Battery (AA, AAA, C, D) Testing

[MarkStock]

For some time, I've used my el cheapo ebay China 99c battery tester to, believe it or not, test AA, AAA, C & D batteries.

It is amazing, in how many cases, only 1 battery out of the 2 or 3 that were being used, is actually dead. The other batteries are perfectly ok. Most recently my HVAC programmable thermostat / timers and the kitchen bin with motion sensing lid have done this.

There must be so much waste in the world as a whole with perfectly good batteries being thrown out as part of a pair or triple.

So a battery tester is IMHO, a must buy for a BITOG type of person.

There, I've just increased the trade deficit with China.

 

[TallPaul]

I used a mult-imeter to test exact voltage of batteries. I have found the same result as you have posted above. On rare occasion I have found weird cases where one cell has reversed polarity.

 

[Donald]

A BITOG guy would already have several DVMs.

 

[dgee]

Originally Posted By: TallPaul
I used a mult-imeter to test exact voltage of batteries. I have found the same result as you have posted above. On rare occasion I have found weird cases where one cell has reversed polarity.


at what voltage is a battery considered to be bad? always wanted to try testing batteries with my multimeter

 

[Chris142]

I toss them if they have less than 1.30 volts. anything less and my flashlights don't work well. I rarely find 1 bad one. usually all 3 in the light read the same voltage

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Donald
A BITOG guy would already have several DVMs.


+1

 

[HTSS_TR]

Battery in remote control is okay at around 1.2V or higher.

 

[TallPaul]

Each device will be different as to how low of voltage it can have and still operate. After the AAA batteries are not performing very well in my pocket radio I can still get hours of use from them in my MP3 player.

 

[eljefino]

Makes you wonder about the QC of batteries when a smallish percentage from the same lot wear out so quickly.

Wall clocks that take one AA are great ways to finish off mostly dead cells.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Makes you wonder about the QC of batteries when a smallish percentage from the same lot wear out so quickly.

Wall clocks that take one AA are great ways to finish off mostly dead cells.

^