best 9v battery?

[Stephen]

Hello,

The battery in my Maplin "white gold" multimeter has gone flat. I'm just wondering what is the best battery to replace it with?

It is only used for very occasional DIY use, so it is not used daily and not even used weekly!

I remember someone posted a comparison of battery brands here recently and though I can't remember exactly what it said, I think the no-names were just as good or better than the brand names, however I suspect it all depends on application.

The two big names seem to be Duracell and Energizer. I've noticed some web sites (TS, CPC) selling Procell, which are supposed to be to the exact same spec as "copper-topped" Duracell, which makes me wonder if they are the same battery, why not just paint them with a copper top? Why brand them differently?

Would a low discharge NiMH be suitable or not? I think I've got one I bought last time Lidl had an offer but I've not found a use for it yet!

Thanks, Stephen.

[The Natural Philosopher]

best would probably be a two cell lithium (8.4v) or 3 cell A123 type battery - lower self discharge.

BUt complicated to fettle in connector wise.

[The Other Mike]

So that if someone pilfers them they are clearly identifiable as coming from a commercial / industrial user.

Yes, it's completely pointless.

[Dave Liquorice]

Procell is branded for "business" use, you won't find them in the retail market that is Duracell. So if people nick batteries from work they can't say they bought them in a retail shop.

For your use any decent alkaline 9v battery will do. You could splash out on a lithium battery but TBH the shelf life of alkalines is pretty much the same.

[whisky-dave]

They are meant to be for componaies and teh idea is that is anyone has a pr= ocell at home then the chances are it's stolen from work.

Personally I wouldn't use a rechargable in a meter. I use the rapid elec DMM 318/328 and as the batteries get flat it effcts th= e actual digitsal readout. As an example aa meter with the battery change indicator flashing will read= 8V when measuring a 5V power supply.

This is only an example buit as the PP=A3 rechargable sare only 8.4 volts I= wouldnlt use them in metering instruments unless the instrument was design= ed for it.

[metric_trade]

Think of a perfect market. Each brand has an equal share. With two brands, each brand has half the market. With three brands, each brand has a third of the market. If one company owns two brands, it has two thirds of the market.

[Martin Brown]

Quite possibly. It depends a bit on the DVM chip - some will give incorrect voltage measurements if run on a nearly flat battery.

Since you have a low self discharge NiMH to hand you may as well try it. They seem to work OK in my multimeter (which is more than can be said of one of my cameras which is very tetchy on NiMH cells).

Otherwise wait for a two for one retail offer on them.

ISTR that one brand that came out unexpectedly well was Poundstretchers Kodak made AA batteries. I can sort of confirm this experimentally as I used up two packs making LED lanterns and decorations for the jubilee to allow people to find their way on an unlit footpath late at night. Design lifetime was 5 hours at nominal 0.5A load and in fact they were still going the next morning when I went to recover them.

Experience with them totally scuppered the councils idea of installing a solar powered LED lamp on the footbridge.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That was fine in the days when such suppliers only supplied the trade. But these days, anyone with a credit card can buy from them.

[meow2222]

In the AA tests all the alkaline brands came out with similar capacity, with evolta being the worst tested. Now you can get similar capacity in NiMH, whether its worthwhile depends on what you pay for one.

NT

[RJH]

I had to do exactly the same as you recently - the last battery, unbranded, lasted well over 10 years.

ISTR, from that thread, the Kodak alkaline were best in terms of value. Bought one from Poundland for er £1.

Rob

[Bill]

In message , Martin Brown writes

I think you will find it was Poundland, not stretcher. I use their alkaline AA batteries and have been very happy with them.

[Lee]

Weirdly enough, the battery that has lasted the longest in my WG multimeter has been a Maplin-branded one. Not a clue who the manufacturer is, or even if it's still the same one!

OT, My "white gold" DMM is at about 5 years old now and I've been quite surprised with the ease of use and reliability of what is essentially a budget meter (compared to Flukes and the like anyway) - gets the occasional abuse and still works ;) It's my "go to" DMM, although I have others, I think I'll miss this one when its time comes ;)

Lee

[D.M.Chapman]

Best bang for buck that's reliable is to pick a supermarket alkaline.

Cheapish, and consitant.

Poundshop stuff might save you a quid or two, but can be a gamble.

Duracell etc off the shelf is too expensive to make sense. Procell (lower end duracells IME) are good if the price is right (it is sometimes).

If ordering procells from CPC be *very* carefull of the pack sizes. Not unusual to see things like "1 pack AA Procell" for 3 quid, where as "Procell AA (2 * 10)" for 2.50 will give you twice as many cells for 50p less.

Their pricing is strange at best. Mind boggling sometimes.

As I say, I tend to stock up in tescos when they have bogoff offers.

Darren

[The Natural Philosopher]

evolta being the worst tested. Now you can get similar capacity in NiMH, whether its worthwhile depends on what you pay for one.

NiMh have the worst self discharge of any battery, bar none.

[Alan (BigAl)]

you just prompted me to change the battery in my multimeter.

It was a Memorex alkaline with a 2004 date stamp. It had just started to give a BatLow indication. Like yours it gets used once in a while, not that regularly.

Not worth worrying too much about I would say.

Al.

[alan]

It all depends on usage. I've found that batteries left in infrequently used equipment tend to leak.

I've had no such problems with the Procell batteries. These batteries are dated for shelf life of around 6 to 7 years.

[alan]

I no longer order Procells from CPC. They often offer 2 packs for the price of one which make them a reasonable cost. However, on more than one occasion when the order has arrived the second pack is missing.

[Martin Brown]

Almost certainly Poundland. I never was very good with brandnames...

How infrequent is infrequent in your parlance? The last battery I had leak was actually a 5 year old fake Chinese copy Duracell on closer inspection that came in a mike I inherited from someone else.

I can't recall any modern batteries I have used or abused ever leaking. And I keep a cache of all those that are done for high current use to power low current devices until stone dead. Mostly I use rechargeables where possible but sometimes I need primary cells as backup.

[Theo Markettos]

We have a box of unused Procell PP3s sitting on the shelf (normal office conditions) where all the bottoms have popped off the batteries. They haven't leaked as such, but they haven't been installed in anything.

This one has date Mar 2011, so they're a little old, but they popped while they were in date.

Theo

[Martin Brown]

Like all battery chemistry they don't like being too warm or being frozen. I am surprised you have had multiple failures like that.

Bad batch? Are you sure they are real ones and not convincing fakes?

I haven't had even the tacky ones from Maplin sold half price or less after Xmas go bad on me. But I don't keep them until they are shelf life expired either. I have had the odd dud fancy Duracell one with built in battery tester discharge itself before being used. But no leaks apart from one NiCad I forgot and left in something since um 1998 (and even then only one of a set of four had actually failed).