Yes You Can! Recharge Your Alkaline Batteries
Don’t even think about recycling: used AA and AAA disposable batteries can now be given new life.
If you’re like me, you probably have a bunch of dead AA and AAA batteries rattling around in a drawer—possibly scattered among several drawers. You can’t throw them in the trash or even in the blue box. And even though since July 1 all household batteries (alkaline and rechargeable) can be recycled at almost 1,500 collection locations across B.C., you still have to take them there.
This Should Get You Juiced
There is another alternative: “disposable” AA and AAA alkaline batteries can now be recharged and reused. In May, Rona launched its Eco alkaline battery charger, which it claims is the first one to be certified in Canada. At $59.99, it’s not cheap, but the only other alkaline battery chargers I found were the Battery Xtender (tagline “More Power to You”), whose website appears to be perpetually under construction, and Canadian Tire’s Blue Planet Alkaline Family Charger, which costs just $26.99 but only recharges Blue Planet batteries.
I picked up an Eco charger from Rona, plugged it in and started recharging. It can accommodate four AA or AAA batteries at a time, or a mix of the two types. And it’s quick, completely recharging a battery in 90 minutes or less. By the end of the day, I had 18 AA and six AAA batteries that were good to go. They can apparently be recharged up to 200 times, raising the average life expectancy of a battery from eight hours to 1,600 hours.
The charger will also tell you if a battery is deader than a doornail—unlike recharge- ables, alkaline batteries should not be fully drained—or fully charged—since you can’t tell by looking at them, I discovered that a couple of what I’d thought were used batteries were perfectly good.
The only slightly tricky part of using the charger, at least for me, was interpreting the signal lights. There is a light for each recharging slot that can be red or green, steady or flashing, depending on whether the battery is dead or damaged, fully charged, charging or the charger is on but empty. Still, it’s satisfying to see the cute little buglike device winking away as it recharges my used batteries and saves me a trip to unload them. —Felicity Stone
The Eco charger from Rona is available in stores. Visit www.rona.ca to find the one nearest you.
Photo: iStock
You said “recharging a battery in 90 minutes or less. By the end of the day, I had 18 AA and six AAA batteries that were good to go. They can apparently be recharged up to 200 times,”
And from the Eco website “When a typical alkaline battery runs out of power, usually there is 20% power left within the battery that still can be used, so this charger is able to reactivate the remaining charge within the alkaline battery making it go an extra mile.
For the first time after the alkaline battery is activated, it can be recharged to a maximum of 20% and after which the non-rechargeable batteries can still be recharged for up to 3 cycles
Ricki: Where do you see that on the Eco Website? I read through the site and the product manual, and I cannot find the text that you quoted.
How long can a recharged alkaline battery last
in a digital HD video camera ? 10 Minutes I heard.
So you get to use the remaining %20 after reactivation ?
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