New Duracell batteries?

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Duracell has this new ad blitz (I see them on Hulu but they’re probably on cable too) of this new battery technology that can somehow either provide more power/performance or a longer battery life.

Is this complete Marketing BS? How would the battery be able to tell?

In: Chemistry

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

> How would the battery be able to tell?

How would a hammer be able to tell if it’s heavier than the average hammer?

It can’t because it’s an inanimate object, duh.

If you buy a handful of old style duracells and a bunch of the new ones then measure their performance when discharging, then you can form a conclusion about the battery improvements, but IMO it’s asking a bit much from a battery to have crippling self-image issues at this point.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Alkaline batteries are pretty old technology now. Energizer has a line of lithium batteries that do out preform alkaline batteries. Without spending the time to google wth the new Duracell batteries happen to be my best guess is that they are lithium batteries to compete with the energizer product.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s *partially* marketing BS.

When you get down to it, a battery is a battery is a battery. No matter the technology involved, every alkaline battery operates under the same principles as every other alkaline battery, and every lithium-ion battery is functionally the same as every other lithium-ion battery.

Could a battery manufacturer come up with a novel technology that increases their battery’s life? Sure, that kind of thing happens all the time. The only way to truly provide ‘more power’, however, is to increase the amount of chemical reactant in the battery (which usually means it has to be larger, and for rechargeable batteries, will increase charging time), or use a different chemical mixture (which is often impractical or produces a battery that’s unsafe for household use).

So, a battery that promises ‘more power’ in a household battery without a corresponding increase in size is probably just being tricky with words, while a battery that uses technological measures to prolong battery life is a distinct possibility, but may just be smoke and mirrors.