Testing primary battery capacity with BC-700?

[BatteryCharger]

I'd like to do some testing on a few different AA alkaline/lithium batteries. The only test machine I have is a BC-700. Dare I even ask, could I put an alkaline cell in there on discharge mode? Obviously I'd have to watch it like a hawk and pull it before it starts recharging...

 

[Mr Happy]

You could try, but the results will be misleading. Alkaline batteries perform best when discharged intermittently with longish rest periods between shorter loaded periods. If you discharge them continuously like the BC-700 does you will obtain excessively low capacity measurements.

 

[Battery Guy]

You could try, but the results will be misleading. Alkaline batteries perform best when discharged intermittently with longish rest periods between shorter loaded periods. If you discharge them continuously like the BC-700 does you will obtain excessively low capacity measurements.

I'm not sure that I would categorize the results as "misleading". The capacity measurements made by doing a continuous discharge should be valid, but useful to the OP only if he wants to know continuous discharge performance.

Completely agree with you with regards to there being a big difference between intermittent and continuous discharge performance for alkaline cells.

Cheers,
Battery Guy