Interesting Load Test of Various Common AA Batteries

That was interesting Rod, and shores up my opinion that the HF batteries are junk, never bought the Dollar General ones, and now I have no desire to!   Oddly, my battery choice has been the Energizer for the last couple of years after having the Duracell leak-o-matic batteries screw up several devices!

This made me inspect the Walgreens batteries in my DCS remote...

...All clear (so far). They've been in there for awhile.

^{(I haven't yet seen the video so I don't know if they're in there)}

---PCJ

I'm sticking with Energizer batteries.  Although the Duracells tested pretty well, I've had way too many of them leak and damage stuff, so they're in my **** list.

I looked on youtube for a comparison of frequency of leakage by brand. Could not find. Anyone aware of a video that does this? As GRJ posted above, Duracell seems to be the worst offender in this regard.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

I looked on youtube for a comparison of frequency of leakage by brand. Could not find. Anyone aware of a video that does this? As GRJ posted above, Duracell seems to be the worst offender in this regard.

A few years ago Duracell announced that counterfeit batteries were being sold in US and showed images of the real vs fake batteries. I have never had a Duracell leak but then I try replace them sooner than every ten years.

Interesting video though, thanks for posting.

Pete

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

That was interesting Rod, and shores up my opinion that the HF batteries are junk, never bought the Dollar General ones, and now I have no desire to!   Oddly, my battery choice has been the Energizer for the last couple of years after having the Duracell leak-o-matic batteries screw up several devices!

I hear you John, especially the leaky Duracell part!

Who would have guessed about the drop test?? That was interesting.

And it looks like good old Energizer and Duracell alkaline are still pretty good value batteries for the price, notwithstanding the leak issue. I have had no troubles with Energizers. We don't see RayoVacs for sale up here very often so I can't comment on them.

And Energizer Lithium look like the way to go if you want high energy delivery and recharge ability.

Rod

Funny thing Rod, the two types of batteries I stock are the Energizer Alkaline and Energizer Lithium.

Loved the drop test, I had never heard of that one.  I'm pretty sure that it's because the pressure inside the cell has bowed the bottom making it stick out slightly.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I'm pretty sure that it's because the pressure inside the cell has bowed the bottom making it stick out slightly.

Nope.  Here's the reason, from a Princeton University study.

https://www.princeton.edu/news...often-bounces-target

About these battery tests reported, first he classified different chemistry AA batteries as the same and compared standard carbon batteries, Harbor Freight and Heavy Duty Dollar Generals, with alkaline batteries.

He also did not consider the use of the batteries and corrosion potential.  For high drain usages like standard bulb flashlights there are at least two different drains to consider.  For a flashlight in a car or on my battery holder in the shop, that are seldom used, a lower capacity battery, like a carbon one will set around for a year or two.  For a heavy used flashlights, the alkaline battery would be the better choice.  BUT if you have one of those expensive aluminum cased Magnalite flashlights and leave any alkaline battery in it for a year or two it is probably ruined from corrosion as alkali will eat up the aluminum case.  A carbon battery is a better choice.  Carbon batteries also will corrode items, but my experience is any alkaline battery will corrode much more often than carbon batteries due to the alkali eventually eating up the steel shell of the battery itself.  I would consider using rechargeable Panasonic eneloop NiMH batteries, like I use in cameras, BUT they have only 1.2 volt output when new and fully charged.  Also, after about 8 years or so they lose the ability to be recharged as I have recently found out.

Another AA battery use is remote controllers for my Cox cable TV cable boxes service.  These eat up batteries, carbon ones especially fast.  I have settled on DG alkaline batteries, lower cost in packs of 30, and they last a couple of months.  They fail when giving a 1.5 or less voltage reading and we have 4 remotes.  I uses the DG alkaline batteries, discarded by being <1.5 volts for remotes, for my several small portable am/fm radios that are happy with batteries at above, at least 1.0 volt.  I have never had those carbon batteries corrode my radio, but I have to change out the <1.5 v DG alkaline every several months to prevent corrosion of the radios.

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

For high drain usages like standard bulb flash lights there are at least two different drains to consider.  For a flashlight in a car or on my battery holder in the shop, that are seldom used a lower capacity battery, like a carbon one will set around for a year or two.  For a heavy used flashlight the alkaline battery would be the better choice.  BUT if you have one of those expensive aluminum cased Magnalite flashlights and leave any alkaline battery in it for a year or two it is probably ruined from corrosion as alkali will eat up aluminum.  A carbon battery is a better choice.  Carbon batteries also will corrode items to but my experience is any alkaline battery will corrode much more often than carbon batteries due to the alkali eventually eating up the steel shell of the battery itself.

You totally skipped over the best battery for those flashlights you have for emergencies, as well as those that might set around for a year or two.  I use Lithium in all my flashlights, much longer life, and I've never had one leak!  Both Alkaline and carbon batteries won't have nearly the shelf life of the Lithium batteries, and when it's time to use the flashlight, you'll get a lot more runtime from the Lithium cell as well!

@Bob posted:

Nope.  Here's the reason, from a Princeton University study.

https://www.princeton.edu/news...often-bounces-target

Interesting, not what I expected.  I love his video of all the batteries in the tubes.