You got a good batch, evidently.
The ones I bought really were lousy. I guess the pound shop ones will be from various suppliers over time and the QC isn't going to be there to any great degree whereas buying branded is more of a guarantee of quality, provided that the brand is a 'known good' one and you don't manage to buy fakes.
Pound shop batteries are very variable. A few years ago Hyundai AAs went through a time when they kept leaking. Recently I bought a pack of six Powercell AAs and two of them leaked while they were still in the pack. I've gone back to Kodak.
Not if 10 are ones you never use.
Kosher coin cells come free with a bank's security device.
I've got a lifetimes worth, several times over ;)
PA
I haven't had them long enough to benchmark, but good value:
Theo
That is the expected rhetoric from someone who buys high cost batteries and isn't my experience.
There have been a number of tests with cheap (Poundland) batteries vs expensive and the expensive ones can be shown to perform less well than far cheaper alternatives. I accept I haven't looked for any regarding button cells.
The only saving grace is that you might reasonably expect expensive branded batteries to last as long as the rest of them. In essence you're paying a high price for confidence.
That's not my experience and there is much evidence to counter your claim:
Not all battery technologies keep their capacity over time, alkaline certainly do.
It is my direct experience when I bought a card of coin cells from a pound shop.
I'll be generous and say perhaps it was a bad batch. I didn't repeat the experiment.
Links here would be appreciated.
I no longer use dry cells with few exceptions. Alkaline batteries give excellent performance in comparison. Possibly the only exception where I something will be left on accidentally.
Agreed. I thought Poundland might be cheaper.
That's a good point, I've often wondered myself whether fakes were easy to spot these days. Any tips?
Can anyone explain why button cells are used in things that would take a bigger battery or several?
I'm forever changing the one in our bathroom scales.
Carbon cells are only really used for very low drain stuff like possibly a clock, where a longer shelf life is useful due to the tiny currents involved. Very few could be bothered buying them specially.
On 25 Jan 2021, I wrote
Thanks to all for your responses; very helpful discussion.
Much higher energy density than alkaline. I'm surprised one in scales doesn't last a long long time - do they light up or something?
Lithium primary cells are 3V, whereas alkaline are 1.5V. You'd need something like 2x AAA to provide the same voltage. They would be bulkier and more expensive to house (need a battery holder with springs and such, not just a PCB clip).
Lithium manganese cells also have a relatively flat voltage curve, which is useful for metrology (the cell voltage stays constant until ~80% capacity has gone, meaning the scales can stay in calibration without much effort).
Theo
They stopped selling replacement harp strings early on, as they were getting too many complaints about their poor quality.
michael adams
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