digital multimeter batteries

I hate to confound your point, but I replaced the battery in my Fluke 75 a couple of years ago, and it was the original -- from 1982. It was a carbon-zinc battery. It worked perfectly for 27 years. d8-)

I has long been my opinion, that the primary method of battery recycling in Asia, is to bag up all their dead batteries with remote controllers and cheap flashlights and ship them to America.

Paul K. Dickman

I do not consider a single anecdote to confound my point.

Dan

Good. It must have been one hell of a bettery. When I asked a Fluke tech if there was some reason I shouldn't replace it with an alkaline (there was not -- that's what I have in it now), and he asked how old it was, there's was a pause on his end of the line and then he said, "wow." d8-)

It was one of those old Everready batteries with the black cat on it.

Me, too. The draw on these must be very low and I rarely used the ohms function. And Everready made one heck of a battery, I guess.

I didn't even know they still sold zinc-carbons, until one day when I was in the corner store, and I looked at the price of a pair of alkaline "D" cells, and said, "Nah, that's too much." (the drug store almost a mile away had a better price, but I was on my bike and kinda lazy). The store guy says, "Oh! Here's a pack for only 2.95! (or whatever)" for a pair of "Heavy-Duty" cells - they lasted about two days in my flashlight.

But I found that Rite-Aid® store-brand alkalines outlasted even the Duracells, for less money!

Cheers! Rich

Used to be carbon-zinc cells were getting pretty rare, but I've been seeing more and more of them, usually house- or off-brands. For inexpensive alkalines, I've been getting Fujis, usually half the price of the other name brands. Seem to hold up anyway. Panasonics have been good, where I can find them. As far as house-brands, you can get good batteries, Rite-Aid isn't making them behind the pharmacy counter after all, they contract with manufacturers to stick their label on stuff. When I toured the one Eveready plant decades back, they were doing K-Mart 9 volts, didn't put them through the same aging cycle and test as their stickered stock, so cheaper stuff. Also had the occasional dud on the peg. Eveready stuck their 9 volts in a higher- than normal temperature controlled room for 6 weeks, then ran them through a tester for voltage and current. Duds got blown into a trash can for recycling.. You generally get what you pay for, might be you got some premium batteries that didn't quite make spec or were over- runs. Or maybe Rite-Aid paid the bucks to get superior stuff, who knows? Markup on the name-brands has to be terrific anyway.

Stan

Local Dollarama stores carry Panasonic carbon zinc batteries. They're just fine for multimeters, which draw very little current (typically less than 1mA).

Alkalines are more appropriate for flashlights, motorized toys and such like that draws hundreds of mA.

For alkaline AA cells, I buy the Kirkland brand batteries from Costco- they're as good as the Duracells and much cheaper. US Costcos carry AAA Kirkland batteries as well.

Good man.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

For multimeters that use AA batteries you absolutely cannot beat the Energizer E2 lithiums. In a multimeter they last almost as long as if they were sitting on the shelf - which is something like FIFTEEN years. I have a set here with an expiry date of 2021, that I have had for at least 2 years, possibly as long as 4. They are not cheap, but when you need them to be good when you need them, what's 10 bucks over that kind of lifespan???? And they do NOT leak.

When you replace your smoke alarm batteries, (you _do_ remember to replace them, don't you?) put the old ones in your various low-draw devices that use 9V batteries. I then use the oldest batteries in the weather radio that my family continuously forgets to plug back in.

-Brian

Havn't had any trouble with the CR2032 and SR44 types, small sample though. I'd rather get Panasonic ones from Digikey but even one button cell relegates the entire order to ground shipping due to fear of lithium batteries bringing down a cargo plane.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany