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[Benjamin Krumholz]

Hey All,
I recently had a bad experience with some Duracell Procell " Constant Power" Batteries for " Low Drain" Devices. A supplier sent them instead of the regular Procell. The supplier says that Procell only makes a Constant Power (PC1500) AA and a Intense Power (PX1500) AA currently. We were getting between 1-1.5 hours on a Axient TX AD1 or AD2. And the power meter would drop from full to 3 bars in 5-10 Min.. Down to 2 Bars in 30 Min..  The regular old Procell was lasting between 3.5- 4 Hours..
Any one else run into any issues with these?
Ben

[Russell Ault]

Hey All,
I recently had a bad experience with some Duracell Procell " Constant Power" Batteries for " Low Drain" Devices. A supplier sent them instead of the regular Procell. The supplier says that Procell only makes a Constant Power (PC1500) AA and a Intense Power (PX1500) AA currently. We were getting between 1-1.5 hours on a Axient TX AD1 or AD2. And the power meter would drop from full to 3 bars in 5-10 Min.. Down to 2 Bars in 30 Min..  The regular old Procell was lasting between 3.5- 4 Hours..
Any one else run into any issues with these?
Ben

Maybe you got a bad batch? PC1500 is the same model number that Duracell has been using for Procells since before the yellow packaging, and the discharge curves in the current datasheet look very similar to the ones on these older datasheets I found.

Anecdotally, I used a pair of the "new" Procells in a UR2 last week and it performed exactly as I would have expected.

-Russ

[Mike Caldwell]

I have purged all the Duracell batteries from my inventory, after inconsistent discharge rates, leaks and a couple full bricks with fresh date codes that had a hint of white corrosion developing on the negative end.

I now use either Varta or Panasonic. 

[brian maddox]

Hey All,
I recently had a bad experience with some Duracell Procell " Constant Power" Batteries for " Low Drain" Devices. A supplier sent them instead of the regular Procell. The supplier says that Procell only makes a Constant Power (PC1500) AA and a Intense Power (PX1500) AA currently. We were getting between 1-1.5 hours on a Axient TX AD1 or AD2. And the power meter would drop from full to 3 bars in 5-10 Min.. Down to 2 Bars in 30 Min..  The regular old Procell was lasting between 3.5- 4 Hours..
Any one else run into any issues with these?
Ben

Have to ask a stupid question. Any chance the transmitters were on High Power mode? The last time I did the NCTL I ended up using high power mode on the X55 transmitters to get enough range, which worked well but ate batteries like popcorn.

[Benjamin Krumholz]

Have to ask a stupid question. Any chance the transmitters were on High Power mode? The last time I did the NCTL I ended up using high power mode on the X55 transmitters to get enough range, which worked well but ate batteries like popcorn.

Brian,
As you know, Yes some are are high transmit and some on regular.. And yes we expect the drain but this was exceptional... Like I said, a regular " OLD" PC1500 AA without the Constant Power marking lasted at least DOUBLE the time and took almost an hour to go from 4 bars to 2. We are going to do some bench testing here at the shop next week to compare.

[Andrew Broughton]

I just have to ask, as I ask people buying 50k worth of mixers and I/O and won't spend a few hundred on a decent managed switch...

Why would you not be using Shure SB900's on the most expensive wireless Shure makes?

[brian maddox]

Brian,
As you know, Yes some are are high transmit and some on regular.. And yes we expect the drain but this was exceptional... Like I said, a regular " OLD" PC1500 AA without the Constant Power marking lasted at least DOUBLE the time and took almost an hour to go from 4 bars to 2. We are going to do some bench testing here at the shop next week to compare.

Fascinating. I'd be curious to know the results of the testing.

It's been ages, but I HAVE encountered bad batteries out of the box. But I don't recall ever having an entire BATCH be this dramatically affected.

[Russell Ault]

{...} It's been ages, but I HAVE encountered bad batteries out of the box. {...}

You experience it that rarely? One of the reasons I tend to be such a rechargeables "booster" is because of my (likely pessimistic) recollection that, on average, every box of 24 Procells contains at least one battery that shouldn't have passed QC.

-Russ

[Andrew Broughton]

You experience it that rarely? One of the reasons I tend to be such a rechargeables "booster" is because of my (likely pessimistic) recollection that, on average, every box of 24 Procells contains at least one battery that shouldn't have passed QC.

-Russ

Been bitten as well, several times. Therefore time to cue my rant about why I will ONLY use rechargeables that I have verified myself for anything important.
You can verify the mAh of a rechargeable before you use it. You cannot with an alkaline.

[brian maddox]

Been bitten as well, several times. Therefore time to cue my rant about why I will ONLY use rechargeables that I have verified myself for anything important.
You can verify the mAh of a rechargeable before you use it. You cannot with an alkaline.

This is especially an issue with IEM receivers as there is no way to monitor battery life from the control position. If a battery is just "weak" out of the box and you use it in a microphone, you will at least get some indication that there is an issue likely before the transmitters dies and can take action. With an IEM pack you don't until the "boss" starts waving frantically and you look like an idiot because their pack dies. And then you lose a gig.

[ProSoundWeb Community]