# Why do Eveready Gold batteries Exist?



## radellaf (Nov 1, 2010)

Looking at energizer's own data sheets, I used photoshop to overlay similar graphs from the data sheets, and then did my best effort at reading the values at every 100mA.
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/1215.pdf
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/E91.pdf







ENERGIZER-A91-VS-E91-Chart by radellaf, on Flickr
Note, a separate graph on the E91 sheet says about 1300-1400mAh at 500mA.

Now, shopping around, I've seen E91 going for anywhere from $0.375 ($6/16) on up, and the Gold cells, well, can't dig up any on the net right now, but at best I imagine they were half the price, and at best, about 1/3 the life.

Real data for some alkaline AA is at Silverfox's excellent thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/64660
But that started 6 years ago and between new brands and battery improvements, it is a bit out of date now (and doesn't include the Eveready Gold cells). From this data, I wouldn't bother adding them.

What I am now curious about are the Member's Mark AA cells at Sam's Club. Kirkland cells (Costco) have had a good rep, and I'm curious if the Member's Mark are the same. I don't have a logging DMM, but I do have a Maha C9000 and could certainly get a couple of data points for a baseline comparison.

What's truly sad are all the other battery comparisons on the web seem to be based on the where-the-heck-did-that-come-from (or am I being an elitist geek) measure of "number of photos" with some arbitrary digital camera that you should never have been running off of alkaline batteries to begin with. Furthermore, Consumer Reports guide not only does this, but only rates batteries on price-per-photo, without ever revealing the price paid for the batteries. If you buy most brands in 4 packs at inflated ($1/cell) prices and warehouse brands in 40-packs, then sure, they'll come out ahead in that kind of test.


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## Burgess (Nov 1, 2010)

Excellent work here ! ! !

:goodjob::thanks:
_


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## Mr Happy (Nov 1, 2010)

The Gold batteries will be more cost effective in low drain applications where the service life is similar in duration to the shelf life. It would be a waste putting a high power battery in a clock.


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## Black Rose (Nov 1, 2010)

radellaf said:


> What I am now curious about are the Member's Mark AA cells at Sam's Club. Kirkland cells (Costco) have had a good rep, and I'm curious if the Member's Mark are the same.


If you have access to some, look at the negative contact plate.

If it has 2 small indents (see pic below), they would be made by Duracell.







L to R: Kirkland Signature, Duracell, Panasonic, Rayovac


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## Lynx_Arc (Nov 1, 2010)

why did you post a link to heavy duty energizer cells? That PDF link isn't for eveready gold alkalines.


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## radellaf (Nov 1, 2010)

Hmm, oops. You're right, the Gold datasheet is at
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/a91.pdf

Which, unfortunately, has absolutely no performance graphs at all. A bar graph shows that it has 3x more something than CZ in a "radio". If CZ=1215 then it looks like they're claiming similar performance to E91 alkalines. If not then I'd need to find a "general purpose" data sheet. Out of the air, it might mean that a gold is 2/3 of a max, which would be closer to the price differentials I've seen.
Frankly, in a clock or remote I'd rather use the heavy duty, as they more or less seem to have the leakage problem licked with those.


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## radellaf (Nov 1, 2010)

duplicate deleted -- why is there no delete post button?


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## radellaf (Nov 1, 2010)

The Kirkland seem to have performance halfway between coppertops and ultras, though, so not like they're just private label versions of a standard product. 
I've known about the dots for a while, so was quite surprised to recently see the new duracells say "DURACELL" etched into the negative plate. Anti counterfeiting?


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## Battery Guy (Nov 1, 2010)

The various alkaline batteries on the market only differ in performance at relatively high discharge rates, above 0.25 W or equivalent. Below that, they are all within a few percent of each other.

For devices that require a discharge rate of 0.25 W or higher, you are far better off with an Eneloop (if you can use a rechargeable) or a lithium AA. Check out the AA Ragone Plot for details.

So when people ask me what brand of alkalines to buy, I tell them not to buy alkalines. But if pressed for an answer, I tell them to buy whichever ones are the best deal as long as they are made in the USA, Japan or Europe. Although there are some excellent Chinese alkaline producers that have very high quality (at least as far as alkaline batteries go), the vast majority of the Chinese alkaline batteries are crap.

So, why do Eveready Gold batteries exist? Actually, if you must use an alkaline battery, they are one of the best deals you can find if you follow my made in the USA, Japan or Europe alkaline battery rule.

Cheers,
BG


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