Large scale battery test done by me as part of an internship

[tom66]

As part of my internship at BitBox Ltd. (a local firm specialising in electronics engineer and embedded software design), I was set the task to prototype, design, manufacture (schematic capture, PCB layout, soldering SMD etc.) and program a battery tester. I wrote software and protocols on both ARM microcontrollers and Windows PCs. The results were VERY surprising... it seems that cheap batteries perform very well compared to expensive Duracell and Energizer cells...

http://www.batteryshowdown.com/

I also designed the website for the results.

Comments welcome!

[madires]

Great job! Some tests in local magazines indicated too that no-name batteries from the nearest super market offer the best value for the buck.

[jucole]

Superb!! and as a web designer myself, your site is great!  I like the battery line-up pic best! ;-)

[nitro2k01]

Do you have full discharge voltage curves available for all batteries? Would you consider making all the raw data available in some machine readable format, such as CSV?

[tom66]

Do you have full discharge voltage curves available for all batteries? Would you consider making all the raw data available in some machine readable format, such as CSV?

There's a whole lot of data to be categorised and uploaded at some point, but for now I've only done graphs for the three main chemistries of batteries. I would like to re-do all of these tests at some point to get some duplicate data to compare against tolerances. But I'm leaving for uni tomorrow so haven't got enough time.

[Monkeh]

Very interesting.

It's nice to see the Sony batteries I've been buying for years do pretty well. Have to keep an eye out for those Kodak ones, though.

[tom66]

They sell them in Poundland. The real surprise was the Costco Kirkland Signature batteries, which came 2nd for an alkaline in terms of capacity yet they only cost 21p each. We buy them all the time in packs of 48 and find them to be good in cameras, comparable to the Duracells, well the test shows BETTER!

[Monkeh]

They sell them in Poundland.

£1.50 plus petrol to get there.. I think not.

The real surprise was the Costco Kirkland Signature batteries, which came 2nd for an alkaline in terms of capacity yet they only cost 21p each. We buy them all the time in packs of 48 and find them to be good in cameras, comparable to the Duracells, well the test shows BETTER!

I stick to lithiums in my camera. I can fill a card several times with a set of lithiums, and they don't mind sitting around. I also feed them to my torch.

[tom66]

I stick to lithiums in my camera. I can fill a card several times with a set of lithiums, and they don't mind sitting around. I also feed them to my torch.

For low drain applications, they aren't worth it - when in higher drain applications they start to shine though and may be worth it. The results are very close to call and very dependent on the particular camera.

[retiredcaps]

I use Sanyo eneloops or Duracell pre-charge/stay-charge for my Canon A80 camera.  Rumor has it that the made in Japan Duracell white top pre-charge/stay-charge are Sanyo Eneloops.  When they are on sale, the Duracells are about $2 CDN each.

The local Canadian Costco used to sell the Kirkland 48 pack AA for $10.99 (or 23 cent each), but jacked up the price to $12.99 (or 27 cents each).  Rumor has it that Duracell makes the batteries for Kirkland.

[Monkeh]

I stick to lithiums in my camera. I can fill a card several times with a set of lithiums, and they don't mind sitting around. I also feed them to my torch.

For low drain applications, they aren't worth it - when in higher drain applications they start to shine though and may be worth it. The results are very close to call and very dependent on the particular camera.

My experience is that my camera kills alkalines (it can't cope with the low voltages). My torch also works much better with the lithiums, it may be more expensive, but I get much more usable life out of it. Picking up a torch to find out it's dead is less than useful.

[retiredcaps]

http://www.batteryshowdown.com/

I also designed the website for the results.

Excellent work and website. It loads fast, easy to sort the columns, devoid of advertising and I love the photo of all the batteries side by side.

[tom66]

The local Canadian Costco used to sell the Kirkland 48 pack AA for $10.99 (or 23 cent each), but jacked up the price to $12.99 (or 27 cents each).  Rumor has it that Duracell makes the batteries for Kirkland.

They are definitely some type of Duracell variant, possible Procell but better performance, as the end cap has two little dots on it which are in the same place on every other Duracell and no other battery I have found. However, the Kirkland are made in USA, whereas most Duracells come from Belgium. Either Kirkland buy the batteries in and relabel them (sounds unlikely to me) or Duracell has additional factories in the US for the US market.

http://www.batteryshowdown.com/

I also designed the website for the results.

Excellent work and website. It loads fast, easy to sort the columns, devoid of advertising and I love the photo of all the batteries side by side.

Thanks - I just realised though, I forgot the Kirkland in the battery line up. I think every other battery is on there.

It does have advertising, I suppose - it's designed to promote BitBox Ltd. and demonstrate some of the capabilities the company has, all five analysers were built in the UK; one by myself and the other four by the production team, they were designed by me personally but that wouldn't have happened without the support from the three other engineers (Matt, Pete, and Quentin - the manager/boss - who is also the engineer (and does some of the engineering work for the company still), which is rare for today.)

[retiredcaps]

Any chance of a 9V shootout when/if you have time away from your upcoming studies?  9V, obviously, powers most of the older generation of multimeters.

[tom66]

Any chance of a 9V shootout when/if you have time away from your upcoming studies?  9V, obviously, powers most of the older generation of multimeters.

If I get the time I'd like to test C/D/AAA cells and 9Vs, as well as rechargeables. I also want to test some nickel oxyhydroxide cells at some point, I wasn't able to get any easily in time.

Also, I was going to post it on Candle Power forums but I don't have enough posting priveledges, if anyone has the ability to do so I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[NiHaoMike]

Using a 168MHz ARM for that data logging is massive overkill. I'm surprised it didn't just use a PIC18.

[Mechatrommer]

maybe the PIC18 $/Hz is overkill?

[tom66]

Using a 168MHz ARM for that data logging is massive overkill. I'm surprised it didn't just use a PIC18.

Of course but the STM32 module only costs £10. I would have used an STM8 or STM32L if I didn't use a module but why not use something I can be sure works and reduce the development time.

[AndyC_772]

Using a 168MHz ARM for that data logging is massive overkill. I'm surprised it didn't just use a PIC18.

If the object of the exercise is to learn to use and program an ARM processor, it's not a bad choice at all!

Either way, I'm really glad to see that someone has been able to carry out this research - and what a shame battery manufacturers aren't obliged to state the actual capacity somewhere on the packaging. (I believe there's a rule coming in fairly soon which makes it compulsory to state this for rechargeables, but not for primary batteries).

Off to Farnell for a pack of 20 Procells... for some reason it's £4.29 for 10, and £4.38 for 20. Go figure!

[tom66]

The 20-pack Procells cost less than the 4-pack Ultra Power batteries, which are insanely overpriced... But I suppose they are just relying on a good reputation, few people have actually tested a large number of batteries like this in such a methodical manner.

[Fraser]

A word of warning....

I have ceased buying anything made by Duracell, including Procells. They are too prone to leaking and I have had enough of cleaning out equipment battery compartments after a leak ! I have even had them leaking whilst still in the box awaiting use ! Total crap IMHO.

I have jsut started using teh cheap Kodak Xtralife cells and had no problems to date. No leakage and decent performance. At GBP1 for six I will be stocking up on these, especially after the test results shown here.

Fraser

[bullet308]

There is an additional variable that, of course, would be less practical to test, and one that is very important to me personally: shelf life, where the lithiums would really shine. I have, among other things, an assortment of flashlights  that need to sit for, oh, a decade or so, and then perhaps be used under difficult conditions. If somebody could prove to me that Energizer Ultimate Lithiums really have a usable shelf-life of fifteen years as-claimed, THAT would be massively cool.

Inevitably, your survey is a bit UK-centric. I suppose it has to be somewhere-centric, at least for starters. Perhaps a mail-in battery donation campaign from around the world? For instance, it would be nice to get some US market value brands (Ray-O-Vac, Enercell by Radio Shack, Sunbeam from Dollar General, etc) into the game.

A very good effort at a very difficult thing, though. This has to be the most comprehensive test of its kind to-date. Great web site as well.

[saturation]

Great job on your project, both in making the circuits and the final report format.  Easily an A for a grade.  These days I only use LSD NiMH batteries and leave alkaline to very low drain devices like TV remotes and wall clocks.

[bilko]

RayOVac rechargeable alkaline cells leak as bad as Duracell, and that's using the manufacturer's own charger. Don't even go there, utter JUNK!

[Jon Chandler]

There are sure a lot of negative comments on Hack-a-Day about this.  Makes a person really question whether the recognition is a good thing.

Too many of the people there are of the mindset that they know the best way to do anything (everything?) and any other approach is wrong.  Of course, they know everything, so they never actually do any thing.