Are there alkaline battery chargers on the market that will actually recharge alkaline batteries? I saw one that advertised being able to recharge alkaline batteries up to 95.5% dozens of times. I always though that alkaline batteries could not be recharged.
I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if they aren’t designed to be recharged, you will be disappointed.
And beware, there are videos on YouTube that make claims that sound likely or even good (to the ignorant), but are 100% bogus.
The Wikipedia article says how it’s claimed to be done and why it is a really bad idea. The gases (which cause the cell to leak) produced during charging are going to be a definite problem. Also, not all alkalines are made of the same exact materials and while one brand might just kill the device, another brand might kill you if you try to recharge it.
Note that this is different from deliberately made-to-be rechargeable alkalines which I find quite reasonable for some uses. (They hold their charge well during non-use.)
Don’t ever use batteries in a way they weren’t intended to be used. The contents range from really nasty stuff to things that give ER folks nightmares.
only recharge batteries designed to be recharged. there are rechargeable alkaline batteries which will be labeled on each battery that they are rechargeable, these are more expensive per battery. do not attempt to recharge disposable alkaline batteries, these are the less expensive ones; they will often contain a warning “may explode if recharged”.
I tried rechargable alkalines but I didn’t have much luck, they only lasted a couple of charges and leaked all over the place. Since my camera doesn’t like NIMHs I use strictly disposable batteries now, alkalines for things like TV remotes, and lithiums for my camera.
I have tried to recharge standard alkaline batteries. While I wouldn’t say they exploded, I would say the ruptured significantly (ruining the battery charger).
Buy some Eneloops (nimh chemistry) and their charger. They are low self discharge and will hold their charge in storage very well.
I have successfully recharged the 9 volt battery in my multimeter and extended its life by about a year past the time it started flashing a low battery warning. One important note is that I recharged it at very low current; specifically, I put a jack on the meter case with a 10 k resistor and diode in series, so you can charge it off of 120 volts (average current is about 5 mA). No, the battery didn’t leak or blow up by the time it no longer held any significant charge (of course, 9 volt batteries are often made of flat cells wrapped in wax and plastic, not metal cases, but the latter are also designed to handle some venting that occurs during normal use; the key is to keep any gas formation at a low rate).
The stuff used inside an alkaline battery isn’t that dangerous; zinc, manganese dioxide and potassium hydroxide, none of which are toxic with incidental contact; the latter is corrosive but only so that if you get some on your hand, it takes a minute or two before it starts to sting (yes, I’ve opened up batteries before, including a dead lead-acid UPS battery (the acid basically turned to water), just to look inside and/or use experiment with the materials). Of course, you probably mean batteries in general, including such nasties as lead-acid batteries and of course, getting it in your eyes is much worse).
15 or 20 years ago there was an infomercial (hosted by Dick Clark no less) hawking a ‘revolutionary’ alkaline charger. It claimed to be able to recharge any regular alkaline batteries, though the times & efficiency would vary. In typical infomercial fashion there were little hard facts, the ads just dwelled on all the money it would save you. I don’t know if there were any lawsuits from exploding batteries, but the things must have been bullshit because the ads only ran a few months…
They’re only sold in Mexico now. Like the Cornballer…