# One size battery

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-size-battery/5657>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 27, 1999, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-size-battery/5657 "1999-12-27T19:04:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![SuperNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SuperNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNerd)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 1999, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-size-battery/5657/21 "1999-12-29T22:36:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> What devices have you seen that use batteries in parallel?

I’ve got a year old Black and Decker cordless drill that uses two rechargable Ni-Cads (I think) - the Versapak system, if anyone cares. You can run the drill with only one installed, but you don’t get anywhere near the same torque. Gotta be wired in parallel …

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 1999, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-size-battery/5657/22 "1999-12-29T23:07:00Z")

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I’ve got a cordless phone that uses three cells in parallel. They are encased in clear vinyl but I can see the terminals inside and they clearly seem to be in parallel.

Of course these are some odd-sized rechargables, not the standard AAA-D sizes, but they _are_ in parallel.

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 1999, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-size-battery/5657/23 "1999-12-30T03:33:00Z")

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[I’ve got a year old Black and Decker cordless drill that uses two rechargable Ni-Cads (I think) - the Versapak system, if anyone cares. You can run the drill with only one installed, but you don’t get anywhere near the same torque. Gotta be wired in parallel …]  
maby not, NiCd’s have much lower internal resistance then alkaline, and can output much greater power even though the alkaline has greater energy density. (take a nicad D and Alk D and short with an ammeter, the nicad will probally shoot off the scale while the Alk will get to maby 6 Amps). I would say that the tool was getting enough current, probally all that the tools internal resistance would allow and the battery cell voltage did not dip that much during full load. The only way to increase the power to the tool is to add voltage.  
I remember having a toy that had 2 speeds and it took 2 d cells, the fast speed would be in parallel and the slow would put them in series.

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