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Mecury free batteries

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Is there a difference between mercury free batteries and non-mercury free.
I need to purchase more batteries, and when searching for Power One batteries on Amazon, they show two different kinds. One package states mercury free, the other does not. Is one better than the other ?

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I believe they’re the same. Non rechargeable hearing aid batteries now use zinc-air chemistry.

Edited

That post was from 2010. I can see it applying to hearing aids that were designed to be used with batteries based on mercury technology, but doesn’t seem pertinent now. My batteries (Kirkland) don’t say mercury free, but they’re zinc-air chemistry and hence mercury free. I’m pretty confident that all disposable batteries are based on mercury free, zinc-air chemistry. Rechargeables are different, but still mercury free.

To be honest, I’m not too sure myself. This was the best I could find online:

Zinc-air batteries are usually referred as mercury free, when, in fact, some have mercury in their constitution. For example, icellTech states that they use less than 25 mg of mercury per battery (icellTech, 2004) while Duracell (2008) reports that their batteries satisfy the limit of 0.1 mg/m3. Zhang, Bruce, and Zhang (2011) state that despite the benefits of reduced mercury in zinc-air batteries, there are still some disadvantages such as limitation of power (low voltage and current), evaporation of the electrolyte (failure due to the entry of air into the battery), adverse reactions arising from the presence of other gases in the environment (e.g., the entry of carbon dioxide can produce solid carbide), and production of solid elements (difficult and costly to dispose of). These authors suggest that lithium-air technology may replace zinc-air batteries in the near future

Thieme E-Journals - International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology / Full Text10

Thieme E-Books & E-Journals

Obviously dated info too. I had trouble finding any recent coverage of mercury free hearing aid batteries in the journals.

Edited

OK, I erred. Seems like current zinc air batteries may have a small amount of mercury in them. This is from EPA:

Mercury in Batteries | US EPA24

Environmental and safety information on button cell batteries and mercury oxide batteries.

I have no idea how valid some claims of being “mercury free” are. Anyway, good discussion and I’ll try to be more careful next time.

Thanks for sharing this. I edited your post to put the link on a new line so we could get the nice link box. Hope you don’t mind.

I have been using Costco mercury free size 312 batteries for some time now. I feel I get as good or better life from then as the mercury ones. The real plus is that you do not have to take the new ones to a recycling spot.

Mercury is something the Government has been trying to get out of batteries for a long time, to prevent it from getting into the ground water from landfills. Pretty much all US manufacturers are mercury free now…even if they don’t say so specifically on the packaging. Duracell, Eveready, Rayovac, etc.

I’ve used both types and I’ve not noticed a different in battery life at all.

Evil.

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