It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
performance.

I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
batteries.

---------

What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
memory:

Duracell (ordinary)
Duracell Plus
Duracell M3

---------

The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
(1) Ultra Digital
(2) Coppertop
http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp

Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

---------

yours confused
Alex

On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on each
battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
available.

NiMh batteries are sold by Ampere Hour Capacity, why not Alkalines.

--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a
newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These
will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies.

"Dave Fawthrop" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on
each
battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
available.

They can't, there is no one figure.
Capacity of alkaline cells varies depending on the load exerted on them.
The relationship between current drawn and useful voltage delivered is not
linear. However, the specs are available:

http://www.duracell.com/Procell/pdf/1500_US_CT.pdf

--
Mike W

On Sun, 07 May 2006 12:03:49 GMT, "VisionSet" wrote:

|
|"Dave Fawthrop" wrote in message
.. .
| On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman wrote:
|
| |It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
| |performance.
| |
| |I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
| |and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
| |batteries.
| |
| |---------
| |
| |What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
| |the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
| |memory:
| |
| | Duracell (ordinary)
| | Duracell Plus
| | Duracell M3
| |
| |---------
| |
| |The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| | (1) Ultra Digital
| | (2) Coppertop
| |http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
| |
| |Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
| |Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?
|
| |yours confused
|
| Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(
|
| Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on
|each
| battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
| available.
|
|They can't, there is no one figure.
|Capacity of alkaline cells varies depending on the load exerted on them.
|The relationship between current drawn and useful voltage delivered is not
|linear. However, the specs are available:
|
|http://www.duracell.com/Procell/pdf/1500_US_CT.pdf

Just a marketing excuse. It would be a simple matter to give a single
figure based on a single load ?cycle? and a single voltage endpoint. That
would give enough information even for someone like me who understands the
real specs were I to put my mind to it.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a
newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These
will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies.

In article ,
Dave Fawthrop wrote:
Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on
each battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the
cheapest available.

One place I work at spends many thousands a year on alkaline cells for
radio mics, etc.

Duracell *Procell* seems to be consistently the best value when bought in
bulk. Shops will often charge up to four times the price of a Procell for
a gold top but they certainly don't last appreciably longer.

Thing to be vary of is cells sold at car boot sales, etc. They may be
forgeries or well past their sell by date. And often poor value.

--
Small asylum seeker wanted as mud flap, must be flexible and willing to travel

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sun, 7 May 2006 12:24:51 UTC, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Duracell *Procell* seems to be consistently the best value when bought in
bulk. Shops will often charge up to four times the price of a Procell for
a gold top but they certainly don't last appreciably longer.

Thing to be vary of is cells sold at car boot sales, etc. They may be
forgeries or well past their sell by date. And often poor value.

Anyone any thoughts on Energisers? I bought a load to use when cooped up
in a hospital room, and I used them so heavily I lost track of how long
they lasted.

But CPC have a good offer on them right now...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
Avenue Supplies, http://avenuesupplies.co.uk

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
Dave Fawthrop wrote:
Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on
each battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the
cheapest available.

One place I work at spends many thousands a year on alkaline cells for
radio mics, etc.

Duracell *Procell* seems to be consistently the best value when bought in
bulk. Shops will often charge up to four times the price of a Procell for
a gold top but they certainly don't last appreciably longer.

Thing to be vary of is cells sold at car boot sales, etc. They may be
forgeries or well past their sell by date. And often poor value.

So how do GP super Alkaline compare ?

I buy them in boxes of 40 from CPC

more megawatt hours / buck IMHO


--
geoff

raden wrote:

So how do GP super Alkaline compare ?

I buy them in boxes of 40 from CPC

Yup I used to do that as well...

However I found they are very poor in comparison. They will run my Psion
5 for as little as five or six hours cumulative use, whereas a good
alkaline will do possibly as much as sixteen.

Having said that they are plenty good enough for low drain long shelf
life applications like remote controls, clocks etc.



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

One place I work at spends many thousands a year on alkaline cells for
radio mics, etc.


Hmmm! I'd of thought a company that uses batteries on a daily basis would
go in for rechargables?

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

In article ,
The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
One place I work at spends many thousands a year on alkaline cells for
radio mics, etc.

Hmmm! I'd of thought a company that uses batteries on a daily basis would
go in for rechargables?

They don't yet have a long enough life. The Micron UHF types I use just
about get through half a day (5 hours) on one PP3 alkaline. Anything less
would be unacceptable.

Then there's the problem of recharging perhaps some 50 PP3s per day across
the units.

--
*Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
One place I work at spends many thousands a year on alkaline cells for
radio mics, etc.


Hmmm! I'd of thought a company that uses batteries on a daily basis would
go in for rechargables?

Not always. For radio microphones, you need higher charge density
than rechargables provide. It really sucks to have your wireless
microphone crap out partway through act two. Another problem is that
the discharge curve is very steep, so the thing goes from working fine
to dead in a very short time, not giving you the opportunity to go do an
emergency battery replacement before it dies.
The memory effect in nicads is a problem, even though it is a far
smaller issue than it was years ago. keeping track of aging
rechargeables is an administrative hassle, consuming valuable time when
time is at a premium. If you are in a touring environment, finding a
place where you can plug in the chargers when everything is packed on a
truck driving to the next site is a tad difficult.
Other people on the tour are constantly taking batteries to power
their personal electronics. With partly used alkalines, this is no
problem, with rechargables, this gets expensive fast, and leaves you
short of charged up batteries at the start of the show.
When you are buying by the flat of 576 batteries, they are a lot
less expensive than buying them at the convenience store. ( Anyone know
why batteries come in a box of 576? I've always wondered. )

--Dale

Dale Farmer typed

When you are buying by the flat of 576 batteries, they are a lot
less expensive than buying them at the convenience store. ( Anyone know
why batteries come in a box of 576? I've always wondered. )

Four gross at a guess. 4*12*12

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

"Dale Farmer" wrote in message
.net...
The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
One place I work at spends many thousands a year on alkaline cells for
radio mics, etc.


Hmmm! I'd of thought a company that uses batteries on a daily basis would
go in for rechargables?

Not always. For radio microphones, you need higher charge density than
rechargables provide. It really sucks to have your wireless microphone
crap out partway through act two. Another problem is that the discharge
curve is very steep, so the thing goes from working fine to dead in a very
short time, not giving you the opportunity to go do an emergency battery
replacement before it dies.
The memory effect in nicads is a problem, even though it is a far
smaller issue than it was years ago. keeping track of aging rechargeables
is an administrative hassle, consuming valuable time when time is at a
premium. If you are in a touring environment, finding a place where you
can plug in the chargers when everything is packed on a truck driving to
the next site is a tad difficult.
Other people on the tour are constantly taking batteries to power their
personal electronics. With partly used alkalines, this is no problem,
with rechargables, this gets expensive fast, and leaves you short of
charged up batteries at the start of the show.
When you are buying by the flat of 576 batteries, they are a lot less
expensive than buying them at the convenience store. ( Anyone know why
batteries come in a box of 576? I've always wondered. )

--Dale

Just a note about AAA cells. (I know this is AA an discussion). If you are
ever in dire need of some AAA cells, and have a 9V laying around, you can
usually pry the thing apart to reveal 6 AAA in series inside. Depending on
brand, you can use them as-is, or you might have to insulate them
individually around the outside.

The message
from Dave Fawthrop contains these words:

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on each
battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
available.

Their argument against doing this is that the effective Ah rate of each
cell differs at different discharge rates and that comparing like with
like wouldn't be possible.

I suspect having two figures, C1 and C10 rates, for example, might be a
way round it but there's pleny who'll say it's too confusing.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Dave Fawthrop wrote:
On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on each
battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
available.

They are different. ISTR the Maplin catalogue used to give the
capacities some years ago (before they switched to selling boys toys,
etc).

MBQ

wrote in
ups.com:


Dave Fawthrop wrote:
On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman
wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity
on each battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy
the cheapest available.

They are different. ISTR the Maplin catalogue used to give the
capacities some years ago (before they switched to selling boys toys,
etc).

MBQ



Nice summing up of what's happened to Maplin there. It's a sad crime
what's been done to that firm.

I believe that some two years ago Practical Sailor magazine did an AA
alkaline comparison test using hand held VHF transreceiver and Duracell
Copper top came out best with Panasonic better than Eveready.

In message 0,
Lostgallifreyan writes
wrote in
oups.com:


Dave Fawthrop wrote:
On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman
wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity
on each battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy
the cheapest available.

They are different. ISTR the Maplin catalogue used to give the
capacities some years ago (before they switched to selling boys toys,
etc).

MBQ



Nice summing up of what's happened to Maplin there. It's a sad crime
what's been done to that firm.

Same with Watford Electronics

As for RS - Has anybody actually managed to order something and found it
in stock ?

e.g. 47uF /63v caps - 3 week back order, they don't know what they've
sent out and what they haven't

They do have a mission statement, though

--
geoff

raden wrote:
As for RS

They do have a mission statement, though

Yeah, but it's "You've got questions, we've got blank stares". 8*)

raden wrote:
In message 0,
Lostgallifreyan writes
wrote in
oups.com:


Dave Fawthrop wrote:
On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman
wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity
on each battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy
the cheapest available.

They are different. ISTR the Maplin catalogue used to give the
capacities some years ago (before they switched to selling boys toys,
etc).

MBQ



Nice summing up of what's happened to Maplin there. It's a sad crime
what's been done to that firm.

Same with Watford Electronics

As for RS - Has anybody actually managed to order something and found it
in stock ?

e.g. 47uF /63v caps - 3 week back order, they don't know what they've
sent out and what they haven't

They do have a mission statement, though


The impending RoHS deadline is causing componnet shortages (at least
that's the excuse) as companies suddenly realise they don't have the
correct stuff in stock and place panic orders.

MBQ

The message
from raden contains these words:

They do have a mission statement, though

How's this for a mission statement....

Mission Statement:

'To make as much money as possible off a small, but really good idea
that other humans can relate to and have a laugh with us at.'

http://www.grateness.com/mission.htm

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

On Sun, 7 May 2006 11:32:18 UTC, Dave Fawthrop
wrote:

On Sun, 07 May 2006 11:35:30 +0100, Alex Coleman wrote:

|It's hard work untangling Duracell's pruct range and the relative
|performance.
|
|I don't think Duracell are great value but they can be got anywhere
|and I want to know the relative merits of their popular alkaline
|batteries.
|
|---------
|
|What is the rated capacity in mAh of an alkaline Duracell AA cell in
|the following product ranges which I recall from (perhaps faulty?)
|memory:
|
| Duracell (ordinary)
| Duracell Plus
| Duracell M3
|
|---------
|
|The Duracell web site has a technical page but it refers only to:
| (1) Ultra Digital
| (2) Coppertop
|http://www.duracell.com/oem/productdata/default.asp
|
|Is Ultra Digital the same as Ultra or the same as M3?
|Is Coppertop the same as Plus or the same as "ordinary"?

|yours confused

Confusion is Duracell's marketing ploy which you have fallen for :-(

Until Alkaline battery manufacturers state the Ampere hour capacity on each
battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
available.


I've noted time between replacing batteries in a couple of appliances.
Duracell were best but not by enough to justify the prices in British
shops. Maplin were very poor. GP cells were close to Duracell at a
fraction of the price. Appliances were Palm 3, and a sony CD/Radio
alarm.

BTW, have other Brits noticed how the supermarkets tend to sell the
most expensive Duracells? When Duracell Plus were the top of the range
those were stocked, now they only stock the Ultra M3 range. What
happened to consumer choice?

--
Jim Backus OS/2 user since 1994
bona fide replies to j dot backus the circle thingy jita dot
demon dot co dot uk

On Mon, 8 May 2006 20:39:49 +0000 (UTC), "Jim Backus"
wrote:

|BTW, have other Brits noticed how the supermarkets tend to sell the
|most expensive Duracells? When Duracell Plus were the top of the range
|those were stocked, now they only stock the Ultra M3 range. What
|happened to consumer choice?

We go to Lidl, Where they have cheap own brand Alkalines
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a
newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These
will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies.

urers state the Ampere hour capacity on each
battery, I will believe that they are all the same and buy the cheapest
available.



I've noted time between replacing batteries in a couple of appliances.
Duracell were best but not by enough to justify the prices in British
shops. Maplin were very poor. GP cells were close to Duracell at a
fraction of the price. Appliances were Palm 3, and a sony CD/Radio
alarm.

BTW, have other Brits noticed how the supermarkets tend to sell the
most expensive Duracells? When Duracell Plus were the top of the range
those were stocked, now they only stock the Ultra M3 range. What
happened to consumer choice?


Sainsbury's regularly do a 50% extra free on standarad Duracells. 12
for about £4. That's cheaper than the market stalls.

john2

Jim Backus wrote:

BTW, have other Brits noticed how the supermarkets tend to sell the
most expensive Duracells?

In trade magazines Duracell advertises to retailers: selling expensive
batteries is more turnover and more profit for you.

Thus, Duracell's key selling point is _high_ price. Not for the
consumer, but for the retailer.


Thomas

PowerStream has some discharge curves for the Coppertop and
Radio Shack Enercell Plus. Check out
http://www.powerstream.com/AA-tests.htm

High current and low current designs are different.

Best regards
mark