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[email protected] etpm@whidbey.com is offline
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Default Video showing heavy flour in AA batteries: any way for layman to test NiMH batteries?

On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 13:31:34 -0700 (PDT), Amanda Riphnykhazova
wrote:

I have a Panasonic DECT phone which takes AAA batteries. The ones I am using are 2-3 years old and although they always measure OK on a simple battery meter, give such pathetic call quality that I strongly suspect the have very few amps indeed. (compared to how the phone used to work). When left off the hook, the phone is dead within a day or so.

So I just bought on ebay some new NiMH ones called Rayzel (no reviews available) with an ominously anonymous light green casing. They claim to be 2100 MAH to replace the present 650MAH ones. They say they come from a place called Virginia but are scheduled to take 5 days to get a couple of hundred miles to me by USPS.

Then I saw the video showing how these can apparently weigh as much as the normal ones but be filled with flour or crack or something and in fact be some poxy module a few millimeters in mass. Which, far from giving 2100Ma, gives in reality only 66Ma and looks as if it may well last as long as five minutes so long as no meaningful load is put on it.

Is there any way of testing them to make sure they are what they say they are before leaving misleading positive feedback? I have no way of knowing how long the phone which is designed to be left on the hook is supposed to last when left off the hook. If I buy a very cheap battery tester, would it have no cut out circuits and put a proper constant load on the battery such that if left in place, the voltage may lower over the course of a few minutes connection? (or does that only happen when the battery is actually completely failing)

I also have a Philips TSU500 remote in which I use slightly pricey Sanyo Eneloop batteries supposedly heavily quality controlled by Costco before sale. They are now possibly as old as 6-8 months and used to last a week or so before stopping working. Now they can go from fully charged (2-3 days in a charger) to dead in 3 days. Again, I am wondering if there is any way to test them before I decide that they need replacing rather than that the TSU500 itself is chewing up batteries and needs replacing!

I wouldn't be surprised if the video is a practical joke. A friend of
mine sent me a link that showed that what is inside the large 6 volt
lantern batteries are just a whole bunch of AA batteries. I told him
that the video was crap. He didn't believe me and went out and bought
one of these batteries and pried the bottom off. Just like I told him
there were 4 large cells in the thing, not a whole bunch of AA cells.
He did call me to tell me I was right and say he felt pretty silly.
Eric