Extending Battery Life

[Silent Bob]

Okay,

Here is something I am totally at a loss and maybe one of you has a better idea that I do. The wife has told me to quit placing batteries and my stock of medicine prescriptions in her refrigerator or she would start throwing batteries at me. Being the smart guy that has been married for 26 years now, I gave her the "Yes Dear" look.

Normally I store the stuff in the garage refrigerator, but the compressor died and it was claimed by the dump a month ago. I have a mini-refrigerator at work, but it will be another 4 weeks before I bring it home (the life of a gypsy...aka teacher). So the medication will stay, but the batteries are now in room temp, I've switched out the old ones in the flashlights, radios, etc...but still have a good many sitting on the work bench now.

So this brought up my question to you all. Where else do you store them and how else but storing them in a cold refrigerator do you extend their shelf life? I always check the dates before buying them, always buy then from rack at the front of the store and never ones that have been discounted for fear that they have something wrong with them (lack of charge, etc).

This does not affect my rechargeable ones, but even those I store in a cool spot.

So has anyone done anything different, other than the icebox process?

 

[Gazrok]

Just stock the rechargeable ones. Personally, I'm working on making a metal storage cabinet into a Faraday cage cabinet, in the garage, where I'll keep my electronics and electric power tools. That way, still easily accessible, but when stored, they'll be passively protected from any kind of EMP attack.

Other things to keep there (besides batteries and chargers), handheld radios, flashlights, spare truck/tractor/mower/generator electronics parts, power tools, meter/tester, electronic medical equipment, stud finder/laser ruler, radios, truck batteries, tractor battery, mower battery, solar charger, night vision monoculars.

 

[jimLE]

other then tv ac and dvd remotes.i buy rechargeables only.for right now im only going with whats needed..this way i can swap them out when needed.for example.i have a small led flashlight that uses 3AAA batteries.and so does my eton radio.i swap them out when the ones in my flashlight runs down enough for me to do that.and of course i use my eton to recharge the ones i put into it.not sure.but i've heard that its best to use the batteries that a person has instead of storing them.on account they last longer that way.

 

[Silent Bob]

Just stock the rechargeable ones. Personally, I'm working on making a metal storage cabinet into a Faraday cage cabinet, in the garage, where I'll keep my electronics and electric power tools. That way, still easily accessible, but when stored, they'll be passively protected from any kind of EMP attack.

Other things to keep there (besides batteries and chargers), handheld radios, flashlights, spare truck/tractor/mower/generator electronics parts, power tools, meter/tester, electronic medical equipment, stud finder/laser ruler, radios, truck batteries, tractor battery, mower battery, solar charger, night vision monoculars.

So are you literally building the storage cabinet to store everything, must be a very large locker if your talking tractor battery, truck battery, etc..

 

[Silent Bob]

other then tv ac and dvd remotes.i buy rechargeables only.for right now im only going with whats needed..this way i can swap them out when needed.for example.i have a small led flashlight that uses 3AAA batteries.and so does my eton radio.i swap them out when the ones in my flashlight runs down enough for me to do that.and of course i use my eton to recharge the ones i put into it.not sure.but i've heard that its best to use the batteries that a person has instead of storing them.on account they last longer that way.

Yes, I was using both types, rechargeable ones I was putting into climate control storage for long-term build up, but was not sure how long they would have, once the 5 year recommended shelf life. I've had a few that I bought 6 year ago which are not sharing the charge, granted the stuff was just hitting the market at the time. So who knows. I've got more in the home and wife was saying she wanted her salad storage container back. Hence I wrote the thread to see what everyone else was doing.

Amazed Gazrok is going to build that storage container to fit all that stuff. I've got some homemade cages made, 2-3 50 gallon steel garbage containers that I went ahead and placed cardboard in them. At school, last summer more as a time filler, we did a science project with the one, so it worked fine.

 

[jimLE]

i have a electric charger and 2D batteries since 2009.bought them for a flashlight i bought same year..and the batteries still take and hold a charge like they're suppose to..but thinking it's at least close to time on replaceing those ones

 

[Silent Bob]

Wow that is pretty good Jim considering all the use and decharges/recharges. I'll make another attempt to recharge them and see what I can get out of them. Thanks

 

[jimLE]

oh yeah.IF im not mistaken.i only have to recharge them once every 2 to 3 weeks.on account i dont use that flashlight that much..but yet,like you pointed out...that still adds up thoe

 

[Snowflake]

Sorry Bob I'm not much help here, I like fire light too much. Not sure how cool the soil/ground is around you....Not really good for easy access in the dark tho.
Your a wise man to listen well to your wife/Commander in charge...hehe!

 

[Clyde]

I'm working on making a metal storage cabinet into a Faraday cage cabinet, in the garage, where I'll keep my electronics and electric power tools. That way, still easily accessible, but when stored, they'll be passively protected from any kind of EMP attack.

Haw's the farady cabinet/cage coming along? I need to look for some directions to make one as I have several items i need to store as well. most importantly ham radios.

 

[Gazrok]

The cabinet I was going to get was rusted when I went to look at it, so still shopping around for a decent price. I did pick up some of the aluminum tape though. Going to use it for all the edges and corners, to make a good seal, and then use it to make kind of a gasket for closing. Other than that, here's the vid where I got the idea: