I’ve been told that the bateries in my portable CD player will run down faster if I run it with the power cord plugged in while the batteries are in place. Is this straight up or what? I asked Jeeves to confirm it but he didn’t help.
You need to clarify the question but highly unlikely no matter what. I assume you mean the batteries will run down faster while using the power adapter to play CDs than when the player is not being used. Makes no sense from any angle I can see. Keep in mind that alkaline batteries have a shelf life measured in years while not being used but NiCads have a fairly fast self discharge rate. No way to give an authoritative answer that’s correct for every brand of equipment but IMO a device would need an intentionally defective design for this to happen.
The question needs clarified, but one thing to add to the mix:
NiCad’s are susceptible to the so-called “battery memory” effect. Repeatedly recharging them when not discharged makes them “remember” their recharge point. It’s more accurately called “voltage depression”:
http://www.batterybank.com/page18.html
The first portable CD player I ever had demonstrated this. It had a specially made NiCad pack, which didn’t work worth beans after I used the thing on AC adapter for a long time.
That’s the attraction of the newer lithium cells, like in the Palm Pilots with the recharger in the PC cradle - you can recharge them all you like.
No, I’m just using ordinary alkaline batteries. I thought my OP said everything needed to clarify the question. Running the appliance off of the power cord while the batteries are in place? Someone told me that will deplete the battery charge faster, so I was wondering if it would be better to take out the batteries when running it from the power cord.
Basically, the idea is totally wrong. When you plug a mains power cord into a device that also utilises batteries, the batteries get switched out of circuit. The only way the battery will run down once the power cord is plugged in is with natural attrattrition of the charge - in other words the ordinary shelf life of the battery.