In such cases, a battery that might normally have a 3000 mAh capacity could end up delivering only 700 mAh. One drawback with alkaline cells is that they’re not well suited to use in devices with very high power drain, such as digital cameras. Though more expensive per battery than the ultra-cheap zinc carbon type, alkalines deliver proportionately more power for a given size, so they’re still a great value choice for most mainstream uses. They’re well suited to devices with low to moderately-high power drain, particularly if they’re in more frequent use. Alkaline cells provide more energy for a given size of battery, and they have a longer shelf life. AlkalineĪ more recent technology, and generally a much better bet for more demanding modern devices. Though sometimes called “heavy duty” or “super heavy duty”, this only refers to their performance compared to the original zinc carbons, so don’t be misled. Zinc chlorides are a slightly improved version of zinc carbon, but still fairly low capacity compared to newer types. Just don’t expect to power anything demanding with them for long. They do have the advantage of being cheap, making them a perfect choice for low-drain devices such as clocks, or for occasional use where anything more would be overkill. The zinc carbon battery is the oldest type listed here- the basic design is over 100 years old! Although it’s been somewhat refined and improved in that time, zinc carbons are still relatively low power by modern standards. Single-Use Batteries (“Primary” cells) Zinc Carbon (Carbon zinc) zinc carbons will almost always be lowest, and lithiums are generally the best. The figures we give are for AA-size batteries larger sizes will have higher power, smaller ones generally lower power, but they’ll still come in roughly the same order, i.e. The battery power graph should only be taken as a rough guide. (For example, a “3000 mAh” alkaline battery can fall to 700 mAh if the power drain is very high). If you’re not interested in the details, skip to the summary at the end!īattery capacity is rated in milliamp-hours (mAh), though for some battery types this cannot be measured exactly for various technical reasons, and due to how they’re used. If it uses a custom-sized rechargeable battery, then this article doesn’t apply to you). (This assumes that your device accepts one of the standard off-the-shelf battery sizes like AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, etc. Even so, there’s still the choice of what sort of battery you should buy, and that’s what we’ll explain here. Most devices only accept one size of battery anyway, so though it’s important to get the right size, it’s not normally something you have to give a lot of thought to. AA, AAA, C, D, etc.) and the other is the technology that powers the battery. One is the size/shape of the battery (e.g. There are generally two things to consider when buying batteries.
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