Duracell Procell - Used batteries

[Ohio Digger]

I'm an RN on a step-down unit and 99% of our patients have heart monitors on while they're on my unit. Once a patient is discharged or transferred to another unit we take the 2 batteries out of the monitor and discard them. I find it very wasteful. They are contained inside a sealed monitor so they are clean. We have one tub with about 500 "used" Duracell Procell batteries in it. I'd be willing to bet most of them probably have more than 75% life left in them as the wireless monitors don't use a lot of juice and many of our patients are on the unit for less than 48 hrs. My question is if I bought an alkaline battery tester and tested them would it be ok to use in my machine? I know you're not supposed to mix batteries with different charges but I think the tester would be able to estimate pretty close. And do they make a tester for alkaline batteries?? Procell's aren't too cheap and when I've used fresh ones they've lasted a good while. Any thoughts??

 

[surfchunker]

if you can match them up close I'd say go for it ... I've had this one for years and it works great http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3825537

 

[surfchunker]

just read up on the procell and they are just the regular coppertops but branded for industrial market

 

[sprchng]

You might consider one of these http://www.amazon.com/Maximal-FC999-Universal-Alkaline-Batteries/dp/B008467K1E
It will recharge alkaline and has a built in tester that gives you a battery condition state before you recharge and also does LI , Ni and Ca.
I'm trying one and it seems to work very well on AA alkalines as well as the C's and D's. The jury is still out on the 9v. You don't get as many charges as the rare earth batteries but with your supply of used ones , the $30 you spend could keep you in electrons and make you the battery king of your detecting group.

 

[Ohio Digger]

Thanks for the info! That's awesome! I will definitely have to check into the tester. For $10 it's hard to beat. Maybe I can check a whole bunch and get an idea of what is left in the majority of them but I really think most of them are still pretty darn good. If not I can junk those ones and I'd still have plenty to get me through an entire season. And take some of the burden off my single Minelab rechargeable. Thanks again!

 

[moonshine]

i would ABSOLUTELY do that. a battery tester is very handy to have, for all kinds of things. (you need it if youre going to do this). batteries at work used to come in 4 packs and for our purposes 3 were needed, guess how many "4th" batteries I brought home and tested! many times even the three originals were tossed after a few days.

as long as you test each battery youll know exactly what you have.