Battery "born on date"

[BassClefJeff84]

They do it for beer. Why not batteries?

It doesn't even have to be that specific. I would be happy with just a month/year format. I would much rather know when they were made rather than when they expire.

my .02

-Jeff

 

[Mr Happy]

They do!

I just grabbed two AA cells close to hand. A Duracell that has MAR 2012 on it, also has 2005/09 printed around the top near the button. And a Mitsubishi heavy duty that has 02-2006 printed round the base near the negative end.

 

[Zenster]

But I think the OP might have been specifically thinking about CR123's.

So yes, the big name makers of AA's and other "standard" battery types have been putting expiration dates on them for a long time.

Personally, I don't care whether "made on" dates or "expires on" dates are used because, either way, the date used will be based upon the expected storage life of the battery.
If a manufacturer puts an expiration date of 2014 on a battery, and the maker claims a 10 year shelf life, then it's simple math to see that it was made in 2004.

But yea, why aren't we seeing dates on CR123's?.. Especially when the makers typically claim a "10 year" shelf life.
Are they afraid that maybe their claims aren't justified?

 

[dilbert]

The battery station CR123 cells have a code that represents the manufacture date. The actual date would be better, but oh well.

Code to date conversion chart towards bottom of page:
http://www.batterystation.com/cpf1.htm