Alkalines

Hey all. Are Alkalines prone to leaking even on lights that are used daily, or just mainly on lights or in devices that sit for a long time?

gurdygurds said:

Hey all. Are Alkalines prone to leaking ...

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Yes

gurdygurds said:

even on lights that are used daily ...

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Yes

gurdygurds said:

or just mainly on lights or in devices that sit for a long time?

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Yes

I think we left out the "leaking while new in package" ... but "yes" should cover most scenarios here

lol well alrighty then. A bummer as they last so long in some of my favorite lights. I'm an eneloop guy mainly and wish they gave the long taper like Alkalines do.

archimedes said:

Yes



Yes



Yes

I think we left out the "leaking while new in package" ... but "yes" should cover most scenarios here

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gurdygurds said:

lol well alrighty then. A bummer as they last so long in some of my favorite lights. I'm an eneloop guy mainly and wish they gave the long taper like Alkalines do.

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That long taper is really only a benefit to cheap lights that aren't regulated. Eneloops are by far the better battery. Even though Eneloops "die quickly" at the end of their discharge, they can provide good power though the whole discharge.

Alkalines start out bad, get worse, and finish really bad.

gurdygurds said:

lol well alrighty then. A bummer as they last so long in some of my favorite lights. I'm an eneloop guy mainly and wish they gave the long taper like Alkalines do.

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I look at it this way - Eneloops might not last as long (particularly under low Amp draws) but they will maintain close to full brightness throughout their run instead of continuously fading like alkalines AND you can always top them up whenever you like instead of waiting for them to go completely dead.

Well from what I've seen lights like the E01 (a personal favorite) and some of Malkoff's dropins like the M31W get WAAAAAAYYYY longer runtimes when running ALkalines. Woods walker showed something crazy like 46 hrs of light off of a single AA alkaline on his M31W and the E01 only gets its stated 16-21 hrs (depending on model) when on an alkaline. I agree that Eneloops are overall better and zero risk of leaking, but I love a light that will run for a really long time. Guess I have to stick to low output lights for that on eneloops.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

That long taper is really only a benefit to cheap lights that aren't regulated. Eneloops are by far the better battery. Even though Eneloops "die quickly" at the end of their discharge, they can provide good power though the whole discharge.

Alkalines start out bad, get worse, and finish really bad.

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Panasonic needs to make some Enelines. Rechargeables that behave like Alkalines

Depends on what you like about AA alkalines ... if you want greater specific energy, switch to lithium primary ... if you want greater internal resistance, ummm, try to find some really old heavily-cycled NiMH cells ?

darn it.....now I have to research internal resistance....

archimedes said:

Depends on what you like about AA alkalines ... if you want greater specific energy, switch to lithium primary ... if you want greater internal resistance, ummm, try to find some really old heavily-cycled NiMH cells ?

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There's always Enegizer Ultimate lithiums - more capacity than alkalines and they don't leak!

Those lithium primaries are really expensive, though, especially for a non-rechargeable battery. Cost about the same as buying Eneloops and throwing them away after 1 charge.

BTW, the main reason why the E01 gets such long runtime from an alkaline, is because the output is so horrible for most of the run. Just buy a decent light that has a moonlight mode if you want long runtimes. For example, a 1xAA Zebralight on moonlight will last over 2 weeks on a regular AA Eneloop.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

Those lithium primaries are really expensive, though, especially for a non-rechargeable battery. Cost about the same as buying Eneloops and throwing them away after 1 charge.

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... but cheaper than throwing away electronics ruined by battery leaks

WalkIntoTheLight said:

BTW, the main reason why the E01 gets such long runtime from an alkaline, is because the output is so horrible for most of the run....

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Yep ... the AA alkaline acts like a resistor in series

Lol, sir you're talking to the guy who just paid Vinh to mod an E01 to an even LOWER output!! He says it's about 1.7 lumens. I hear you on the Zebra though. Theoretically an sc53 could be my only light if I wasn't a flashlight nerd.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

Those lithium primaries are really expensive, though, especially for a non-rechargeable battery. Cost about the same as buying Eneloops and throwing them away after 1 charge.

BTW, the main reason why the E01 gets such long runtime from an alkaline, is because the output is so horrible for most of the run. Just buy a decent light that has a moonlight mode if you want long runtimes. For example, a 1xAA Zebralight on moonlight will last over 2 weeks on a regular AA Eneloop.

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Having asked and said all of this, I did a little runtime test on the m31w and while it didn't run for a massively long time on a standard eneloop, there was definitely a long enough taper followed by a good 45 min-1 hr of moonlight to let you know it's time to pop in a freshy. 👍🏼

archimedes said:

Yes



Yes



Yes

I think we left out the "leaking while new in package" ... but "yes" should cover most scenarios here

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LOL

I have to add that after moving to an area with much hotter and humid summers (central Maryland) from where I used to live (northern California), I've seen at least several times the leakage rate from alkalines.

In fact, it was noticeable enough that I went completely to NiMH for all the small devices and remotes in the house (TV, stereo, cable TV remotes, ceiling fan remotes, wall thermostats, a handheld ZTS battery tester, etc.). After counting them up, we had enough small devices that we had over 100 AAA and AA batteries in use, which was a lot of alkalines, and too many of them were leaking and damaging the remotes. And we had about 10 smoke detectors that took 9V alkalines that now have 9V lithium primaries that last a lot longer.

In this case I use all lithium primaries, for TV remotes, clocks and other appliances. Will last for years and won't leak.

Mr. LED said:

In this case I use all lithium primaries, for TV remotes, clocks and other appliances. Will last for years and won't leak.

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Cool. I might have done the same if I didn't have all these battery chargers, which I figured I should get some use out of. ;-)

As far as i know, the risk increases with increasing current levels, as well as temperature.

I'm not too concerned about using an alkaline in an E01, since it's a $12 light, it is low current draw, and the head is very well sealed, so it probably won't suffer any harm that can't be cleaned up with some vinegar and elbow grease.

Regarding the long runtimes on alkalines - for the E01, this is legit. From what I've seen, they have about the same runtime regulated, but then the NiMH drops quickly to zero, while the alkaline slowly fades. For lights that draw more than maybe 150mA from a AAA, however, alkalines don't keep up with NiMH.

I'd say my experience with alkalines vs. NiMH is similar, except my main lights for the alkalines are a Fenix E99 Ti AAA and an Olight i3 EOS AAA.

Alkalines are the main reason I use AA lights at all. Even if I use Eneloops and Lithium L91s the possibility to find batteries everywhere is a true advantage.
Alkalines have good performance at low and moderate outputs and for instance I use them for cosy lighting at home when I don't need to worry about over discharge.
Yes, alkalines can leak and will eventually do. And sometimes they do before expiring date, I have actually had an unopen package with leaking cell not yet passed the expiring date. But my experience is that the highest risk is to leave a light unused with alkaline in it for extended period. I think the risk is very small an alkaline leaks during the time you use a flashlight with fresh cells.
So alkalines have their advantage and therefore I don't want to abandon them despite the leaking risk.