So, for low drain like analog tick tock clocks, tv remotes, a pawing cat gadget toy things, heavy duty batteries are worth using for their price, $1 for 8 cells. Or are they not even worth it in low-drain devices over Alkaline?
In high voltage devices, they don’t work, or zap in a few seconds/minutes.
Should they be put in cheap LED flashlights? If the flashlight is a CREE w/ single AA, does that mean it has a voltage regulator that will zap the single Heavy Duty battery? So no go for those, but the 3x AAA 9LED dollar lights are fine?
I don’t want to put a Nimh in a light that will just sit unused for long periods.
I've run "heavy duty's" in those cheap 9 LED lights and even in some better 3AAA lights. Just don't even bother with anything high powered. TV remotes and many other low drain devices are fine. Just be warned that you risk battery leakage (which I haven't experienced much of, but it happens). I wouldn't waste money on NiMh's for those low drain devices.
My panasonic cordless phones are the only place i don't use duraloops since they are in the charging cradle 24/7.
heavy duty batteries are just the worst of the worst ..i'd only use them in something i was selling or giving away .. just to get rid of them and even then i'd tell the person that the batteries in them are junk .
the lithium primaries are great but expensive as can be ..I've found very few deals on these but they a super battery
If you're in the US there are always deals on eneloops and duraloops .rechargables will pay for themselves very quickly .. cheapest i can buy AA alkalines's is about 15 cents each and duraloops are about 1.50$ each...truth is most people need a little of all the above.
My friend, learn the lesson that I learned only recently—pay for better batteries. Yeah, sure, remotes and other ultra-low-drain stuff can use cheapies, but I have destroyed a few flashlights from leaky alkalines, and even remotes from the leaks. No more for me. Upgrading would pay off. I use Sanyos, Panasonics, and Hi-Maxx now for flashlights and I’m loving the better and longer-lasting performance. Makes a HUGE difference.
Cell for cell even in the low drain devices they aren’t better than alkaline. Low drain or intermittent usage is their high point. There they can give a little over half the capacity of alkaline for around a quarter of the cost. Of course the the heavy duty cells have shorter shelf lives. That’s a piece of the long term cost equation too. Alkaline are less likely to leak too which in the long run saves costs.
Even best case savings are small unless you use a lot of low drain devices, because we’re generally talking areas where the alkaline lasts a long time already.
‘Heavy Duty’ batteries are somewhat of a misnomer these days. They are actually a type of carbon-zinc battery. The original carbon-zinc batteries used an electrolyte of ammonium chloride and zinc chloride. It was found that the performance of carbon-zinc batteries could be improved by increasing the amount of zinc chloride. Thus, canbon-zinc batteries with alot more zinc chloride in the electrolyte came to be referred to as ‘heavy duty’. However, although ‘heavy duty’ batteries ARE an improvement over standard zinc-carbon batteries, they are inferior to alkaline batteries. And given the shortcomings of alkaline batteries, this really isn’t saying anything good about ‘heavy duty’ batteries.
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