Duracell PowerCheck - a thing for the '90s kids
Added 2024-10-07 22:20:15 +0000 UTCRemember how I was waiting for that thing in the mail?
WELL IT WAS BORKEN
Which meant... time to change gears! So I moved up a November topic and brought you this:
https://youtu.be/zsA3X40nz9w
I have a second stereo which was just delivered today, so assuming that one works and isn't banged up to all hell like the last one, I'll be moving forward on the MP3 CD project quite quickly. Then I'll probably be taking something of a pause while I finagle the freezer dryer video (lots of filming to do in addition to script work) but I'll keep you updated on progress, there.
I'm going to release this tomorrow most likely, so I'll have captions finished tonight. The rough ones are already up, but bloopers aren't done yet and there will be errors until I can get them finished.
(oh, and you may detect I had something of a cold - I do! I picked it up on my travels, how fun, and even better it turned into a sinus infection. what luck. I'm on the mend, though, with a course of antibiotics, too)
Comments
Yes, I couldn't agree more. I prefer devices which use AA batteries over devices with Li-ion batteries too, especially because the Li-ion batteries seem to have a much shorter lifespan than NiMH or the older NiCd batteries. (But it's probably for the better they banned NiCd in my country, when you take into account the toxicity of cadmium 🌳☣️🍀. )
Remco
2024-10-14 12:44:40 +0000 UTCI am not affiliated with eneloop or whoever it is that makes them, i wanna say that cause I know its gonna sound like I'm shilling.. but I tried rechargable batteries many times over the decades and they were honestly all trash. They took forever to charge, and didnt hold charge for crap. and had nothing for longevity. Outside of low-draw devices like remotes you'd constantly be replacing them, possibly every day. Eneloops changed that, though. Eneloops are freaking awesome. They hold a charge for a real long damn time in storage, last almost as long as non-rechargable batteries, at least in the devices I've used them in, and dont start breaking down and losing massive amounts of capacity after a few recharge cycles. IMHO, Eneloops single handedly changed the rechargable battery market for the better, and while i wouldnt exactly call them cheap, they are not exactly overtly expensive either. I got 16 (a 12 pack, and a 4pack + charger) and I manage to keep them all up on charge with the 4 slot charger thanks to them lasting so long i get plenty of stagger time between swaps.
Honorary Octopus
2024-10-11 14:40:06 +0000 UTCI'm talking about the Powercheck he cut off the battery, not the tester they included before Powercheck
BrandEver
2024-10-10 18:52:14 +0000 UTCBefore this iteration, one tester was delivered with the package
Raul Ramos
2024-10-10 18:46:22 +0000 UTCI preferred the one in the packaging, I was just missing them the other day!! I absolutely keep partially used batteries from holiday stuff. When you just stick them in you don't know if one or both is the problem.
Lindsey
2024-10-09 19:42:04 +0000 UTCIT STILL EXISTS! Duracell PowerCheck still exists, I have a pair of AAA in my hand that are good until 2025. I think something got messed up in your research. Maybe they are regionally sold. I am currently in Serbia and can by them. This one has 4 colors. One of the 2 I have still lights up the 1st 25% (red slot). HMU if you want a pack. (Only signed up to Patron for this) :D
Patrick C.
2024-10-09 19:18:01 +0000 UTCHuh interesting. I've never actually noticed the voltage difference. So far I haven't had issues with the stuff I use them with.
Mdot
2024-10-09 18:32:26 +0000 UTCI think if rechargeable AA and AAA battery technology got good enough to compete on price and capacity with disposable, that paradigm would have stayed in place. Just swap the battery and put the old ones into a charger. I imagine it much in the same way that modern battery powered tools work. I think the problem was that rechargeables had a higher initial buy in, and never lasted as long as the disposables did. That rechargeable battery tech just wasn't quite good enough for mass adoption by the time we moved on to something different. And now the non-removeable battery is almost certainly preferred by manufacturers for all sorts of reasons. And for the most part, these items can all be charged using the same exact 5vDC chargers, and many are moving towards using usb-c universally. It's not an ideal solution, as it would be nice to be able to hot swap batteries during use, but now it's also pretty easy to just keep devices charged at all times.
Gordon Ballou
2024-10-09 18:11:24 +0000 UTCI believe it not to be possible, the lids were designed like those of the needle disposal boxes. However I am pretty sure that leaky batteries were common
Raul Ramos
2024-10-09 11:23:23 +0000 UTCI know there are new lithium rechargeable AA/AAAs and supposedly they work well but they all seem to be no-name amazon brands so I have been hesitant to try them. I really think there need to be more standard Li-ion sizes that can be easily acquired and swapped without soldering
BrandEver
2024-10-09 06:58:19 +0000 UTCDid you try putting the Powercheck wrapper on a new unwrapped battery?
BrandEver
2024-10-09 06:53:57 +0000 UTCNiMH batteries are only 1.2V and don’t work as well. For example, a Wiimote will power off when the battery is about half discharged. Rechargeable Li-Ion is 3.7V so you only see it in custom battery packs.
John K.
2024-10-09 01:35:52 +0000 UTCYeah, I remember these things. Trying to find a battery tester was a pain when rummage through the old catch all drawer for a remote battery. Unless it was a 9v then I had a natural tester in the ready! ⚡👅Theses were a godsend.
PiraTed
2024-10-08 21:26:48 +0000 UTCGreat video. Fun fact Duracell straight still have the power check. At least in Denmark. Mine runs out 03/2029.
Simon Priisholm
2024-10-08 20:47:08 +0000 UTCThis
Raul Ramos
2024-10-08 20:46:13 +0000 UTCMy biggest pet peeve is how the gradual disappearance of AA and AAA in devices is seen as a good thing. Why so few people talk about rechargeable AA batteries drives me nuts. They solve the waste issue, while also making your device last significantly longer now that its lifespan isnt tied to a non removable LiOn battery. On top of that, to take the example of my electric toothbrush, if it were to run out of charge in the middle of me using it, I can just swap in an extra sets of rechargeable AA's that rest in my charger, so there's no down time waiting for it to charge either.
Mdot
2024-10-08 19:22:53 +0000 UTCI remember both the ones in the package and on the batteries itself, but Duracell batteries were really just a thing for low-power devices like remotes and clocks, where the self-discharge of NiCads was a problem (which actually got solved by the later generations of NiMH). I still remember using Duracells in old digital cameras: you could only take a few pictures, then the camera wouldn't work anymore... Not because the batteries were dead, but because they couldn't handle the amount of power a camera needs. Put some freshly charged NiMHs in there, and it would work for days!
MrHammond
2024-10-08 18:45:24 +0000 UTCI'd be the guy standing by that box with my volt meter to check the disposed batteries to see if any had enough charge to be valuable. When I was young, riding a motorcycle, I'd go to gas (petrol) stations at night to empty the residual gasoline out of the pump hoses. I could go for months without paying for gasoline back then. Yes! I AM that cheap. 😆
Dan Oberste
2024-10-08 18:07:08 +0000 UTCI use partially discharged batteries that come from devices that need nearly full power to work well (TV remotes, walkie talkies, etc.) but that still have enough power to be used as battery back up for my alarm clock radio and LED flashlights. I keep a container with ~1.3v AA and AAA batteries that still have value. It would be nice if I didn't have to haul out my volt meter every time I want to try to pair a low battery with a similarly charged one from my low voltage pile. But, alas, I am a small edge case that battery companies won't cater to. Oh well. I'm not really that busy anyway. 🤣
Dan Oberste
2024-10-08 17:55:57 +0000 UTCI still use them, but I also have a small meter as you have there. Like yours it does button batteries too. It always seemed a pity that small occasional devices didn't have a suitable rechargeable battery and a small solar panel.
Jim Hewlett
2024-10-08 15:03:57 +0000 UTCAs someone said before, I do remember them being great for quick diagnostics. My cassette player for instance was not the most reliable thing ever and batteries would lose connection so you had to shift them a little. Knowing whether it was goblins or a dead battery was reassuring However I do remember, at least in Spain, these batteries preceded campaigns for recycling the batteries .I remember being told in school about how dangerous they were for the environment and for you. Batteries were stored usually in a place deemed safe,so when you swapped batteries, you had to hold to them until you could bring them to a collection point. I remember there were a few collection points, bright yellow boxes,so you would bring them all at once. Hence it was common to store your old batteries with the new ones, which was a recipe for a mixup and this was therefore very useful. At some point in time , battery collection was very common.in fact in my city they were built into the conventional bins, so you could drop them very conveniently
Raul Ramos
2024-10-08 13:25:13 +0000 UTCI also remember the first Duracell testers being built into the plastic clamshell in the 1990s, besides being easier to use it could also test other brand batteries :-) We were also an early adopter of Ni-Cd batteries, back when AA had a capacity of just 500mAh and self discharged after a month or two. They quickly paid for themselves with our original Gameboy that required 4 AAs. The 3 AA devices were also a right pain even with rechargeable AA batteries as most battery chargers in the 1990s recharged batteries in pairs, including the ones we owned apart from the 9V PP3 battery, which our LED bathroom scale used.
Seán Byrne
2024-10-08 13:08:48 +0000 UTCThose battery testers were great for quick diagnostics. Device not working? Pull it out and test the battery real quick.. Charge good? Then something else is wrong. Charge bad? Replace batteries and viola. Which is where I think most the usage came from, not from putting half dead batteries in the junk drawer then coming back later to see if they had juice to put in something else. I think, with respect, you kinda missed/overlooked this very useful aspect of them, but still an information and fun video :D
Honorary Octopus
2024-10-08 12:35:09 +0000 UTCTwards the end of the video, I was thinking wow this would have been a good NEN (no effort November) topic, and sure enough it was lol still cool though
Benjamin Kier
2024-10-08 12:27:47 +0000 UTCUgh. Back in the day, I bought a Canon digital camera powered from AAs for a vacation, but it barely lasted a few shots on 1.2V rechargeables, so I spent a fortune of foreign currency just feeding it fresh non-rechargeable AAs. :(
Tom Gidden
2024-10-08 08:41:10 +0000 UTCSo… I’m not sure if rechargeable AA batteries were any different or if it was just a couple tweaks not worth mentioning. But for a second they were the HD DVD bridge to nowhere of the power world. I’d be interested in a video on them. If it has any legs. Which it might not. God I really get interested in weird shit.
Ryan Butler
2024-10-08 07:35:47 +0000 UTCGreat video, as always. I definitely remember these. And I remember how hard it was to use the tester, which often meant if a battery was dead I'd sit there for 10 minutes jamming my fingernails into it, because a no-response from the tester was a 50/50 chance that the battery was dead or that I just wasn't making good contact on the white spots.
The 8-Bit Guy
2024-10-08 05:11:06 +0000 UTCI didn't as many batteries as a kid since my dad invested in rechargeable ones. Those were used in RC cars and other toys. Batteries were just for remotes of clocks or other low power things. A thing I continue, but some devious manufacturers have decided to start using small button cells in toys that could even take AA batteries instead. Aggrovating.
J Ruonti
2024-10-08 05:05:14 +0000 UTCThe only thing I regularly use disposable batteries with anymore is my Rift S VR headset, as the controllers each take one AA and each burns through one after about 10 hours of play. That said, for awhile I was buying Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries for them because even though they were originally twice as expensive per battery they lasted twice as long, 20 hours each, so it was more convenient due to less changing, but then recently the price of Ultimate Lithium got... insane. I was able to buy a 36 pack of Energizer Max for 2/3 the cost of an 8 pack of Ultimate Lithium which only has the equivalent total power for my Rift S controllers as 16 Max batteries. Still not sure what the heck is going on and why Energizer seems intent on killing off the best AA & AAA batteries ever made. :/
Kris Asick
2024-10-08 04:57:38 +0000 UTCClearly you were an only child. Mismatched batteries come from siblings that steal just one of yours to power their 3-battery toy. But then you don’t know which one to steal back and then Duracell came to the rescue.
John K.
2024-10-08 02:24:55 +0000 UTCAlkaline batteries used to contain mercury, but they reformulated.
John K.
2024-10-08 02:22:28 +0000 UTCNot sure it could be made into a coherent video follow-up, but I'd love to hear about the issues with using rechargeable AA batteries in place of alkaline given the different voltages and voltage curves. I've run into issues with a remote reading battery life of rechargeables strangly. And my Blink security cameras specify 1.5V lithium batteries but we use 1.2V Amazon basics rechargeable batteries and they work fine but give constant low battery warnings
Dylan Neu
2024-10-08 02:04:20 +0000 UTC*Upbeat 1940s Radio Announcer Voice* "And remember folks, when shopping for batteries, always insist on genuine Sunbeam batteries for your Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster!"
Mark Hesse
2024-10-08 00:56:17 +0000 UTCLet's hear it for the Midwestern 'Junk Drawer'!
BSJ
2024-10-08 00:38:49 +0000 UTCSomething I’d really appreciate is some information on disposal of standard, plain alkaline batteries (as they exist today). I remember being told that batteries had all kinds of toxic things in them, but on the other hand that was by people who knew nothing about them and I’ve read descriptions more recently that don’t sound very scary. Simple question: Is there any provable harm to tossing a dead alkaline battery straight into the landfill? I ask this because most municipalities don’t have a serious answer for what else to do with them besides like, driving them to a special disposal site, which seems insane. (Note that this question has nothing to do with lithium ion batteries which I do collect in a metal can and will someday drive to the stupid e-waste disposal site.)
Daniel Pritchard
2024-10-08 00:07:29 +0000 UTCDuracell Quantum actually still have these, I was shocked when I saw them as I similarly hadn’t seen them in years! And they’re in a fancy two-color variety now to boot with a little red zone at the end.
TwoFiftyFare
2024-10-07 23:35:04 +0000 UTC"Like an amoeba" is a wonderful and totally useless explaination of this. I loved it!
Mark Lefler
2024-10-07 23:08:54 +0000 UTCYeah I'm not sure if I picked up something myself or if it's just the ragweed but I am drowning myself I hope you get to feeling better. I remember these batteries but I didn't ever use them much because we were not a name brand battery family. We might get some rayovacs batteries but usually it was Kroger batteries.
WildMartin
2024-10-07 22:51:54 +0000 UTCDon't you need two of them anyway? :-)
Fuat Baran
2024-10-07 22:51:05 +0000 UTCSinus problems are awful, hope you feel better soon. And thanks for doing a video on these; I hadn’t really considered the tester much (or noticed them disappear) but it’s quite a clever little design
Nolan Moore
2024-10-07 22:46:31 +0000 UTCBORKEN made me laugh way harder than it realistically should've
christie
2024-10-07 22:39:12 +0000 UTCI do remember these things being around on Duracell Quantum Batteries! Sometime in the 10s always wondered how they worked.
Aaron Goldberg
2024-10-07 22:38:56 +0000 UTCThis was one of my all time favorite Tedium articles, thank you for sharing it!
Ernie Smith
2024-10-07 22:29:23 +0000 UTCHeh borken.
Devon Redekopp
2024-10-07 22:28:05 +0000 UTCDamn sickness! Take your time and get well soon!! :)
IcyCarbide
2024-10-07 22:26:02 +0000 UTC
