Eveready Alkaline power cell - AA- E91- unheard of stories

[Got Lumens?]

I have the opposite situation. Last week, I noticed a problem with 4 AA powered motion detector LED light in the kitchen hallway closet of a client's house. It turns on every time the door is opened, and shines into the dark closet for 30 seconds after movement is no longer detected. He bought this thing last year, and I installed it soon after(assuming that it either wouldn't work 90% of the time, or that it would malfunction within a few weeks). I was pleasantly surprised, as most of the many, many cheap devices he buys online either don't work at all, or are largely ineffective. To be fair, out of the 2 or 3 of these lights he purchased in an online 'package deal', 1 of them WAS broken from the get-go(par for the usual course).

So it's 4 initial brand name alkaline batteries lasted like 6-7 months. I installed 4 new alkalines and recorded the date once again. Roughly 2 months later, it became dim. I tested the batteries, using a tester that gives you 'bars' that show you how much charge it has left, and noticed 1 battery was much lower than all others. I installed new ones, but about 6 weeks later it became dim, and one battery measured significantly different than the other 3 again.

Now I decided to label each battery slot with a number(1-4). Sure enough it became dim about 2 months later, so I began testing the batteries. Battery #1 was at 75%, Battery #2 at 75%, Battery #3 nearly dead, with light corrosion and oily moisture in spots, Battery #4 was completely dead, with quite a lot of oily moisture covering it.

I looked for the date on these batteries, and they were dated "2026"!! I have absolutely NO idea what's going on here!

You could try and replace just the two cells once every 45 days? Treat them as two banks of batteries instead of one.
Personally I would suggest having him switch these lights cells over to NiMh rechargeable's.
Then You don't need to keep replacing the cells constantly, and You need not worry about
alkaline leakage.

 

[zipplet]

Another option is to mark the 2 spaces that hold the cells that drain more quickly. Rotate the cells between the holders every 2 weeks or so.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

The best option would be to take the wire off 2 cells and hook it across 4 cells with a dropping resistor to make up for increased voltage that way all 4 batteries would deplete the same.

 

[Got Lumens?]

The best option would be to take the wire off 2 cells and hook it across 4 cells with a dropping resistor to make up for increased voltage that way all 4 batteries would deplete the same.

IF This is the case. No. The best modification would be to install an additional two cell carrier external and connect the midtap wires. A resistor is only going to kill all the cells more quickly. It sounds like there is a mid tap on the four cells, and a constant draw sensing. This could benefit from a larger external two cell C or D sized power source. It may last 6 months or more with that modification.