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

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This is a first for me. Over the years alkaline batteries have ruined a lot of my devices.
I was re-organizing some tools and pulled out my old analog hand held Ω meter from the 70's.
I haven't touched this meter in over 15 years. I was expecting to have to take it apart and clean
an old corroded alkaline cell, and replace it with a lithium primary.

Nope. Definitely has to be some sort of extreme record. The meter's Ω function still worked!

While the age of the cell is not imprinted on the cell itself, research showed it was only sold and
marketed for a six year period of time, 1974 - 1980. That makes this still functioning, but weak cell
from at least 38 years ago. :thinking:

EvereadyPowercellE91_600.jpg

Pic Link

Any other alkaline stories out there?
Is this a one in million thing? Anything like this ever happen to You?
 

Lynx_Arc

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I have 2 flashlights with 2D cells in them Energizers from 2004 that still work fine. I think the biggest thing is old cells not leaking more than having power left in them. I've tossed a lot of batteries that were not yet expired and were unused so to have a used old cell not leak after 30 years is probably more like one in 100 million than in a million as there were tons of batteries made over the years perhaps more so per the average use in the 70s/80s than today with rechargeables far superior than what was available then.
 

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I too have some "industrial" C cells that are 15+ years old that still have a charge in them.
I never had that much trouble with the larger C and D size cells as compared to the near constant leakage troubles of AAA and AA sized cells.
 

account3121

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Impressive!

I have 2 9v batteries which were in our garage door openers from around 2000 to 2010 and then left in our shed until very recently when i found them and thought hmm.. what batteries do they have in there? I opened them up to find a GP Greencell zinc carbon, one of which was completely dead (around 2v, i think the button had gotten stuck at some point.) the other one however reads 9.52 volts! and can still deliver 150 ish ma of current short circuit. These batteries expired in February 1999 so i assume they were made in 1996/7 ish?

I also had some Energizer industrial alkalines that expired in 2008, however one of them began to leak so i chucked them both. But they were reading around 1.3v as they had been used in a tape recorder previously. Apart from that, the oldest battery i have is a zinc chloride 9v that came with one of those battery testers and "expired" in 2011, still has 9.4v though
 

Lynx_Arc

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I too have some "industrial" C cells that are 15+ years old that still have a charge in them.
I never had that much trouble with the larger C and D size cells as compared to the near constant leakage troubles of AAA and AA sized cells.
I've agree in that I've had less trouble with C/D cells than AA/AAA ones. It seems AA and AAA batteries of any brand (alkaline) is at great risk for leaking. I've gotten so paranoid about leaks that I've taken the batteries out of most devices that are either very expensive to replace or hard to find replacements for. I find 9V alkalines tend to leak less or perhaps the package design having 2 layers of protection has them with less visable leakage.
 

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As with AA/AAA/AAAA sized cells, 9V cells come in many different chemistries. The carbon based are a stack of 6 squares, alkaline's are a bundle of 6 slightly smaller than aaaa sized cells in series, usually spot welded straps between them, and lithium come in a stack of 3 squares and some NiMh either way. Having the extra space between the 6 cell bundle usually wrapped in metal with it's two plastic ends can help hide a leaker, as there is not nearly as much that leaks out of 1/6 or 1/3 compared to all of an AAA/AA sized cell. Donno. Just an oddity. I use AA/AAA NiMh's and Lithium Primaries now in anything of value or keepsake. I eat up any free alkaline's sent in my computer mouse and keyboard, which get 's checked and cleaned frequently.
 

Lynx_Arc

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As with AA/AAA/AAAA sized cells, 9V cells come in many different chemistries. The carbon based are a stack of 6 squares, alkalines are a bundle of 6 slightly smaller than aaaa sized cells in series, usually spot welded straps between them, and lithium come in a stack of 3 squares and some NiMh either way. Having the extra space between the 6 cell bundle usually wrapped in metal with it's two plastic ends can help hide a leaker, as there is not nearly as much that leaks out of 1/6 or 1/3 compared to all of an AAA/AA sized cell. Donno. Just an oddity. I use AA/AAA NiMh's and Lithium Primaries now in anything of value or keepsake. I eat up any free alkaline's sent in my computer mouse and keyboard, which get 's checked and cleaned frequently.
Actually Alkaline 9v's come in prismatic (flat) and AAAA cells just have to know which brands have which in them. As I have devices that don't behave well with nimh and lithium primaries until recently were only available for about $2 each I still have a few devices with alkalines in them (AA and AAAs that is). Now that I can get Energizer L91 and L92s for about $120 at Sam's Club I've started replacing even more alkalines in some of the cheaper devices that rarely get used.
 

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+1


Shape codes are:

R Round, (coin, button or cylindrical)
P Not round
F Flat (layer built)
S Square (or rectangular or prismatic)


GP Battery actually has made both configurations of flat and round Alkaline chemistry 6 cells in series configurations.
 

xxo

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I have a few of D cells that expired back in the 90's kicking around that still have some life in them including a couple of duracells that look awful because the tops have begun to oxidize/turn black, but the have not leaked and still have some usable charge left. I also had a 2 pack of radio shack D's from the 90's that looked new and still had a good amount of charge in them when I opened them up a couple years ago.

Not sure if the two are related, but it seems to me that alkaline batteries became more likely to leak around the time they stopped using mercury in them.
 

magellan

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I have a Buck multitool that has a small light in it. I don't recall the name, but I bought it back in the 80s. I tried it a few years ago and the light still worked. I don't know what kind of small battery it uses, as I've never tried to open it up (it's not obvious how that would be done), but anyway, it could have been 30 years or more since I bought it.
 

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I have a Buck multitool that has a small light in it. I don't recall the name, but I bought it back in the 80s. I tried it a few years ago and the light still worked. I don't know what kind of small battery it uses, as I've never tried to open it up (it's not obvious how that would be done), but anyway, it could have been 30 years or more since I bought it.
That's awesome! That light uses tiny hearing aid style round cells. They do come in lithium primary and alkaline. The head may be loctited. Any pics?
 

Lynx_Arc

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That's awesome! That light uses tiny hearing aid style round cells. They do come in lithium primary and alkaline. The head may be loctited. Any pics?

I know of no interchangeable lithium and alkaline button or coin cells as lithium varieties of these are 3v not 1.5v.
 

magellan

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That's awesome! That light uses tiny hearing aid style round cells. They do come in lithium primary and alkaline. The head may be loctited. Any pics?

The tool sits in a drawer somewhere in the house. If I can find it I'll post a photo. The tool was only in production for a short time and differed from other multitools. There was no pliers, for example, but it had this little light.
 

magellan

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I found it! Here are some photos, with one showing the light. Also, it's a Gerber, not a Buck as I originally thought (I have another Buck multitool but it's different. At one point I had a collection of several dozen of these multitools from different makers, including a very interesting one from knifemaker Al Mar, but I sold most of them years ago, but this is one that I kept).

http://imgbox.com/oWxIvxEf

http://imgbox.com/ROc4IxXZ

http://imgbox.com/r4bV3Xj1
 
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magellan

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Right you are. I figured out how to take out the battery, and it's at 60% according to my ZTS battery tester.
 

HighlanderNorth

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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!
 
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zipplet

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HighlanderNorth,

I have seen some devices where the manufacturer does a very dirty trick to get seperate power rails in the device.

For example, with a 4xAA device they might connect the LEDs across all 4 batteries, but the sense circuit for the PIR across only 2 of them to give a 3V rail.

This is very bad design but seen in some cheap horrible devices. If you are curious, open the device and see if there are additional wires running from the middle of the battery holder.
 

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My digital camera does this. Now it only has two AA cells in series.
Sometimes the camera will just go completely dead after a few minutes of use.
One cell will have ~90% charge and the other dead. I have had this happen with
different brands of lithium primaries and alkaline's. Fresh cells from new
packages, well within thier date, purchased within 3 months of opening
packaging where only one cell fails :thinking:. I've dismissed these as defective cells
from the factory. I've had it happen three times over two years.
 
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