Asklemmy @lemmy.ml MNByChoice @midwest.social 6 mo. ago

What happened to the Batteriser?

While looking for uses for old disposable AA batteries, I ran across the Batteriser from 2015. Clearly, it was a flop of some sort, as I am posting in 2024. What happened? Are there any iterations that do work?

https://money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/technology/make-battery-last-longer-batteriser/index.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batteroo_Boost

Also, are there any uses for old batteries?

19 comments

It flopped because it doesn't really work, and most stuff we stick batteries on these days already do a good job of extracting all the energy out of the batteries. It's mostly already built-in.

EEVblog made a few videos on it:

https://youtu.be/Z-m-7jex88k?si=KhEtCmvGkeyEtj4h

https://youtu.be/Tl90m2KHbNk?si=0LK6Op_E32w3tMSO

https://youtu.be/dnXiLBabSTU?si=DufjcVHCvlLSGi5Q

Dead old batteries are dead, if there's almost no energy in them they're done. Best case you might be able to stick them in a remote or an LED candle or whatever. But it's a physical limit: almost dead batteries just can't supply high currents because of internal resistance.

Another way to look at it is those potato batteries: yeah, you can measure a voltage off them. Yeah, you might be able to light up an LED. But you will never be able to power something higher power, not even for a couple seconds. It's physically not able to provide much current.
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Rechargeable AA batteries have become much more accessible... And imo far fewer devices that we use take replaceable batteries. It's much more common for devices to just have built in rechargeable batteries.
- I use rechargeable AAs and AAAs in all of my remotes, controllers, mice, etc, and the kids’ toys are so chaotic that I wouldn’t put anything in them I wasn’t willing to lose, so the batteriser has literally no value to me. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
  
  And I've heard rechargeable batteries don't even leak, that would be another plus.
- Rechargeable AA batteries have become much more accessible
  
  honest question: when was this not the case? I used rechargable batteries in my gameboy in the early 90s.
  
  Batteries as well as rechargers are dirt cheap for well over 2 decades
  
  Because rechargable batteries before NiMH sucked for many use cases - they were good for the Gameboy as you charged and used them straight away at high draw, but try using one in a low power device like a remote or wall clock and you'll find it is dead in a week despite minimal actual usage
Reality happened. The voltage drops because there is jack shit energy remaining and stepping up the voltage does not magically make that battery not almost completely drained.
The wikipedia seems to keep using words like "it claimed to X"

Also

The shipping date for the product has been delayed for various reasons, but photos from the manufacturing process have been made available. As of early May 2016, the company was months overdue to ship to its Indiegogo backers, with some backers accusing Batteroo of running a scam.

TechnologyCatalyst suggested that the device could be useful "if Batteriser was honest about its product", not to prolong battery life but to stabilise voltage over its lifetime.

So I think the other comment is reasonable. Rechargeable batteries (ex. People mention Ikea ones and Eneloop) are pretty good now so people that want it can go for those
- Thank you. Those are great extra details.

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