After a discussion with some friends about how poor the quality was of some “high profile” brands of alkaline cells I decided to do a test. I got a load of different alkaline cells from various sources and put them on my own improvised Ah capacity tester. The tester was made back when there wasn’t such an array of sophisticated chargers/testers available, so it was simply a quartz clock enabled by a reed switch that had its coil forming part of a simple load designed to test cells at an average 500mA load. The clock is reset to zero and then runs until the connected cells voltage drops to around 0.75V which is conveniently the “end of life” voltage of alkaline cells. The result is read in mAh capacity with the clock face graduated in 100mAh increments corresponding to the minute positions. The hour hand has a longer pointer attached to indicate the result and the second hand is cut down for use merely as an indicator that the test is still running.
The results were as follows:-
Kodak zinc chloride (just for reference) 0.85Ah
Duracell “Simple” 1.7Ah
Kodak Extralife (Poundland) 2.0Ah
Duracell standard 2.2Ah
Powercell (Pound World) 2.3Ah
Fusiomax Endurance (Poundland) 2.65Ah
Things worthy of note. The first Duracell-Simple cell I tested had an unrealistically low result of 0.4Ah. It’s partner cell in a pack of two dated to 2018 had a capacity of 1.7Ah.
Duracell came at the bottom of the list by a VERY long chalk in terms of value. They rather cheekily state “Last longer – MUCH LONGER” on their packaging and then justify this statement in very small print with “vs a zinc carbon cell.” Well yes… ANY alkaline cell should outlast a zinc carbon cell. Although one of the Duracell ones didn’t!
The winner for sheer single cell capacity was the Poundland Fusiomax Endurance which achieved the highest result I’ve ever recorded from an alkaline cell at 2.65Ah.
For sheer value in terms of energy to cost the winner was the Pound World Powercell which offered almost 14 Ah for your pound versus Duracell’s scrawny 3.4Ah to the pound. (less than a quarter the value)
It’s worth mentioning that although alkaline cells can leak if abused, they are not prone to electrolyte leakage in the same way that zinc chloride cells are. I strongly recommend against using zinc chloride cells in ANY application as they have a low capacity and will almost certainly leak when fully discharged.
Ignore the “heavy duty” or “high energy” text on packs of zinc chloride cells they are a kickback to the point in history where they were the “new thing” compared to the older zinc carbon technology. The only non-rechargeable cells I recommend are alkaline cells.
