Key Fob Batteries Short Life (Both)

That's something that so many believe to be not true. They think a manufacturer would make a bunch of different "versions" of an item to sell at different price points, with different quality levels, etc but from a manufacturing standpoint, it makes very little sense. No one wants to source different raw materials, different setups, having to track the different batches, etc.
This is absolutely true. Some companies sell the exact same products, in fancy or generic packaging, so they can capture the high end and low end of the market. Sometimes the only difference is some very slight cosmetic change to differentiate them, but some don't even bother with that, due to the expense of the change. But otherwise perform exactly the same.

Great example of that is PS21 carnuba paste wax for cars. It is sold at Porsche, BMW and Jaguar car dealership parts counters for like $50.
The manufacturer makes the exact same wax, in the same container, but marked S100 and sold at motorcycle shops for $15 to $20.
Its a great product, and even better at $15
 
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49 cents a piece at Digi-Key, who will NOT sell you a counterfeit part:

Buy 2,800 of them and the price drops to 26 cents. That's almost as tempting as the 9 cents a quart Walmart oil deal not long ago. :ROFLMAO:
 
Buy 2,800 of them and the price drops to 26 cents. That's almost as tempting as the 9 cents a quart Walmart oil deal not long ago. :ROFLMAO:
With 4.7M in stock, I wonder what kind of turnover in inventory they have on them? Do they buy 5M and sell them down over the next 5 years? Or are they moving large lots of 10,000 at a time to OEMs and manufacturers? I'm imagining they are not coming in a retail package so you will not get a lot number or expiry date on them. Usually sellers of bulk button cells like this will just stack them in a plastic tube when they sell them to you.
 
With 4.7M in stock, I wonder what kind of turnover in inventory they have on them? Do they buy 5M and sell them down over the next 5 years? Or are they moving large lots of 10,000 at a time to OEMs and manufacturers? I'm imagining they are not coming in a retail package so you will not get a lot number or expiry date on them. Usually sellers of bulk button cells like this will just stack them in a plastic tube when they sell them to you.

Everytime I've bought components from Digi-Key, they print up a label with all of that information and put it on the plastic bag with the components inside. Each type of component get it's own bag with it's own label.

Digi-Key is a very large distributor and they do sell to OEMs and manufacturers.
 
Everytime I've bought components from Digi-Key, they print up a label with all of that information and put it on the plastic bag with the components inside. Each type of component get it's own bag with it's own label.

Digi-Key is a very large distributor and they do sell to OEMs and manufacturers.
That is awesome if that is the case. I'd buy from them.
 
My wife has 20 little LED Christmas lights that take a CR2032 battery - they go on the mantle on full time throughout Christmas. Last Christmas I got cheapy Energizer bulk pack from flea bay, but I installed 2 blister pack Energizer and marked the bottom of the light with tape. They all failed within a couple days of each other and the blister pack ones were right in the middle.

I don't think I have used Duracell watch style batteries, but I think every Duracell battery I bought leaked if I forgot them in anything. Even had one ruin a Maglite. The batteries still had enough juice for the Maglite but were weak so I opened it to change them and one had already started leaking. Am I the only one with this sort of problem with Duracell?
 
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The 2 key bobs for my 2007 Honda Accord just quit as well. The original batteries lasted from Aug '06 to Jan '19 and Nov '22 (so 13 years and 15 years).

The replacement batteries lasted to Jan '23 (so 4 years and 2 months respectively).

Not great service from the replacement batteries. The no name one lasted longer. The other was a Panasonic supposedly made in Japan. I have to wonder if the Panasonic was defective or a fake. I bought both batteries at the same time so it seems odd that they would be different brands.

In any case I replaced both with Panasonics made in Indonesia. Bought directly from Panasonic Canada. We'll see.
 
No, they are essentially the same. When I was at Duracell, we private labeled to Ace Hardware, Sears, Costco, Coast to Coast, True Value, Safeway, Albertsons and many other retailers....other than the battery jacket and package, they were identical product quality and performance. We asked "why not make them with less chemical or performance to protect the Duracell brand?" Our R&D team said when you start messing with what is already an optimized design, even lessening the chemistry could induce unintended quality concerns...leaking or some other problem. So they only manufacture to one quality and performance standard. Most private label contracts for retailers were swapped back and forth between Duracell and Eveready who were very cutthroat against each other for those agreements.

We expected the same from our partners that private labled to us. Panasonic (many years ago) made a lot of lithium products for Duracell. That packaging was the same Duracell you would expect to see, as were the part numbers, but instead of "made in USA" they would say "made in Japan". We never knew what product our customers got, we shipped side by side USA and Japanese product. Duracell (at the time) simply did not have the capacity to meet customer volume demands and needed another supply source.

I know in the last decade or so, that all the private label agreements Duracell and Eveready had for retailers appear to have ended with the exception of Costco Kirkland Signature (still Duracell). All the other retailers use off shore battery manufacturers in China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Just read the package "made in" :) Varta used to private label for Ikea for decades, but I noticed a few years ago Ikea batteries are made in Asia now too.

You can figure out a lot from looking at what country the battery is from, construction shape and style and packaging to determine who made it.
For low volume selling products like watch or camera batteries, I noticed Duracell is going private label and getting them from other sources rather than make their own. Many of their watch batteries say "made in switzerland" which means probably made by Renata. Which is a very respected European watch cell manufacturer.

It was a long time ago, but when I was there it was rumored we made some camera batteries for Eveready. Companies do that a lot. I aways questioned "why help your competition", but the CEO of a medical company I now work for, said "its just good business sense". "As long as it is profitable, we will sell to our competitors...if we didn't, someone else will. While there are secrecy agreements, we can still glean some competitive information on their sales volumn based on how much product they buy from us."
Thank you for the write up - excellent read.
 
My wife has 20 little LED Christmas lights that take a CR2032 battery - they go on the mantle on full time throughout Christmas. Last Christmas I got cheapy Energizer bulk pack from flea bay, but I installed 2 blister pack Energizer and marked the bottom of the light with tape. They all failed within a couple days of each other and the blister pack ones were right in the middle.

I don't think I have used Duracell watch style batteries, but I think every Duracell battery I bought leaked if I forgot them in anything. Even had one ruin a Maglite. The batteries still had enough juice for the Maglite but were weak so I opened it to change them and one had already started leaking. Am I the only one with this sort of problem with Duracell?
I've seen with Duracell, but also Eveready. Probably more from Duracell only because I buy them more often. I have take advantage of their warranty and returned a couple Maglites and other devices they leaked in. They send you a check for the list price value of the item, along with coupons for some batteries. Since no one pays list price, you are made more than whole and they are generous with the coupons.
I found it interesting they include a running total, going back like 15 or 18 years, showing all my warranty returns. I guess they want you to know they keep track...but never denied a claim. (I've only returned things maybe 5 times.)

But I also learned to use Eveready Lithium AA cells in devices seldom used, or valuable. They never leak. So AA maglites in glove boxes, or expensive remote controls only get lithium. All of my important flashlights use 123 lithiums anyway.
 
It's definitely convenient when you order several different types of components, no guessing what is what.
Its been 8 years since I last bought from them. I was making a battery charger adapter cable for my Ferrari, and they use a very odd looking plug, but someone on a Ferrari forum found the plug and pins on Digikey so I placed an order for a bunch and made one for me, and some friends that adapted the Ferrari plug to a standard SAE battery maintainer plug.
 
Its been 8 years since I last bought from them. I was making a battery charger adapter cable for my Ferrari, and they use a very odd looking plug, but someone on a Ferrari forum found the plug and pins on Digikey so I placed an order for a bunch and made one for me, and some friends that adapted the Ferrari plug to a standard SAE battery maintainer plug.

Mouser Electronics is also a good place to get automotive connectors. They have a bigger selection than Digi-Key; they have most of the Packard/Delphi/Aptiv connectors, for example.
 
Mouser Electronics is also a good place to get automotive connectors. They have a bigger selection than Digi-Key; they have most of the Packard/Delphi/Aptiv connectors, for example.
Excellent to know. I used Digi-Key because the tutorial had all the part numbers and links to Digi-Key...so easy to just follow the links.
 
I've only tried the Energizer brand vs the bulk china pack stuff. Although they are probably all made in China, I know I can get about 3 times the life out of the Energizers than I can out of the bulk ones.

They have multiple suppliers. You can find where they're made in China, Indonesia (probably Murata - the former Sony factory), and Japan (could be Maxell or Panasonic).

I prefer Maxell. Their lithium coin cells are only made in Japan.

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I tried Renata once. Their silver oxide watch batteries are notorious though. I've heard watch repair people often hate them. The Swiss watch industry uses them because they're (well) Swiss. Looks like they stopped making them in Switzerland and just have their name slapped on batteries made in Asia.

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That's something that so many believe to be not true. They think a manufacturer would make a bunch of different "versions" of an item to sell at different price points, with different quality levels, etc but from a manufacturing standpoint, it makes very little sense. No one wants to source different raw materials, different setups, having to track the different batches, etc.


I found VARTA batteries at Parts Express and was buying AA, AAA, 2032, 9-volt, etc as they were high quality, made in Germany, etc. Noticed a few years ago that they moved production to China and the quality changed....

Varta? No way for me. I remember Ikea used to sell Varta alkaline batteries that were made in Germany. They leaked faster than any other AA or AAA batteries I've ever seen.
 
CR2023 coin cells vary widely in quality. I've had good luck with Duracell, Varta, Renata and Panasonic. Maxell and Energizer have been a mixed bag for me. I use CR 2032s in everything from car remotes to bike speed sensors and bike computers. The CR2032s in various car remotes have on average lasted 4 to 5 years. Consider yourself lucky if you don't have to deal with a soldered-in VL2032 rechargeable or similar nonsense.
 
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