I am in charge of checking our office Automated External Defibrillator and it is time to replace the batteries. Duracell Ultra is the brand in it now. It takes ten size123a lithium manganese dioxide batteries.
Internal markings inside the battery compartment indicate that Duracell, Sanyo, or Varta are the recommended battery manufacturers. Rayovac and Panasonic are specifically noted as NOT recommended.
I live on an island and have been unable to find that size battery in any of the recommended brands. For everyday electronics I might not care, but in this case we really want it to work right if needed.
The one location I’ve found selling that size battery has Titanium Innovations brand. It is the right chemistry but it is built with “PTC protection (a type of thermal fuse).”
So… is our Zoll AED going to blow a fuse in the battery when we really need it if we use these Titanium Innovations batteries? I assume an AED is a high drain device.
Well, it’s not really the kind of device that you want to be substituting non-recommended parts into. I normally wouldn’t care; I buy my batteries at the dollar store, but a defibrillator?
No way am I using anything but exactly what the manufacturer recommends.
the unit vendor may sell batteries as accessories.
if a store on your island orders from a electronics or battery wholesaler then they might be able to special order the type you need even though they don’t stock it.
Whether the fuse (actually, a thermistor that increases in resistance with temperature, which will also reset when it cools, they are also slow-acting compared to regular fuses) is a problem depends on how much current the defibrillator needs; according to the link you provided, the fuse is rated at 5 amps; I don’t see any specs for the defibrillator but it may be marked on the case (also depends on whether the batteries are in series or parallel, or a combination, e.g two parallel strings of 5 cells each, giving 10 amps total). Of course, I would always want to use the proper batteries in this case unless I knew otherwise that they were OK.
Without tearing the AED apart I’m not sure if it is in series or parallel, or some combination thereof.
People living on the island deal with shipping issues all the time. Huge PITA, as you might imagine. And our department doesn’t get a credit card for miscellaneous purchases. So if we can make the purchase through an approved local vendor it is just much easier. The one place that has some is a camera shop but they don’t have ten in stock.
I think I should just declare that the off brand won’t work, refer to concern about the fuse/thermistor, and make the photo shop order in ten fresh Duracells.
R&D batteries (which is where my company usually orders batteries from,) thinks they are wired in series, but I have my doubts. Most defibs (both regular and AEDs) have batteries that range from 10 to 15V, so it would seem very out of place to have this AED use 30…I’v guessing R&D doesn’t know how the batteries get installed, so just simple says it’s 30V, since it’s ten batteries at 3V each. Odds are it’s two sets of five wired in parallel.
I’m actually very fascinated by this AED…I’m a biomedical technician. I test, fix, repair, and replace batteries for medical equipment for my job. This is the first AED I’ve seen that doesn’t just use a very simple, and proprietary, battery pack. Like this.
These are more expensive and harder to get than the more universal CR123, so you actually lucked out, all things considered.
And yes, use the recommended battery manufacturer. R&D actually makes a lot of batteries themselves, but even they will only sell you the Duracell ones for this defib, so that’s saying something.