AA battery hack secret

Here's a neat little trick to save $ on double A batteries if it's true. If anyone here tries it post back.

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Reply to
Dixon
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'll-be-Surprised.../

Reply to
Randy Replogle

Confuses silver oxide with alkaline cells.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

The Energizer AA cells are alkaline, while the lantern battery is "heavy duty" AKA standard old-technology LeClanche cells with significantly shorter life and less capability for heavy drain.

Reply to
Don Foreman

Yup, and lower average voltage during discharge, but it's still double the number of watt-hours per dollar.

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

back.http://www.break.com/index/how-to-save-money-on-batteries.html Or, it might NOT work...OOPS!

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Reply to
Bob

Bummer.

When I tried this, all I found inside the lantern battery was a very unhappy hamster on an exercise wheel.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

I just replaced the battery in my garage door opener remote, so retrieved it from the recycle bin. It's a Radio Shack, and says Alkaline on the side of the case. And sure enough, it has a bunch of smaller button batteries inside.

So, are these alkaline button cells? Or is the case marking purposely misleading? Wish these were A76 compatible, my HP27S has a healthy appetite for them seeing as I never remember to turn it off myself.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

Is this the same series as the 28S? A guy at work gave me his when he got tired of buying the special batteries (3) that it uses. He told me they were 3, 3 V cells. I determined that wasn't right, the calculator works fine on roughly 5V. I bought a 4-cell Ni-Cad pack from Digi-Key (4.8 V) and recharge it a couple times a year. But, if I forget to charge it, it runs the cells down to zero and ruins them. So, now I added a switch to turn off the battery when I'm not using it. It erases all memory in the calculator when I do that, but I don't save any programs in the thing, and actually have only programmed it once, just to see how. If I want programs, I have real computers for that.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Not familiar with the 28S, but a quick search reveals the

28S is RPN where mine is not.

I have considered making a special base for this that would take larger rechargeable batteries, but I have way too many projects now.

I do have a number of programs in mine. Often when changing batteries I'll lose all the programs. But this is hit or miss. I've gotten old ones out and new ones installed in just a few seconds, and lost everything. I've fumbled the three A76s, taking some 10-15 seconds, and the programs are still there!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

Bullshit!

This is what's inside!

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Besides, anyone with half a brain, can see, that those 32 batteries do not fit inside that space!

Reply to
Abrasha

Uh, I don't know which half you're referring to, Abrasha, but if it's the half that multiplies, here are the relevant numbers:

AA - length, 50.5 mm, diameter 14 mm

Six-volt lantern battery - height, 115 mm, width and length, 68 mm

32 AA's fit in there with room to spare.

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

However,

The video shows 32 batteries neatly falling out, without them having been connected their positive and negative poles in any way to each other, to create one continuous battery.

Obviously a hoax.

Reply to
Abrasha

Well, my first thought was that he must have cut off all of the connections first, for the dramatic effect, but who knows. Next time I have a dead lantern battery (there's one around here somewhere) I'll open it up and see what's inside.

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Not at all. One battery on top of another connects them (3v for the stack). At the ends, there can be pressure strips connecting them. And a minimum of 2 strips (conductors) up the sides (connect 2 stacks for

6v). The ascii art is too painful, I'm sure you'll get the idea without it.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

Bob Engelhardt wrote: ... The ascii art is too painful, I'm sure you'll get the idea without

Oh, alright ( +- is one AA cell, "," & "^" are pressure contacts). Each of the 2 2 cell stacks is connected in parallel to 7 others, by strips in the top & bottom lids.

| | | | , |---, | + | + | - | - | + | + | - | - | ^---| ^---|

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

I've got a RadioShack 6V lantern battery here in front of me, and the size of the case (not counting the springs coming out the top) is only 96 mm high. It's not quite high enough to fit 2 AAs lengthwise so this one can't hold the 32 AAs. Or, in imperial units, the the AAs are 2" long the 6V case is 3 3/4" tall. It's also got the metal sides with cardboard bottom and top instead of the plastic style case shown in the video.

The 6v weights 896 g and a 32 AAs weight about 768 g so it looks to me like the idea of making a 6V out 32 AAs would work and could very likely be something some manufacture is doing to reduce costs considering the fact that the AA is the worlds most popular cell size and is manufactured in the highest volumes.

The price however isn't all that great. We buy AAs from costco and I think we pay something like $10 for 24, which would be $13.33 for 32. If you could get 32 for $5 it would a nice deal, but if you can't know for sure the 6V you are buying is the type with the AA cells then you loose everything. And if the AA cells inside the case are not the same type or quality as the stand alone cells (like for example they don't have as strong of a case so they are more likely to leak if you use them stand alone), then the deals starts to look questionable.

It would be interesting to know if the video is a complete fake, or if it's real, but only a very limited number of the 6Vs are made that way.

Reply to
Curt Welch

huh. thanks. (curt) one thing for sure, that british debunker video guy sure made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. i loved the way he said "... a buncha BOOSHIT!! FAKE!!!"

b.w.

Reply to
William Wixon

Actually, the wife is there now buying AAs, and the current price is

36 for $12.29 (Duracell Alkaline) so that's about $11 for 32. If the 6V cost you $8 then all you would be saving was $3 by trying to rip open the lantern battery. I'd rip open a few that looked like they might be large enough just for the fun of it to see if any were made with AA cells, but I'd never do it just to save $3.
Reply to
Curt Welch

So, what's inside your lantern battery?

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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