How do I ensure that I get the longest-lasting batteries at the cheapest price?
type: tip
reliability: 
- high
understandability: - high
time saving: 
- very small loss
usefulness: 
- very high
difficulty: - very easy
required skill: 
- newbie
overall: 37 of 48 points,
There are many kinds of batteries. There's triple A, double A, C, and D [the most common types]. If you buy batteries of these types, you can easily pick the best type for the longest durability but cheapest price. Here's how it works:
- This trick works for any battery that are of the AAA, AA, C and D types, not the little ones and gigantic ones. However, it might work, but since I don't use them, I can't tell or test it.
- When you pick up batteries, get a feel of their weight.
- If the batteries are light for the same number in a package [i.e. battery brand A has 8 batteries and battery brand B has 12 batteries, grab 3 A's and 2 B's and feel their weight], they'll last maybe a day or two [assuming one hour of use per day].
- If the batteries are heavy, they'll last much longer.
I get batteries that are heavy and use them for my portable tape recorder. I've had heavy ones last as long as four months! Of course, I was using it rarely. I also got really "cheap" ones that were about 20% of the weight of the heavier batteries like those of Energizer and Duracell [and probably others I don't know well or see much], but they only lasted for an hour's time. However, those "el cheapo" batteries are roughly three times as expensive. A pack of 16 light AA's costed about 3.25 dollars [This was a big deal they had; regularly, they'd charge about seven or eight dollars for this same sized pack]. A pack of heavy 4 AA's costed $3.59. The light batteries lasted only about an hour [total play], while the heavy ones lasted over 20 hours [estimated, accurate to 2 hours in either direction]. You get twenty times the play time for only 34 more pennies. Which would you choose? Here's the math [I'm working it out and showing you how I'm getting my answers as well]:
16 light AA's last one hour. My recorder takes four. 16÷4=4. That's only four hours per pack. Cost per hour: 3.25÷4=81.25¢ per hour.
4 heavy AA's last twenty hours. My recorder takes four. 4÷4=1. That's twenty hours per pack. Cost per hour: 3.59÷20=17.95¢ per hour. That's like 75% off! However, the deal with the 3.25 was a really low one. Regularly, they charge something like seven dollars for that many. If it was that much, it'd be nearly two dollars an hour! [precisely, it's $1.75 an hour]
The reason, to what I know of, is that heavier batteries have more "battery paste". This battery paste is converted to electricity so it can be used. Light batteries lack this paste, but still have it. If you plan to get rechargables, the method should still work. Go for the heavy ones if you want longer play times, however, the effect to that is the fact that it'll take longer to recharge [? not sure as I don't use rechargables].
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