Poll: Time to ban alkaline batteries?

Time to ban alkaline batteries?

  • No - rechargeables are and will always be rubbish

    Votes: 47 23.7%

  • Yes - alkalines have poor performance and are wasteful

    Votes: 95 48.0%

  • Don't know, all too complicated!

    Votes: 56 28.3%
  • Total voters
    198

clv101

clv101

clv101

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Joined
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Posts
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Location
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With recent developments in NiMH batteries, I'm thinking of the Sanyo's eneloop and similar, isn't it about time we phased out conventional primary cells in favour of the low self discharge NiMH alternative?

Eneloops come charged, keep their charge for years, have low internal resistance so can be discharged and charged quickly and can deliver higher instantaneous currents. They can be recharged 1500 times (1800 with the new models released this week) so the economic savings are dramatic.

Could a mod make this a poll:

Time to ban alkaline batteries?
  • No - rechargeables are and will always be rubbish
  • Yes - alkalines have poor performance and are wasteful
  • Don't know, all too complicated!
 
clv101 said:
No - rechargeables are and will always be rubbish
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Anyone voting for this option doesn't know a thing about modern rechargeables.

clv101 said:
Yes - alkalines have poor performance and are wasteful
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Anyone voting for this hasn't come across some of the use cases where rechargeables don't work well, usually due to the lower peak voltage.

In short... there's still a place for both, but by and large rechargeables are miles better. I can't think of anything in my house that uses regular alkaline batteries any more.
 
18650 Li-ion cells in everything please!

I've just had a Duracell D cell leak and take out my old Maglite :/. No great shakes as the torch was poo, but still, alkaline batteries seem to leak for fun.
 
Probably, but how effective are these eneloops?

I expect fairly expensive or the switch would have been made.
 
My wireless 360 controller eats alkaline AAs for breakfast (8 energizers dead in 5 months).

The rechargeable pack lasts 35 hours per charge.

Please ban alkalines, they are incredibly wasteful.
 
dfarrall said:
Probably, but how effective are these eneloops?

I expect fairly expensive or the switch would have been made.
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I can't speak for Eneloops, but I pay about £5 for 4 AA Uniross Hybrios, which are the same technology. No idea about incremental charging costs, but I imagine they are utterly miniscule. The batteries are good enough to have replaced alkalines in everything in my house.
 
You need a fourth poll option - "No, alkalines should not be banned as in certain uses they are the best battery to use".

In high current drain devices I exclusively used Eneloops (or a variation- Duraloops etc) but alkalines still have thier place in low current drain devices - such as clocks, tv remotes, smoke alarms etc where good alkalines will outlast even low discharge NIMH's - even average alkaline batteries have 50% more capacity in a low drain situation than a low self discharge NIMH. PLus, try and find a 9v LSD NIMH.

Also the upfront cost of LSD NIMH's is much higher than a pack of cheap alkalines - would you expect someone on benefits to have to buy a pack of LSD NIMh's + charger just to power their clock and smoke alarms?

What I would like to see is mandatory recycling of alkaline batteries and fines for them being thrown in general household waste.
 
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simulatorman said:
Helps to embellish an argument.
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I've seen it about here a few times, so I assumed it to be common knowledge... Here it is, for the uninitiated...

Samuel Vimes said:
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
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amigafan2003 said:
You need a fourth poll option - "No, alkalines should not be banned as in certain uses they are the best battery to use".
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Yeah, I guess that's the case. But I imagine those certain uses are few and that the vast majority of alkalines are used in applications where an eneloop type battery would be a better choice. It's a shame that a minority of niche applications influences negatively the majority.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Anyone voting for this option doesn't know a thing about modern rechargeables.



.
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they are not rubbish on the basis on the technology but they are rubbish beacuse they need recharging and I never remember to do it and tbh can't be done with the hassle
 
For the majority of people, rechargeables are much better. Both in the saving made to the consumer, and to the environment/planet. Although I imagine there are some special cases where alkaline batteries are still important.

Don't think they should be banned, maybe restricted.
 
I can't remember the last time I used something that needed its batteries changed. I haven't bought batteries in years and can't imagine doing so in the near future.
 
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