Tesco orange alkaline C cell life.

Sep 25, 2022 Last reply: 3 years ago 14 Replies

I bought a set of four of these in January 2005 (*) and put them in a Sony external battery pack that I used to power a Sony recording walkman. The latter has long gone after the belts gave up and the battery pack has just hung from a hook on my bedroom/office wall unused for more than a decade.



I have just measured each cell with my multimeter and they all read between 1.51 and 1.52 volts and no sign of leakage.



Rather impressive for 17-YO batteries I believe. Duracells don't keep like that without leaking.



(*) I always write the date of initial use on batteries with a permanent marker.


My record is 24+ years with a Toshiba AAA battery operating a desktop clock-calendar. The 12.5 mm display was barely readable. The "on-load" voltage was 0.956 volts. There was no leakage.

I always write the date of initial use of a new gf on her back.

Sometimes the B side is better than the A-side. ;-)

Tim

He did intimate the "new girlfriend on her back". Perhaps that's another notable date to record?

I'd check the voltage under load before I decided they were still good.

I've given up buying Duracell - they do seem to have gone rapidly downhill in the past few years with respect to leaking batteries that ruin equipment unless removed before becoming fully discharged.

This is not just Ebay purchases where fake branding can be a problem but also Duracell batteries purchased at supermarket checkouts at great cost :(

I put some  D Cells in our Doorbell (I think they were Sainsburys branded) in 2000. They were still working, (and not leaking) when we moved out in 2019. Although of course it's also a sign of our popularity !

Most modern batteries are crap for leaking nowadays, I expect the newer Teskco ones will be the same as they are made by one of the big makers and brand engineered for Tesco or whoever. Its been going on for years. The Best Alkaline I ever had were Hitachi, but they do not seem to be around any more. Brian

Sometimes the C side is better than the A-side. --- FTFY

Kirkland from Costco have been the same.... Thinks about it, off to Google....

Mmmh, looks like they are made by Duracell.

And not because you superglued a drawing pin to the push button to save on batteries:-)

All brands bar GP are much the same. A minority do keep that long.

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