Why are Energizer “D” batteries so weak? To find out the answer, I decided to take one apart and see what was inside. As this picture reveals, inside the “D” battery is a much smaller battery! The Energizer “D” battery is actually just a cheap plastic shell surrounding a much smaller, low-capacity battery similar in size and capacity to an “AA” battery (2500 mAh).
This explains why the Energizer “D” rechargeable battery has such low power capacity to begin with. The company doesn’t even try to make it a high-capacity “D” battery, it seems. They’re filling part of the inside of the battery body with nothing more than cheap plastic and useless air. And how much does Energizer charge for this “D” battery? More than $12 each!
It’s true: These inferior “D” batteries cost around $25 for a pack of two. These are known as “Energizer E2 Rechargeable Batteries, Size D,” rated at 2500 mAh each. (mAh is a measure of how much power is contained in the battery. It’s sort of like the fuel tank in your car. The bigger the number, the more power the battery delivers.)
By comparison, an Energizer AA battery rated at the exact same capacity — 2500 mAh — costs about THREE dollars!
Found by ECA.
Looks like a “C” in the “D”. Great… now I’m gonna start cutting up “D” batteries and poisoning myself and environment. Thanks!
Next thing you’ll tell me is that a 9volt battery is just 6 “AAA”‘s.
I wonder how many other batteries are made like this. I know 9-volts are made from 6 AAAA batteries. (Yes that is 4 A’s. Sorry #2 Chris Mac.) Also A23 batteries are made of eight LR932, and lantern batteries are 4 F cells bundled together.
Oh no!
He took it apart, that’s reverse engineering so they’ll be after him with DMCA.
…do they not say the capacity of the battery on the battery casing? If they decided to release a 1ma/h battery which was 97% empty whats the problem? I guess the advice is to shop around…like everything in life.
Anyway my headphones run in 2x 850Mha AAA Energizer batteries which run better than the crappy ones sennheiser bundled with them 🙂
Dude, I think you voided your warranty…
Yeah, where do companies get these crappy off-brand batteries that are included with electronics?
#7, Bob’s Big Battery Warehouse…tell them Roy sent ya!
@ #7
I remember being on holiday in Spain and buying batteries for 10c each on my sony tape player (in 2002!) after about 3 hours mmyy ttaaapppeees ssttaaarrtteeedd ttttooo ssssssssslllllllllllllooooooowwwwwwwwwww dddddddooooooowwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnn
Legendary American companies cutting corners instead of actually “competing” to produce a better product in a free market?! Scandalous I say! Next think you’ll tell me is that there’s no santa or easter bunny.
Seems like buy the AA batteries and use these.
So, show your displeasure by buying other brands… Assuming they don’t all do this… haha. 😛
He should have opened up the smaller one and seen if it was like a Russian doll all the way down to a AAA battery. haha.
Isn’t this just the electrical equivalent of stuffing your bra to be a D cup instead of an “a” (or aa as the case may be…)
I checked out the blogpost. This guy just happens to sell a competitor’s battery, Powerex. Amazon sells the Energizer rechargeable D 2-pack for $8.36, not $25 as he claims. You can buy much higher rated D-cells for more money. Exposed? Yeah, right…
Let’s not forget this classic.
This is news to me. It didn’t use to be like this, I know for a fact lol. C’s and D’s were whole when last I took them apart a few years ago. This is indeed interesting. Good find!
But I’m not too concern because I use Sanyo Enelope batteries and they provide the shells for C and D. Difference is they charge you the price of the A’s and not the price for having an A in a D shell 🙂
Unsurprising, considering the company. Everything is outsourced to China, who outsource to Mongolia, who outsource to Kyrgyzstan, who etc. I buy Japanese made cells, Fujitsu and Sony, because I know they’re made in Japan.
Those are sub-C cells in the D wrapper. Energizer has done that for over 20 years, I had a set for a boom box, and several exploded one day. (long story) Took a good one apart and it was the same as shown here.
Maybe you pay $25 for these at a gas station, but at $8.23 you still get lots of recharges compared to alkaline.
More worrying is that I’ve come across a couple of highish rated capacitors that, when broken apart, have been much lower spec’d caps.
While a dodgy battery will just not last as long, a fake capacitor could cause all kinds of nastiness including exploding or starting a fire which might destroy your porn collection.
This is good journalism, uncovering a simple truth that most people didn’t realize.
Now what to do with the truth?
I don’t really see any “cover-up” here by Energizer. The battery packaging says it’s 2500mAh, so who cares what is inside the battery or battery casing, as long as it works as advertised. And to those that didn’t read the whole article, these are rechargeable batteries and not the single-use type.
Hold on do you mean to tell me that Energizer is selling a 2500 mah battery that is labled 2500 mah and actually has a 2500 mah battery inside? Am I missing something or does this story smell like horseshit?
Who cares what’s inside or how big it is, if it’s a 1.5 volt 2500 mah battery on the lable and that is what you get then end of story. If you want to buy a different brand that is soooooooooooo much more powerful at 2700 mah (8% more) then good on ya.
I bought a bag or doritos that was labled 14 ounces, but inside it was half empty. Yeah there was 14 ounces of doritos inside, and that’s clearly what I was paying for, but they could have fit at least 20 ounces inside the bag. I saw that the store brand had the same exact size bag but weighed 15.5 and was cheaper. I got the doritos though cause I like the taste.
Hey. It’s rechargeable. It is what it is. Quit whining.
How many AA could fit in a D battery? Three?
Sounds like a good money-making product for somebody – a D-sized shell that hold three AAs wired in parallel. You could probably manufacture it for $0.25 and retail it for $5.
Ho boy – if we dissect dvorak.org, what do we find inside? Chris Pirillo?
# 26 pedro,
“Batteris that output the power of a D battery can be made even samller nowadays”
What do you have against building better D batteries??
I guess, you like changing them out often, how odd!!
# 23 OvenMaster,
Excellent post, says it all.
Great find or excellent memory!!!
Could be called thermal insulation. Am I the only one who’s AA and AAA battery’s get very hot when charging? Almost enough to burn me.
The original zinc-carbon interior of the D cell needed all that room.
But nickel-metal hydride most likely does not.
I’m some wag for Energize can explain this away. But they really ought to label this cells as being upsized to fit the appliance’s cavity or holder. This isn’t even a new idea. When NiCads first came out Radio (the Shack) Shack, had D cell rechargables that were a shell with an AA cell inside. And at one time, you could buy a nestable shell set, to upsize any smaller battery, to fit a larger holder. So it wouldn’t rattle around in place.
But I agree, selling these things as genuine D cells, without disclosing that they are adapted internally from short C cells, is a shady business practice. Hiding behind the more obscure “charge duration” rating, as their truth in labeling.
Apparently “cell” size is meaningless now. Whereas at one time it was chosen by appliance makers to ensure a longer running capacity for things that would drain smaller cells in no time. But those were the standard expectations of primary cells. Not the rechargeables. I suspect there’s a legal out for them.
This posting’s case probably isn’t a product “counterfeit”. It’s more like those plastic 40 watt light bulbs, that actually have a smaller bulb (or LED) inside that works off of AA batteries. Even some of the new CFC lights, come with larger bulb-like shells, for appearance sake. Or for wire loop lamp shades to grip onto.
BTW, CD and DVD discs have a maximum capacity that’s rarely used up. The prerecorded retail discs, are not guaranteed to be filled to 100%. And I think most people understand that, from having had LPs and cassette tapes. But the “battery trade” has been a much murkier business. I’ve never bought rechargeable cells above AA size. And even these, I’ve found unreliable or practical for anything but flashlights or old portable radios. They run down too fast in digital media players. And are the wrong voltage (.25v lower) for most electronic devices to use them. So don’t. Especially in Tv remotes. Stick to primary Alkaline cells.
“D Cell” is just a “serving suggestion”.
I don’t know why rechargeable cells are 1.25v, instead of 1.5v, like primary use cells. But that’s the way they’ve always been made. Possibly the goop inside isn’t able to reach 1.5 volts. Or more likely, some 1970s legal arrangement allowed their makers to sell a slightly weaker voltage rating, as similar to D, C, AA, and AAA primary cells. Kind of like how most Ice Cream brands got away with labeling 56 oz. containers as “half gallon”.
Or like how potato chips bags are always the same size, and puffed full of air. Even though the makers have been sneaking the contents down a 1/4 ounce at a time. I can still remember when the common bag size was 7 or 8 ounces. And the jumbo size was 14. Now it’s typically 3 3/4 and 10, respectively. And their prices still crept up, just slower.
Ground coffee, toilet roll sheets, cereal boxes, canned tuna, etc. All sorts of products have been sneakily downsized, instead of more rapidly raising their price. Meanwhile the US currency has been loosing value, due to printing more of it to cover government spending and creative banking practices.
I recently took apart my rechargeable Norelco shaver, to fix a broken battery connection. And discovered that the newest model I have, only uses a single AA size battery. Whereas the last one I used, had two cells. And the one cell probably isn’t high duration. Which explains why it can’t run the shaver for more than two days. I plan to replace the cell with a longer charge one. The company makes its profits from the overpriced blade replacements. $31!! So they skimp on the shaver’s gut’s quality. WOW! One battery less. That saved them what, 50 cents?