Duracell D size batteries are no longer any good.

[johnlvs2run]

I've been using Rayovac.
That's what the originals were. They lasted a long time and had a lower price than the others.
They were less than $4 for 4 of them a few years ago at Walmart, and now they are $7 for 4 of them.
I wonder if checking the compartment every month or so would be helpful to make sure they're not leaking.

[gvcormac]

I've been using Rayovac.
That's what the originals were. They lasted a long time and had a lower price than the others.
They were less than $4 for 4 of them a few years ago at Walmart, and now they are $7 for 4 of them.
I wonder if checking the compartment every month or so would be helpful to make sure they're not leaking.

The PM5 will warn you if the charge is low. They won't leak so long as they have a charge.

[Carl Watts]

I've been using Rayovac.
That's what the originals were. They lasted a long time and had a lower price than the others.
They were less than $4 for 4 of them a few years ago at Walmart, and now they are $7 for 4 of them.
I wonder if checking the compartment every month or so would be helpful to make sure they're not leaking.

The PM5 will warn you if the charge is low. They won't leak so long as they have a charge.

They can fail at anytime, the only technology that is pretty much 100% leakproof is Lithium.

If you wanted to go overboard you would put 6 Lithium AA batteries in the D size adapter. These would probably last 3 or 4 years in a new PM5. This is a pretty expensive option but still less than fixing the PM5 after a battery leak. The first gen PM5 did NOT have a sealed battery compartment and a leak in one of these will kill it. Gen 2 to 4 now have a sealed compartment.

[AussieTom]

Duracells are rubbish. I've bought brand new packs of 10 and found more than half are effectively dead fresh out of the pack. I've opened new packs with batteries already leaking too. My recommendation is (made in Japan) Panasonic Evolta alkalines. Never had one fail.

[Carl Watts]

Duracells are rubbish. I've bought brand new packs of 10 and found more than half are effectively dead fresh out of the pack. I've opened new packs with batteries already leaking too. My recommendation is (made in Japan) Panasonic Evolta alkalines. Never had one fail.

Interesting feedback, not been that unlucky but certainly the D size has been more unreliable from new. I have had the odd one rapidly self discharge and die very early when the other one in the monitor is ok.

Ni-MH batteries like the Varta ones have come a long way, they no longer self discharge rapidly and still hold a charge 12 months out. Smart chargers for these are cheap and the AA capacity is like 2100mAhr. The PM5 current draw now is very low and with the newer TACH pickup it provides all the power to the monitor as you row so effectively while the PM5 is in standby the batteries are only backing up the date and time and the current draw is extremely low. 6 AA rechargeable's should last 12 months.

[HornetMaX]

Interesting discussion.

My RowErg PM5 is almost 2.5yo and I'm still on my 1st set of D cells (original ones, Rayovac, PM5 says they are now at 40%), my SkiErg is too recent (batteries still at 99%).

I kind of like the idea of using rechargeable (Ni-MH) batteries (3xAAs + adapter or simply rechargeable Ds).
But would Ni-MH Ds be any better than Alkaline Ds in terms of leakage risk ? Or is the risk reduction there only if you move to AAs (due to lower volume) ? And are Ni-MH less risky compared to Alkaline ?

Also, I've found here some adapters 1xAA --> 1xD: of course capacity is way smaller (typically 2,000-2,400 vs 10,000mAh) but usually I have plenty of AAs at hand and it's easy to swap 2 AAs instead of puling out 6 and wait to charge them. WDYT ?

[Dangerscouse]

My RowErg PM5 is almost 2.5yo and I'm still on my 1st set of D cells (original ones, Rayovac, PM5 says they are now at 40%), my SkiErg is too recent (batteries still at 99%).

I've had my erg for just over five years, and I don't think I've changed the batteries. I might have, but if I have it's not been for a few years. IIRC, there is still circa 60% charge remaining.

I'd stick with the D's if you haven't had an issue.

[Sakly]

My RowErg PM5 is almost 2.5yo and I'm still on my 1st set of D cells (original ones, Rayovac, PM5 says they are now at 40%), my SkiErg is too recent (batteries still at 99%).

I've had my erg for just over five years, and I don't think I've changed the batteries. I might have, but if I have it's not been for a few years. IIRC, there is still circa 60% charge remaining.

I'd stick with the D's if you haven't had an issue.

My erg is reaching 2 years this month, ~4.5mm. No idea where I can lookup the battery level, but the symbol in the top bar of PM5 shows a full symbol.

[HornetMaX]

My erg is reaching 2 years this month, ~4.5mm. No idea where I can lookup the battery level, but the symbol in the top bar of PM5 shows a full symbol.

On the PM5 main/home screen: More Options / Utilities / Battery.

[Willy.VdW]

Today I found a leaking AA battery in a digital (wall) thermometer.
The device draws little current and was still working normal.
The 2 AA's are in parrallel, so it runs on 1.5V and will still run for a while on just one battery.
The PM5's batteries are wired in series, but it does mean that you can't trust a battery to be
safe as long as the device containing it is still working.
The leaking battery was a...Duracell AA

[gvcormac]

Today I found a leaking AA battery in a digital (wall) thermometer.
The device draws little current and was still working normal.
The 2 AA's are in parrallel, so it runs on 1.5V and will still run for a while on just one battery.
The PM5's batteries are wired in series, but it does mean that you can't trust a battery to be
safe as long as the device containing it is still working.
The leaking battery was a...Duracell AA

If they're parallel it is possible that the leaking one was dead, and the other was carrying the load.

[Willy.VdW]

If they're parallel it is possible that the leaking one was dead, and the other was carrying the load.

That's exactly what happened, the leaking battery had very low voltage, the other was good.
This is why I decided to share, to warn not to be confident that batteries are ok as long as
a device is (still) working.

[HornetMaX]

If they're parallel it is possible that the leaking one was dead, and the other was carrying the load.

That's exactly what happened, the leaking battery had very low voltage, the other was good.
This is why I decided to share, to warn not to be confident that batteries are ok as long as
a device is (still) working.

This is also why I was thinking about using 2xAA (NiMH) instead of 2xD (NiMH or Alkaline): having to swap/recharge them more often (let's say 2 Ds last 2 years, 2 AAs at a quarter of capacity will last 6 months, still not an annoying frequency) forces you to open the compartment more often. That (more frequent checks) plus the smaller battery volume (smaller leakage, if it happens) sounds like a nice risk reduction.

But I'm not sure how the PM5 evaluates the battery charge %, guess this will be thrown off by using NiMH and/or lower capacity batteries.

Or maybe KISS approach: just check the compartment every 2 months and stick with Ds. Money savings are not huge anyway (unless you run dozens of Ergs).

I'd stick with the D's if you haven't had an issue.

I'm a fan of "If it ain't broke, don't touch it" approach, but in this case I guess the point is that when you have the issue (D leaking), it's bad.