While looking for uses for old disposable AA batteries, I ran across the Batteriser from 2015. Clearly, it was a flop of some sort, as I am posting in 2024. What happened? Are there any iterations that do work?
https://money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/technology/make-battery-last-longer-batteriser/index.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batteroo_Boost
Also, are there any uses for old batteries?
I think it has the wrong voltage. 4.2V instead of 1.5V.
I know nothing, but I am surprised the voltage issue cannot be efficiently fixed with a circuit.
@ripe_banana@lemmy.world posted a link to such a product, it’s possible. The question is: is it viable…
The chemicals in NiMH rechargeable batteries aren’t that rare/expensive and it works.
Adding a circuit needs additional space in that small form-factor that takes away from the space the actual battery could occupy. And the circuit needs power itself. And the chips costs additional money, and it’s more complicated to manufacture which costs yet more money. I can only imagine you end up with a product that’s about on the same level with the regular batteries, just more expensive.
And I’m not sure about the market for AA batteries. Nowadays lots of products have batteries soldered inside of them. And the next step in tech is probably not a backwards-compatible AA battery, but something like the 18650, which is already widely adopted. And they come in the size of AA batteries as well, called: 14500 Lithium Batteries.