Great AA Alkaline Battery Test – Pt 1: Battery Testing Fundamentals
Regular readers would probably know that I have a love of batteries, and their associated test equipment. Maybe it was the fact that they were expensive, but pervasive, and my enjoyment as a child relied quite heavily on batteries to power Walkmans and CD players amongst other things is the reason that I think so fondly about them.
Christmas really came early for me, being the lucky recipient of a B&K Precision Model 8600 DC Electronic Load for a RoadTest review, I was excited to put it to good use. I proposed in my RoadTest application that I would test some commercially available batteries and compare them for capacity. Soon, it got out of hand, resulting in a large number of tests to run and sleep being lost. The bigger issue was that the tests themselves didn’t really belong in a review of the electronic load, and the number of other brands involved detracted from the more important goal of evaluating the load unit itself. As a result, the “Great AA Alkaline Battery Test” series of postings was born.
Originally intended to be launched in parallel with the delivery of the RoadTest review, it was clear that I couldn’t make the deadline to deliver both this series of postings and the RoadTest, and thus this comes a few days late owing to the busy preparation of the graphical assets and analysis that underlies this investigation. It’s probably the most comprehensive investigation I’ve undertaken to date, so I hope you enjoy the results.
