Dottie wrote:
I live in Florida and have accumulated a large collection of batteries
for use in case of power outages. The expiration date on most of them
say 2012 to 2013. Is there a device I can get to test these - without
having to take them all out of the package and put them in a flash
light or something . I need to feel safe and sure that they are in
good working order and would feel a lot better if I could test them.
Asked in the hardware and auto section of Walmart and they didn't
carry them ... hadn't seen them.... I just assumed there was such a
thing. I know there used to be. Any suggestions would be
appreciated.

Feeling secure is probably best accomplished by having spares. If, in the
emergency, the replacement battery doesn't work, toss it and use the backup
battery*. Repeat until you get one that works.

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* Don't toss the problematic batter too far... it might be the bulb that's
bad. Or the switch.