Most devices & gadgets are rechargeable nowadays. The only thing I have that still requires batteries is a headlamp but even those are available in rechargeable varieties. House smoke detectors need a battery too.
Having to buy a new product because of a dead built-in non-replaceable battery is so much better for profits anyway.
Careful, let’s not feed into the nefarious ideas that manufacturers already have.
As a parent, you can’t escape these things. Most toys I’ve bought require either AA or AAA batteries, and they use them in their hundreds.
Same here but i bought a few packs of rechagable AA & AAA batteries when good sales were on (such as right now during black friday/cyber monday) and use them in the kids toys.
I find once they start getting bored of one thing and stop using it, i take them out to charge and usually they get rotated into the next best thing they have just got for their birthday or christmas.
Eventually, everything becomes obsolete given enough time. I recently heard the reason these kinds of batteries are still around is because lots of things use them and the reason things use them is because they’re widely available. In other words, these batteries won’t be going anywhere until it becomes cheaper or more viable to ship low-powered devices with their own batteries built-in.
The A battery has been obsolete for a long time now.
C, D, and 9v are on their way as what’s left of their dwindling niche use cases that are progressively being replaced by rechargable ones. Think of boombox, or flashlight. Maybe the 9v is still solid for something like multimeters, and I’ve seen that automatic room sprayer with C or D batteries.
For AA and AAA, tho? They’re not going anywhere for a long time. Even when all the flashy fun stuff all have their batteries in Lithium, or whatever comes next, a lot of the boring stuff would still be having them. I have this portable microphone I got from late 2010s that still use AA, and so are all my wall clocks. Also, there are good reasons why the walkie talkies have them as options.
Some rechargable forms have become universal now, like the 18650, but I think they won’t replace the smaller ones.
9v are on their way as what’s left of their dwindling niche use cases that are progressively being replaced by rechargable ones.
guitar guy here. 9v is here to stay, almost every peripheral or active pickup uses them.
Yeah, you’re right, they’re not going anywhere as well, they’re just so niche, a lot of people would probably spend their entire lives without seeing one.
C & D are definitely on their way out tho.
A already is and D and C seem on their way out. AA and AAA will likely need an equivalent that’s worth it to change over. 9v for smoke detectors is unlikely to be replaced by a battery, but I swear by mains connected smoke detectors.
Ultimately I wish these were being replaced by standardized rechargeable. Take common voltages/amperages and sizes and just make RA,RAA,RB… for simplicity. I love my rechargeable AA and AAA cells until then
Smoke detectors that use replaceable batteries are illegal in some places already.
Basically a modern smoke detector should have a non-replacable, 10 year sealed battery, and be discarded when it’s dead. The rest of the detector goes bad after that so it’s better to just have it all die at the same time.
18650 would be nice
I sure hope not, the only devices more than a few years old that still function are those with replaceable batteries. Removable batteries make devices simpler, more robust, and longer-lasting. Rechargeable, replaceable, removable, standardized batteries are the sweet spot for sure.
If my PlayStation or Switch controller dies, it becomes a wired controller I’m now tethered to. If my Xbox controller dies, I swap a couple eneloop batteries in and it’s good for another month. Advantage: replaceable rechargeable batteries.
This. I don’t have to wait for something to charge. I just swap and go.
You could also just charge your controller while you’re not playing. OC was about the batteries reaching end-of-life, not simply fully discharging.
Oh, I could just simply become a different person who plans ahead!? But seriously, I’ve also had controllers start not holding a charge, or they’re already dead when I try to turn them on…
My hope is that the size/voltage standard lasts forever while traditonal alkaline pile chemistries become obsolete and fade away. Seems like that’s kinda what’s happening too, love seeing all the rechargable AA fans in this thread :)
I think so, but I think it’s a bad development. Rechargeable devices tend to be non-repairable and ultimately bad for the environment. A, AAA, etc are ultimately just standardized interfaces with standardized form factors and voltage, the actual batteries are available in both one-time-use and rechargeable variants. I think we should keep them around as they enable us to use our devices for a longer time without costly repairs or even disposal of the device itself. This does not apply to very complex and energy intensive devices like smart phones though, as they obviously require more sophisticated and space optimized batteries.
I’d much rather see modern rechargeable batteries (Li-ion, maybe Na-ion in the future) in standardized, field-replaceable form factors.
This is already common in flashlights. In my pocket today is a flashlight running on an AA-size 14500 Li-ion. There’s a magnetic pad to recharge the battery with a proprietary cable, but I can also unscrew the tailcap and replace it with a spare, as most people expect from a flashlight. I can use AA in a pinch with reduced performance, though I’ll note supporting both voltage ranges takes extra work on the manufacturer’s part.
Being complex and energy-intensive doesn’t preclude batteries being standardized or field-replaceable. The issue with smartphones is that they have a highly optimized form factor.
I love the implication here that disposable batteries are good for the environment.
I think you got me wrong here. The implication should he that repairability is good for the environment and a standardized form factor enables repairability. It’s not the best solution but still better than everything glued in, but you seem to not agree on that one either, do you?
A good percentage of rechargeable cells are standardized too, they’re just not easily accessible. I don’t think it would take much to adjust the design of a thing to accept a replaceable battery in most simple items.
For example, I have a laser pointer that runs on rechargeable lithium batteries, you just unscrew it and put any standard 18650 cell in directly.
Mimd blown:
I prefer the regular ones. Seems weird to have a port on my battery
Yeah that extra circuitry costs 400mAh vs my rechargeables with a base, plus it makes them more stealable.
2400mah? No way they’re that small, that’s basically the size of a phone battery, hell an iPhone 16 has a 3600mah battery.
Fun fact: amp hours are a measurement of discharge over time… I can probably explain this better with an example actually. 48v100ah is four times the capacity of 12v100ah, they can both put 1 amp for 100 hours but at different voltages that’s a different amount of… power? Energy? I always get them mixed up. Anyways the AA guys are 1.5v vs the ~3.7v of a phone battery, so the same amp-hour measurement is a little less than half as much juice. Hope that helps, I’m a little stoned tonight lol
These standard AA rechargeables are 2500, from what other users are saying about losing capacity for the charging circuit, seems accurate:
Putting the charger circuit inside the battery takes away battery capacity, so I still buy the external chargers
D and C are almost obsolete already.
AA and AAA I have bought things that require them this year so I doubt it will happen in our lifetime.
As for rechargeable it’s twice the effort to find the charger every two years instead of just using the one time batteries.
As for rechargeable it’s twice the effort to find the charger every two years instead of just using the one time batteries.
I’ve actually seen USB to USB-C rechargeable AA batteries for sale. I’ve never tried them so I have no idea personally how good they are but the reviews seem positive. I think that could be the way forward as long as it’s a standard charging cable for the batteries.
They can be good but the voltages don’t always match alkaline cells so you can sometimes burn through them quicker than if you’d use standard alkaline.
That’s good to know.
These are the way. They usually come with a cable that splits from one USB A to four or more USB C. So you have a spot to charge them normally, but you can also give them a quick charge when you’re out and about with any random cable you have if you can’t find the splitter. And they charge much quicker than using a battery charger.
They seemed 12 times more expensive than the one use batteries. So only makes sense for stuff you use often.
As for rechargeable it’s twice the effort to find the charger every two years instead of just using the one time batteries.
I recommend keeping some charged spares and the charger in the same place.
Yeah, OP surely has a place they keep batteries so they don’t make a trip to the store every time a remote dies.
Anyway, I’d recommend that charger be one that charges AA/AAA individually instead of requiring pairs. Mine is a Panasonic BQ-CC17 that came with a set of Eneloops.
That does raise another issue: some of the retail-grade chargers are pretty terrible and may have led some people to a bad impression of how rechargeable batteries perform.
A charger should charge cells individually, at a reasonably fast rate, and terminate correctly to prevent overcharging. Yours hits two points out of three: it’s individual and correct, but slow.
I’ve seen that site before and) but can’t remember if it influenced my decision before purchase or just confirmed it. But good link. I acknowledge it’s slow, but at this point I have enough extra batteries, I can handle it as long as I charge the dead ones upon swap. Still, I’d say a 4th consideration is price point, at which I think these were acceptable. Somewhere above fictional company items on Amazon, below RC hobby grade
But if I only need one every other year I’ll have to charge the thing before I use it anyway. Besides should you not store rechargeable Li-batteries at 50-80%?
I had NiMH batteries in mind since we’re talking about types that come in alkaline, and low-self-discharge NiMH batteries (e.g. white Eneloops) are generally fine to fully charge before storage.
You might end up with a bit shorter runtimes storing charged batteries for years than charging them right before use, but it doesn’t matter much when your runtimes are measured in years.
There’s one potential snag with certain low-power devices though: a few only work in the 1.3-1.5V range. That’s terrible design since it doesn’t use most of the power in an alkaline, but some of those won’t work at all with NiMH.
My cat flap needs 4 C batteries every 6 months.
I can’t wait to throw out all my flashlights because they don’t have USB-D and I don’t have the right cord to charge them anymore. This is almost certainly better for the shareholders.
We can still buy serial and parallel cables 25 years after they became mostly irrelevant. You’ll be cold in the ground before everyone stops selling usb-c.
As if youre not already throwing out sets of batteries and buying new ones every time they go dead.
YSK: Nitecore makes USB-C rechargeable AA batteries that are 1.5 volts like a standard alkanine batteries and not 1.2 volts like your typical rechargeable Ni-Mh batteries.
And if those specific ones aren’t available where you live, there’s a very similar range from a brand called “Pale Blue”.
Theirs are available in AAA, AA, C, D, 9V, and CR123.
Obsolete would imply a better in every way alternative. Kinda think they fall into the technology category of timeless and always useful. It’s hard to think of a safer, cheaper, higher capacity, disposable and more utilitarian form factor. Kinda like asking “will shovels ever become obsolete?”
The main reason that they’re nearly impossible to obsolete is that AA, etc. are just shapes (and voltages).
- Zinc-Carbon AAs have become functionally impossible to find because alkaline cells are better in basically every way.
- Lithium disposables beat alkaline in longevity, but lose in cost
and are only 1.2V. - NiMH are
also1.2V, but are rechargeable; they last longer overall, but are much more expensive and have much worse self-drain while not in use - Li-Ion cells are far too high-voltage for AAs, but they’re also so much higher-density that it’s sometimes worth putting a step-down circuit in the battery to get it to 1.5V. That removes most of the density advantage, but it’s the only way to use rechargeable batteries to power devices that can’t run at 1.2V.
Carbon-Zinc batteries are basically impossible to find, yes. They were pretty much entirely superseded by Zinc Chloride batteries, which are fairly easy to find. They’re often marketed with the phrase “heavy duty” though they’re lower in capacity to alkalines.
Lithium disposables beat alkaline in longevity, but lose in cost and are only 1.2V.
They’re about 1.6V open-circuit, and maintain 1.5V under light load for a large portion of their discharge cycle. They maintain 1.5V much longer than alkaline.
They’re terribly expensive for regular use compared to pretty much any other option though.
My mistake, fixed.
9V batteries are absolutely obsolete and only exist still because of smoke detectors and theyre always low on charge even right out of the package. Same with C and D batteries. AAA and AA still have their uses though.
Obsolete but still in use, hmmmmmm
Always the possibility we invent a way to make them smaller, more compact, or higher voltage
None of those things improve the insertable battery. Their size and voltage are what makes them useful. A smaller, higher voltage AA battery is an entirely useless AA battery.
ome can only.hope
I Hope C cells specifically do.
