BATTERY GEEKS, enlighten me please. Sony Alkaline LR03 AAA vs Lithium AAA?

Midnight Lumina · Apr 16, 2014

I have a dilemma. I bought a Sony item, but the manual shows only the battery life based on Sony LR03 Alkaline batteries that come with it by default. Now, I want to make sure my device lasts as long as it possibly can, but I am not sure if "Sony" alkaline batteries are some special sort of things that make "Sony" items last longer.

So the question is, is there no doubt Lithium batteries would last longer than any Alkaline battery or is there any chance that these included LR03 batteries are in any way better than Energizer Lithium for example? It is very important that I get the best battery life for this device.

I hope my question is not confusing, I know the Sony technicians couldn't wrap their heads around it. Basically what I want is the longest lasting battery for my Sony device, but I don't know whether I should keep the default "Sony" ones or get better Lithium ones. I just have this idea that because the batteries are of "Sony" they will make the "Sony" item last longer.

TEEJ · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
I have a dilemma. I bought a Sony item, but the manual shows only the battery life based on Sony LR03 Alkaline batteries that come with it by default. Now, I want to make sure my device lasts as long as it possibly can, but I am not sure if "Sony" alkaline batteries are some special sort of things that make "Sony" items last longer.

So the question is, is there no doubt Lithium batteries would last longer than any Alkaline battery or is there any chance that these included LR03 batteries are in any way better than Energizer Lithium for example? It is very important that I get the best battery life for this device.

I hope my question is not confusing, I know the Sony technicians couldn't wrap their heads around it. Basically what I want is the longest lasting battery for my Sony device, but I don't know whether I should keep the default "Sony" ones or get better Lithium ones. I just have this idea that because the batteries are of "Sony" they will make the "Sony" item last longer.

LOL

All manufacturers that sell accessories say to only use their accessories, but, generally, the ones they supply are not even the best for the application, merely best for their book keepers.

As the LR03 is a AAA battery, running at 1.5 volts, you can use the Energizer AAA lithium ion cells as they are also providing 1.5 volts, and, they will outperform the alkaline version, and, won't leak and destroy the Sony item.

StarHalo · Apr 16, 2014

If it's a low-drain application, like a remote control or analog radio, the alkaline will outlast lithiums or NiMH/rechargeables (at the expense of possible leaking.) NiMHs approach the longevity of lithiums but are much cheaper in the long run.

Midnight Lumina · Apr 16, 2014

StarHalo said:
If it's a low-drain application, like a remote control or analog radio, the alkaline will outlast lithiums or NiMH/rechargeables (at the expense of possible leaking.) NiMHs approach the longevity of lithiums but are much cheaper in the long run.

That's what I keep hearing and that's why I'm worried. It's a digital voice recorder if that helps, not sure if having it on high/low quality affects the drainage.

TEEJ · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
That's what I keep hearing and that's why I'm worried. It's a digital voice recorder if that helps, not sure if having it on high/low quality affects the drainage.

The more POWER it draws, the more drainage.

The volume being on louder, if it uses tapes, the motor to spin the drives, etc...all increase the drain rates. I think a recorder is not a low drain device though.

ChrisGarrett · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
That's what I keep hearing and that's why I'm worried. It's a digital voice recorder if that helps, not sure if having it on high/low quality affects the drainage.

Are you going to be using this device a lot? How often? Use the Sony batteries and see how long you get. Go buy a 4, or 8 pack of the Energizer Lithium Ultimates, or Advanced AAAs and see what you see, trying to time things out for an idea on how long each battery type lasts.

We're all into rechargeable batteries here, so if your digital recorder works on the 1.2v NiMH batteries, even for shorter periods of time, we'd all suggest investing in a decent independent channel smart charger and Eneloops.

Chris

TEEJ · Apr 16, 2014

The Nimhs would save money, but some electronics don't play well with the reduced voltage...some do.

StarHalo · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
It's a digital voice recorder

That's a small computer, definitely a higher drain rate. Lithiums will give you best battery life by a sound margin, with much more cost-efficient NiMHs not far behind. Don't bother with alkalines for this device.

HKJ · Apr 16, 2014

TEEJ said:
The Nimhs would save money, but some electronics don't play well with the reduced voltage...some do.

NiMH does often give higher voltage than Alkaline, the only time alkaline has a advantage is low current devices.
This is somewhere below 100mA current drain or to say it another way: A device needs to be able to run more than 10 to 20 hours on alkaline without any pause, before it is even worth considering alkaline. Of course, devices that only run a few seconds at a time (Like a remote) is another story.

I have done some comparison here: http://lygte-info.dk/info/ComparisonOfAABatteryChemistry UK.html

Midnight Lumina · Apr 16, 2014

Thank you all for the advice, this is more helpful than the technicians ever were. I think I have a better idea now.

ChrisGarrett said:
Are you going to be using this device a lot? How often? Use the Sony batteries and see how long you get. Go buy a 4, or 8 pack of the Energizer Lithium Ultimates, or Advanced AAAs and see what you see, trying to time things out for an idea on how long each battery type lasts.

We're all into rechargeable batteries here, so if your digital recorder works on the 1.2v NiMH batteries, even for shorter periods of time, we'd all suggest investing in a decent independent channel smart charger and Eneloops.

Chris

I was looking for batteries that will last the longest in a single run (which seem to be disposable lithium ones), because I hope to have this device turned on for long periods of time. The battery life of the LR03 is supposed to give 60 hours on ST record settings, for example - a whole two and a half days. It's a project I am doing, requires the device to just sit there recording.

Midnight Lumina · Apr 16, 2014

These are the ones it comes with by the way, the Sony LR03 Alkaline AAA. Is it settled then that these can be outperformed by lithium batteries? I only wonder now about by how much of a margin, I have seen some of the charts/graphs posted here but they did not include these Sony ones.

HKJ · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
These are the ones it comes with by the way, the Sony LR03 Alkaline ones. Is it settled then that these can be outperformed by lithium ones? I only wonder now about by how much of a margin, I have seen some of the charts/graphs posted here but they did not include these Sony ones.

All the alkaline I have tested has been close in performance, I would not expect the Sony to be much different from them. Some of the cheaper alkalines will have worse performance.
Lithium primaries are mostly for higher loads, at very low load they will only have a small (if any) advantage over alkaline. I have it on my todo list to test this.

StarHalo · Apr 16, 2014

In higher-drain applications, it's not unusual to see lithiums go a full three to four times longer than alkalines; not to imply this will for sure happen in your case, but the manufacturer's number will be notably short of the lithium cells' potential.

If you really want to turn this into a project, get a 2 D cell holder from Radio Shack and rig it to the battery compartment contacts; extrapolating from Sony's numbers, you'd get somewhere over three weeks of runtime..

Midnight Lumina · Apr 16, 2014

StarHalo said:
In higher-drain applications, it's not unusual to see lithiums go a full three to four times longer than alkalines; not to imply this will for sure happen in your case, but the manufacturer's number will be notably short of the lithium cells' potential.

If you really want to turn this into a project, get a 2 D cell holder from Radio Shack and rig it to the battery compartment contacts; extrapolating from Sony's numbers, you'd get somewhere over three weeks of runtime..

THIS is something I had thought of doing but my knowledge was too limited to do it myself - how exactly would I go about doing this? Is it easily done? Would really appreciate it if this process was followed up, this is really what I wanted.

StarHalo · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
THIS is something I had thought of doing but my knowledge was too limited to do it myself - how exactly would I go about doing this? Is it easily done? Would really appreciate it if this process was followed up, this is really what I wanted.

Most portable audio recorders won't go over ~100 hours contiguous, so you may want to check your specs before considering it further. Also, I know some Sony recorders can charge NiMHs internally using a USB and/or AC plug; this would be the simplest way for indefinite recording, just load NiMHs and then leave it plugged in while recording.

Midnight Lumina · Apr 16, 2014

StarHalo said:
Most portable audio recorders won't go over ~100 hours contiguous, so you may want to check your specs before considering it further. Also, I know some Sony recorders can charge NiMHs internally using a USB and/or AC plug; this would be the simplest way for indefinite recording, just load NiMHs and then leave it plugged in while recording.

Indeed, the issue with that is that then I would need a portable power source (won't be having any outlet near), and I could not manage to find any that would go with the voice recorder. Recorder is ICD-AX412 by the way, if that makes any difference.

StarHalo · Apr 16, 2014

Midnight Lumina said:
Recorder is ICD-AX412 by the way, if that makes any difference.

The instructions say it can only work with a maximum 500 Mb file; at the dead-last recording quality of 8 Kbps (which will require a pristine recording environment, we're talking drive-thru intercom audio quality) that's roughly 120 hours, and the odds that the lithiums can pull that off aren't bad.

Going beyond that would require a different recording device, I picture something running iOS or Android cleverly wired to a large battery pack, which should happily forge ahead recording until its entire internal storage is full, at least a week later..

Midnight Lumina · Apr 17, 2014

StarHalo said:
The instructions say it can only work with a maximum 500 Mb file; at the dead-last recording quality of 8 Kbps (which will require a pristine recording environment, we're talking drive-thru intercom audio quality) that's roughly 120 hours, and the odds that the lithiums can pull that off aren't bad.

Going beyond that would require a different recording device, I picture something running iOS or Android cleverly wired to a large battery pack, which should happily forge ahead recording until its entire internal storage is full, at least a week later..

Yeah the device seems to work around this though, just splits the file accordingly in order to continue running (bought a 16GB memory card too). All in all, doubt I will find a portable power source for it. I did fondle that idea of finding some way to rig in better batteries through a battery holder but doubt I'll get to that point now. Even so, think 2+ days will have to do.

Power Me Up · Apr 17, 2014

Easy solution: Get an emergency charger for mobile phones - you can get models that have way more energy capacity than a pair of AAA cells - then just use the USB output on one of those to connect to the mini USB connector on the audio recorder to keep it powered for an extended period.

Page 99 of the manual says that it can be powered through the USB connector:
https://docs.sony.com/release/ICDAX412_EN.pdf

The only thing that I think that you would need to watch for is that some of those emergency chargers may not be particularly efficient when supplying such small amounts of power - you would really need to try them out to see, but if you got one has a good capacity and works reasonably efficiently, you could have it running for 10 times longer on the external power source compared to just the AAA cells!

Be mindful that a lot of the emergency chargers listed on places like Ebay are way overrated on their capacity!

Midnight Lumina · Apr 17, 2014

Power Me Up said:
Easy solution: Get an emergency charger for mobile phones - you can get models that have way more energy capacity than a pair of AAA cells - then just use the USB output on one of those to connect to the mini USB connector on the audio recorder to keep it powered for an extended period.

Page 99 of the manual says that it can be powered through the USB connector:
https://docs.sony.com/release/ICDAX412_EN.pdf

The only thing that I think that you would need to watch for is that some of those emergency chargers may not be particularly efficient when supplying such small amounts of power - you would really need to try them out to see, but if you got one has a good capacity and works reasonably efficiently, you could have it running for 10 times longer on the external power source compared to just the AAA cells!

Be mindful that a lot of the emergency chargers listed on places like Ebay are way overrated on their capacity!

Thank you for looking into this! That's one of the solutions I thought about, but I worry about issues such as compatibility (not that I know much about the matter). I have the idea that because such chargers are for mobile phones/iPhones and whatnot, they somehow will not work adequately for my voice recorder. Furthermore, should I be worried about overcharging at all? I now have the idea it may overheat or something if left there for a few days.

I had my eyes on this thing for example:
http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Instant-Charger-Mobile-Phones/dp/B0093GIME8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1397776731&sr=8-5&keywords=emergency+charger
and this one which seems to be more universal in terms of the items it powers:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DGJJNVO/?tag=cpf0b6-20

But I was put off by that very thing I just mentioned - only says mobile phones and iPhones. Can you guys confirm this would work?

BATTERY GEEKS, enlighten me please. Sony Alkaline LR03 AAA vs Lithium AAA?

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