this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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31
What happened to the Batteriser? (midwest.social)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

While looking for uses for old disposable AA batteries, I ran across the Batteriser from 2015. Clearly, it was a flop of some sort, as I am posting in 2024. What happened? Are there any iterations that do work?

https://money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/technology/make-battery-last-longer-batteriser/index.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batteroo_Boost

Also, are there any uses for old batteries?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It flopped because it doesn't really work, and most stuff we stick batteries on these days already do a good job of extracting all the energy out of the batteries. It's mostly already built-in.

EEVblog made a few videos on it:

Dead old batteries are dead, if there's almost no energy in them they're done. Best case you might be able to stick them in a remote or an LED candle or whatever. But it's a physical limit: almost dead batteries just can't supply high currents because of internal resistance.

Another way to look at it is those potato batteries: yeah, you can measure a voltage off them. Yeah, you might be able to light up an LED. But you will never be able to power something higher power, not even for a couple seconds. It's physically not able to provide much current.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

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[–] xmunk 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Rechargeable AA batteries have become much more accessible... And imo far fewer devices that we use take replaceable batteries. It's much more common for devices to just have built in rechargeable batteries.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use rechargeable AAs and AAAs in all of my remotes, controllers, mice, etc, and the kids’ toys are so chaotic that I wouldn’t put anything in them I wasn’t willing to lose, so the batteriser has literally no value to me. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And I've heard rechargeable batteries don't even leak, that would be another plus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Why don’t we have lithium ion AA batteries yet? I’ve seen lithium iron phosphate.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think it has the wrong voltage. 4.2V instead of 1.5V.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I know nothing, but I am surprised the voltage issue cannot be efficiently fixed with a circuit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

@ripe_[email protected] posted a link to such a product, it's possible. The question is: is it viable...

The chemicals in NiMH rechargeable batteries aren't that rare/expensive and it works.

Adding a circuit needs additional space in that small form-factor that takes away from the space the actual battery could occupy. And the circuit needs power itself. And the chips costs additional money, and it's more complicated to manufacture which costs yet more money. I can only imagine you end up with a product that's about on the same level with the regular batteries, just more expensive.

And I'm not sure about the market for AA batteries. Nowadays lots of products have batteries soldered inside of them. And the next step in tech is probably not a backwards-compatible AA battery, but something like the 18650, which is already widely adopted. And they come in the size of AA batteries as well, called: 14500 Lithium Batteries.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Random duckduckgo search brought me to this product. Maybe they are not comercially viable yet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

There are, but to use them as a replacement for NiMH/Alkaline cells, they need voltage conversion and typically have a built in charging circuit so you can charge then via USB-C for example. Theyre expensive, have a similar capacity compared to NiMH and can't be charged in a regular battery charger.

On an other note, there are 1.5V lithium batteries (non-rechargable). They supposedly have a higher capacity and last longer.

And then there are 14500 Li-Ion cells that are about the size of an AA cell but run at 3.6V.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Not leaking would be huge. I forgot about that. Lithium are great for not leaking, but crazy expensive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Rechargeable AA batteries have become much more accessible

honest question: when was this not the case? I used rechargable batteries in my gameboy in the early 90s.

Batteries as well as rechargers are dirt cheap for well over 2 decades

[–] ineffable 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Because rechargable batteries before NiMH sucked for many use cases - they were good for the Gameboy as you charged and used them straight away at high draw, but try using one in a low power device like a remote or wall clock and you'll find it is dead in a week despite minimal actual usage

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You're saying before NIMH, which I assume is the current standard? Because I also use them for everything, and while I also have to swap them more frequently (just barely a noticeable amount) in the controllers (not remotes, those are fine, but Xbox controllers) I just... stick them on the 24ct AA+AAA recharger. I have 2 dozen of each, so it's not like we ever have a battery shortage.

Saved a TON of $$$ on batteries.

[–] ineffable 5 points 11 months ago

NiMH has been common in consumer batteries for around 15 years (in my experience, although Wikipedia shows the chemistry is way older) but you can still buy the other chemistry (NiCd), and there may be newer lithium rechargables but I haven't seen them in standard sizes (AA etc)

Eneloops set the standard for good quality NiMH batteries for a while, but IKEA Ladda batteries are also NiMH, and probably plenty of others now

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Reality happened. The voltage drops because there is jack shit energy remaining and stepping up the voltage does not magically make that battery not almost completely drained.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The wikipedia seems to keep using words like "it claimed to X"

Also

The shipping date for the product has been delayed for various reasons, but photos from the manufacturing process have been made available. As of early May 2016, the company was months overdue to ship to its Indiegogo backers, with some backers accusing Batteroo of running a scam.

TechnologyCatalyst suggested that the device could be useful "if Batteriser was honest about its product", not to prolong battery life but to stabilise voltage over its lifetime.

So I think the other comment is reasonable. Rechargeable batteries (ex. People mention Ikea ones and Eneloop) are pretty good now so people that want it can go for those

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Thank you. Those are great extra details.