Testing alkaline batteries

[Jacobe Hazzard]

I have an enourmous pile of used AA alkaline batteries.
Before I dispose of them, I would like to know if any have any juice left,
and could be used in low power, non-critical applications. I would hate to
throw out batteries if I could use them.

What's a good way to test alkaline batteries? I know they need to be under
load during the test, what's a typical load current/resistance? Does OC
voltage play any part in determining how much life is left?

Thanks for any tips.

Adam

 

[Rheilly Phoull]

"Jacobe Hazzard" <spamsink@ATeudoramail.DOTcom> wrote in message
news:v7iOb.69107$ZuL1.22518@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...

I have an enourmous pile of used AA alkaline batteries.
Before I dispose of them, I would like to know if any have any juice left,
and could be used in low power, non-critical applications. I would hate to
throw out batteries if I could use them.

What's a good way to test alkaline batteries? I know they need to be under
load during the test, what's a typical load current/resistance? Does OC
voltage play any part in determining how much life is left?

Thanks for any tips.

Adam



Dont you have some of those coloured "thermometer" style testers from the

battery packs ??
Otherwise get a resistor that will load them to whatever current suits and
read the voltage, ie for a 1.5v cell 100mA would need a 15ohm resistor.


--
Regards ........ Rheilly Phoull

 

[Joe]

"Jacobe Hazzard" <spamsink@ATeudoramail.DOTcom> wrote in message
news:v7iOb.69107$ZuL1.22518@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com...

I have an enourmous pile of used AA alkaline batteries.
Before I dispose of them, I would like to know if any have any juice left,
and could be used in low power, non-critical applications. I would hate to
throw out batteries if I could use them.

What's a good way to test alkaline batteries? I know they need to be under
load during the test, what's a typical load current/resistance? Does OC
voltage play any part in determining how much life is left?

Thanks for any tips.

Adam

Hi Adam,
I had a similar problem a few weeks ago. I got some good ideas from this
page:

http://archilochus.netfirms.com/battest.html

What I ended up with was a black box with an analog 15v panel meter on it
and a push button. When the battery is connected, the panel meter shows me
how much voltage I have open circuit. When I push the button, a 50 ohm
resistor is switched in to load the battery. Then I hold the load on the
batt for about 5 seconds, release the button and see how long it takes the
voltage to come back to its open circuit value. I tested it with a brand new
battery to see what it looked like (measured a little over 9V OC, and
dropped by maybe a few 10ths of a volt with the load and instantly
recovered. By contrast, I had a 9V battery that I had removed from a smoke
alarm that was beeping its low battery alarm and that battery measured about
6volts OC and dropped to about 4V with the load applied. Took about 10
seconds to recover to the OC voltage. That was a dead battery.

Try googling for 'home brew battery tester' and you will get lots of ideas.
hth,
Joe

 

[Bill Bowden]

"Jacobe Hazzard" <spamsink@ATeudoramail.DOTcom> wrote in message news:<v7iOb.69107$ZuL1.22518@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>...

I have an enourmous pile of used AA alkaline batteries.
Before I dispose of them, I would like to know if any have any juice left,
and could be used in low power, non-critical applications. I would hate to
throw out batteries if I could use them.

What's a good way to test alkaline batteries? I know they need to be under
load during the test, what's a typical load current/resistance? Does OC
voltage play any part in determining how much life is left?

Thanks for any tips.

Adam

The voltage has little meaning. I usually just short them
out with a DMM on the 10 amp scale. A good alkaline AA cell
will deliver 3 amps or more into a short circuit. If it's
less than 1 amp, it's probably not worth keeping.

-Bill