On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 9:06:27 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 7:46:39 AM UTC-4, John-Del wrote:
On Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 3:35:43 AM UTC-4, GS wrote:
Phil Allison wrote:
GS wrote:

--------------------
Phil Allison


** The ESR of a cell or battery is a good guide to its condition.

A fresh AA alkaline measures 0.1 ohms or lower while a tired one
measures 1 ohm or greater, a fresh 9V measures under 1 ohm. Along with a
voltage test you have enough info to match or discard used cells.

.... Phil

What's a good way to do that ?



** Do what ?

Test ESR or correlate it with open cct cell voltage?



.... Phil

ESR.

Greg

IIRC, you take the open circuit voltage and write it down. You take a voltage reading under a known fixed load and write that down. You plug those two voltage readings along with the load resistance value into a formula (that I can't recall) and you get the internal resistance of the battery.

Waaaay too much trouble IMO. In recent years, I've found OC voltage sufficient to determine battery condition of basic alkaline cells. For high drain applications such as flash lights, anything at 1.5 is fine. For lower drain things like pocket radios or remote controls, anything above 1.3 works for many months. Any cell that reads 1.55 or above is virtually new.

Wow, too much trouble? It's just ohm's law.
Say V_O is open circuit voltage, V_L is with load R.
I = V_L/R
Bat_R = (V_O-V_L)/I
(The ESR may change with load current...
I don't know.)

George H.

Yes, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaay too much trouble. With alkalines, a volt meter tells me *immediately* what I need to know if I don't have my battery checker with me. If it's 1.6, it's new. 1.5 good as new. Anything above 1.3 is good for at least half the life of a new battery. Anything lower I don't bother with.

In the old days, some batteries would read decent OC voltage and still sag under their intended load. I haven't seen a battery in many years that would show good OC voltage and sag under load.