Can a New Disposable Battery Change Your Life?

[slotter]

Subject: Battery Technology

DAVID POGUE

New York Times

Can a New Disposable Battery Change Your Life? Parts of It, Maybe

Published: April 7, 2005

This June, Panasonic will introduce Oxyride batteries: AA and AAA disposable batteries that the company calls "the most significant developments in primary battery technology in 40 years." According to Panasonic, these batteries last up to twice as long as premium alkaline batteries like Duracell Ultra ($5 for four), yet cost the same as regular alkalines ($4 for four).

Astounded yet? Then get this: Oxyride batteries are also supposed to deliver more power. The result, the company says, is that battery-operated toothbrushes spin faster, flashlights shine brighter, camera flashes are quicker to recharge and music players produce richer sound.

Play your cards right, in other words, and these batteries might just clean out your gutters, wash the car and do your taxes.

Those are pretty fantastic claims, but Panasonic is certainly right about one thing: the time is right for some technical improvement in batteries.

Technology has marched on in just about every other corner of modern life, but people still tiptoe nervously through birthday parties and weddings with their digital cameras, anxiously rationing shots so they'll have juice left for the big moment.

No wonder, then, that in Japan, the Oxyride batteries have captured 10 percent of the battery market in the one year they've been available. In fact, Panasonic predicts that Oxyride will eventually wipe out alkalines just the way alkalines blew regular "heavy-duty" batteries off the map.

Skeptics, however, are surely entitled to scoff, especially at that part about brighter flashlights, faster fans and better-sounding music. Aren't these gizmos somehow voltage-controlled so that they shine, spin or play at a certain rate, regardless of the battery?

Armed with a stopwatch, I spent several exceedingly boring days conducting battery-drain tests with identical pairs of flashlights, screwdrivers, cameras, hand-held fans and swimming bathtub fishies. (Note to the

neighbors: You can call off the nice men in the white jackets. It was all in the name of science.)

As it turns out, the power-boosting effect is no marketing concoction; it's real. In identical flashlights, Oxyrides produce an obviously wider, whiter circle of light than Duracell Ultras. You can immediately tell the difference in portable fans, too, because the Oxyride fan hums at a higher pitch, a musical step higher than the Duracell one. The Oxyrides even make power screwdrivers spin faster: 364 r.p.m., compared with 316 r.p.m. for the Duracell Ultras.

Then there's that bit about Oxyrides making MP3 players and CD players produce richer, fuller sound. Panasonic cited a test in Japan in which 80 percent of the players in an orchestra said they preferred the sound from an Oxyride-powered music player. (Panasonic doesn't include sound-quality claims in its official marketing, but it does say it's investigating.)

This one's a tougher call. In blind tests, most people couldn't tell any difference between a CD player with Oxyrides and one with regular alkalines. A few identified the Oxyrides as maybe being a bit richer-sounding, but said that the difference was awfully subtle. All participants confessed, though, that they were not members of a Japanese orchestra.

Amazingly, then, Panasonic Oxyrides do deliver more power, for the same price as ordinary alkalines. To be precise, they deliver 1.7 volts, which is 13 percent more juice than the 1.5 volts of alkalines. (In both cases, the voltage diminishes as the batteries empty.) According to Panasonic, Oxyrides get their power not only from an improved chemical makeup, but also from a vacuum-assembly machine that packs more ingredients into the same space.

But what about the primary claim, that Oxyrides last longer than alkalines?

Here, the answer is more complicated.

In rundown tests (put the batteries in, run nonstop till they're dead), Duracell Ultras, and even regular alkaline Duracells, actually beat the Oxyrides. In a krypton-bulb flashlight, the Oxyrides ran for two and a half hours; Duracell Ultras lasted 35 minutes longer. An Oxyride hand-held fan died after an hour; Duracell Ultras had another 25 minutes in them. And in a really cute swimming fish bathtub toy, the Oxyride fish gave up the ghost after 8.5 hours; a pair of ordinary alkalines kept finding Nemo for an amazing 25 hours, nearly three times as long.

Now, battery companies generally hate it when well-meaning journalists conduct rundown tests, for a very good reason: nobody uses batteries that way. In the real world, people play, pause and put aside their electronics for days or weeks. Properly conducted battery tests, experts say, are repetitive, expensive and computer-controlled. A battery that's designed to last a long time under real-world conditions may not do well in rundown tests. ("We'd be delighted to help you design valid tests," a battery company representative once told me. "And we'll look forward to reading the results around Christmas.")

And sure enough, when the flashlight test was repeated in a more realistic regimen - one hour on, followed by 30 minutes off for good behavior - the Oxyrides lasted 4 hours 14 minutes. The Duracells still won, but this time by only 10 minutes, and the light produced during the flashlight's final 20 minutes was so feeble it probably shouldn't count. (The Oxyrides tend to die more suddenly than alkalines.)

Panasonic further protested that the Oxyrides were designed to shine in high-drain gadgets (cameras, L.E.D. flashlights, remote-control toys, portable televisions and photo flash units) and moderate-drain gizmos (Game Boys, CD and music players, electric razors), not in low-drain devices like flashlights, fans, radios, clocks, remote controls and bathtub fishies. (So out came the Game Boy and the L.E.D. flashlight, and in went the Oxyrides.

Test results: pending. After three days, both of them are still running

strong.)

All of this brings us to the World Series of battery competitions: the digital camera test. These days, most digital cameras come with rectangular, proprietary rechargeable battery packs. But if your camera takes disposables, you're already aware of their pathetic battery-consumption record.

The challenge: See how many shots a pair of AA's can take in a digital camera. The test: 50 consecutive shots, alternating flash and nonflash, followed by 10 minutes turned off so the batteries could rest. Then another 50 shots, and so on until "Change the batteries" appears on the camera's screen. (I set the camera to capture low-resolution images, so they'd all fit without having to change or erase the memory card.)

Because this isn't a constant-drain test, you'd expect the Oxyrides to win

- and this time, they do. The final score: Regular alkalines, 354 shots; premium alkalines, 566; Panasonic Oxyrides, 844. That's not exactly twice the longevity of premium alkalines, as Panasonic promises (and as PC World magazine found in its own Oxyride battery tests). But it's 2.4 times the life of regular alkalines, for the same price.

Now, even Panasonic admits that Oxyrides aren't the most economical, environmentally friendly, powerful batteries you can buy. That honor goes to rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which cost under $15 including charger. You can recharge NiMH batteries hundreds of times, and each charge lasts longer than Oxyride or any sort of alkaline.

But NiMHs aren't widely available in stores, they lose their charge quickly on the shelf, and the recharging and swapping process requires planning and discipline. Alas, not everybody has the patience; the road to the abandoned-gadgets drawer is paved with good intentions.

(Another Oxyride rival is AA disposable lithium batteries, offered by Energizer in a four-pack for about $23. Five times the power of standard alkalines, at six times the price. You do the math.)

The bottom line: Oxyride batteries may not quite live up to Panasonic's enthusiastic claims in all kinds of gadgets in every situation. But penny for penny, they deliver more power and, in power-hungry gadgets like digital cameras, last a lot longer than alkalines. Don't look now, but the Energizer bunny may soon be squashed by the Panasonic elephant.

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COOL!

[Tulsa]

I use rechargable batteries around the house since so many things like remote controls, cordless phones, keyboards, mouse, pot scrubber, pagers, flashlights etc.. The rechargables are the only way to go.

[johntofva]

I use rechargeable for my digital camera's. But I get free AA (industrial grade) from work, so I use those for everything else.

[slotter]

I have several chargers and use rechargeable batteries most of the time. But, alkalines do have their uses. They have a longer life than rechargeables and when out of town and on vacation, it's easier not to take the chargers, etc. along.

These new batteries coming down the pike sound even better.

[Ken Layton]

A real test should have an ammeter in series with the battery(s) to monitor current draw and a voltmeter to see how the voltage holds up under load.

I have a battery operated handheld tv set (Casio) and it can only operate about an hour on Nickle Metal Hydride batteries (4 AA) before dying.


I'm leary of these new fangled batteries and their marketing hype. For my money good old Alkalines are proven performers and reasonably priced. Heck, there's still applications where good old fashioned carbon-zinc batteries are the choice.

[Tulsa]

This of course is a superior suggestion to having Gilligan on his generator bicycle.

[arbycoffee]

Rechargeable batteries is the way I go.

[alexilla]

I have owned the revoutionary 15-minute rechargeable batteries for 6 month now and they have easily become my BEST purchase ever. They have 2200mAh which is more than most alkalines and best of all they recharge in 15 minutes or less! I think they are some sort of nimh hybrid. They are made by rayovac, you should check them out. Chargers are about 30.00 and 4 batteries are about 10.00.