# Check Your Battery Stores



## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

We're in the midst of moving into a new house, so as I packed things away, I visually checked all the dry cell batteries we have in storage. Most are around two-three years old, but some were purchased within the past year. I found more than a dozen had corroded inside the factory packaging. Some multiple packs had more than one battery leaking, so all in the pack are probably bad. If so, as many as 100 batteries could be bad.

I have no idea when each was purchased as I didn't check the package dates when they went into storage, so some packs may not have been fresh when I got them. At the price of multiple packs, you can bet I will be checking from now on!

FWIW, most of the bad ones were Rayovac, but a couple were other major brands. All sizes were affected.


----------



## db2469 (Jun 11, 2012)

The Duracell Durolock batts sound good to me and I've bought a lot...the Ds have a guaranteed shelf life of 10 years, the AAs 7...price is better on Amazon than I found at Walmart...


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

db2469 said:


> The Duracell Durolock batts sound good to me and I've bought a lot...the Ds have a guaranteed shelf life of 10 years, the AAs 7...price is better on Amazon than I found at Walmart...


 The only batteries that I have ever had good results storing over long periods of time are Duracell and Panasonic brands. As much as the Energizer Bunny has pimped Eveready batteries I just have not had them last very long and many within the use by date have leaked in my flashlights and radios. The best prices for Duracell batteries has been from Costco, I haven't tried their Kirkland brand batteries but it may be that they are made by Duracell.


----------



## Justaguy987 (Mar 2, 2013)

Viking said:


> The best prices for Duracell batteries has been from Costco, I haven't tried their Kirkland brand batteries but it may be that they are made by Duracell.


Not sure who makes them, but they do not last nearly as long as Duracell. We tried them then went back to Duracell. Now we use eneloop rechargeable in everything I can think of.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

GaryS said:


> FWIW, most of the bad ones were Rayovac,.


The same brand our company supplies us to run our flashlights and test equipment. Total garbage, they leak all the time!!!


----------



## musketjim (Dec 7, 2011)

I use primarily Li-Ion batteries because of their cold weather function. Love them in all my headlamps and outdoor cameras, wish they came in D and C sizes. I use whatever brand is cheapest for my video game controllers and remotes. Between Grandkids and me we chew up some AA's in our Wi controllers.


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Duracell now has a 10 year guarantee on batteries in storage.


----------



## BillS (May 30, 2011)

I have Duracell's stored too. Sometimes we dip into them and then buy more.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

musketjim said:


> I use whatever brand is cheapest for my video game controllers and remotes. Between Grandkids and me we chew up some AA's in our Wi controllers.


Uh, Why?? 
We use 2800 or 3000mAh Ni-Mh "AA" from eBay (Chinese) in all of our game controllers. They last quite a while, but there are always a set or two in the recharger! We are recharging "AA" batteries 24/7/365, LOL!!


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

I have a Casio wrist watch that my dad had, I got it when he died in 1991, I don't know how long he had it before but it has a Li-Ion battery in it an it's still keeping time and date. Pretty good selling point for that type of battery.


----------



## Navajo (Mar 4, 2013)

Ni-Mh the only way to go....whilce I do have a charger for Alkline,th ey only recharge once good, maybe twice..

Ni-Mh 1500 times they say....don't know yet but I do have some that are at least 8 years old and still going.

Plus the new ones hold a charge for up to year.

Takes time to buy them at about $2 a battery and Sony does have the kits with a c and d cell adapter, but them at Costco.


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Back in the early 1980's we used Ni-Cad batteries a lot but the ones I had really didn't last all that long. I did find out later that they made different levels of quality and charge capacity. I was surprised to find that only a small portion of a "D" or "C" cell housing was used on lower end batteries. At that time Radio Shack sold Ni-Cad batteries that used more of the space in the housing and had far better usage per charge, of course they had a higher price tag as well. The only recent Ni-Cad batteries I've had experience with was some solar charged batteries in a couple of flashlights we bought at Costco. Those batteries were like the ones in cordless phones and the secondary batteries in the flashlight were the large wafer Li-Ion which outlasted the Ni-Cad rechargeable ones. I thought maybe I'd replace the rechargeable batteries but when I started pricing them it was just too much so basically the flashlights were throw aways. Anyway Costco came out with tactical flashlights that run on three AAA batteries that have low, high and pulse light positions, great power for decent price and perhaps I'll get some rechargeable batteries for them. Since I haven't paid much attention to rechargeables I haven't bought any of the newer Ni-Mh batteries and I don't even know the prices they are going for.


----------



## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

Batteries are strange critters. I built a Heathkit multimeter in 1975 that was powered by two AA batteries. The original generic brand batteries died about three years ago, while the fresh name brand batteries lasted only two years. 

The meter gets only light usage, but 35 years is amazing!


----------



## cqp33 (Apr 2, 2012)

U have 8 te-energy "D" cells hat I charged and put into my led lantern. As a test I hung the lantern in the garage turned on low which is enough light to navigate safely at night in the garage. The lantern was on for 8 weeks and 3 days before the light was to dim to safely navigate the garage, 7 weeks with no decrease in light. I have white premium 10,000 ma batteries! Needless to say I love my NI-MH batteries or as one of my coworkers says, "funny metal batteries!".


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Viking said:


> I have a Casio wrist watch ... Pretty good selling point for that type of battery.


No, more like pretty good selling point for Casio.(although lithium batteries are VERY good)

Casio holds patents on technology that allows their devices to use less power than other manufacturers.

The Casio Exilim digital camera runs 2-3 times as long on the same set of batteries than any other comparable camera.


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

GaryS said:


> Batteries are strange critters. I built a Heathkit multimeter in 1975 that was powered by two AA batteries.


 I really miss all the electronic companies that had kits, I also built a Heathkit multimeter but I got it back in the 1950's and I think it had one D battery. Built things from Eico and Laffyette (spl.) as well and now Radio Shack may be going away, one which still has resistors, condensers, LED's and other hobbiest stuff that I was still getting for projects.


----------



## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

Viking said:


> I really miss all the electronic companies that had kits, I also built a Heathkit multimeter but I got it back in the 1950's and I think it had one D battery. Built things from Eico and Laffyette (spl.) as well and now Radio Shack may be going away, one which still has resistors, condensers, LED's and other hobbiest stuff that I was still getting for projects.


Yep, I miss them too. The multimeter was part of a course I took that also had you build a breadboard, an O-scope, and a color TV. The scope was sort of difficult to use, but the TV was wonderful. It was modulized with plug-in boards that were extremely easy to test and troubleshoot. I had that set for about fifteen years with only a couple of minor problems until the picture tube finally died.


----------

