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Costco Batteries

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I’ve been a longtime user of Rayovac Proline 312 @ $24 for 48 ($.50/ea). About a month ago I bought a pack of 48 Costco batteries to try @ $8.49 for 48 ($.18/ea.). I see no difference in performance and longevity whatsoever. Anyone else made a comparison of Costco batteries with major brands?

https://www.costco.com/hearing-aid-batteries.html127

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I haven’t made any comparisons, but I just wanted to vent about the poor “wheel” dispenser on the Costco batteries. It’s extremely hard and frustrating to turn the wheel to dispense a battery. Now I just take the wheel apart and put all the batteries in a ziplock bag. Don’t these people do any usability testing?

There is a thread around that says they are Rayovac.

I agree that the dispenser could be better. Pick up a pocket pill case and put them in it.

I’m not sure if co-mingling the batteries is a good idea because there’s a chance of shorting them out if another battery or two touch and short out the positive and negative ends of a battery. Most of the times it won’t happen but there’s always a chance it may because the majority of the surfaces of these batteries are metals.

I also heard that Costco batteries used to be from Rayovac but then I also heard that Costco batteries are no longer OEM from Rayovac since they’re switched to this new packaging, although nobody seems to know which new OEM supplies batteries to Costco now.

I get about 5 days of battery life out of them in my OPNs, and I direct stream a lot.

I do dislike the dispensing wheel of the current packaging, too. But if you have a hard time turning it one way, try turning it the other way. That seems to help a little from what I found.

Ohm’s law states: The sum of the voltage drop around a closed circuit equals the applied voltage.

The operative words are closed circuit and voltage.

  1. With the tabs on they are inert. There is no voltage to apply.

  2. Two batteries touching are still an open circuit. Consider a flash light to understand what makes a closed circuit.

But, thanks for your contribution. Better luck next time.

Edited

You might want your chips with a little less salt.

Even a ‘tabbed’ battery would have significant potential across the terminals due to the initial zinc decomposition, shorting is about the worst thing you can do to a cell. Keep them separate and cool, or better still in the packs they were supplied in.

As for Rayovac, I’m not saying their product has slipped recently, but we now use Power One after 12 Years of being brand loyal. Take from that what you want.

@Um_bongo said:

Even a ‘tabbed’ battery would have significant potential across the terminals due to the initial zinc decomposition, shorting is about the worst thing you can do to a cell. Keep them separate and cool, or better still in the packs they were supplied in.

Thanks for the scientific tip. I’ll try keeping them in the wheel and turning in the other direction.

In reply to @Um_bongo

I would agree that shorting is a no-no. Empirically, I have dumped them in a small case and not experienced a problem. I wonder just why the zinc would degrade in shield container? Without oxygen, its hard to make zinc oxide. :slight_smile:

@Um_bongo said:

You might want your chips with a little less salt.

Even a ‘tabbed’ battery would have significant potential across the terminals due to the initial zinc decomposition, shorting is about the worst thing you can do to a cell. Keep them separate and cool, or better still in the packs they were supplied in.

As for Rayovac, I’m not saying their product has slipped recently, but we now use Power One after 12 Years of being brand loyal. Take from that what you want.

In reply to @KenP

@KenP said:

Ohm’s law states: The sum of the voltage drop around a closed circuit equals the applied voltage.

The operative words are closed circuit and voltage.

  1. With the tabs on they are inert. There is no voltage to apply.

  2. Two batteries touching are still an open circuit. Consider a flash light to understand what makes a closed circuit.

But, thanks for your contribution. Better luck next time.

Hm, kind of a rude reply here, not sure what I did to deserve it. I’ll address your 2 points above:

  1. With the tabs on, I took a voltmeter and measured the voltage across a tabbed Costco size 312 battery. It measures 1.1 Volts. So there IS voltage applied. All you gotta do is verify it for yourself.

  2. Thanks for your schooling on what an open and a closed circuit is. Except that I’m an Electrical Engineer by training with an MSEE. So I already got schooled properly on the subject matter 32 years ago at an accredited university. Thank you very much.

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