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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Battery preps

If you're anything like me you own a bunch of different LED flashlights and other electronic devices. The good thing about LED lights: they don't eat batteries like regular flashlights. Some of them have powerful LED's and will drain a battery in an hour but I own none of these types. They usually use the CR123A lithium 3 volt battery. These have a shelf life of nearly 10 years or more. My lights all use alkaline AA & AAA batteries. I have a flashlight I use every night and it uses one AAA battery a year. That's great economy. My headlamp on the other hand, uses 3 AA batteries and a set will last a week with heavy use but its very bright. If I use the lowest of 3 settings, it will last a month. My other electronics are a Grundig wind up radio that uses 3 AA batteries. I get a YEAR out of one set! That's incredible and I listen to it often. I have a small MP3 player that takes one AAA and it runs for a few weeks with heavy use.
I buy my batteries in the largest quantity possible. I replace the stash if I have used at least half a pack, so I always have a good supply on hand. I like Kirkland batteries from Costco. I bought a pack of 48 AAA's and a pack of 48AA's and the expiration date is 2016. I like Duracell and Energizer's, too. I only have trouble with the cheap junk no-name dollar store batteries. I keep my batteries in one small container. If I am carrying batteries at work I recycle pill bottles. These work just fine.
I have a small recharger that I use for a pair of AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that I use in my handheld scanner. I carry this at work every day. I also have a pack of four AAA NMH batteries but these are not used for anything yet.
I have a few small LED lights that use the button cells. I have several packs for a key chain LED light I carry all the time. I also have a LED that uses the bigger flat button cells.
Below is a picture of the container and the batteries I have in my prep program. I keep this with my food which is in the coolest part of my home. If you keep them cool expect maximum performance from them. Some folks keep them in a refrigerator but I don't any more. I never saw that big a difference in performance.


2 comments:

rononevn said...

I am now seeing EDC showing up on various blogs. I am familiar with BOB and Go Bag. What is EDC?

Ron Layton said...

EDC is Every Day Carry. Things such as your SAK (swiss army knife,)LED flashlight,fire steel, etc.