Batteriser is acrowdfunding campaignfor a charming little sleeve you pop over your AA batteries , extending their utilitarian life by ‘ up to 800 % ’ . Sound a little too unspoilt to be true ? That ’s because it 800 % is * .
The science behind the Batteriser is n’t actually stark crap . The premise is this : a young AA assault and battery starts life producing a voltage of 1.5V. That voltage decreases over meter , until the barrage fire eventually has no more juice in it . But below a sure write out - off threshold , dissimilar for every gimmick , the battery is no longer able-bodied to produce enough voltage , even if there ’s plenty of energy left in a cellphone .
jumble ? Put it this way : an Apple Wireless Keyboard requires 1.075V or more from its batteries to function . So if the batteries inside drop below that stratum — and they will — the keyboard will tell you to exchange them . But there ’s still juice left in the assault and battery — pop them in an previous - school flashlight , and you ’ll get a dim but very real light come out of the bulb .
This is the problem the Batteriser sleeve seek to solve : using a miniature DC – DC converter , it provides a constant 1.5V from the AA battery for its entire animation , before it finally drops idle when there ’s in reality no more juice to give .
So Does It Actually Work?
And Batteriser in reality works ! As far as we can severalise without any conclusive testing , Batteriser does make a shelling produce a incessant 1.5V output , using the majority of the energy in the cell ( minus some inefficiencies in magnate conversion ) . But the problem comes in the form of the company ’s merchandising , which apply a thoroughgoing combining of techno double - speak and ‘ creative ’ statistics to make you think you demand its $ 20 convenience .
Batteriser has two chief claim : that a ‘ substantial number ’ ( this used to say ‘ all ’ , before it was restfully changed ) of batteries you throw away have only used 20 % of their content ; and that by befuddle on a Batteriser sleeve , you may improve the battery sprightliness of your devices by up to 800 % .
Let ’s ignore the obvious math fault here ( if you could regain that ‘ missing ’ 80 % of capacity , that ’s a 500 % increment , not 800 % ) and focalise on that first call . Dr Bob Roohparvar , the CEO of parent company Batteroo , told me that number comes from this 2003 field of study from ETH Zurich .
The discipline collected batteries from recycling points around Switzerland , and tested them for rest capacity . It ’s a unanimous methodology , but Roohparvar twist around the results . He displays a mesa for ‘ accumulated average ’ rather than a straight per centum , which makes it seem like far more batteries have a higher capacity remaining .
you could see the difference reasonably well in this graphical record from the original study : the upper grey line is the accumulated norm , cite by Roohparvar ; the lower line shows the actual distribution .
More important than Roohparvar ’s twist the stats , though , is the difference of opinion in gimmick you apply the Batteriser with . For some exceptional high - powerfulness devices ( really , the only example are old - skool cameras that run on AAs ) , the cut - off potential difference will be as high as 1.4V ( remember , those stamp battery only start at 1.5V ) .
In those uncommon gadget , Batteriser will make a difference — who get laid , mayhap even the 800 % conflict claim ! But in most things you use shelling in , like distant control or keyboards , the cut - off voltage is much lower , and therefore any possible Batteriser savings are much lower .
What Other People Say
A fistful of electric engineers extensively debunked Batteriser ’s claim when the product was first announced — the most thoroughgoing is probablythis 40 - minute YouTube videofrom Dave Jones , which take aside the science and claims behind the Batteriser . He attacked their claims further in ablog post , asdidothers .
One of Batteroo ’s only strong bits of grounds to back up its claims is a trial , conducted by an independent lab ( but designed by Batteroo ) . It liken a Garmin GPS ’s run metre with and without Batteriser . The GPS has a cut - off voltage of 1.1V , meaning that according to Batteriser ’s haters , there should only be a small gain in runtime ( if at all ) .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw_jFIPxePc
On the face of it , the results are good for Batteroo : without Batteriser , runtime is 1 hr 43 minute of arc ; with it , it ’s 10 hours 12 min . That sounds like a huge improvement , but really it ’s because of a tiny condition in the testing parameters : the test ended when the GPS give out , or when a low-down - battery substance is displayed .
TechnologyCatalyst duplicate the experiment on video , and ( surprise ! ) found the psychometric test to be bullshit : with steady Associate in Applied Science , you get a low - battery message at an hour or two in , state that the backlight ca n’t be turn on . But tap that content away , and the GPS will keep play just alright — in the video above , it ply just fine on normal AA batteries , for 17 hours .
The wafture of bad packaging precede to a few alteration : Batteriser changed its website and video , to move out the claim that ‘ all ’ batteries have 80 % electrical capacity stay ( a mistake Roohparvar told me was because of a “ miscommunication ” between the engineers and the “ web site guys ” ) ; and Roohparvar accuse detractors like Jones of being paid by ‘ big battery ’ to take down his disruptive product .
When I instantaneously asked Roohparvar about his society ’s claim , and all the accusation against it , I got the same form of run - around : a five - minute explanation about peak electromotive force , follow by an incredibly bizarre parable about a snail and a well , stolen from his brother ’s picture :
It ’s all a pity , because if Batteriser was honest about its mathematical product — a tiny small twist that stabilize voltage over the life of a battery — it would still sell . But instead , it ’s using spoiled math and unelaborated marketing to dupe people into thinking it ’s some sort of magic battery - saving panacea .
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