By small batteries I mean AAA, AA, C, D, 9 volt, etc.
It seems like more and more devices that used to require batteries like these instead have an in built rechargeable lithium ion battery.
At this point, I think the only thing I use smaller batteries for are remote controls and the smoke alarms. I haven’t used a C or D battery in years. Some things like my car key FOB will probably never be rechargeable but who knows. I could see TV/DVD/roku/etc remote controls becoming rechargeable someday, and thats what I use the vast majority of my batteries for.
Has there been a trendline of small batteries being sold going down as rechargeable lithium ion batteries get cheaper and cheaper?
I can’t remember the last time I used D cells for anything - maybe an air pump for an inflatable mattress we used to have. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go away. I don’t see AA or AAA going away anytime soon, they’re good for too many small things like TV remotes.
But speaking of keyfobs, I wish they could standardize on one size of those flat batteries that are about the size of a quarter. I started getting a low battery warning on my dashboard, so I went to get a replacement battery. There’s about a dozen different numbers and they all look alike. I had to pop my keyfob open in the store to double check what kind of battery it was.
I don’t see AA and tke like going away soon. D maybe the big cylindrical ones will disappear, but not the rectangular ones.
I don’t see built in rechargable batteries being used in everything. For one thing, the products would cost more. As it is, I can sell something at a lower price and ship less weight if it is designed to use regular batteries but does not include them.
A quick google says that some people shove 2032s into 2025 slots because they last longer. They are thicker though so you might not be able to close the fob.
For a traditional cylindrical flashlight that fits a human hand, Cs are a great size. Ds too for the beefier ones that are as much a club as a light.
I just used 2 C cells the day before yesterday. I found one of my several C-celled flashlights was dead, so two new C-cells came out of the drawer and went into the flashlight.
I’d say the OP made their title backwards. What is going to happen is the large batteries like Ds & Cs are going to disappear. Just as As and Bs have, and as 6V lantern batteries have almost.
The small batteries, like CR2025s and the jillion kinds of button & hearing aid batteries are the ones that will be exploding in both quantity sold and in variety of types (=diameter, thickness, and electrical capacity). Meantime AA & AAA will bumble along as they have been.
My two newest Samsung TVs came with remotes with built in rechargeable batteries. You can charge them via USB-C, but the bottom side of the remote has a solar charger. By leaving the remote face down on the table, it’s always fully charged. This does not work well for the remote trapped in the sofa cushions.
I think the telling thing for flashlights is that they used to be big and chunky because the old incandescent bulbs took enough power that multiple D cells were necessary.
LEDs have changed that equation by quite a bit; a rinky-dink 3 AAA flashlight puts out more light for longer than an old D-cell light with a halogen bulb. So your modern lights are typically much brighter than the old ones and smaller in the bargain. There’s no need for the super monster 18000 mAh 1.5v batteries anymore.
I actually have some LED camping lanterns that take 3 D cells, and they last forever on that.
It used to be that ultraviolet flashlights (useful for identfying uranium glass among other things) were rare and very expensive. The switch to ultraviolet LED’s made them much much cheaper and much safer.
ETA
I just Googled it. Amazon has a variety of UV flashlights for under ten dollars. I may buy one.
I can’t remember the last time I bought or used anything size C or larger. I have a few detectors that use 9v, but I hate buying them, because they’re rare and more expensive. I have many devices that use AA or AAA in largish numbers, from older remotes, various smart devices, and powered cat toys, but those are all run by rechargeable batteries these days.
So, as the prices and reliability on such continue to come down, I suspect that small non-rechargeables are going to disappear first! Yes, I see ads for “super premium” AA/AAA that claim superior performance in some devices, but nothing I use would benefit from them, especially not at the price premium.
As for flashlights, all the ones in my house are either older small highlight sized incandescents using AA/AAA, equivalently sized internal batteries recharged via USB, or combo “emergency” lanterns with smallish internal batteries powered by cranking, solar, or grid sources.
I have a few lantern style lights I use for outdoor or low light room work that annoying use either C or D batteries. I bought a cat toy a few months ago that also annoyingly also used C batteries which was incredibly difficult to find them for cheap anywhere near me unless I wanted to buy a 20 pack on Amazon.
We have a battery powered light in a place that doesn’t have power. It’s the only thing we own that takes D cells. Otherwise we still have a variety of remotes, headlamps, and gadgets that still take AA and AAA, and our smoke detectors use 9V batteries for backup.
For the D cell remote light I plan to get that area wired or at least use rechargeable D cells the next time I have to buy more.
True. Then somebody noticed they made great clubs. Now they’re built to be great clubs that oh by the way can be insanely LED-bright and last for a silly long time on the 3 or 4 D cells used as ballast for the clubbing aspect.
I have a portable radio that uses eight D batteries. For that reason it’s been years since I put any in it. I’m not buying costly D batteries for one radio that never leaves the house anyway.
I don’t have anything that takes C batteries. I can see C and D cells going away.
Lots of remote controls take AA and AAA batteries, so I keep a good stock of those around. However, I just purchased a new TV that has a solar-powered remote control. What am I going to do with all those AAA batteries now?
FYI, there are adapters that take 3 AA batteries and basically produce a roughly half-strength D battery. They’re very useful if you have something relatively high drain that uses D batteries- you can use rechargeable NiMh AA batteries and just swap them out as needed. (my kids had a toy as children that needed D batteries, so I went down this route)
The only thing we use larger batteries for is some older flashlights we have lying around (including a couple really good ones that have magnets to stick on the fridge, a swivel head, and a clamp). Those use C batteries. We have a couple of the really cheap flashlights somewhere that use D batteries. Other than that, it’s AA (for the TV remote) or AAA (I forget what we have that uses those).
Most devices that require batteries seem to be shipped with them, albeit very cheap ones. Makes them more useful: if you can’t use an object right out of the box, you’re not going to be happy with it. It’s a marketing / customer satisfaction thing and most places won’t try to cut that corner. I’ve only bought one thing in recent years that did not have the needed batteries included; I forget what it was, but I had seen on the product description that it did not. We keep a stash of batteries so we were fine - but if we didn’t have such a stash, it would have been quite annoying.
A big reason to continue to have disposable batteries is you can have SPARES. LiOn batteries do tend to lose capacity over time, and if it’s built-in you can’t swap them out (AirPods and the ilk get some well-deserved heat for not being fixable, that way), nor can you do anything if they fail when you aren’t somewhere where you can recharge them. We traveled recently, and I brought a power brick which added significant weight to my purse, but I didn’t want my phone / headphones to die mid-flight.