Sometimes the instructions for some electronic product tell you to e.g. insert 2 AA alkaline batteries. Usually it’s in the form of a request, maybe because alkalines are (slightly) better for the environment or they also sell those. Awhile back, I saw something that strongly said to only use alkalines but no justification was given (sorry forget what it was).
In either case, am I supposed to put only alkalines in, or is that just their suggestion? What would happen if I used a NiCd, NiMH, Li-ion, or Zn-C? Catastrophic damage, I doubt it. But possibly the voltages are different and might affect functioning?
Most modern electronics will accept Alkaline or NiCd/NiMH batteries.
Li-ion have too high a voltage (4v vs 1.5v), and would probably cause damage. There are Lithium batteries that have the same terminal voltage as alkalizes, and those would work fine.
The reason manufacturers specify alkaline is to avoid complaints. Zinc-carbon batteries have not only poor energy, but they also have terrible leakage problems. By specifying alkalines, the manufacturer eliminates one possible problem.
NiCd and NiMH have lower voltage (1.25 vs 1.5), but most products don’t care these days.
zinc carbon batteries wear down fast and then will leak damaging your electronics. they leak even if you don’t use the device, they self discharge and in a month or two they could be leaking.
alkaline last longer, don’t self discharge as quickly. and you will often notice the voltage drop and the device not working well before leakage.
you still have to practice good battery hygiene but you have much more time to do it.
Different battery chemistries have different voltages per cell, though interchangeable cells are usually (well, always, AFAIK) close. For example, I’ve never heard of a Li-ion AA, since the 3.6V a Li-ion cell puts out would cause problems with a device expecting 1.5V. I’m wondering if they device you remember was something like a boombox that used like 8 cells in series? With that many cells, using NiCd instead of Alkaline would provide 9.6V instead of the expected 12V, which could easily cause problems.
I have a camera that requires alkaline batteries. If you put batteries in it with a lower voltage it triggers the low battery warning on the camera and then the camera keeps wanting to shut off.
That does remind me and I checked: my camera takes either alkaline, NiMH, or lithium and you have to specify in the options which you are using. I don’t know the consequences of not doing it.
For those devices that will only work properly on 1.5V batteries, I’ve found RAM batteries to be a nice option:
They’re 1.5V and rechargeable. Very low self-discharge and will last for years in low-drain devices. I use them in flashlights, thermostats and remote controls.
Alkaline batteries keep their voltage (higher) longer than standard “heavy duty” batteries, which tend to drop linearly. There is a simple graph of the voltage drops of various battery types on this page.
Heavy duty batteries are great for things that do not require a specific voltage, like incandescent flashlights, but are they are the bane of modern electronics, which need a minimum voltage level to operate.
Yep, as a EE I’m well aware of battery discharge curves. I used to have books of those things in the days before spec sheets like that were easily available off of the net.
I guess my example wasn’t clear, but the point I was trying to get across is that some devices have their power monitoring circuitry tied to specific battery types.
An example I’m familiar with is avalanche transceivers. Their battery life indicators are critical so they require alkaline batteries. NiMH or Lithiums will allow the unit to function, but you be out of juice when you need it because the low battery indicator never went off.
Right- both alkaline and “Heavy Duty” zinc chloride batteries’ voltage drops linearly with the loss of capacity, but the slope is a lot flatter for alkaline batteries. So if you have a standard 1.5v alkaline battery, if it’s 50% discharged, the voltage will also be down to a certain point as well- let’s say 1.15v (just a WAG). For a “Heavy Duty” battery, if it’s 50% discharged, the voltage won’t be at the same point as an alkaline battery- it may be 1.0v
NiMH rechargeables have much more of a sideways S-curve, where they starts out at 1.5v, and for the next 10% of capacity the voltage drops pretty fast to about 1.2v, where it stays almost flat for the next 80% of the battery’s capacity, and then drops like a rock for the last 10%.
Battery discharge curves also depend on the load- “Heavy Duty” batteries don’t handle high loads well, while alkalines do ok, and NiMH batteries do very well.
So if your battery capacity circuitry is thinking that a voltage of 1.2v corresponds to 60% capacity (no idea what the actual numbers are) with an alkaline battery, a “Heavy Duty” battery will be judged to have more capacity than it actually does, and a NiMH will show as being 60% discharged very quickly, but then stay at that point for the majority of the time, and then drop like a rock without much warning.
I see this with my Xbox controllers- if I use AA alkalines, the little meter is spot on, but if I use my Sanyo Eneloops, it’ll read about 100% capacity for a very short time, and then 60-70% capacity for a long time, and then while I’m playing, it’ll just crap out, even though it will have showed 60% capacity an hour before.
In terms of bad to good for handling high loads, regular is worst, then heavy duty and rechargables , and then alkaline… as in alkaline is best. thats why the product said “use alkaline !”, right ?
You can use alkaline in a lesser use, but its expensive way to buy batteries.
You can’t use a lesser battery in the higher use 1. it may not drive it, 2. it doesn’t deliver the amp-hours … and you are changing batteries too fast , and anyway the device may dislike the characteristic of the overloaded battery.
Just to be extra clear on this: alkaline batteries definitely do leak. I know this because I’m currently in mourning over the loss of two of my favorite Maglite flashlights. I still have some hope of resuscitating them but the two-cell and three-cell both have the batteries welded to the walls with leakage. The strange thing is that one of them was occasionally used and was working just fine, then suddenly a few months later, dead – and ruined! Checked a second one and it was ruined, too. A third flashlight, a four-cell Maglite with batteries that I’m pretty sure were out of the same batch of Duracells, was just fine and continues to work with the same batteries, but I take the batteries out now when not in use.
Actually in terms of high load NiCd (the older types of rechargeable) is much better then Alkaline, I do believe that Nimh may be also superior to Alkaline, and the above mentioned Energizer Lithium is likewise better.
Overall Alkaline is OK at high drain rates, but not great, which is the reason that they came out with Alkaline designed for high drain devices, such as Duracell Ultra
The reason for Alkaline only labels is for consistent performance, rechargeable can fail or obtain very short life cycles over time, Carbon Zinc or Heavy Duty don’t have anywhere near the power, and Energizer Li is very expensive and no better unless the device is high drain or operated in very cold temps.
i’ve had plenty alkalines leak too. i switched away from Duracell when i had some leak.
i’ve even had other name brand alkaline batteries (in recent years) leak in the package (12 pack or similar) within a year of purchase and two years before the expire date.
i keep batteries in a few cheap headlamps for emergency and not in other things. tv remote i change yearly.
It’s been a few years since I checked this, but at one time, brand-named alkalines come with a warranty against damaging anything they were used in. Everready & Duracell have replaced several Maglites for me over the years. For a $3.00 junk flashlight it’s not worth messing with, but for an expensive unit it’s worth it.
My recollection is the process was simply call their customer service number, send in the destroyed flashlight or whatever device, and they send a new one with new batteries. No proof of purchase for either flashlight or batteries required. Cheapo shipping to them is well less than the cost of a new flashlight plus batteries.
Might be worth investigating; check the cardstock of a current battery package as a starting point.
That’s not what I gleaned from the data sheets; it looks like at a 500 mA discharge rate, an Energizer AA (assumed to be typical for alkalines) only puts out about 1300 mAh until it’s discharged to 0.8v. A Sanyo Eneloop AA (also assumed to be typical for NiMH) puts out nearly 2000 mAh at a 500 mA discharge rate until discharged to 0.8v A Rayovac Heavy Duty AA only puts out 635 mAh at a 256 mA discharge rate to 0.9v.
So by these data sheets, under relatively heavy load, the NiMH batteries’ have higher capacities than alkaline batteries, which have much higher capacities than “heavy duty” zinc chloride batteries. No idea what “regular” are.
I used to have books of those things in the days before spec sheets like that were easily available off of the net.