Alkaline Battery Question...

Sorry if this has been covered before, but a search turned up zip.

Given a cool, stable storage environment (such as in the closet or drawer in a house), just approximately how long can one expect alkalines to retain a good portion of their energy past the expiration date?

I ask because I have a large stash of alkaline D cells that I stockpiled for Y2K, which all have an expiration date of 2002. Hey, I would gotten some fresher ones, but the price was right... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Anyway, they seem to be plenty good. I have some AAs of the same vintage that I haven't tried. Truth is, once Y2K proved to be a non-event, I forgot about much of the preparations I had made. We ate the food eventually, but lots of other stuff is still sitting where it was cached. I just found these batteries the other day when I stumbled across the Mag-Lite two cell I'm playing with now.

So, any empirical data out there? Curiousity overwhelms me...

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id say there gone now i wont trust em

Alks have been much improved in the last ten years and have more storage life than in the past. I have some ten year old cells in a few devices and lights that are still good and I tested their condition with a voltage and "flash amp" test.

A stable, cool, dry, environment will help to ensure successful,long term, storage.

Even the occasional new cell will fail but I haven't experienced increased problems with older cells. New alks seem to hold up well for the seven years most of them are dated for.

I think the only concern you need have is not the power but whether if corrosion had set in. If corrosion happens inside then it might leak and damage your item. At about 1 1/2 years pass expiry it should be ok.

IIRC at expiration the cells are only at 50% of their original capacity. I have noticed a decrease in some of mine that are near expiration and I now make it a point to try and use them within their first 1-3 years.

Do a runtime test on your, then buy some new ones and repeat the test and let us know.

So, is this seven-year figure an industry standard?

As to the corrosion question, I looked for that; no visible sign. Should I be concerned about possible internal corrosion being "brought to the surface" by use?

I'm doing a run-time "test" right now, using fresh, relatively new Energizers in an EverLED equipped 2D cell Mag-Lite. When they are spent, I'll put some of the old "industrial" cells in and see how long they last. Good idea... thanks.

I've already cycled out my older cells. My statement about 50% loss is from one of the manufacturers sites. My personal experience is just that - personal experience. There was enough of a difference for me to notice that there was a difference.

The basic intent of my post stills stands - The fresher the cell, the more of its original capacity you'll get from it compared to a cell at the end of its shelf life. Not rocket science, just common sense.

Well, I wasn't questioning your experience. And, of course, fresher cells will be stronger. You're right, its common sense; and not what I was asking.

At any rate, we'll see how relatively new and fresh cells compare in run time, in the same light, with old cells well past their expiration.

Steve - I was responding to Newbie in response to his response to me.
My original post was in response to you. Any perceived "annoyances" were not aimed at you.

Okay; I must have missed something. I thought Newbie was telling ME to do a run-time test... which I am. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

No problem; sorry for the snippy riposte.

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Okay; just stopped the other "test", and put in two of the old D cells.

It was immediately apparent that the beam was less bright than it had been with the fresh cells last night. However, the beam is still plenty bright enough for around the house; especially during a power outage.

FWIW, I put four of these old ones in the Energizer lantern, and ran it for eight hours yesterday with no appreciable dimming. I shut it down when I went to bed, because I want to check the run time. Turned it back on at 1810 this evening, and it is still plenty bright. Those Coleman "lamps" would have dimmed to almost nothing by now. So, nobody knows what type of bulbs these are???


The Mag-Lite/EverLED is running now, so we'll see for how long with these old batteries. In the meantime, I'm gratified to know that this pile of batteries is still usable. But I'm going to buy a supply of fresh ones anyway; hurricane season is upon us.

Sorry about the non-scientific aspects of these "tests", but its the best I can do... thanks to all who replied.

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Duracell claims 4% loss at Room Temperature the first year, two percent per year after that. Seems to me like they can be pretty long in the tooth and still turn in some serious service.

My Everleds pull 400 mA or so at 3.0 Volts, closer to 500 at 2.0 (the light is already down 10% at 3, 30% at 2 Volts). At this rate Duracell Alkaline D cells are good for 20 hours 'by the book'.

Doug Owen

<<.they can be pretty long in the tooth and still turn in some serious service..>>

And that's what I'm seeing here, Doug. After 12 hours, the light hasn't dimmed appreciably from when I first put these older batteries in last night. So, my stash still has a good bit of usefulness left in them.

BTW, I first tried some (relatively) fresh Energizers with a 2009 expiration date. They ran for 24 hours, and still put out a beam equal to an Opa-Lec NewBeam mini-mag conversion. Dunno just hiow long they would have continued to put out light; I ran out of patience

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