Recently I’ve picked up lots of alkaline cells headed for recycling. I have been having a bit of fun running them down with my recently acquired Volt Vamp lights. I’ve been coming across cells that are measuring 1.7V! I’ve never seen that in an alkaline before, measuring even 1.6V is really “hot” from what I recall.
These cells are Duracell Optimum, which claims to have better run times. The only limited data I’ve seen is with 200mA loads IIRC. I often use cells at lower levels than this in my lights and other devices.
Does anyone
know what the secret sauce is in these cells?
have any data that compares them to other cells? the lygte site has lots of test data, but very little on alkies.
I’m still looking for a “vamp” to neutralize 3.0V lithium primaries. Sadly, I do not have the electrical knowledge bandwidth to construct a suitable product. I have a few dozen at 2.7A or below that no longer function modes in my Malkoff MDC HA. Would love to run them down prior to figuring out my recycling options.
I have a couple of leads that have magnets on 1 end and alligator clips on the other. I just attach the magnets to the battery terminals and the alligator clips to the resister leads.
I had a pvc tube, no idea where it came from or why I had it, but 2 holes through the bottom and a wire through it was the negative contact, wire with a weight on it dropped through the other end was the positive contact.
Was long enough to stack 3-4 cells, so I could burn down a stack at a time to light a makeshift nightlight, etc.
Why? Unno. Because. Just took some wire, one “vroop!” with a drill, and done.
Just pointing out mixing cells is generally not advised, those CR123a cells can be especially nasty.
I’ve always contempted building something like a 4xAA holder with the cells wired individually to a circuit that sucks them down in some sort of controlled maner, but this is obviously far more trouble than it’s worth.
I guess the secret sauce in these batteries is so powerful, it not only ruins the emergency Maglite you keep in the kitchen drawer, but also everything in the drawer underneath.