I just came across this blog with instructions on recharging alkaline batteries. I had no idea this was possible!
The author did mention that some of her recharged batteries leaked a short while later, but as she pointed out they were all one brand (Costco, presumably cheap?). At the very least getting a battery tester seems a good idea. For about £2 or £3 you can tell if all of the batteries in your torch or whatever need changing, or just one is dead....I'll defo be getting one of them!
A quick search on Amazon UK shows alkaline battery chargers are reasonably priced and seem a good investment. Even if some of your batteries leak, it would be worth it to get even a couple more uses out of others.
Sorry if this is old news to people, but I had NEVER heard of being able to charge regular alkaline batteries before and thought I'd share for others in the dark (no pun intended ).
Sorry guys this ones risky, fire risky to be precise, stick with rechargables and then only in stuff wich uses lots of power, decent alkaline ones remain the best bet for low power consumption - long use equipment.
...Edit with the right machine it looks possible these days, which means the machines made for it can do the job inteligently, the big issue here is the average inteligence of human beings looking to save a bob or two convincing themselves the wrong machine is OK and having a nasty accident, my mother in law is such a person, a box of cereal or a bottle of guiness may well have open other end written on it for the benefit of some folk, but things like this should perhaps be IQ rated
Last edited by Plymtom on Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I have a strategy, it's not written in stone, nor can it be, this scenario has too many variables, everything about it depends on those variables, being specific is not possible.
Plymtom wrote:............ decent alkaline ones remain the best bet for low power consumption - long use equipment.
The main use of Alkies in my house is powering the clocks and remotes...... Pretty much everything else gets fed rechargables (I buy them from a £1-shop as well..... None of my essential BoB kit needs external power)
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
Yep that's the way, some things don't handle recharchables well, I wouldn't put them in musical equipment unless it said you could on the original instructions, remember they ar not the same thing rechargables are generally 1.2V and can push out quite a high current whereas Alkaline/normal is 1.5V lower current and a higher internal resistance, worse still is mucking about with lead acid ones without proper circuit protection, which can melt your cables.. and we are talking the copper.
Most serious preppers will have investigated all this, but as an ex electrician I feel the need to remind those who aren't to learn some battery basics before you play, after all running 12V around the place for many things without properly (Short+Overload) protecting the cables is a dreadful fire risk.
The alkaline battery thing looks like it can be done these days having now read the blog guy further but be sure you get the right machine for the job or you'll be risking bangs and burns, heres a link which may helphttp://www.allaboutbatteries.com/Alkaline-charging.html too
I have a strategy, it's not written in stone, nor can it be, this scenario has too many variables, everything about it depends on those variables, being specific is not possible.
Plymtom wrote:but be sure you get the right machine for the job
That's what I got from the article. I've always thought recharging alkies was an absolute no-no until I read that there are chargers that can do the job. Just have to get the right one.
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I've always thought recharging alkies was an absolute no-no until I read that there are chargers that can do the job. Just have to get the right one.