Posts Tagged ‘aa’

1.5V AA Sony Ultra Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc Battery Tests

25, Jul 2013

1-5v-aa-sony-ultra-heavy-duty-carbon-zinc-batteries

The 1.5V AA Sony Ultra Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc batteries we’ve got for testing here are marked with a code SUM3-NUB4A on their box, they are under warranty until 03-2015. We could not find specifications for these batteries provided by Sony, the only thing Sony does is to say that they are: “Ideal for use in low drain applications such as remote controls, torches, toys, calculators and radios”. And don’t be fooled by the Heavy Duty in the name, with Zinc-carbon batteries this usually means you get the slightly better version and not the the lower capacity ones, however even these are performing worse than standard Alkaline batteries.

Zinc–carbon batteries are the least expensive primary batteries (single use ones) and are intended for low current drain applications. These batteries are getting harder to find as they are mostly being replaced by Alkaline batteries (slightly more expensive and better performing), however you can still find slightly cheaper Carbon Zinc batteries mixed among Alkaline batteries in a store, so you should be careful when choosing based on your needs. For higher drain applications it is advisable to consider Alkaline or even NiMH batteries over Zinc–carbon ones.


1-5v-aa-sony-ultra-heavy-duty-carbon-zinc-power-profile

The Power Profile test checks how the battery handles different current loads before it reaches the cutoff voltage, the test starts at 0A and gradually increases with steps of 0.05A each 20 seconds, until it the cutoff voltage of the cell is reached (0.9V in the case of Zinc-carbon cells). In the case of the 1.5V AA Sony Ultra Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc batteries when a current load of 0.55A is applied the battery’s voltage quickly drops to the cutoff value, meaning that the battery is unable to handle such high current loads. As expected the Zinc-Carbon batteries are not able to handle higher current draw as good as Alkaline batteries for example as they are intended for lower current drain applications than Alkaline.


1-5v-aa-sony-ultra-heavy-duty-carbon-zinc-capacity

The Open Circuit Voltage (no load voltage) of the 1.5V AA Sony Ultra Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc batteries is 1.62V, though under load it quickly drops to 1.5V or lower depending on the current load of the battery. We are testing all Carbon Zinc as well as Alkaline batteries with a constant current discharge rate of 0.1A, 0.2A, 0.5A and 1A and measuring what capacity they can provide at these levels.

What we got out of the 1.5V AA Sony Ultra Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc in our tests:

– 681 mAh at 0.1A load
– 370 mAh at 0.2A load
– 17 mAh at 0.5A load
– 0 mAh at 1.0A load

– 0.783 Wh at 0.1A load
– 0.398 Wh at 0.2A load
– 0.016 Wh at 0.5A load
– 0 Wh at 1.0A load

As expected from a Zinc-carbon battery the capacity you can get under low current load is decent, but as you increase the load the useable capacity drops quite significantly. So the 1.5V AA Sony Ultra Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc batteries may not be bad as long as you are using them only for the right things – devices with low power requirements.

1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline Battery Tests

24, Jul 2013

1-5v-aa-energizer-industrial-alkaline-batteries
The 1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline batteries we’ve got here for testing are marked with a number LR6DP10 and a code 636105 on their box, and are marked as not for retail trade (and bitcoin360ai says that this was obviously intended for industrial use as the name suggests). According to the specifications of the battery from Energizer they have an operating temperature of -18°C to 55°C (0°F to 130°F) and a Shelf Life of 10 years at 21°C, the warranty marked on the batteries being tested is 03-2019. Professional and industrial grade Alkaline batteries are usually designed to handle better extreme conditions such as low or high temperatures of the environment, so we are probably going to do some additional testing of the performance these batteries have under more extreme conditions aside from the standard room temperature of 25°C that we are usually testing at. Have in mind that higher temperature may lead to lower internal resistance, however higher operating temperatures for prolonged time may also damage the battery.

The Milliamp-Hours Capacity of the 1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline batteries that Energizer provides for continuous discharge to 0.8 volts at 21°C is as follows: ~2800mAh at 25 mA load, ~2500mAh at 100 mA load, ~1900mAh at 250 mA load, ~1400mAh at 500 mA load. The 0.8V is the voltage for a totally discharged Alkaline battery cell, however we are testing with a cutoff voltage of 1V as at a voltage of 0.8V a lot of devices may not be able to function properly. Also we are testing at 25°C room temperature and the different temperature means different internal resistance and as a result it is expected to get a different capacity results.


1-5v-aa-energizer-industrial-alkaline-power-profile
The Power Profile test checks how the battery handles different current loads before it reaches the cutoff voltage, the test starts at 0A and gradually increases with steps of 0.05A each 20 seconds until it the cutoff voltage of the cell is reached. In the case of the 1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline batteries when a current load of 1.5A (which is quite high for an Alkaline battery) is applied the battery’s voltage quickly drops to the cutoff value, meaning that the battery is unable to handle such high current loads. Alkaline batteries are usually used for low current draw applications over longer periods of time due to their low self discharge, if you need an alternative of an Alkaline battery for high current draw operation over a shorter period of time you should consider choosing NiMH for example.


1-5v-aa-energizer-industrial-alkaline-capacity
The Open Circuit Voltage (no load voltage) of the 1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline batteries is 1.61V, though under load it quickly drops to 1.5V or lower depending on the current load of the battery. We are testing all Alkaline batteries with a constant current load of 0.1A, 0.2A, 0.5A and 1A and measuring what capacity they can provide at these levels. With a duty cycle (on/off for the load) or with varying current load levels the same battery can provide different results, also not the fact that even when a battery reaches the cutoff voltage at a specific current load (especially for higher loads) this does not mean that it is completely depleted. This only means that your battery powered device may stop functioning, but after a little rest for the battery or with a reduced load it may work again for a bit more.

What we got out of the 1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline batteries in our tests:

– 2236 mAh at 0.1A load
– 1869 mAh at 0.2A load
– 1129 mAh at 0.5A load
– 500 mAh at 1.0A load

– 2.887 Wh at 0.1A load
– 2.251 Wh at 0.2A load
– 1.285 Wh at 0.5A load
– 0.554 Wh at 1.0A load

The overall results we got are very satisfactory for an Industrial type Alkaline battery, and we’ve already mentioned why our results may be different than what Energizer provides as information about the capabilities of these batteries. Our tests show that the 1.5V AA Energizer Industrial Alkaline batteries are performing very well and they should be able to perform even better in situations with lower current requirements such as 0.025A for example.

– To download a datasheet with the manufacturer’s battery specifications…


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