Feeding the battery eating monster...

[Guest dylanhayes]

This might have been asked before, and everyone has a different answer, but what do people recommend for batteries? I have had terrible results with cheap batteries (no suprises there), and good results with Duracells which of course are much more expensive. Of course you never get anything remotely like the battery life claimed by the GPS manufacturer, and inevitably your batteries will start to fade just as you approach the cache as happened to me at Humbridge this weekend.

Anybody got any recommendations for batteries with a good price performance ratio? Of course sometimes you might see a special offer on good batteries which will skew the ratio, but what are people's own preferences? I had favourable results with Panasonic Power Max3 and was suitably impressed when I managed to get 5 packs of four for 5 quid as a special offer.

[Guest Moss Trooper]

Personally.. I use Ni-MH.. Nickle Metal Hydride. They are recharable, only to 1.2 volts though but at 1700 miliamp hour they are good. Cost about 9-10 quid a set of 4..

 

Is the old problem of initial cost, but to me worth it. BTW they don't have a memory problem like Ni-Cad. Although they drop rapidly initially they hold charge for quite some time, 6-7 hours.. then take em home an recharge em..

 

I have 8, an swap em between GPS an camera. But still got me Duracells just in case. What does help though is havin a powersupply in car, this also helps to conserve battery power.

 

Happy cachin.. an divint forget the Northen cachers meet in York.. all wellcome, even those south of Watford Dyke

 

Moss

[Guest Moss Trooper]

Personally.. I use Ni-MH.. Nickle Metal Hydride. They are recharable, only to 1.2 volts though but at 1700 miliamp hour they are good. Cost about 9-10 quid a set of 4..

 

Is the old problem of initial cost, but to me worth it. BTW they don't have a memory problem like Ni-Cad. Although they drop rapidly initially they hold charge for quite some time, 6-7 hours.. then take em home an recharge em..

 

I have 8, an swap em between GPS an camera. But still got me Duracells just in case. What does help though is havin a powersupply in car, this also helps to conserve battery power.

 

Happy cachin.. an divint forget the Northen cachers meet in York.. all wellcome, even those south of Watford Dyke

 

Moss

[Guest toscouk]

I use Lithium batteries, expensive but last a lotlonger than Alkaline.

[Guest Kimrobin]

Rechargbles seem to last much longer for me than Duracells.

 

Alex.

[Guest Novaforesta]

A variety of rechargeable batteries are available these days, and the initial cost of the charger and the batteries themselves can be quite reasonable.

 

I would avoid Ni-Cad (Nickel Cadmium). They only give 1.2 volts per AA battery, they fade quickly when they are running out (i.e. they stay pretty close to full voltage then fade quickly with very little warning), they are easy to damage if you don't use them properly (i.e. if you don't charge them fully when new and then only recharge them when completely flat; if you top them up they soon develop a memory, which means that they won't discharge below a certain level of charge). Finally, they have cadmium in them, which is pretty nasty stuff.

 

I have had better experiences with NiMh, Nickel Metal-hydride, although not with AA batteries, only mobile phones. Someone else mentions the voltage issue with these.

 

Recently I have seen rechargeable alkalines. These run at 1.5 volts, have a capacity of around 1700MAh, can be recharged almost as meany times as NiCads and have no memory effect. Or so the adverts say - I haven't tried them, but they seem to be cheap enough to take a chance - see the batteries section at this url - http://www.wsplc.com/products.html

- £14 for a charger and 4 AA batteries. There are NiMH chargers and batteries on the same page.

 

For really long life you need an external power source, and sealed lead-acid batteries are a cheap and effective way of getting this. I use a 12v 4Ah battery for a portable radio transceiver and although it is a little heavy to put in a coat pocket, it goes in a rucksack pocket with no problem. I've seen 6v and 12v versions, so you would need a voltage converter. Lots of these batteries and chargers can be found at www.maplin.co.uk

 

Regards

 

Kevin

[Guest jeremyp]

I find it's easiest and cheapest to go to a cache and steal any batteries that are already in there. I use this method to power my Walkman too :-)

[Guest Monz]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[Guest Monz]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[Guest jeremyp]

I used to take batteries out of caches to power my camera too, but I've found it's even easier to just take any disposable cameras that might be present.

 

Caches can also be a good source of stationery, but you usually need to rip a few used pages out of the notebooks and sharpen the pencils (pencil sharpeners are rare in caches as a small child might cut themselves on them).

 

 

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Why use one word when two polysyllabic agglomerates will do?

[Guest kennamatic]

If you don't fancy rechargeables, about a year ago I read a report that made Superdrugs own brand best price to performance, even better than Duracell. Not used them yet in the Etrex but worked well in most other items.

 

The in car power supply has been a godsend, particularly the one with the p.c. cable attachment for my laptop.

 

Does anyone know of a make of car with 5 or 6 cigarette lighters in it?

[Guest kennamatic]

If you don't fancy rechargeables, about a year ago I read a report that made Superdrugs own brand best price to performance, even better than Duracell. Not used them yet in the Etrex but worked well in most other items.

 

The in car power supply has been a godsend, particularly the one with the p.c. cable attachment for my laptop.

 

Does anyone know of a make of car with 5 or 6 cigarette lighters in it?

[Guest PHREDD]

Why use batteries ?

 

I use a wind-up e-trex, just like a wind-up radio.

Solar power maybe next.

 

Phredd.

 

KEEP it Green --- keep it CLEAN

[Guest jeremyp]

To add a *serious* comment...

 

I have six rechargable batteries that I use in rotation, with my digital camera. However, a new set of duracells seems to last longer in my GPS (the reverse of my camera which will drain an alkaline battery in two shots) and they now have these neat little battery meters on the side so I'm leaving all my money to the duracell company.

 

OK, semi-serious.

 

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Why use one word when two polysyllabic agglomerates will do?

[Guest el10t]

kennamatic - try getting a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Ours has three poer outlets - two in the front and one in the back.

[Guest jstead]

For Kennamatic - Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk) list in their catalogue Car Cigar lighter Multi-Socket adaptors (4 outlets on the end of 1m cable) for £7.99 - a bit cheaper than a new Chrysler! I have just bought from them 4 1700mAh Ni-Mh batteries - principally because my new digital camera is even more battery greedy than my Vista. Quite expensive and not yet used in anger so I don't know what their life is. I note that Maplin also list rechargable Alkalines which I had only previously found at B&Q.

As for Phredd's wind up eTrex - is that what mine became when the batteries ran down at one of his caches and I swung the Vista round my head on its cord?

 

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John Stead

 

[This message has been edited by jstead (edited 29 January 2002).]

[Guest jeremyp]

My A3 has two cigarette lighters or "telephone chargers" as the Audi salesman called them. That's a ratio of two per member of the family as opposed to only one in eliots case.

[Guest Paul the Cacheteer]

My local Toys R'Us is currently selling a 16 pack of Kodak Alkalines for £5.99 - and when you buy a pack, you get a second one free.

 

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1 for all and all for 1

[Guest jeremyp]

I was able to get a pack of 32 - yes 32 - alkaline batteries in PC World for £10 today. Not only that, they are packed in convenient sealed packs of four which is ideal for putting them in caches - they won't get wet and leakages will be contained.