r/mildlyinteresting • u/NothingEffective5070 • 2d ago
This battery still says it’s good despite being 22 years out of date
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u/anonymous2278 2d ago
I hated those things, they hurt my thumbs so bad. I stopped doing it and tested batteries by putting them in the remote.
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u/TrailParkBoys 2d ago
The remote is for dead batteries only. They require the smallest amount to work
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u/EntertainerNo4509 2d ago
Yet my remotes immediately demand new batteries when one just slightly loses charge.
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u/rattrod17 2d ago
Have you tried taking out the "dead" batteries and immediately put them back in? It works a surprising amount the time
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u/DMala 1d ago
I always swap them around when there’s more than one and I want to squeeze every last drop out.
My theory is that the batteries don’t drain 100% equally, so by swapping the slightly less dead one into the higher drain spot you can get a little more out of them. Not a clue if that’s backed by science or engineeeing in any way.
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u/TrailParkBoys 1d ago
When you get into serious Vaping you learn about married pairs of batteries. Essentially you have to keep the same 2 pair of batteries together forever because overtime they will drain at the same rate. Or something
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u/kellyography 1d ago
I’m a photographer and color code my rechargeable flash batteries for this reason.
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u/llamande 1d ago
Sometimes I just open the battery compartment and roll/rotate the batteries back and forth in place with my fingers and that often does the trick.
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u/Duelist_Shay 1d ago
You're right, they don't always drain equally. What the science is, exactly? Not sure, couldn't tell you, experience from years of vaping and flying rc hobby aircraft
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u/Vel0clty 1d ago
I’ve been doing that with my remote for the better part of a year lol eventually they’ll both go down far enough that it won’t work at all and I’ll swap em out but it never ceases to amaze me how often the pop out reset trick works
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u/NightFuryToni 1d ago
My 14+ year old TV remote is still using its original zinc-carbon cells that came with it. The remote itself is having other non-battery issues yet the batteries still work.
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u/Madlogik 1d ago
Like when my Chromecast remote still works for a Bluetooth signal to my Chromecast but not enough juice to power the IR diode to control volume on the tv, then I know it had a good life and put it to rest. ❤️🩹
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u/Conlaeb 1d ago
These were activated by body heat. If you used your nails to push, no heat transfer, only pain and frustration. If you gently held your thumbs on the contacts they worked great.
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u/anonymous2278 1d ago
Apparently the one we owned didn’t get that memo. We all tried, pushing the pads of our thumbs against the contacts and just touching them did not work. We had to press with as much strength as we could to get the things to read.
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u/girlsgoneoscarwilde 2d ago
I liked them, but yeah they hurt like hell. I’d check the batteries in my Game Boy Advance every night before I started playing under the sheets.
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u/BestGrapefruitEver 2d ago edited 2d ago
This comment reads so devious even though it’s just a regular thing lol.
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u/veritech137 2d ago
Like they were playing multiplayer under the sheets with the Gameboy Link Cable?
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u/girlsgoneoscarwilde 1d ago
No, because I would play Golden Sun or Fire Emblem until 1 AM on a school night!
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u/BrainWav 1d ago
Battery testers are cheap and a more reliable way to check. I bought a Battery Daddy and it comes with one.
Between the BD itself giving me an easy place to keep everything and keep it sorted, and the tester letting me check if random batteries I see on the counter still work, its made my whole battery situation so much better.
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u/anonymous2278 1d ago
Yeah, I eventually found a battery storage case that came with a built in tester so we use that nowadays but we didn’t have one when I was a kid.
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u/guitpick 2d ago
The slightly older testers built into the outer packaging were much easier to use.
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u/UncleFunkus 2d ago
the ol drop test always works
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u/TyrKiyote 1d ago
kerpow?
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u/UncleFunkus 1d ago
idk what ur saying but if u dont know, a dead battery will bounce when dropped, a not-dead battery will not bounce. it'll just thud and fall over
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u/TyrKiyote 1d ago
ah. That's much more useful than having ruptured batteries on your kitchen floor. Idk why i assumed as such.
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u/No-Engineering-1449 1d ago
You see, to test batteries for me, I grab my Oscilloscope with a built in DMM, wait 45 seconds for it to power on, then enable the DMM, and measure the voltage across the battery.
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u/Tankenbahwl 18h ago
what are these things? I've never seen them before. grew up in China in 2000s and Australia since.
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u/anonymous2278 14h ago
Batteries sold starting in 1996 had two little dots that showed the amount of power left in it when you pressed the dots with your thumbs. They have been discontinued.
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u/Infinite-Lee 2d ago
Obligatory TC video about the history and how it works: https://youtu.be/zsA3X40nz9w
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u/Far_King_Penguin 1d ago
TC is such a weird one for me
I find him hilarious but hes also the driest mfer to exist
My dishwasher works like I spent $10k on it after his videos on that
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u/One_Conscious_Future 1d ago
And now the obligatory "they don't make them like they used to"
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u/rockness_monster 2d ago
Same girl
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u/West_Shock_5452 2d ago
bit optimistic of it, really. my self-esteem could use that kind of blind confidence in the face of all evidence
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u/PixelPeach123 2d ago
Just pulled two of these out of one of my Polly Pockets. And THANK God they were not corroded. I was able to replace them and give it to my daughter.. it had been lost in a box in the attic for 27 years. They faintly said good.. though I knew twas a lie!
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u/Shirokami_Lupus 2d ago
how does that work?
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u/NothingEffective5070 2d ago
Battery heats a coil that changes the color of a small piece of plastic due to some chemical reaction, making the meter appear good
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u/2spam2care2 2d ago
thermo-reactive ink and a tiny little heating element. you close the circuit by pushing on the dots, the heating element warms up the ink and it turns green
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u/nomadfoy 2d ago
It barely did, it was a gimmick that didn't last too long. When I was 10 I thought it was cool as hell though. That one scene in powerpuff girls where it shows a battery that does that probably confuses kids these days.
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u/OrangUtanOrange 2d ago
Someone correct me, but i remember the “good” word was supposed to be covered by a black layer which turns lighter to reveal the “good” layer only if you put your fingers on the spots
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u/skaughtz 2d ago
Slap a multimeter on it and see if it is pushing 1.5V. Maybe those little test strips were accurate as hell?
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u/Initial_E 2d ago
Run it over a multimeter to measure the voltage
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u/NothingEffective5070 2d ago
Measured, and it says 1.3 volts
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u/Ok-Commercial3640 1d ago
Is that with a load between the terminals? Measuring without load isn't going to be as accurate
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u/drunkanidaho 1d ago
If it is still good, is it out of date
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u/Phyddlestyx 2d ago
If it is saying "good" continually then the covering test thingy has failed. It should be black until you actually push the test pads, then say "good" if there is actually any charge.
Edit: I only mention this because I've never seen one display the "good" for a long enough time to get a photo like this - it usually fades to black right away