Don't Buy Everready Batteries Ever-They Leak

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:29 pm

I just found another piece of electronics damaged by leaking Everready batteries.
I quit buying them years ago because of this problem.
This equipment only had them because they came with the unit.
I just pulled the fully drained duracells out of my lantern from burning man.
No leakage, as usual.
I don't ever remember using Everreadys that didn't leak.
Everready sucks.
Don't buy Neverready.
Ever.

plowman · Post by **plowman** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:50 pm

Thanks for the tip. And cheap batterys are just that. Cheap. I dont know about leakage cause they never lasted that long

Thecatman · Post by **Thecatman** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 10:38 pm

My first burn was in 02 and the two Duracells I put in the headlight I got for my bike still have enough juice for 07. I'll bring some spares this year.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:06 am

The same batteries from 2002?
That's pretty amazing!
I'd bring fresh sets though.
And even duracells will start to leak after enough years.
A normal 3 watt luxeon will get full brightness from AAAs for about a half an hour.
Even so, I got a week out of each set of batteries and they were bright enough to use when I changed them.

Post by **AntiM** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:38 am

We just got some Ray-o-vacs and sure enough, they leaked.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 5:53 am

Doesn't that piss you off?

Anyone using a digital camera, remember that alkalines won't cut it.
I did find one time lithiums for $2.50 each.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 8:04 am

Rechargeables let me down to offton in the camera.. So where do I go from here? jo-di

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 8:50 am

Most cameras are very voltage sensitive.
That seems to be the problem with alkalines.
Lithium, rechargeable and one time, maintain voltage and then crash all at once.
Nicads and nimh work in a similar fashion.

Some rechargeables vary in capacity quite a bit, especially larger sizes.
And chargers vary a lot in quality.

Older cameras are much more power hungry too.
You can turn the flash off, that will help and even the screen.

If you determine you have functioning batteries and charger, you can try to get higher capacity batteries.
If you are using nicad, you may be able to step up to lithium.
Some cameras can use an external battery pack.
If none of this helps, you will either need a lot of batteries or a newer camera.

Does your camera use a standard size or special battery packs?
Is it a small camera or an slr?

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 9:09 am

Camera is a 35 dig.. It power son and off.. I use the screen to view last photo.. It's powered by 4 aa batts.. am willing to pay top dollor for good batteries..

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 10:47 am

I'll look around a bit.
Top capacity last I looked in nimh was 2500 to 3000 mah.
I know lithium are available now though.

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:20 pm

The problem most people have with the new generation of rechargeable AAs (Ni-MH) is that they slowly self-discharge (about 10% per week). GE makes a battery called Eneloop that is not quite as powerful as some of the others on the market (like energizer or sunpak), but do not discharge in this way. I don't know where else you can get them, but we definitely carry them at ritz/inkley's/wolf camera.

One of the mistakes most people make that shortens their battery life is reviewing their pictures after capture. When you look at the picture immediately after you take it (instant review) it's being displayed from the buffer. If you go in to look at it after that point, the camera has to access the memory card, which consumes almost as much power as actually taking the picture in the first place.

Since accessing the card takes so much power, a high-speed card can make a pretty big difference in battery life, too, since it writes and reads faster. The sandisk ultra and extreme cards are okay (unless you bought them at mall-wart--they're a lower quality card there), but I stick to the Lexar Professional (in the gold package) cards...they'll never ever fail on you. Can't tell you how many times I've had someone with a cheapass card they bought at mall-wart or on ebay come into my store begging me to recover pictures that they've lost to data corruption. Usually I can recover most of them, but I charge 30 bucks to do it. How much did they save by buying a shitty card?

Thecatman · Post by **Thecatman** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 9:41 pm

I will heed your advise Gyre and get rid of the five year old batteries even though they appear to be good. Last thing I want is to have to replace the light. I used the same light with the same batteries in 04.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 11:10 pm

Catman, you might keep them as spares, especially for high drain short use things.
It helps to use batteries that are matched for voltage as they fail, and these will be, of course.

RG, are the high speed cards really lower drain?
I've never heard that before.
I have heard some people say that smaller cards use less power.
I don't know if that's true.

Unjon, what kind of camera do you have exactly?
I get about 300-500 shots from my digital and I still have multiple batteries.
I am interested in an older nikon, and it's biggest drawback is weak batteries and high power consumption.
I know someone who runs seven chargers with his.

You can always use lithium one use batteries, but you should be careful about overheating.

Davoid · Post by **Davoid** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:26 am

Don't know much about batteries, but I do know this: if you're using a particular battery-powered item very rarely, say, once a year? During the week leading up to Labor Day? Don't leave the batteries in it all year, Everready or otherwise. I'd say this is especially true if that one week of use is in a place that has lots of very fine, very alkaline dust.

When you get home, take 'em out, use 'em elsewhere. And wipe the little battery chamber out while you're at it.