Why Pay for Batteries Ever Again?

Sep 07

Lately I have seen a couple videos of how to get multiple smaller batteries by breaking open a larger battery. It really makes you wonder if you ever need to spend $20 on a pack of AAA’s ever again! I wonder if these batteries are of as high quality as those that you buy in stores.

32 AA’s from a $5 6V Battery

Button Cells from a 12V Battery

6 AAA’s from a 9V Battery

11 Comments so far »

Pascal Venier said

am September 20 2007 @ 8:53 am

Now, could it perhaps be a spoof?

The clip credits shows that it comes from a comedy site: http://gagfilms.com/
Mike Perry said

am September 26 2007 @ 3:30 pm

The high-quality question is a good one. Someone should test these batteries against the pricer ones sold separately. I suspect they are, since if they weren’t the larger batteries they’re sold with wouldn’t last long.

It once worked in a tire factory. An engineer told me that tires for small cars cost almost as much as those for large cars, the only difference was the cost of materials. But tire companies sold them for less because that was what customers expected. I suspect there’s something similar here. People have a price range they’ll pay for batteries, either a tiny AAA or a large 6 volt battery. In this case they overcharge for the smaller ones, making most of their profit there. And they cut production costs by using smaller batteries to make larger ones.
Snopes fan said

am December 9 2007 @ 12:27 am

Actually, I found that this is incorrect. Here you go, research for yourself before trying something that is actually dangerous. http://www.snopes.com/photos/humor/batteryhack.asp
cody c said

am December 9 2007 @ 1:16 pm

the one about the 32 AA’s in the 6V battery is bullshit. I bought a 6V lantern battery, the exact same showed above,
and it had 4 D batteries in it.
Jason said

am December 9 2007 @ 1:28 pm

In 9 volts, those are not AAA. They are AAAA, which are a bit smaller than a AAA.
Jeremy said

am December 9 2007 @ 2:48 pm

I tried this with a lot of different brands. The only ones that I found would work are the Energizers (and only some of these). It is really easy to waste a great deal of money trying this. It seems as though the battery companies are catching on. Anybody who’s tried it will tell you, it’s a pain to find the ones that will work.
mike said

am December 9 2007 @ 3:19 pm

Gullible. These videos that claim you can open a large battery and get several smaller ones are fake.
Jake S. said

am December 9 2007 @ 4:59 pm

If this does in fact work, it could also be a major case of paying for packaging.

In the case of the lantern battery, they used energizer batteries as an example, in that case you may be paying alot for just the name and some fancy packaging, whereas on the inside of the lantern battery, you get batteries in that cheap primer gray looking color.

As far as the twelve volt, I think Mike hit the nail right on the head, because when people think of batteries, the price that pops into their mind is about 5-6 dollars, also, I don’t think I ever would have bought a lantern battery in my life if it weren’t for this hack, so battery companies don’t produce nearly as many, and therefore have to make them cheaper in order to keep them moving.

Thats my two cents.

Has anyone tested this yet?
Bill Vincent said

am December 9 2007 @ 5:12 pm

Wow, I’m quite tired of these videos. It’s a spoof, people, a joke, a con, a funny.

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/006.2/index.html

Above link shows what is ACTUALLY inside most lantern batteries. Other kinds of batteries have power cells in them, and rarely, if ever, are they of a size that can be used in any commercial device.
Bill Vincent said

am December 9 2007 @ 5:13 pm

FTW, here’s a snopes article on this recent surge in ‘battery hack’ vids.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/humor/batteryhack.asp
0cdb40a14232 said

am May 10 2008 @ 6:27 pm

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