Where do you store batteries?

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
With the impending hurricane, I, as well as everyone else on the Eastern seaboard, am buying batteries for flashlights, lanterns and radios.

I very rarely use any of those things (I always plug in my radios), so .... where is the best place to store batteries for rarely-used things?

Inside the things? In a drawer or tool box? In the fridge?

Lee
 

Embryodad

Well-known member
With the impending hurricane, I, as well as everyone else on the Eastern seaboard, am buying batteries for flashlights, lanterns and radios.

I very rarely use any of those things (I always plug in my radios), so .... where is the best place to store batteries for rarely-used things?

Inside the things? In a drawer or tool box? In the fridge?

Lee
We keep them in a dry area in a drawer.
Modern Batteries are a lot better in shelf life than they were years ago.

We have rechargeable flashlights also, and they are ready! Just in case.
 
I've always stored batteries (for the smoke detector etc) in the side shelf/door of the refrigerator. I read somewhere, that prolongs the battery life.
 

JoeV

Dough Boy
Site Supporter
In a drawer in the laundry room. I check the voltage before putting them in devices to insure they are still viable. I just put a 9v battery in a piece of test equipment a couple days ago, and it measured 9.6 volts. It came from a box I bought almost 3 years ago, and they are still good. BTW, they are Duracell batteries.
 

Mama

Queen of Cornbread
Site Supporter
We keep ours in a plastic box in the office. We only buy Duracell too and we've never had any bad ones.
 

Embryodad

Well-known member
In a drawer in the laundry room. I check the voltage before putting them in devices to insure they are still viable. I just put a 9v battery in a piece of test equipment a couple days ago, and it measured 9.6 volts. It came from a box I bought almost 3 years ago, and they are still good. BTW, they are Duracell batteries.
OMG...Joe, I do the same thing with the voltage test.

DW has a habit of changing the batteries when there are like three AA or AAA in her player and TV tuner Clicker's as I call them.
She will just change one of the three, so I have to check for at least 1.5 VDC on them. She had one in there at .85 V DC One with 1.3, and one with 1.56.
She siad the changer was no good. hahahahaha.
She said she saves them in her desk to see if they will get more power back????

I bought a $4.99 little VOM to check batteries just for that purpose.
I've got 2 Simpson 460's ( Analog) but who the heck uses them anymore. LOL
 

Embryodad

Well-known member
The information I offer is from years of field tests, lab tests, and concocted experiments by our PS guys that all hold PhDs in analog design. Without them, we couldn’t power or equipment. So we need them and we listen to them - daily.

I offer their sage knowledge to you for free.

Take it as you will and have a good night.
Speaking of Lab Tests...this one is something I have never seen.

We all know the AA 1.5V batteries..OK?

I was on a job on a roof 20º out and sleeting. The factory rep and I were checking a 30 HP inverter ( frequency drive motor speed controller ) on a air handling system, and were having trouble with noise interference on a component called the DC Trigger board.
We had the ocilloscope shipped in from the lab... and they never shipped the batteries with the probe handle. We were sort of yacked, but so what...no big deal.

I went to the radio shack and picked up a pack, and we installed them in the scope.
we could not get that damn thing to read..and it drove us crazy.
After 3 hours of fruitless attempts.. I thought maybe I picked up old battery stock.
Well, with my fluke VOM I checked the bats..all 1.68 V not to be exact...but one of the batteries showed reverse polarity. At first I thought I had the red on the negative, but no...the red on pos.+ and the black common on the negative -
of the battery...and low and behold... That one battery...just that one...was reverse polarity from the factory. In all essence..it was like installing one battery backwards even though it was installed the right way.
The circuit voltage was never produced in the control probe.

We could not believe it. ... What a bummer. Duracell too no less. LOL LOL
 

Keltin

New member
Gold Site Supporter
Speaking of Lab Tests...this one is something I have never seen.

We all know the AA 1.5V batteries..OK?

I was on a job on a roof 20º out and sleeting. The factory rep and I were checking a 30 HP inverter ( frequency drive motor speed controller ) on a air handling system, and were having trouble with noise interference on a component called the DC Trigger board.
We had the ocilloscope shipped in from the lab... and they never shipped the batteries with the probe handle. We were sort of yacked, but so what...no big deal.

I went to the radio shack and picked up a pack, and we installed them in the scope.
we could not get that damn thing to read..and it drove us crazy.
After 3 hours of fruitless attempts.. I thought maybe I picked up old battery stock.
Well, with my fluke VOM I checked the bats..all 1.68 V not to be exact...but one of the batteries showed reverse polarity. At first I thought I had the red on the negative, but no...the red on pos.+ and the black common on the negative -
of the battery...and low and behold... That one battery...just that one...was reverse polarity from the factory. In all essence..it was like installing one battery backwards even though it was installed the right way.
The circuit voltage was never produced in the control probe.

We could not believe it. ... What a bummer. Duracell too no less. LOL LOL

That is truly an intersting read. Most scope probes derive power from the coax connection on the front of the device. Even high end ( 1100 dollar) differential probes used for high frreq signals get their power from the scope connection. It HAS to be that way to ensure ground compatibility.

For floating grounds, you still get power from the scope connection, but trigger the relay for the float and use the ground wire to couple it.

What kind of scope were you using that required a separate power supply and thus a separate ground that could not be referenced to signal ground? And how did you tune two grounds, one floating, to the reference clock?
 

Embryodad

Well-known member
Just a note of safety.

Don't refuel a Genset while it is running. Spilled fuel may ignite. I've seen a guy refuel one, and the vapors ignited from a spark from the muffler.

I was watching the weather channel one year...I think it was the "92" hurricane.
The vidiographer was taking video's for the Jim Cantori special report on the hurricane...and I could not believe my eye's...There on TV was a man, with a rather large generator..running in his garage..and so he could attend to it without getting wet.

I was like...HOLY COW!... that's dangerous...all the carbon monoxide in the garage could infiltrate into the house, and if the poor guy or his family were in the house...well I need not mention what could have become of them.

I got in touch with the weather channel headquarters..I think it was in Georgia someplace..and tried in vain to have them contact that man and tell him he should not run the genset in the garage. I had the darndest time getting them to understand what they showed on TV. I just kept getting transfered from one to the other person, untill I got disconnected. ... I never did get the message across.
 

Embryodad

Well-known member
That is truly an intersting read. Most scope probes derive power from the coax connection on the front of the device. Even high end ( 1100 dollar) differential probes used for high frreq signals get their power from the scope connection. It HAS to be that way to ensure ground compatibility.

For floating grounds, you still get power from the scope connection, but trigger the relay for the float and use the ground wire to couple it.

What kind of scope were you using that required a separate power supply and thus a separate ground that could not be referenced to signal ground? And how did you tune two grounds, one floating, to the reference clock?
I don't remember the brand it was...it was like 25 years ago, and the frequency drive was a rudamentary beast compared to the today's modern smaller ones.
That drive was a Ramsey Drive..all cast iron heat dissapation totally inclosed for air over cooling by and in the path of the air flow itself. Weighed about 210 lbs.

The problem was a open bleed resister on one of the power capacitors which held a charge on it.

I know one thing....Being all wet & sitting on a 3" gas pipe line, and handling the probe proved I was a good ground when I accidentally grabbed the end point. YOW!...
 

Keltin

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I don't remember the brand it was...it was like 25 years ago, and the frequency drive was a rudamentary beast compared to the today's modern smaller ones.
That drive was a Ramsey Drive..all cast iron heat dissapation totally inclosed for air over cooling by and in the path of the air flow itself. Weighed about 210 lbs.

The problem was a open bleed resister on one of the power capacitors which held a charge on it.

I know one thing....Being all wet & sitting on a 3" gas pipe line, and handling the probe proved I was a good ground when I accidentally grabbed the end point. YOW!...

That's old school all right! :thumb:

Those bleed resitors were typically variacs and adjustable to change the Capacitance Charge rate (RC Time Constant), and those capacitors were ground filters desired to bleed off incoming spikes (to earth ground) thus cleaning the signal and giving a "cleaner" reading on that little green screen. Fun stuff.
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Okay, so, cool, dry place.

Got it.

Thanks, everyone!

Lee
 

Biskit

New member
I bought a $4.99 little VOM to check batteries just for that purpose.
I've got 2 Simpson 460's ( Analog) but who the heck uses them anymore. LOL


I have an old 260 out in the shop that I haven't used in years. The new digital readouts are a lot easier to use. Haven't gotten myself to part with it because it was a gift from one of my teachers in High School.
 

Embryodad

Well-known member
I have an old 260 out in the shop that I haven't used in years. The new digital readouts are a lot easier to use. Haven't gotten myself to part with it because it was a gift from one of my teachers in High School.
There is one Simpson I have that the Rx1 scale does not read properly.
I loaned it to someone, and that is the way I got it back. Voltage and Ohms are different, and if the dial was on Ohms and a voltage source zapped it by mistake..it's over, and the meter has to go out for repair.

I have a Volt Ohm Clamp on Amp Meter that I used in the HVAC field.

It is lcd readout.

I had some of the first digital ones with LED, and they are a bear to see in bright light.

This little 4.99 el cheapo I picked up at Harbor Freight to just check little things roughly, and I keep it in the junk drawer in the kitchen. That is the one I would lend out to someone.

I remember the old old batteries that used to leak and puff up. LOL
My mom saved them in the junk drawer with the dry ball point pens. I could never figure out why??
 
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