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Debunking the Batteriser's Claims

Posted by Soulskill on from the guilty-as-charged dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Last week we discussed news about the "Batteriser," a small device that fits around a battery and extends its lifetime. Many of us were skeptical, particularly with the claim that it could extend battery life up to 8x. Now, David L. Jones at the EEVBlog explains exactly why the device won't be as good as its creators claim. The technology itself, he says, does actually work at extending battery life, and has existed for a long time. What this company seems to have done is just shrink it down to a more useful size. Unfortunately, their claims about when a battery stop working and how much energy is left don't really hold up. Batteroo, the company making the Batteriser, claims products stop working when a battery's voltage drops below 1.3v, but a simple test of common household gadgets finds that to be untrue. Further, the percentage of energy left in the battery after this cutoff can vary wildly. Sometimes it will be 80%, but most of the time it won't, and it's frequently 20% or lower for Alkaline batteries. Jones writes, "I'm genuinely baffled as to why Batteroo would need to resort to claims like 8 times life. This thing would still sell like hot cakes if they claimed realistic practical figures. 50% increase in your battery life? – great, countless people would still buy it at the super low price point it's at."

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Baffled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I'm genuinely baffled as to why Batteroo would need to resort to claims like 8 times life."

    Really? You are genuinely baffled why a company might exaggerate their claims? Really?

    1. Re:Baffled? by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Funny

      1 star review: Smoke detector stopped sounding alarm when fire finally reached it and destroyed it.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  2. Marketers and jouranlists exaggerating? by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    What is the world coming to?

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:Marketers and jouranlists exaggerating? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I imagine it would be easier to sell batteries wrapped in cat stickers than a product like this.

      Sir, you are a genius. All they have to do is remodel this device so that it looks like a long, slinky cat has itself wrapped around the battery. Call it the "battery cat". It'll be like printing money.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Longerer by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 3, Funny

    > It will last 8x as long!"

    That'll learn ya to cut-and-paste boilerplate from an ExtenZ ad.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  4. Re:Debunking the debunker by utahjazz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even worse, if you watch their promo video - Dave mentions this at the end of his vblog - it goes actually says:

    Did you know that every dead battery you've every thrown away had only used up to 20% of battery life.

    That's an out and out lie.

    Not true. According to E=MC^2, a single AA battery contains 0.023 kg * c^2 = 2x10^15 Joules of energy. When have you ever used more than 20% of that!!?!?!