We have A.T.&T U-verse for television services. We’ve had it in 4 rooms for 3 years now… We use the OEM remotes and they work well with our televisions and home theater equipment.
But gawd dam do they go through batteries. Every other remote in the world has it’s batteries last almost forever. These things eat batteries. If I use regular heavy duty AA batteries I have to change them once a month. Alkaline batteries last 2 months, if that.
That’s insane compared to how sparingly other remotes use battery juice.
Anyone else experience this? And does anyone have any idea why this particular remote model devours batteries so quickly?
I don’t have Uverse, but after a bit of googling, you’re definitely not alone with your problem.
Seems to me you have a couple of options- either accept it, and do something like get a couple sets of rechargeable batteries, or call their customer support people and see about a replacement remote in hopes that it’s limited to that specific device.
If U-verse is like DirecTV, the remotes use both IR & RF at the same time. This could be why they go through batteries quicker. I do note a similar issue with my DirecTV remotes. I think the Radio Frequency transmitting is the likely culprit for using up batteries.
Every 2 months though is still very fast. I think my remotes are generally twice per year for DirecTV and every 2 years for any other remote.
The RF gives them better control. With IR you need to be roughly pointed at the TV’s IR receptor. RF doesn’t care.
If your remote is IR &RF like DirecTV, there is an option to turn off the RF. You could try this and see if your control is still as good and if the battery drain decreases.
The Amazon firesticks also seem to go through batteries quicker then I would expect. Perhaps every 4 months or so and it’s only 2 AA batteries. Not really a biggie as I buy those batteries in large quantities and a cheap price per battery and have plenty on hand, except for my travel firestick which I use in hotels and the like as I forget to pack extra batteries sometimes.
Once, needing batteries for my travel firestick while away I switched them out for the hotel’s remote batteries. Which worked but I didn’t switch them back before I left, so Karma took a bite out of my ass for apparently swiping the hotel’s batteries as those batteries leaked and destroyed my firestick remote. Karma is so funny this way, it’s not the money, she’s after, nor did she deprive me of my use of the firestick as I found this out at home as I was updating it, but since the cost of a new firestick is less then just the remote, she has condemned me into holding on to a firestick which does not have a remote, and most likely never will, so I can’t use it, but don’t want to through it away just in case I ever get a firestick break and I can swap remote to this now remoteless unit, which from what I understand will only be possible if I don’t change any of my home wifi settings, or visit a hotel which the firestick remembers.
We have 4 rooms set up with U-verse and the remotes in each room go through batteries like mad. And it doesn’t matter if it’s name brand Duracell or Dollar Tree Sunbeam brand. The remotes love to eat batteries.
I’m guessing it is this reason. I like not having to point at the tv to change it. But having to change the batteries in 4 remotes every month or 2 is maddening!
