Can I use my MC3000 to measure an alkaline battery?

moon unit · Mar 30, 2017

Please excuse my asking. I know, I know, alkaline batteries -- as primary cells -- are not to be (re)-charged. I've looked everywhere and that is always stated explicitly.
I only want to measure how "full" an older, "somewhat used" one is, e.g. in volts. Like an AA or CR123A in my LiteXpress flashlight or bike light.
IMO, my Voltcraft MS-229 LCD battery tester is pretty flimsy.

TIA
Mike

DRAWs · Mar 30, 2017

why not use a multimeter instead ?

CuriousOne · Mar 30, 2017

Multimeter measures voltage, which is not always equivalent for unused capacity in the cell.

markr6 · Mar 30, 2017

Yeah with an alkaline the voltage isn't the best indicator. You can put it in the charger and do a discharge to show how much capacity was left...but then the battery is obviously dead. Just be sure the charger doesn't automatically start recharging it after the discharge!!! I think some do that by default.

My DMM has a battery test feature, which applies a small load and gives an estimate. But still, it doesn't really tell you much. "Good, OK, bad" or something like that.

Viking · Mar 31, 2017

Unless you wanna empty your cells, you just need a tester that puts a load on.
The ZTS tester in the video below is good for testing alkaline cells (do to this chemistry voltage curve) and give an estimated evaluation of how filled they are.
However it is not good for testing nimh cells (recycling cells) do to that chemistry flat voltage curve, at least in my experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxRos3YrJLg

moon unit · Mar 31, 2017

Thanks for the video. Looks good. I'm still trying to figure out if my MC300 will work at all in this regard. It costed enough and I'm not all that hot about buying someting new again just for alkaline primaries.

Viking · Mar 31, 2017

The MC3000 can only do it by discharging the cell. The cell will be empty afterwards.

terryoregon · Apr 4, 2018

The manual actually addresses this possibility:
.

Can I discharge non-rechargeables such as Alkaline or Lithium primaries? I would like to verify their rated capacities.

Primary batteries don't often come with a capacity rating but yes you could compare discharge capacities of primaries of different makes. Use BATT TYPE NiMH with D.REDUCE option for discharging Alkalines, use BATT TYPE LiFe for discharging Lithium primaries.

sbj · Apr 6, 2018

moon unit said:
…I only want to measure how "full" an older, "somewhat used" one is, e.g. in volts…..

For AA alkaline batteries:
Put it in the charger, set MC3000 to NiMh discharge with 100mA discharge current and press "Start". Then look at the voltage display once 100mA discharge current is reached. (Then you can press "Stop" again.)
Compare the read value with the 100mA discharge diagram (yellow) of the Panasonic Pro Power AA from HKJ and you have a good indication of the discharge state.

https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Panasonic Pro Power AA UK.html

Can I use my MC3000 to measure an alkaline battery?

moon unit

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