Anyone need lightly used 9V batteries?

[katanna]

Howdy!

At my [non-ministry] job we go through dozens of 9V batteries every week, but, because they are used in wireless microhpnes, they cannot be reused, no matter how little drain was put on them. This means we always have a box of "Used 9V Batteries", but it is always full and we end up throwing most of them away.

Anyone have any use for these? I would love to ship them to a ministry instead of throwing them away. (Would be great if the receiver could pay for shipping, but if going to a good ministry I may be able to pay for it.)

Matthew

[prochlea]

We have the same situation - but ours are all AA. They work great for video game controllers... Pastors, tech guys, all sorts of people get our hand-me-down batteries.

[Paris MkVI]

Find folks with babies - they love 'em for baby monitors.

[[Admin] osborn4]

That's why we switched all our AAs to rechargables. 2 years running and no problems.

[katanna]

Ya, we moved our church to rechargeable batteries last year and LOVED it! A week ago I emailed my boss about our experience and asking that he look into using rechargeables, but I work for a national company so I doubt that we will get a change, even at the local level.

Matthew

[JoshGuerette]

Out of curiousity, what rechargeables do all of you use? I'd like to propose that to our board in the future, as we go through a ton of AA's. I've heard good things about Ansmann, but that's about it. Also, how much did the switchover cost?

[katanna]

We went with Ansmanns. They were expensive but great quality. I think it cost us around $200 (charger, 24 AAs, 3 9V), our break-even was at 2.5 years (meaning after two and a half years we would catch up to what we would have paid with single-use batteries).

If you want more information/need support, read these blog posts:

Mike Sessler's original Battery Shootout:
The Setup: http://churchtecharts.squarespace.co...tout-pt-1.html
The Results: http://www.churchtecharts.org/home/2...ults-show.html

Mike Sessler's "A Year Later" test:
Year 1 Test: http://www.churchtecharts.org/home/2...year-test.html

My tests:
The Setup: http://aumcav.blogspot.com/2011/06/b...ackground.html
The Results: http://aumcav.blogspot.com/2011/06/b...2-results.html

EDIT: Just went back and took a look at my "Setup" post, it has a complete breakdown of how much each item costs, how much overall it cost, and what the savings were. I was correct, everything together was just over $200.

Matthew

[churchtech007]

I second the Ansmann rechargeables. We don't use as many as katanna obviously does. I recouped my cost in about 9 months.
Had them a year and half, 0 problems!

[[Admin] osborn4]

We went because of Sessler's articles, as well. And took his recommendations.

I think the slow charger is a key part of the puzzle for battery longevity.

[rriley84]

We also went with the Ansmann setup late summer. The only thing we realized very quick was that the 9v's from Ansmann did not last as long as we needed them to. We upgraded to lithium ion 9v's from Horizon Battery. Haven't had a single issue yet!

[wogster]

Originally Posted by katanna

Howdy!

At my [non-ministry] job we go through dozens of 9V batteries every week, but, because they are used in wireless microhpnes, they cannot be reused, no matter how little drain was put on them. This means we always have a box of "Used 9V Batteries", but it is always full and we end up throwing most of them away.

Anyone have any use for these? I would love to ship them to a ministry instead of throwing them away. (Would be great if the receiver could pay for shipping, but if going to a good ministry I may be able to pay for it.)

Matthew

There may be other places you can donate batteries, check with your local food bank, they could put a box of them at the front counter, and they would disappear pretty quickly. Put a note on the box, gently used batteries, some life left, donated by _____.

[katanna]

Originally Posted by wogster

There may be other places you can donate batteries, check with your local food bank, they could put a box of them at the front counter, and they would disappear pretty quickly. Put a note on the box, gently used batteries, some life left, donated by _____.

Tanks for the great suggestion! I will look into that!

Matthew