Battery Freshness

[Bob Snow]

I am not fond of the current practice of providing an expiration date on batteries. It is not clear to me, what criteria are used to determine the expiration date. I recently purchased a case of imported beer that had a "best if used by" date on the case. I know Budweiser uses a "born on" date and this seems much better than an expiration date. What I would like to see on batteries is a manufacturing date and then an indication of when the battery will loose 10% of it's capacity under normal storage conditions. Something like this:

Manufactured - 3/03
Will retain 90% of capacity until 2007

It would also be nice to see something similar on rechargeable batteries:

1200 mAH
Will retain up to 90% of charge for 33 days

 

[Empath]

It could be that there was legislation or a regulatory rule that requires the dates to be put on batteries, but I'm not aware of it. It seems that it was a competitive thing. One brand started putting the date on their batteries, and others started doing likewise. If so, we may be fortunate that we get any indication of its age at all. But, you're right. A more definitive method would be nice.

 

[Floating Spots]

At least with an expiration date, you can work backwards.
I have received some pretty darn dead undated batteries before....

 

[CNC Dan]

[ QUOTE ]
Empath said:
It could be that there was legislation or a regulatory rule that requires the dates to be put on batteries, but I'm not aware of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

USCG has rules for batteries that require that they have dates on them(exp. dates?). I remember seeing an ad for them in a sale flyer for West Marine back in the min 80's. Prehaps they just decided to date all of their batteries insted of just those for the marine market.

 

[shankus]

I agree, I like the idea.
I'd like to see better dating on food, too.

 

[JustAGuy]

Does anyone know what it does mean when a battery has an expiration date of, say, March 2009? 90% of original power? 50%? Or what?

 

[Brock]

It is suppose to be to the 90% mark, but I doubt that is true considering the dates they’re putting on them and the dates vary by manufacture. So some might be 4 years out, 6 years out. A born on date would be a lot more useful with alkaline. By the way typical alkaline will be at 90% in 2 years, while lithium are 10 years, and NiMH it is about 2 weeks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Kirk]

In the good old days, batteries DID have a date that read something like "Guaranteed for 100 days after February 3, 1910". Then in the late 1940's, the makers started saying "Best if used by August 1948". Then when I was growing up (in the 1960's) it was a crap shoot as to when the batteries would die as there was nothing indicating "use by" or a manufacturing date. Personally, I try to install my batteries when there is at least 2 years left before the "use by" date. I feel pretty safe depending on this method. The batteries may not be "brand new", but they should be pretty good.
Kirk