Rechargeable Batteries for Remote Controls?

just buy a bulk pack of alkalines from dick smith or jaycar.... cheap and no mucking around, battery goes flat, chuck new ones in.

**Depends on the remote. Some two cell remotes may not work with NiCads or NiMH cells, due to their lower terminal Voltage. 3 and 4 cell remotes should (generally) work OK.

BTW: I'm not excited with the current crop of budget Alkalines. They seem to have problems.

Trevor Wilson

** Re-chargeable cells ( AAA, AA & 9 volt ) are suitable only for those items that draw significant power and are in regular use - so that using non rechargeables becomes expensive.

A TV or similar remote has a very low daily power consumption - alkaline cells generally last for more than a year and up to several years in occasionally used remotes.

All rechargeable cell types suffer from a self discharge rate way more than non rechargeables - Ni-Cds can self discharge in a few months, NiMHs take a bit longer. This makes them *useless* for occasionally used items like that torch you keep in the drawer.

It would be crazy to use a rechargeable cells in a wall clock, even if it did operate from the low cell voltage.

....... Phil

I believe that if you continously trickle charge at C/20 you can keep them fully charged without over charging.

Cheers,

** Oh really - "sam".

So you need a dedicated charger that holds the cells for the torch on trickle charge 24/7 while the torch has no cells in it.

Then, when the all the lights fail one night , you have to find the torch in the dark, remove the cells from the charger in the dark, and feed them into the torch by feel.

Maybe YOU can do all that.

Likely the missus or one of the kids cannot.

Pure idiocy.

...... Phil

Nope, the torch has cells in it.

We've never had to to that, don't expect to have to either. We're reasonably calm and stable people here.

Geez, settle down. It works for me 100%, without any of the hysteria too.

"sam"

( snip sam's brainless drivel )

** Try posting something that is not self contradictory.

Surprise me.

........ Phil

Believe it or not, there is a solution that contains no contradictions. Care to take a stab? Be warned though, it'll involve lots of analytical thought processes but little paranoid hysteria.

** I don't.

Fuck off - you pathetic IMBECILE.

........ Phil

Personally, (assuming you are talking Ni-Cd or Ni-MH) using rechargeable cells in a remote control is a PITA. The self discharge rate means you will have to recharge/change them every couple of months. A set of good alkalines will last two years or more depending on how much button pressing you do.

The new Rod Speed

The best I ever had, were the original alkalines I had in my main TV set (used every day). I purchased the set in 1984. I swapped the batteries out (they still allowed the remote to work) in 1996, when I gave the set to my mum. The cell Volts had fallen to around 1.1 Volts, but, since there were 4 cells in the remote, it still worked just fine.

Some kind of record, for alkalines?

Trevor Wilson

You must be new around here, stranger...

Hi Trevor,

12 years - that was an excellent set of alkalines. I have also get more than 6 years from alkalines in my remotes and I suspect that you can get even more than this, on average. I guess I was estimating a bit on the conservative side because some people might buy low cost alkaline's which certainly don't have the performance of the major recognised heavy duty brands.

Ross Herbert

Not that new

I got less than one year out of a set of 4 AA duracells, the load was a PC's CMOS clock.

one of them died but the rest were still pretty good.

Bye. Jasen

Thanx 4 the info.