Why I'm Never Buying Regular Batteries Ever Again — Transcript

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1. 0:00Batteries suck. Not the ones inside our
2. 0:02phones or our laptops. These guys.
3. 0:05One-time use. Double A batteries.
4. 0:07Throwing them away is wasteful. Buying
5. 0:09new ones all the time is expensive. And
6. 0:11they barely do what they're supposed to
7. 0:13do. I'm tired of it. But recently, I
8. 0:16discovered something. Rechargeable
9. 0:18batteries are so good now that I will
10. 0:20never buy a single-use battery ever
11. 0:23again. They're that good. So, the other
12. 0:25day, my husband asked what we were going
13. 0:27to get my daughter for her birthday. And
14. 0:29given she's old enough now to play with
15. 0:31actual toys, a lot of options shot to my
16. 0:34mind. But the more I thought about it,
17. 0:35the more I realized they had one thing
18. 0:37in common. They all require batteries.
19. 0:40She's about to get a deluge of toys that
20. 0:43require me to go to the store and
21. 0:45purchase the Costco size pack of
22. 0:47single-use batteries that will all be in
23. 0:49the trash a couple months from now. I
24. 0:51really hate that idea. It's wasteful and
25. 0:53perhaps more importantly, it's
26. 0:55expensive. And really, that problem
27. 0:58extends beyond my daughter's toys. I use
28. 1:00batteries for remotes, for controllers,
29. 1:03even for my scale. So, for the first
30. 1:04time in a long time, I started digging
31. 1:07into rechargeable batteries. Are they
32. 1:09still several times more expensive? Do
33. 1:11they still have awful battery lives? And
34. 1:13most importantly, can I give up
35. 1:16single-use batteries forever? So, I
36. 1:17jumped head first into the rabbit hole.
37. 1:19Yes, there is a rabbit hole to figure it
38. 1:21all out. And what I found genuinely blew
39. 1:24my mind. Honestly, when I started this
40. 1:26journey, I wasn't even sure where to
41. 1:27start. What makes a battery good or bad?
42. 1:30Battery life, I guess. But after doing a
43. 1:32lot of digging and maybe some
44. 1:34soularching, I found it really boils
45. 1:36down to three things. How much they
46. 1:37cost, how long they work for, and of
47. 1:39course, how long they last, just sitting
48. 1:42there doing nothing. Ultimately, those
49. 1:44three are really what decides the value.
50. 1:47So, I did what any sane person would do.
51. 1:49I spent days googling options, cross
52. 1:52referencing prices, and eventually even
53. 1:54performing some tests of my own. Is this
54. 1:56what normal people do? Anyways, let's
55. 1:58talk about the first thing that anybody
56. 2:00thinks of when buying something new or
57. 2:02experimental. The price. After all, I
58. 2:04knew how much regular batteries cost.
59. 2:06Traditional alkaline batteries are
60. 2:08pretty darn cheap. An eight pack from
61. 2:10Amazon only costs about $6.50,
62. 2:1381 per battery. But the price of
63. 2:15rechargeables I was a bit more fuzzy on.
64. 2:18Back in the day, they were three or
65. 2:20sometimes even four or five times more
66. 2:22expensive than normal use, which even
67. 2:24then I felt was sort of worth it. You
68. 2:26just recharge them four times and you
69. 2:28got your money's worth. But here's where
70. 2:29the first domino falls. In the big 2026,
71. 2:32an eight pack of rechargeables from
72. 2:34Amazon Basics only runs you $4 more than
73. 2:38the single-use versions. That's only 50
74. 2:40cents you're paying extra per battery.
75. 2:42Now, I know what you're thinking. Amazon
76. 2:43Basics doesn't exactly scream high
77. 2:46quality. But for one, spoiler alert,
78. 2:48wait until we get to the performance
79. 2:50tests on these Amazon batteries. They'll
80. 2:52blow your mind. And two, it just turns
81. 2:54out there are other rechargeable brands
82. 2:56that are just as cheap. I did still find
83. 2:59some brands that are more expensive,
84. 3:01namely Duracell and everyone's favorite
85. 3:03rechargeable battery brand, Any Loop.
86. 3:06But looking at them, even these topshelf
87. 3:08brands only cost about $1 more per
88. 3:11battery, which means all things equal,
89. 3:13you just need to recharge them one time
90. 3:15to make them effectively cost the same.
91. 3:17These cheaper prices were already enough
92. 3:19to make me think hard about going allin
93. 3:22with rechargeables. But here's the
94. 3:23thing, not all things are equal. If
95. 3:25there's one thing I remember about the
96. 3:27old days of rechargeable batteries is
97. 3:29that their battery lives were not great.
98. 3:31I remember hearing many a tale of them
99. 3:34dying within hours depending on the use
100. 3:36case. They were just so much worse than
101. 3:38their competition. So, in doing all my
102. 3:40updated research, I needed to figure out
103. 3:42how to even gauge this aspect. Now, now
104. 3:44from what I've heard, there's a
105. 3:46surprising amount of nuance to it, but
106. 3:48the simplest place to start is just
107. 3:50capacity because yeah, different
108. 3:52batteries have different capacities. We
109. 3:54should all already know this since it
110. 3:56feels like phone companies are
111. 3:57constantly making their battery
112. 3:59capacities smaller. Let's take for
113. 4:01instance these singleuse Duracells. They
114. 4:04have a capacity of 1,500 milliamp hours,
115. 4:07which despite what it sounds like has
116. 4:09little to do with how many actual hours
117. 4:11the thing will last. But basically, a
118. 4:13higher number is better. All right, so
119. 4:15if 1,500 is our baseline, how much am I
120. 4:18getting for my money with the
121. 4:19rechargeables? Well, I cracked open the
122. 4:21page for Duracell's own rechargeables
123. 4:24and did a double take. They actually
124. 4:25have a capacity of 2500 milliamp hours.
125. 4:28That's 70% more capacity, which
126. 4:31immediately cancels out their 50% higher
127. 4:34cost. If you only use the rechargeable
128. 4:36one time and threw it away, you'd still
129. 4:38get more value out of it than the old
130. 4:40alkaline. Even the cheapest Amazon
131. 4:43Basics rechargeables have a 2,000 mAh
132. 4:46capacity. That's a higher capacity than
133. 4:48the Duracells at the same price, more or
134. 4:50less. Are you starting to pick up what
135. 4:52I'm putting down? This was a point where
136. 4:54I thought, okay, surely we have a
137. 4:57winner. But I wasn't done with rabbit
138. 4:59holes. While researching batteries and
139. 5:01what to get my daughter, I started
140. 5:03thinking about family activities that
141. 5:05don't require batteries, like bird
142. 5:07watching. Well, traditional bird
143. 5:09watching. Except I'm not sitting outside
144. 5:11for 3 hours waiting for a bird. That's
145. 5:14where today's sponsor, Bird Feed, comes
146. 5:16in. Their Feeder Metal 2 lets me keep an
147. 5:18eye on the feeder without actually
148. 5:20keeping an eye on the feeder. It has a
149. 5:234K camera with color night vision. lets
150. 5:25me watch live through the app, records
151. 5:27clips when it detects motion, and it
152. 5:29alerts me when a bird shows up, so I
153. 5:31don't have to constantly check it myself
154. 5:33or stare at it. It's all metal, so it
155. 5:35resists weather, scratches, and most
156. 5:37importantly, a squirrel's cute grabby
157. 5:40little hands. Uh, paws. Even the
158. 5:42charging cable has a metal sleeve so the
159. 5:44neighborhood rodents don't chew it up.
160. 5:46It was pretty simple to set up, even for
161. 5:47a noob like me. And although I can't
162. 5:49recognize any bird species, the app can
163. 5:52identify over 6,000 of them. And after
164. 5:54getting a bird to show up on camera, I
165. 5:56kind of get why people are into this.
166. 5:58So, if you want to see your backyard
167. 5:59without staring at a feeder all
168. 6:01afternoon, check out the bird fee feeder
169. 6:03medal 2 in the description. With their
170. 6:05Black Friday and Cyber Monday
171. 6:06promotions, they're offering up to 55%
172. 6:09off. So, now is a pretty good time to
173. 6:11check it out. But look, I don't want to
174. 6:12just go out of spec sheets and numbers
175. 6:15on paper. It could just be battery
176. 6:17companies marketing their stuff, after
177. 6:18all. I wanted to see the real inractice
178. 6:21results on how these fare. So, I dug
179. 6:23further and it turns out there are a lot
180. 6:26of ways you can test your batteries.
181. 6:28Now, I don't have one of those fancy
182. 6:29multi00 battery testers you can buy from
183. 6:32industrial suppliers. I'm not in
184. 6:34industry. I do have two things. A
185. 6:37YouTuber who already ran extensive tests
186. 6:40and a pair of high brightness
187. 6:41batterypowered flashlights for my very
188. 6:43own house experiment. Yeah, science.
189. 6:46First, let's talk about the more
190. 6:48thorough tests done by fellow creator
191. 6:50Lumencraft. In all my googling and
192. 6:52researching, I came across his channel.
193. 6:54Honestly, big shout out to him. Some
194. 6:56really cool stuff over there, especially
195. 6:57if you're into flashlights. But wouldn't
196. 6:59you know it, he does have one of those
197. 7:02battery testers. The way they work is
198. 7:03very accurate. They pull a hypersp
199. 7:05specific amount of power from the
200. 7:07batteries inside and monitor their
201. 7:09output the whole way through. Basically,
202. 7:11it's as close as we can get to an
203. 7:13objective test. And the results he got
204. 7:15were honestly the nail that broke the
205. 7:18camel's back for me. Obviously, if I
206. 7:20were to switch to rechargeable
207. 7:21batteries, I was hoping for them to
208. 7:23perform just about the same as single
209. 7:25use. Heck, maybe 90% of single use would
210. 7:28be close enough. But then you look at
211. 7:30the results. The Any Loops not only last
212. 7:32nearly three times as long as the
213. 7:34alkaline, they also kept a more steady
214. 7:37output all the way through. See how the
215. 7:39output of the alkaline batteries dropped
216. 7:41faster? The Any Loops ditched that
217. 7:43problem entirely and managed a much more
218. 7:46consistent result. Then there's the
219. 7:47Amazon Basics, which didn't quite
220. 7:49maintain as steady of an output, but in
221. 7:52return actually lasted a bit longer than
222. 7:54even the Any Loops. That's right, the
223. 7:56Amazon Basics batteries, which only cost
224. 7:5850 cents extra per battery lasts three
225. 8:01times as long as a traditional alkaline.
226. 8:04Let the math sink in. No, really, take a
227. 8:06moment because I had to. But seeing it
228. 8:09wasn't enough, I needed to understand
229. 8:11why this happens. Now apparently
230. 8:13alkaline batteries have an output
231. 8:14voltage of 1.5 volts whereas the
232. 8:17rechargeables made of nickel metal
233. 8:19hybride output at 1.2. Now at first that
234. 8:22sounds like alkaline is better, hence
235. 8:23the higher number. But they drop voltage
236. 8:26very quickly when they discharge. A lot
237. 8:28of devices start screaming at you the
238. 8:30moment your battery output dips under
239. 8:321.1 or 1 volt, specifically my
240. 8:34thermostat. That means a lot of that
241. 8:36capacity in an alkaline battery might as
242. 8:38well be useless for half their battery
243. 8:40life. But on the other hand, the nickel
244. 8:42rechargeables can maintain their steady
245. 8:441.2 volt output, meaning you can use
246. 8:46almost all of their capacity. Now, at
247. 8:48this point in my journey, I was 95%
248. 8:51convinced the prices have come down. The
249. 8:53performance is fantastic. It seems like
250. 8:54a no-brainer. But if you know me, you
251. 8:56know my skepticism knows no end. I
252. 8:59wanted to prove to myself and to my
253. 9:01ultra ultra skeptical husband, Jake,
254. 9:03without a shadow of a doubt that these
255. 9:04rechargeables were as good or better
256. 9:07than any single-use battery. So, I kept
257. 9:09doing some research and eventually found
258. 9:11that the single-use battery world has
259. 9:13actually made advancements beyond the
260. 9:16regular alkalines that Lumencraft
261. 9:17tested. This threw a wrench in
262. 9:19everything. Would they mess up all the
263. 9:21math and make rechargeable batteries now
264. 9:23a bad choice? So, I took things into my
265. 9:25own hands and did tests of my own. I
266. 9:27bought these Duracell power boost
267. 9:30batteries with a new tech and I stacked
268. 9:32them against our measly Amazon basics
269. 9:34rechargeables. The test was simple
270. 9:36enough. I had two identical high- power
271. 9:38flashlights that both take four AA
272. 9:41batteries. That way, the test wouldn't
273. 9:43get thrown off if one of the batteries
274. 9:44ended up being a dud. I set them up in a
275. 9:46dark closet, let them run. They both
276. 9:49drew constant power and I could see the
277. 9:51results. Every once in a while, I peaked
278. 9:53my head in the closet just to check on
279. 9:55them and they'd still be going.
280. 9:56Eventually, at about the 90minute mark,
281. 9:59both of them dropped in brightness, but
282. 10:01at the very least, they were still neck
283. 10:03and neck. Hours upon hours had passed.
284. 10:06In fact, it went so long I had to leave
285. 10:08the office and just hope one of them
286. 10:10died within that 5-hour time limit of
287. 10:12the time-lapse I was shooting. Now, fast
288. 10:14forward to the next morning. They're
289. 10:16both solidly dead, mostly. Anyways, they
290. 10:18were still outputting a little tiny bit
291. 10:20of light, just a bit. The Duracell even
292. 10:22was putting out a tiny bit more. Does
293. 10:24that mean it had won? I offloaded the
294. 10:26footage, went over it, and even after 12
295. 10:29and 1/2 hours of running, both of them
296. 10:31were still alive. As you can see though,
297. 10:33there was a winner of a sort. The Dura
298. 10:35Cells actually did manage to output a
299. 10:37higher brightness in the final hours of
300. 10:40the time-lapse. But honestly, even with
301. 10:42the camera exaggerating how different
302. 10:44they were, it was still very close. In
303. 10:46short, I think the newest crop of fancy
304. 10:48batteries might actually have a slight
305. 10:50edge over the Amazon Basics
306. 10:52rechargeables. But those are just the
307. 10:54cheapest options. If you upgrade to the
308. 10:56Any Loops, the competition draws even
309. 10:58closer. At first, the results dishearten
310. 11:00me a little. Before, the rechargeables
311. 11:02were better in every way. There was no
312. 11:04question about it. Now, single-use
313. 11:06batteries out there are really freaking
314. 11:08good. But here's the thing. Even with
315. 11:10the test where the rechargeables no
316. 11:11longer stomp out their competition, the
317. 11:13math is still wildly in favor of the
318. 11:16rechargeables because those fancy Duro
319. 11:17cells don't come for free. They cost
320. 11:19$10. That shrinks the price difference
321. 11:22down per battery to about a dime. And of
322. 11:24course, the second you recharge them
323. 11:26even once, the rechargeables become
324. 11:28twice as cheap. With that settled,
325. 11:30there's only really one final criteria
326. 11:32left. shelf life. But I won't string you
327. 11:35along here. Rechargeables win again. If
328. 11:37you've ever owned an alkaline battery,
329. 11:39which I'm sure you have, you know that
330. 11:41they love springing a leak, getting
331. 11:42their crusty battery acid all over
332. 11:44themselves, and becoming nigh unusable.
333. 11:47It sucks. But guess what? Rechargeables
334. 11:50aren't made of the same stuff, which
335. 11:51means they don't get leaks like that.
336. 11:53So, while on paper both types advertise
337. 11:56the same shelf life, we all know
338. 11:58single-use batteries almost never last
339. 12:0010 years before springing a leak. I even
340. 12:02did a community post about rechargeable
341. 12:04batteries and got flooded with comments
342. 12:06saying they've been using these for over
343. 12:08a decade. A decade with no issues. So
344. 12:11hopefully you get the idea by now.
345. 12:13Better value, better shelf life, and
346. 12:15either similar performance or wildly
347. 12:17better performance. And as someone who
348. 12:19not only loves good value, but also
349. 12:21absolutely hates e-waste, I'm completely
350. 12:24sold. Even my daughter never has to
351. 12:26worry about producing all that e-waste
352. 12:27because of getting gifts that aren't
353. 12:29even in her control. Now, all that
354. 12:31remained was to get something to charge
355. 12:32them because how do you charge these?
356. 12:34They look strange, right? You don't just
357. 12:35plug a cable in them, which I will admit
358. 12:37that worried me at first because that
359. 12:39extra cost could jeopardize all the
360. 12:41value here. But the second I started
361. 12:43shopping around, I realized that you can
362. 12:44get highquality charging stations for
363. 12:47surprisingly cheap. There's Amazon
364. 12:48basics ones for $10, $60 chargers that
365. 12:51will automatically flip, charge, and
366. 12:53sort your batteries for you. But for my
367. 12:55money, the best option I found so far is
368. 12:57this one from a brand called Bonai.
369. 13:00Bonai. For one, it can charge a massive
370. 13:0218 batteries at once, which I don't know
371. 13:04why you would need that, but hey, it
372. 13:06does it. And that's pretty solid value
373. 13:08for its $30 price point. But the real
374. 13:10difference is in what type of batteries
375. 13:12it can charge. Most chargers are limited
376. 13:14to double A, which to be fair is the
377. 13:16most common. But what about the remote
378. 13:18that takes AAA or the one that takes D
379. 13:21batteries? Should they forever be cursed
380. 13:23with single-use alkaline batteries? I
381. 13:25think not. This charger handles that by
382. 13:27charging all of the above. How cool is
383. 13:30that? It also has a little readout on
384. 13:32what battery level each unit is, so you
385. 13:34can know if a battery is completely
386. 13:36drained, fully charged, or something in
387. 13:38between. It's hard to find a easier to
388. 13:40recommend product than that. So, like I
389. 13:42said, I'm never going to buy a single
390. 13:45use again. Hopefully, after watching
391. 13:46this, you won't either. For basic
392. 13:48remotes, toys, and all that, I'm going
393. 13:49to have a collection of surprisingly
394. 13:51solid Amazon Basics batteries on tap.
395. 13:53For longerlasting situations, I'll keep
396. 13:55a few any loops around. Talking to you,
397. 13:58thermostat. The only case where
398. 13:59traditional batteries are needed are
399. 14:01those rare types of appliances that need
400. 14:041.5 volts instead of 1.2. But there are
401. 14:07lithium ion batteries, rechargeables,
402. 14:09that do 1.5 volts. They're just really
403. 14:11expensive. But also, I don't exactly
404. 14:13keep a large supply of portable radios
405. 14:17around. Filling up this charger with
406. 14:18batteries I'll need will cost me less
407. 14:20than $40. And that's all I need for the
408. 14:22next decade. It's blissful. It's
409. 14:24peaceful. It's environmentally
410. 14:26conscious.
411. 14:29Now, what should I get my daughter for
412. 14:30her birthday? You they shall like
413. 14:32batteries.