Cavechat.org

check this out

Never tried it, but I think I might. I don't think I would use them for caving, but for stuff around the house it might be pretty economical. Then I could at least feel better about the amount of money I spend on caving batteries!

Wonder how long this batts will last

I doubt this is really worth the effort. They are the old "heavy duty" batteries that nobody uses any more - alkalines, lithiums, NiMHs, etc are multiple times more efficient. I'm thinking mass use of this technique will just mean a lot more short-life batteries will be added to the trash heap.

I've opened up several 6V batteries and I've never seen any AA's in them, just 4 large cells. Anybody reconize the brand in the video? I have doubt's it is actually an energizer. Better question......anyone ever open up a 6V and find AA's in it?

To me it looks like it was faked. All the batteries are on end and there are several camera breaks during the cutting of the wires and dumping them out. I'm calling this one BS and recommend for Graveleye to save his money. If you go to Home Cheap-o you can get these large packs AA's and AAA's for less than $10.00.

Besides,............the video comes from Gagfilms.com

caverdan wrote:To me it looks like it was faked. All the batteries are on end and there are several camera breaks during the cutting of the wires and dumping them out. I'm calling this one BS and recommend for Graveleye to save his money.

I'd tend to agree. I think this guy would too - http://www.break.com/index/lantern-batt ... fails.html

Yea......now that I've been a look'in......it's all over the web.

Give this trick a try if you need to recharge them batteries.

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/brdmnUBAS00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

They were also in error stating that 9v bats contain 6AAA's. In fact the 9v bats contain 6AAAA's (quad a's) Down side is they are very low in milliamps. We would gut 9volts and use the quad a's for use in tiny applications. Never sawed into a 6V before. I would have to agree though I think its probably BS. Even if it did, again they would be low milliamp bats.

Now if we could start developing our own electrolytes then we might be going somewhere.

Nathan

I popped open a "Heavy Duty" by Rayovac 6V this evening and found 4 elongated D-cell looking things in it. It only cost about $2.50, so I figured I'd give it a try.
They had Energizer 6Vs that claimed to last "2X longer than regular heavy duty batteries", but they were $7.50.
They were almost twice as heavy as the cheap brands, so they really might have had AAs in them, but on the same shelf they had a "Bonus 20-pack" of AAs for $5.50, so even if they do have 32 little batteries inside, it'd only save a few cents each, plus they may have wires soldered to some of them that might make them hard to use in some lights without spending a lot of time carefully filing the solder off.

caverdan wrote:If you go to Home Cheap-o you can get these large packs AA's and AAA's for less than $10.00.

Costco. You can get packs of 16 or more for really cheap.

Also, when I first started working for my company, I got to take a "Learning the Business" class at our company's HQ in El Segundo, CA. We have labs out there, including a battery lab. They tested off-the-shelf batteries. I think most of the people in the class were getting really bored, but I was *really* interested. Of course, I had ulterior reasons for my interest. Turns out all the alkaline batteries work about as well as the others INCLUDING the Costco home brand. Doesn't matter--just buy the cheapest. But yes, you do have to buy the alkalines. However, they did just test the "big names" if you include Costco's "Kirkland" as a big name.

ain't nuttin' cheaper than rechargeables (free no count)!

hey don't get me wrong. I'm probably not even going to try this. For my caving lights, I use nothing but the best batteries I find. But for the clocks and other gadgets I have I could use a cheap source of AA's because I really go through a bunch of them.

I usually go for the large quantity packs at Home Depot. HD has a lot of buying power, and that seems to be why I find them to be the cheapest on batteries.

graveleye wrote:I could use a cheap source of AA's because I really go through a bunch of them.

Even the cheapest AA disposable is very expensive compared to NiMH rechargeables. Why no you recharge?

hank moon wrote:Even the cheapest AA disposable is very expensive compared to NiMH rechargeables. Why no you recharge?

Indeed.

I recently picked up some of those hybrid NiMHs - they seem to work nice. I'm still wasting out my old stock of alkalines too, before they expire.

With all this new rechargeable battery technology, I really have to wonder why replacement batteries for my DeWalt drill are still the same Ni-Cads they always were. As far as I can know, electric razors still contain Ni-Cads too.

hank moon wrote:

graveleye wrote:I could use a cheap source of AA's because I really go through a bunch of them.

Even the cheapest AA disposable is very expensive compared to NiMH rechargeables. Why no you recharge?

I have some rechargeables, but I don't use them much because A) they discharge and you have to have them recharged when you want to use them which is a pain that I don't need. I guess they make a new type that don't work that way now, but that means I have to buy a new type of rechargeables and batteries, and throw away my old ones. Meanwhile I'm plowing through my stock of alkalines. B) Some of my battery operated stuff uses 3 batteries, but the charger requires me to charge in 2s or 4s so it seems like more trouble than it's worth.

At least they now take batteries for recycling at work.

NZcaver wrote:

hank moon wrote:Even the cheapest AA disposable is very expensive compared to NiMH rechargeables. Why no you recharge?

Indeed.

I recently picked up some of those hybrid NiMHs - they seem to work nice.

and with rechargables you can go caving with a fully charged set of batteries every time and with LEDs the NiMH can actually last longer than alkalines (they did in my Apex,.. I think).

NZcaver wrote:With all this new rechargeable battery technology, I really have to wonder why replacement batteries for my DeWalt drill are still the same Ni-Cads they always were.

If you could get new wiz-bang batteries packs for your old drill you'd then have no reason to buy thier new cordless drill "now with extra power!!!" and they wouldn't get to sell you a new drill.