"Heavy Duty" different from Alkaline?

I've heard that batteries labelled as Heavy Duty and other labels are not alkaline, but instead are zinc carbon or other chemistry and thus don't perform as well. I see a lot of low priced batteries as discount stores labelled as Heavy Duty, but I usually don't find the type of chemistry it is. Can someone give a breakdown of the commonly seen chemistrys for AA, AAA, C, D sized batteries and their pros/cons?

Thanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc-carbon_battery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AA_battery

Of course, as always take Wikipedia with a grain of salt, but it's where I always start to learn about something I am un familair with.

Usually if it's Alkaline it'll say so. I assume if it doesn't say alkaline it's a "heavy-duty" battery.

"Heavy-duty" is about as meaningful as "new and improved". It has only a casual association with the battery chemistry. Any manufacturer can put those words on their battery for any marketing reason that suits them.

Where alkalines give 2 hours of runtime, I got 20 minutes from "Heavy Duty" batteries.

Heavy Duty and Super Heavy Duty are almost always attached to carbon zinc chemistry. Another clue is the absence of any other chemistry such as alkaline or lithium being listed.

Typically the capacity in mAh is about a third or a little more than alkalines. Also carbon zinc batteries are poor performers in higher current or continuous drain applications. This makes them less useful for most of us.

They are made to a lower price point and the market is big enough for most battery makers to keep producing them.

I have not bought or used them in decades.

Mark

Another way to tell the difference is to look closely at the packaging and/or cell label. One or both usually have an IEC size listed on them.

IEC sizes for alkaline cells start with LR.
IEC sizes for zinc-carbon cells start with R.

For example, an alkaline AA is an LR6, but a zinc-carbon AA is an R6.
AAA cells are __03
C cells are __14
D cells are __20

carbon zinc cells are the "heavy duty" type....same voltage rating as the alkaline, but at a very limited capacity...

even brand new "heavy duty" cells I bought registers "zip" on the ZTS...how odd is that?

original battery were zinc carbon.

then they brought out zinc chloride which has 50% more capacity than zinc carbon, and they are often labeled as heavy-duty.

regards.

John.

Great info! Thanks everyone!