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Battery Sizes - Why so many?
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Author:  Midgen [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:45 am ]
Post subject:  Battery Sizes - Why so many?
I've been trying to find a battery for an oddball digital caliper I bought online. It uses one of those small coin style batteries (a very small coin in this case). I managed to lose the original battery that came with it, and like a doofus, failed to note the specific battery type it had in it.

I started searching online, and even made a trip to Radio Shack with the caliper in hand, and I've not been able to figure out which battery it takes.

I guess my main rant is really for the chinaman who made the thing failing to label the battery type on or inside the unit, and I guess I deserve a little of my own wrath for not noting the battery type.

But dangity, there are a LOT of battery types, and in many cases, there are several names/model numbers for each one.

Wiki "List of Battery Sizes" page :shock:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes

Why do we need so many sizes?

here is a visual representation of just a few...
Image
Author:  bale [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:49 am ]
Post subject: 
googling the caliper's model # and looking for a user's manual with its specs inside didn't work?
Author:  Serienya [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:11 am ]
Post subject: 
I've had the same problem. I hate that they don't label things all of the time. If I have to go find the damn manual every time I want to change a damn battery...
Author:  Taamar [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:45 am ]
Post subject: 
When you get a new item with an odd battery size open the manual immediately and write the battery size needed inside the battery cover with a sharpie. And then go buy the replacement battery and toss it in the place you keep batteries. If you're really on-point write the name of the thing on the battery package.
Author:  Corolinth [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Battery Sizes - Why so many?
There are several reasons.

First among them, as you may have noticed, the devices themselves vary wildly in both size and shape. Some devices are just shaped funny, and don't take a normal battery. One would not look at a cell phone and expect a D-cell battery to fit inside and power it like certain flashlights. That brings up another good point as to why the D-cell if AA or AAA cell batteries can also power a flashlight? We can use AAAs, but a D-cell fits more naturally into an adult's hand, and it makes the flashlight larger and harder to lose. We could just use thicker plastic or metal to make the housing, I suppose, but that's much more expensive than just making a bigger hollow tube to fit a bigger battery. Sometimes your flashlight needs to double as a bludgeoning weapon.

Also, the D-cell operates at the same voltage as the smaller batteries mentioned, but is physically larger. It contains more energy. We have different sizes of batteries because devices have different energy requirements. Batteries are typically hooked up in series, so adding more batteries increases the voltage the device operates at, but not necessarily the length of time it will run. Hooking batteries up in parallel would, but that gets cumbersome of you've chained four batteries together to get 6V. If you want to hook up extra batteries to add more running time to the device, you need to double up each battery. So now we have eight batteries instead of four. Maybe you don't want to put six AA batteries together to get 9V, and would be better off just using a single battery.

Lastly, electronic equipment is manufactured in many different countries. I don't really have time to research where all of those batteries originated, and it's possible every one of them originated in the United States, but consider this: main power and wall outlets used around the world. We don't have an international standard for the power going to your wall, nor do we have a standard for the plug you stick into the wall and the hole it jacks into. Now, unless you travel outside North America, that's not going to be an issue for you, because we do have a standard within the continent. A battery-powered radio is a lot easier to ship overseas, though. We've been doing that for several decades now, so it's possible that we have a lot of different batteries designed in different countries that have gotten shuffled around and just haven't died out.
Author:  Shelgeyr [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
What kills me is that many small electronic devices are actually cheaper to re-purchase than the replacement batteries. This of course doesn't apply to the "batteries not included" variety of devices, but it's somewhat disconcerting that it's occasionally cheaper to throw something away and buy a brand new one than it would be to just replace the batteries.
Author:  Midgen [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
bale wrote:
googling the caliper's model # and looking for a user's manual with its specs inside didn't work?


There is no model number on it, and the manufacterer makes several types, apparently they all don't use the same battery.

I bought the most obvious replacement (SR44/387) at Radio shack (my other pair of calipers uses this battery), but it's too tight of a fit, and if I force it in, the thing acts erratically.

I think i'm just going to toss the thing in favor of a non-digital replacement.

Screw batteries...

And Taamar. Your solution requires far more foresight and common sense than I am capable of (See Lydiaa's thread on guy training - I'm beyond hope on stuff like that at my age).
Author:  Serienya [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Taamar wrote:
When you get a new item with an odd battery size open the manual immediately and write the battery size needed inside the battery cover with a sharpie. And then go buy the replacement battery and toss it in the place you keep batteries. If you're really on-point write the name of the thing on the battery package.


I did this for the part numbers of the replacement filters on all of my air purifiers. :)

Good thing I just bought a white sharpie - black battery cases seem to be the norm for the stuff I have!
Author:  FarSky [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
Shelgeyr wrote:
What kills me is that many small electronic devices are actually cheaper to re-purchase than the replacement batteries. This of course doesn't apply to the "batteries not included" variety of devices, but it's somewhat disconcerting that it's occasionally cheaper to throw something away and buy a brand new one than it would be to just replace the batteries.

I do this with printers.
Author:  LadyKate [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Re:
FarSky wrote:
Shelgeyr wrote:
What kills me is that many small electronic devices are actually cheaper to re-purchase than the replacement batteries. This of course doesn't apply to the "batteries not included" variety of devices, but it's somewhat disconcerting that it's occasionally cheaper to throw something away and buy a brand new one than it would be to just replace the batteries.

I do this with printers.





Spoiler:
Image
Author:  Diamondeye [ Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Battery Sizes - Why so many?
Corolinth wrote:
Lastly, electronic equipment is manufactured in many different countries. I don't really have time to research where all of those batteries originated, and it's possible every one of them originated in the United States, but consider this: main power and wall outlets used around the world. We don't have an international standard for the power going to your wall, nor do we have a standard for the plug you stick into the wall and the hole it jacks into.



In Iraq, I found that when I moved from base to base the outlets were different, depending on when and from what source the supplies for that base camp were purchased. Fortunately I had a clever adapter that could actually be changed in configuration to fit (as far as I know) every single type of typical power outlet in the world. It could probably have been configured a dozen different ways. I just plugged my power strip into it and I was set. The power strip itself could have accepted at least 4 or 5 different types of plugs.
Author:  Taamar [ Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Battery Sizes - Why so many?
Diamondeye wrote:
Fortunately I had a clever adapter that could actually be changed in configuration to fit (as far as I know) every single type of typical power outlet in the world.


Those are awesome, but they were the bane of my existence in Germany. I worked at the PX on a British base and the Brits would come in and buy American electronics and a little converter plug and then come back complaining when the thing blew up when they plugged it in without a transformer.
Author:  Diamondeye [ Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Battery Sizes - Why so many?
Fortunately nowadays most common electronics such as laptops will work on European voltage as well as American. It was more common things like light bulbs that blew up.
Author:  Taamar [ Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Battery Sizes - Why so many?
Diamondeye wrote:
Fortunately nowadays most common electronics such as laptops will work on European voltage as well as American. It was more common things like light bulbs that blew up.


These things. Lots of them. And the space heaters.
Image
Author:  Sam [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:33 am ]
Post subject: 
As for "coin" type batteries, I've had more luck finding them at the local Walgreen or drug store. Our radio shack seems to have a poor selection most times.

My wife bought a ceiling fan she really wanted for the bedroom, and it comes with a wireless remote that fits in the wall switch panel. The bad part is it can't be hard wired (it has a dimmer for two sets of lights, and the fan has reverse and 3 speeds) and the battery it takes I can only find at radio shack.

The battery is expensive, and the first 5 or so we bought we later found out were from a "bad batch" which lasted only a couple of months of limited use.
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