustained agitation and an hour of drying was probably a bit much. Frankly, I’m shocked that the rest of the device still works.
Back to my original question: Does anyone have a battery left over from an otherwise busted Clip+?
The wee Clip can endure the trauma of a soaking, as we’ve experienced, but the battery can indeed be discharged below its minimum threshold voltage, which could make in unrecoverable. This is the downside of the high density lithium polymer battery.
Usually, the Sansa will shut down or cease drawing current when “swimming”, and can possibly be revived later by a careful drying in air, at moderate temperatures.
Regarding that household clothes drier, this can be more deadly to the wee Sansa than the wash. The battery doesn’t fare well in the ambient temperatures encountered in that tumbler, well above the boiling point (212F / 100C) of water. This may destroy the battery, of course.
Bob 
You can use the iP*d Shuffle battery as per this guide.
It has a lower mAh, but is widely availabe and is very cheap, $5-10.
Note that it takes about a month to ship from China, so I’d look around first.
Message Edited by notgod on 07-10-2010 05:15 AM
Excellent tip! Thank you. It’s much cheaper than spending $55 or so on a new 8 gig Clip+.
Woo hoo! Checked the mail and my new battery had arrived. $3.89 delivered. I ordered the one from the ebay link in the thread posted by notgod.
The original says
BAK 323036P
9G05 1.07Wh
3.7V 290mAh
The new one says
BAK 363830P ST
9G10 1.22Wh
3.7V 330mAh
Physical dimensions are the same as the old battery except the terminals are on the long edge. This makes me question the accuracy of the rating since the energy storage portion is smaller than the original but I’m not going to be picky. In typical “Hong Kong” fashion, the battery delivered is not same configuration as the one pictured. Fortunately, what was delivered is closer to the origina Clip+ battery. 3 wires (red, black, blue). I’d saved the board off the original battery to transplant to the new one but I took a shot and connected the new battery as-is.
So far, so good. It turned on and resumed playing from where it left off. I plugged it into a computer and it registered 79% and the charging indicator showed that it was charging the entire time it was plugged in. Unplugged it and it’s still working, behavior totally normal. I still need to leave it plugged in to make sure charging shuts off properly but, so far, I’m giving it a thumbs-up.
The battery you got is a Clip battery. It is exactly as you describe, 330mAh, with terminals on the side. Good to know that the Clip battery will work in the Clip+. Good Work!!!
So far, so good. The battery stopped charging when it topped off. Next test will be to see if it shuts down on the low end before the voltage drops too far. That’ll take a while at the rate I use it.
As for picking up where it left off, it did the same thing with the fried battery but I couldn’t shut it down properly so it never saved the new stopping point. It was like groundhog day. Same spot every time. I’m amazed it works at all. It’s not like I just dropped it in the toilet or something. This thing got washed. And then _ dried _.
Glad it helped.
Now you can do almost everything to it, it is most certainly a zombie.
Very nice to see that the Clip battery (330mAh) fits the Clip+. That is, assuming that the one you’ve found is the same device. I’ll have to try one of those units. It will be nice to have a wee bit more capacity in the new machine, for sure.
So far, I’ve been using the Clip+ for about four hours in a session, and it gets recharged.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
@neutron_bob wrote:
Very nice to see that the Clip battery (330mAh) fits the Clip+. That is, assuming that the one you’ve found is the same device. I’ll have to try one of those units. It will be nice to have a wee bit more capacity in the new machine, for sure.
So far, I’ve been using the Clip+ for about four hours in a session, and it gets recharged.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
4 hours? I hope you don’t mean it needs to be charged after 4 hours. I’ve put about 5.5 hours on mine since putting in the new battery and it says 68%. I know I’ve done 10+ hours on the original battery many times and still had plenty of life left.
As far as battery capacity goes, I don’t believe the replacement stores more energy than the original. Either the original was underrated or the replacement is overrated. The energy storage portion of the new battery is actually smaller than the old one since the crimp runs along a long edge rather than a short edge. I suppose it might be a bit thicker but not significantly.
Just to follow up, I got a little over 15 hours from the first charge (all audiobook playback so very little button pressing or display use) and it shut down properly. Plugged it into a USB port and it started charging just like it should. So I suggest going with Ebay item 170477518536 which is apparently a Clip battery. Seems to work perfectly in the Clip+.
Here’s an ebay link for the right battery.
It’s nice to see the 330mAh battery available. As a footnote, no, my Clip+ doesn’t go dead after 4 hours, that’s just average use in the field for it. The battery on mine isn’t a marathon runner, incidentally. I’d guess it’s good for about 7-8 hours maximum, based upon the charge indicator’s progress.
Oh well, luck of the draw, I guess. I think a 330mAh battery may be destined for this Clip+.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
@neutron_bob wrote:
It’s nice to see the 330mAh battery available. As a footnote, no, my Clip+ doesn’t go dead after 4 hours, that’s just average use in the field for it. The battery on mine isn’t a marathon runner, incidentally. I’d guess it’s good for about 7-8 hours maximum, based upon the charge indicator’s progress.
Oh well, luck of the draw, I guess. I think a 330mAh battery may be destined for this Clip+.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
The battery meter on the Sansas never was very linear in its progression downward though, was it? 
Last time I tried to test mine with the Sansa firmware, with a mix of high bitrate MP3 and WMA files, it was dead at just over 10 hours. Now, of course, I am routinely breaking the 14-hour mark, with that “other” firmware running things.
Probably, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to simply let the little guy run, and see just how much capacity it has in actual use.
Lately, I use the Clip+ listening to podcasts, since its interface is great for them, and for music when I take a break during a long cycling run. The wee beastie is the perfect size for that.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Bumping this old thread, as I also had need of a replacement Sansa Clip+ battery. I found that Aliexpress has a number of sellers offering the 323036P like-for-like replacement:
https://www.aliexpress.com/premium/323036.html?SearchText=323036
I’ve ordered a couple. I don’t expect them to be delivered for a while so I can’t guarantee that these items work and fit.
A while back I bought replacement batteries for a phone that was a few years old.
I’m sure the batteries I got were new, as in “new, old stock.” They were Motorola batteries just like the phone and they looked legit.
Batteries degrade whether they are being used or not. The replacement batteries worked better than the one they replaced, but they definitely did not work like freshly made ones.
If you are happy with the replacement batteries (or even if you aren’t,) do some research into refrigerating batteries. I’ve had good luck with that, but don’t take my word for it.
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