Question from R Zamastil
Our household seems to go through a staggering amount of batteries. These can only be recycled at our county’s household hazardous waste day. Can you tell me about the newer rechargable batteries? It used to be that you couldn’t use them in everything and they didn’t hold a charge for long. We tried them in our kids’ baby swings/bouncers, but that was ten yrs ago. I’ve now started seeing batteries similar to those in cell phones. Any suggestions/reviews would be appreciated. Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
I found some rechargable batteries called E-Cells which are literally miniature versions of the same hydrogen fuel cells that power today’s hybrid cars. They are scientifically engineered to work harder than traditional rechargeables. Each battery runs 10 times longer than alkalines and can be charged in excess of 1000 times. This will save you thousands of dollars. You can use these like alkaline batteries in any device.
I have to admit I bought a battery recharger a few years ago along with some rechargable NiCads. It was a good idea, but didn’t actually get used. The problem was we never set up a “battery station” where we could “drop off” batteries to be recharged and pick up the recharged batteries for use. Because we didn’t have that process set up somewhere, when we needed to recharge, we couldn’t find the recharger, there were no recharged batteries to use, etc. So it’s important to have everything set up for easy use to make this work.
Readers, what are your experiences with rechargable batteries?
We use rechargeable batteries. They are useful as we have lots of things that require batteries. Most things require two and a few require four AA batteries. The largest one we can charge though is the D batteries. I want to try Enloop ones though as they are supposed to keep a higher charge and they have forms to mimic the shape of C and D batteries using the AA ones.