Batteriser is a $2.50 gadget that extends disposable battery life by 800 percent

[zboss]

This will be great for our portable gadgets!

Batteriser is a $2.50 gadget that extends alkaline battery life 800%

[Island Time O25]

Anyone knows where they're sold?

[autumnbreeze27]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

Anyone knows where they're sold?

I RTFA and it says they will be for sale in September.

Hope it's not snake oil, if you had a battery recycling facility your inventory would go way up in value!

[Lake-Effect]

Voltage-'booster' circuitry is fairly common, and DC-DC step-up converters are readily available (eg ebay). These folks have miniaturized a small step-up converter to fit around an AA battery, which is a cool idea.

The amount of actual life extension you'll get will be dependent on the powered device. If the device stops working when the AAs drop below 1.3v each, then yes the Batteriser will provide extra life.

However, most well-designed alkaline-powered devices have already taken the alkaline discharge curve into account (they might even have an internal step-up converter), and they are already capable running till the alkaline is truly exhausted (eg 1.1v). In this case, the batteriser won't provide much if any extra life.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Voltage-'booster' circuitry is fairly common, and DC-DC step-up converters are readily available (eg ebay). These folks have miniaturized a small step-up converter to fit around an AA battery, which is a cool idea.

The amount of actual life extension you'll get will be dependent on the powered device. If the device stops working when the AAs drop below 1.3v each, then yes the Batteriser will provide extra life.

However, most well-designed alkaline-powered devices have already taken the alkaline discharge curve into account (they might even have an internal step-up converter), and they are already capable running till the alkaline is truly exhausted (eg 1.1v). In this case, the batteriser won't provide much if any extra life.

It does mention that in the article. Still.. cool thing to have available.

[hellosailor]

Good thing the staff at PCWorld have no understanding of electronics.


You certainly CAN boost voltage, and doing that in 0.1mm of product is a damend neat trick. But when you boost voltage, you lose amperage. Same rules of physics that allow an MPPT controller to trade off voltage versus amperage. No magic there.


Now, let's say the "device" you want to power is a handheld VHF. Or a Steripen water sterilizer. Or a simple ultra-bright LED flashlight.


They all require both voltage AND amperage, and in fact, you can't power any of them with lithium (primary) cells because there's plenty of voltage--but they don't work with those lithium cells, because there's not enough current (amperage) regardless of the voltage. Yes the manufacturers all say "use alkaline...not NiCad, not NiMh, not lithium" for that un-obvious reason.


This gadgets biggest market niche would appear to be taking rechargeable cells, which start out too low at 1.25v, and boosting them up enough so they can work--until the juice runs out anyway, as it will.


Be great for "plain" flashlights, that don't need a lot of power for high brightness bulbs, as diving lights and "super" LED lights do.


But I don't think Thumper is going to be quaking in his slippers over this one.