A testament to how long lithium primaries last...maybe

Batteries and Chargers Consumable Batteries
1

I found an old electronic display watch today. I remember my brother using it at least 3-5 years ago, more probably. It’s an Armitron wr165. And it’s always been on, never turned off/batteries removed. And I wanted to see what voltage the 3v Panasonic cr2025 is at. So, I get the screwdriver bit kit, and take out the smallest kit. I removed 4 screws on the back plate, then 3 that hold the battery cover, which holds the battery in place. Swivel the battery cover out, and take out the 3v. I whip out my DMM and measure the voltage, IT’S STILL 3.04 VOLTS! I was like, what the heck. Hopefully I’m not missing something. Do they charge them past this 3.0 volts from the factory? Like with AA and AAA where they charge to 1.6-1.55 volts instead of the stated 1.5, so that after long storage in store, the customer still gets a 1.5v battery?

I don’t know if this gives an indication of how old the battery is, but it says this on the battery…

+
Panasonic
CR2025
3v
INDONESIA

Maybe this is also a testament to how good eletric display watches are at using minimal battery power. And this battery is only supposed to be 150ma too. So after 5 years, it hasn’t even used close to 150ma….crazy.

Anyone got any answers to this?

2

Lately the fad is to say that lithium primaries have short shelf life….well maybe.

I can remember when they first came out and they claimed a 10 year shelf life.

At the time nobody really knew, the cells were too new.

Time has now passed and some makers are claiming a 15 year shelf life. Now the old cells are old enough to have more tested data.

I have a Red Dot site on one of my seldom used guns that has a 20 year old CR123a that still lights up…I just tried it.

3

I think that’s definately a better testament, that’s crazy!

4

Last week i replaced the CR 2025 of my Casio watch because the contrast of the LCD was getting weaker.
The 4 year old battery was 3,06V, the new 2025 was 3,465V.

New lithium cells have a higher voltage than 3V.

5

I have a G-Shock that needs a new CR2016. It ran for 9 years before eventually giving up.

6

The Sears Diehard battery in Der Mercedes died last year. I went back to the store where I bought it, but they could find no record of the sale to figure out the warranty pro-ration. They first thought it was five years old and had some time left of the warranty, but eventually found a sticker on it… over eleven years old.

7

Yup, at >2.9V you can consider them dead :slight_smile: And one “out of the box” will give you 3.3-3.4V max. So, no magic here :bigsmile:

8

They don’t make batteries like that any more. The Volvo branded Interstate battery in my car is original, 2004 model. I run a desulfation charge on it randomly but it seems to help. The cells all look clean and neat when I check the water level. My moms Volvo has a two year old battery in it and two of the cells are already corroded badly. I ran a desulfate/topping charge on the battery before I installed it and randomly since then but the cells are still starting to look nasty with some precipitate building in the electrolyte solution.

Looks like I will have to go direct to Interstate for my next battery if I want their good stuff.